The championship set-up for the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series features the closest points battle among NASCAR’s three national series. Only 15 points separate fourth-place Hattori Racing Enterprise’s Austin Hill from sixth place Tyler Ankrum with four drivers trying to earn championship eligibility into the Nov. 15 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
None of the six current Playoff drivers has earned a victory in this round of the Playoff competition. However defending series champion Brett Moffitt, driver of the No. 24 GMS Racing Chevrolet comes into Friday’s Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix’s ISM Raceway (8:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) as the defending winner – winning in his first series start at the historic one-mile track last November.
Moffitt holds a 10-point edge on Stewart Friesen, who leads Ross Chastain by 15 points atop the standings. Hill is fourth and this group has accounted for 11 wins in the 21 races to date.
A victory this weekend at ISM Raceway, however, would be game-changing – guaranteeing a position to race for the championship in Miami. Since the Playoff format, no Championship 4 has been entirely set on points, but this season’s could possibly be the first and at the very least three drivers will “point” their way into title eligibility.
In addition to Moffitt’s perfect record at Phoenix, both Niece Motorsport’s Ross Chastain (2018) and ThorSport Racing’s Matt Crafton (2014) have runner-up finishes. Friesen’s best-ever showing at the track came last year (fifth). Ankrum, who drives the DGR-Crosley Toyota was sixth last year – his second career Gander Trucks start.
Hill has yet to finish a race in two previous ISM Raceway starts – his best result a 23rd last year.
In the two races of this Playoff round, Friesen, the driver of the No. 52 Halmar Friesen Racing Chevrolet has the best average finish (5.5) with a fifth (at Talladega) and sixth (Martinsville) place efforts.
Chastain has had the next best showing with a runner-up at Martinsville to answer a 22nd-place finish at Talladega. Crafton is averaging 15.5 in this Playoff round, followed by Hill and Ankrum, who have averaged a 16.0 finish. Defending champ Moffitt has a 16.5 average with a fourth-place at Talladega and a 29th place at Martinsville – the worst finish in this round by any of the six drivers.
Source: Holly Cain | NASCAR Wire Service
