The NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series returns to competition this week in the TrüNorth™ Global 250 at Martinsville Speedway (at 2 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) after a two-week break.
Grant Enfinger leads the series driver championship standings with a six-point advantage over Sunoco rookie Harrison Burton, but history has proven Martinsville remains a race very much “up for grabs.” There have been eight different winners in the last 10 races.
The exception to that is veteran Johnny Sauter – who has won twice in the last five races. His four career wins are most in series history at the track. He’s still looking for his first win of 2019 and ranked sixth in the championship since changing teams this season and returning to ThorSport Racing where he raced from 2009-2016.
Defending race winner John Hunter Nemechek is not entered this weekend, however, one of the track’s most high profile former winners, Bubba Wallace will be competing. The Richard Petty Motorsports fulltime Monster Energy NASCAR Cup driver is very partial to Martinsville as that’s where he scored the first career victory (2013) in one of NASCAR’s three national series. He added another in 2014 making Martinsville the only track on the circuit where he’s been a repeat winner.
Other fulltime Monster Energy and Xfinity Series drivers entered this week include two-time Gander Outdoors Truck Series winner already this year Kyle Busch, along with Austin Dillon, Ross Chastain and Timmy Hill, who will debut an entry for his new family-owned team – Hill Motorsports.
Coming into the race points leader Enfinger and defending series champion Brett Moffitt are the only drivers with two top-five finishes in the opening three races. Neither of them has won at Martinsville, however. The top-10 in the standings are separated by only 26 points heading into the weekend and show a very diversified points battle with four Fords, three Chevrolets and three Toyotas represented.
Source: Holly Cain | NASCAR Wire Service
