CHARLOTTE, NC. – Justifiably, there will be two primary areas of focus as the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series visits Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park for Friday night’s TSport 200 (8:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The first will be the front of the field. The second will be the Playoff cut line, and, of course, the two areas may intersect.
Ty Majeski will try to defend the dominating victory he scored at LOIRP last year after leading 179 of 200 laps. He beat runner-up Christian Eckes to the finish line by 3.422 seconds at the 0.686-mile short track.
With two races left before the Truck Series Playoff field is set, Majeski is securely 125 points above the cutoff (needing just three points on Friday to clinch a berth in the postseason), but the driver of the No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford has scored just five top fives and no wins in 14 races this season.
Also hoping for excellent results on Friday are four “bubble” drivers clustered around the current cut line.
Defending series champion Ben Rhodes is 18 points to the good entering Friday’s race and far from a certainty when it comes to qualifying for the 10-driver Playoffs field. Tenth-place Daniel Dye is in a more perilous position, leading 11th-place Tanner Gray by a single point.
Stewart Friesen is four points behind Dye in 12th, all but assuring a wild scramble for the final two Playoff spots at LOIRP and Richmond Raceway, where the final regular-season race will take place on Aug. 10.
Source: Reid Spencer | NASCAR Wire Service
