Brett Moffitt and GMS Racing teammate Tyler Ankrum enter Sunday’s SpeedyCash.com 400 at Texas Motor Speedway with an air of certainty—but for vastly different reasons.
Moffitt doesn’t have to win the race or even run well in the second event in the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series Round of 8 (12 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The driver of the No. 23 Chevrolet advanced to the Championship 4 round at Phoenix with his first victory of the season last Saturday at Kansas.
Ankrum, on the other hand, crashed out of the race after 38 laps and finished 34th, dropping to eighth in the standings, 56 points below the current Playoff cutoff. He comes to Texas with a win-or-bust mentality.
The remaining six Playoff drivers are scrambling for position, and that includes the ThorSport Racing entries of Grant Enfinger, Matt Crafton and Ben Rhodes, who are fifth, sixth and seventh in the standings, respectively.
Enfinger trails fourth-place Zane Smith by seven points, with Crafton, a three-time champion, eight points farther back. Rhodes is 33 points below the cut line, on the cusp of needing a victory at either Texas or Martinsville to advance.
Crafton is the only former Texas winner among the eight Playoff drivers. Kyle Busch Motorsports has won the last three races at the track, two by Kyle Busch himself and one by Greg Biffle.
Source: Reid Spencer | NASCAR Wire Service
