NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Great Clips 200 at Atlanta Preview

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NASCAR Camping World Truck Series

Next Race: Great Clips 200

The Place: Atlanta Motor Speedway

The Date: Saturday, Feb. 27

The Time: 4:30 p.m. ET

TV: FS1, 4 p.m. ET

Radio: MRN, SiriusXM Ch. 90

Distance: 200.2 miles (130 laps)

 

Locked In:

Sauter(iffic) Performance at Daytona Earns New GMS Driver Spot in Chase

Johnny Sauter made a mad dash past Ryan Truex to the lead as the caution flew on the last lap to win last Friday’s NextEra Energy Resources 250 at Daytona International Speedway.

The win came in Sauter’s first race for GMS Racing and was also his first victory since his triumph at Michigan on August 16, 2014.

Sauter’s checkered flag virtually guarantees him a spot in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Chase – a seven-race playoff at the end of the season similar to the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Last season, Sauter went winless after logging at least one win in each of his previous six Truck Series campaigns.

Ryan Truex, who led 14 laps, finished a career-best second. Parker Kligerman (third), Brandon Brown (fourth) and Travis Kvapil (fifth) rounded out the top-five. The 2003 series champion Kvapil logged his best finish since placing fourth at Daytona in 2012. 

On The Throne: Crafton King of Intermediate Tracks

Matt Crafton is good at driving on 1.5-mile tracks – quite good. And that shouldn’t change this weekend, even if Atlanta is a bit longer at 1.54 miles.

In 16 of his last 17 starts at intermediate tracks, Crafton has finished tenth or better. Included in that stretch are six wins (2015: Atlanta, Kansas, Texas-one, Kentucky, Homestead; 2014: Texas-one) and three runner-ups (2014: Kansas, Charlotte, Chicagoland).

Crafton enters Saturday’s Great Clips 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway as the defending race winner and the de facto favorite.

In 14 career starts at Atlanta, Crafton boasts one win, four top-fives and eight top-tens. In his victory last year, he set the track record for greatest margin of victory (8.752).

Graduation:

Number of Youngsters Taking First Intermediate Track Test at Atlanta

In the Camping World Truck Series, drivers who are at least 16, but not 18 years of age yet, can only compete on ovals one mile or shorter, or on road courses.

Some of the younger series drivers raced on a superspeedway for the first time last week at Daytona. Now, they will be tested at an intermediate track – the hardest type of oval for a young driver to master – in Friday’s Great Clips 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Making their NASCAR national series 1.54-mile track debuts are NASCAR Next members Cole Custer and William Byron, along with Austin Wayne Self.

Byron finished 13th at Daytona, Self placed 19th, and Custer came in 24th.

John Hunter Nemechek, another NASCAR Next member who is scheduled to race on Saturday, is the youngest driver to win a Truck Series race at an intermediate track (18 years, 3 months, 8 days at Chicagoland in 2015). The only other driver to win a Truck Series race at an intermediate track when he was under 19 is Erik Jones (18 years, 3 months, 28 days at Las Vegas in 2014). 

Georgia Boys Look to Put on Show at Hometown Track

Four Georgia natives are scheduled to attempt to qualify for Saturday’s Great Clips 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway – John Wes Townley, Austin Hill, Reed Sorenson and Korbin Forrister.

Townley, of Watkinsville, won his first career Camping World Truck Series race at Las Vegas last season and finished a career-best eighth in the final standings.

Hill, a NASCAR Next member, calls Winston home. He placed third in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East last season on the strength of two wins and will attempt to make his seventh career Truck Series start on Saturday.

Sorenson, from Peachtree City, attempted to start his first Trucks race at Daytona last week, but did not qualify. A veteran of the Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series, he owns four XFINITY Series wins.

A native of Cedartown, Forrister has made 28 Truck Series starts in his career. 

Red Horse Racing owner Tom DeLoach also returns to his Georgia roots this weekend. A native of Statesboro, he graduated from Georgia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering.

Double Duty Driver

Daniel Suárez will run double-duty for the second consecutive weekend, wheeling his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing XFINITY Series Toyota before hopping into the No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Tundra on the same day. Suárez is scheduled to run 293 laps in both races on Saturday.