NASCAR Camping World Truck Series teams are on break and will return to action on Friday, September 18th at Chicagoland Speedway for the American Ethanol E15 225. In the meantime, here are some news and notes to stay up-to-date.
Austin Powered: Theriault Piloting the No. 29 for Duration of 2015
Austin Theriault will take the reins of the No. 29 Brad Keselowski Racing Ford for the last eight races of the 2015 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season. The 21-year-old Maine native has piloted the No. 29 five times already this year, earning two top-five and three top-ten finishes. Theriault’s best result was a fourth-place finish in the season opener at Daytona. The No. 29 has visited Victory Lane twice this year with Joey Logano at Martinsville and Ryan Blaney at Bristol. The No. 29 ranks sixth in the owner points standings.
Matt Crafton – 1.5-Mile Man of Mastery
There has been one constant in Camping World Track Series action at 1.5-mile tracks the last two years – Matt Crafton at the front of the pack.
Crafton boasts a streak of 13 top-ten finishes at 1.5-mile tracks dating back to Kansas Speedway in 2014. Included in the streak are five wins captured at Kentucky in 2015, the last 1.5-mile Camping World Truck Series race, Texas-1 in 2014,’15, as well as Atlanta and Kansas in 2015. The only driver other than Crafton to win at a 1.5-mile track this season was Kasey Kahne at Charlotte.
Trailing Erik Jones by only three points in the series’ championship standings, Crafton gets to run four of the last eight races of the season at 1.5-mile tracks as he tries to win his third consecutive series title. Crafton became the first driver to successfully defend a Camping World Truck Series championship last season and a third overall title would tie him for second on the all-time list with Jack Sprague.
Double-Duty for Suarez at Chicagoland
Daniel Suarez will pull double-duty at Chicagoland as he competes in both the Camping World Truck Series and NASCAR XFINITY Series races. Suarez has made eight Truck Series starts for Kyle Busch Motorsports this season and has logged four top-five and seven top-ten finishes. Suarez has finished runner-up twice in a truck this season and Chicagoland could be the place he notches his first NASCAR national series win.
Standings Shakeup: Jones Now Leads Championship Points Race
Erik Jones shook the Camping World Truck Series standings like a Polaroid picture, vaulting from third to first after his win at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. He holds a three-point lead over Matt Crafton who remained second with a runner-up finish in the Great White North. Tyler Reddick – the standings leader entering the race – fell to third after a 19th-place showing and is 15 points behind Jones. There are eight races left for the championship clash to play out.
Jones’ victory at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park continued the streak of NASCAR Next members/alumni winning there. Chase Elliott won the inaugural Truck race at Mosport in 2013 and Ryan Blaney took the checkered flag there last year.
Erik Jones – Loop Monster
For the greater part of the Camping World Truck Series season, Erik Jones has dominated the loop statistics. Still, he was not seeing the last results indicated by his gaudy peripheral numbers.
The loop data indicated Jones would likely make a run at the top spot in the series’ standings, and now, he’s sitting in first.
Jones leads the series in average running position (4.4), fastest laps (468), laps led (691) and driver rating (122.8). The 19-year-old Michigan native also tops the charts in average start (3.8) and average finish (6.2).
In comparison, Matt Crafton ranks second to Jones in all the aforementioned categories: average running position (6.3), fastest laps (345), laps led (461), driver rating (114.0), average start (7.5) and average finish 6.6, is tied with Tyler Reddick.