CHARLOTTE, NC.: In last Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Circuit of The Americas, John Hunter Nemechek ran 12th, his only finish outside the top 10 this season save for a crash-induced 39th on the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt track.
The 12th-place result at Austin didn’t prevent Nemechek from retaining the series lead by 31 points over second-place Ben Rhodes, but the driver of the No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota would like to build on that advantage in Friday night’s North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (8:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“It’s very exciting to get back to a mile-and-a-half,” said Nemechek, an eight-time winner in the series and a two-time victor this year. “I feel like our 1.5-mile and short-track programs have been really good. I feel like our whole program in general has been good.
“We kind of missed it on one of the road courses and the dirt stuff. I feel like we can kind of throw those away now and focus on the future. We have some really good race tracks coming up as well. Some more mile-and-a-halves, short tracks and another dirt and road course race that I really enjoy—but first things first. I have to go take care of business at Charlotte.”
Standing in Nemechek’s way likely will be ThorSport Racing, which is fielding five entries in the race. ThorSport’s Matt Crafton (two victories) and Johnny Sauter (one victory) are the only two former Charlotte winners in the field for Friday night’s race.
The ThorSport armada also includes Rhodes, a two-time winner this season, as well as part-timers Christian Eckes and Ty Majeski.
Source: Reid Spencer / NASCAR Wire Service
