NASCAR Camping World Truck Series teams are returning to the track at Talladega Superspeedway next weekend for the Fred’s 250 Powered by Coca-Cola. Teams are preparing for 250.04 miles, 94 laps of action that will air on FOX at 1 pm ET on Saturday, October 24th.
Standings Snapshot: Crafton Gains on Jones, While Reddick Remains in the Hunt
No one has been able to pull away in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series points standings this season.
Erik Jones could have put some distance between himself and second-place Matt Crafton as the defending Las Vegas race winner, but failed to do so. Crafton finished eighth at Las Vegas to cut Jones’ lead to four points after Jones placed ninth.
Don’t count out Tyler Reddick. He overcame an early-race accident to finish seventh at Las Vegas and trails Jones by 16 points.
The three drivers continue their championship battle in the Fred’s 250 powered by Coca-Cola.
Jones placed sixth in his lone start at Talladega, last season. In nine starts at the 2.66-mile behemoth, Crafton’s best finish was fourth in 2010. Reddick won the 21 Means 21 Pole Award in his first start at Talladega in 2014 and finished fourth.
Eddie Troconis Takes Over Crew Chief Duties of the No. 54
Mexico City native Eddie Troconis will take over atop the pit box of the Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 54 Toyota for the last five races of the 2015 season. Since joining the organization in 2013, Troconis has contributed to seven wins in his role as race engineer under crew chief Jerry Baxter for the No. 51 Toyota.
Troconis previously served as crew chief in seven Camping World Truck Series races for Eddie Sharp Racing in the 2012 and 2013 seasons, guiding his drivers to one top-five finish and three top-ten showings.
Troconis is an alumnus of the NASCAR Drive for Diversity program and holds degrees in mechanical engineering and business management, as well as a master’s degree in marketing.
Young and Getting it: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Youth Movement
The Camping World Truck Series in 21 seasons has built a reputation on hard-nosed competition between its seasoned veterans and young-up-and-coming drivers.
So far this season, the average age of race winners is 26.3 years old. In the series’ first season in 1995, the average age of race winners was 38.5 – more than a 12-year difference.
Teenage drivers have won races on six different occasions: Cole Custer 17, Gateway, John Hunter Nemechek 18, Chicagoland, Tyler Reddick 19, Daytona and Dover and Erik Jones 19, Iowa and CTMP.
Jones, a Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate, leads the series standings by four points over two-time defending champion Matt Crafton. Reddick ranks third in the standings, 16 points behind Jones. If Jones or Reddick captures the series championship, they’d become the youngest title-winner in series history, breaking Austin Dillon’s record set in 2011 at 21 years, 6 months, 22 days.
In the last three years, four series drivers have broken the record for youngest series winner – Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Jones and Custer. Kyle Busch previously held the record for a seven-year stretch.
Camping World Truck Series Tidbits
On Oct. 7, NASCAR Next driver John Hunter Nemechek participated in the Pit Stops for Hope Shootout to End Childhood Hunger at GoPro Motorplex in Mooresville, North Carolina. His team – consisting of Austin Dillon, Ford Martin, Clint Almquist and himself – finished third.
Series driver Jordan Anderson, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Joey Logano and Darlington Raceway President Chip Wile helped in South Carolina flood relief efforts by serving meals to first responders at the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia on Thursday, October 15th. Anderson hails from Forest Acres, South Carolina, a Columbia suburb.