Pocono prepares to welcome new race winner
There is one certainty as the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series heads to the Pocono Mountains this weekend for the Gander RV 150 (Saturday, 1 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) – a new winner will be parking in Victory Lane after the checkered flag flies.
This weekend’s entry list is void of previous winners, a list that is led by two-time, and most recent, race winner Kyle Busch (2015, 2018). Current Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers Kevin Harvick (2011), Ryan Blaney (2013), Austin Dillon (2014), and William Byron (2016) also have wins in the Gander Trucks at the “Tricky Triangle.” NASCAR Xfinity Series standout Christopher Bell (2017) also has a victory at Pocono.
Of the drivers entered this weekend who don’t have a win, yet, in 2019, Matt Crafton leads the field with a pair of top-five and six top-10 finishes at Pocono. The only other winless drivers this season with top fives are Stewart Friesen and Ben Rhodes (one apiece).
In total, 12 drivers on the entry list will be making their series track debut at Pocono (Tyler Dippel, Sheldon Creed, Anthony Mrakovich, Gus Dean, Anthony Alfredo, Tyler Ankrum, Harrison Burton, Spencer Boyd, Bryant Barnhill, Mason Massey IV, Christian Eckes, and Natalie Decker).
Of note, Toyota and Chevrolet are tied with four wins apiece at Pocono – with all of Toyota’s coming in the last four races. Chevrolet won the first three races at the track starting in 2010, Ford landed their only Pocono victory in 2013 with Blaney, then Chevrolet won their fourth.
Ankrum alters Playoff picture
Although he wound up leading a race-high 40 laps en route to his first NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series victory, it looked like Tyler Ankrum was going to have to settle for second place until race leader Brett Moffitt ran out of gas on the next-to-last lap.
Moffitt’s miscalculation was to Ankrum’s benefit as he was able to charge on to a big win to lock himself into the postseason.
The win was essential to ensuring Ankrum earned a spot in the Playoffs. Following Chicagoland, Ankrum sat 15th in points – and was 205 points behind Harrison Burton, who, at the time, held the eighth and final position in the Playoffs.
So “pointing” his way to a title shot really wasn’t in the cards for Ankrum due to the difficult road he took to the Playoffs.
Ankrum missed the opening three races of the season because he was too young to race at the tracks (Daytona, Atlanta and Las Vegas – per NASCAR rules, drivers must be 18 to compete at those venues and Ankrum’s 18th birthday wasn’t until March 6) before he joined up with DGR-Crosley.
After struggling through some sponsorship issues that took him out of the No. 17 Toyota for a pair of races, Ankrum was able to remain Playoff-eligible by jumping in the No. 87 Chevrolet for NEMCO Motorsports at Iowa and Gateway.
Since returning to DGR-Crosley, he’s posted a 13th-place finish at Chicagoland and then the win at Kentucky.
On the year, Ankrum has a pair of top fives and four top 10s. This weekend’s visit to Pocono will be his first to the “Tricky Triangle.”
Ankrum’s team is led by crew chief Kevin Manion, who is in his fourth year in the Gander Trucks after a long career in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series. He joined DGR-Crosley in 2018 after spending 2016 and 2017 with Kyle Busch Motorsports.
Manion has been atop the pit box for 20 different drivers in the Gander Trucks between 2016 and 2019. He spent the most time with Daniel Suarez in 2016, working with him for 13 races, highlighted by a win at ISM Raceway.
Overall, he has four wins as a crew chief in the series (including a pair of victories with Kyle Busch in 2017 – Kansas and Charlotte), 15 top-five and 24 top-10 finishes.
The win at Kentucky was also the first NASCAR national series victory for his team, DGR-Crosley.
With Chastain and Ankrum in, who’s out of the Playoff picture?
After declaring for NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series points leading into the June Texas race, Ross Chastain had to hit two marks – winning a race and breaking into the top 20 in points – to earn a spot in the Playoffs.
He won at Gateway. And then after a fourth-place finish at the most recent venue, Kentucky Speedway, he moved into the top 20 in points for the first time.
Chastain now sits 18th in the driver standings, 23 points ahead of the 21st-place driver (Jennifer Jo Cobb).
With three races remaining in the regular season, Chastain needs to maintain the consistency he has shown all year to stay in the top 20 in points. He has just one finish outside the top 10 – his 32nd-place finish at Iowa after his truck failed post-race inspection and he was disqualified – and has five top-five finishes.
He has only two prior starts at the next venue on the schedule – Pocono Raceway on Saturday, July 27– but they were strong finishes. In 2012 he finished 10th and in 2013 he crossed the line fifth. Eldora will be a new track for him, as he has yet to make a start on the half-mile dirt track. And his experience at Michigan, the final track of the regular season, is limited to a start in 2012 that resulted in an 18th-place finish.
To take a closer look at the entirety of the Playoff picture, five drivers have earned their way in on wins – Brett Moffit (Iowa, Chicagoland), Johnny Sauter (Dover), Austin Hill (Daytona), Chastain (World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway) and the most recent winner, Tyler Ankrum (Kentucky).
Points leader Grant Enfinger has a 34-point point advantage over Stewart Friesen and would earn a spot regardless of wins if he stays atop the board.
And as the points stand, the remaining two slots in the Playoffs would go to Friesen and Matt Crafton.
That puts Harrison Burton (ninth on the Playoff outlook, 44 points behind Crafton in the last slot that qualifies for the postseason on points), Ben Rhodes (10th on the Playoff outlook, 48 points behind the cutoff) and Todd Gilliland (11th on the Playoff outlook, 100 points out of the postseason) on the outside looking in.
Each member of the trio probably needs a win to get a shot at the championship, but only Rhodes has a career Gander Trucks victory under his belt – two, in fact, and both were at 1.5-mile tracks (Las Vegas in 2017, Kentucky in 2018).
ARCA Menards Series experience aplenty in Gander Trucks field
Twelve drivers on the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series entry list for the Gander RV 150 (Saturday, 1 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) have raced at Pocono Raceway in the ARCA Menards Series.
Of those, five (Sheldon Creed, Gus Dean, Harrison Burton, Christian Eckes, Natalie Decker) will be making their Gander Trucks debut at Pocono, therefore their previous ARCA experience should prove to be extremely valuable as it represents their only time on track at the venue known as the “Tricky Triangle.”
Todd Gilliland, Norm Benning, Johnny Sauter, Austin Wayne Self, Bryan Dauzat, Ray Ciccarelli and Grant Enfinger have time on the track in both the ARCA and the Gander Trucks series.
In the most recent ARCA race at Pocono at the end of May, Eckes led the Gander Trucks representatives with a third-place finish.
And if you’re looking to pick a driver to win this weekend – Burton should be on your list. He has scored an ARCA win at Pocono, and he did it in his first ARCA Menards Series visit to the track in 2018. His next two finishes weren’t too shabby, either – fourth in the second race in 2018 and sixth place earlier this season in the series’ first stop at Pocono.
That win would be especially valuable for Burton, as he currently sits on the outside-looking-in for the Gander Trucks Playoffs.
The other driver who has driven into ARCA Victory Lane at Pocono is Enfinger – who is still looking for his first Gander Trucks win this season. Enfinger won his last ARCA start at Pocono (in 2016) and has five top-five and seven top-10 finishes in eight ARCA starts there.
Creed has put together good ARCA results at Pocono, too. En route to winning the series title last year, he recorded a pair of runner-up finishes at the track. And his worst finish of his four starts is eighth in his series debut.
Dean has also had some good history at the track in ARCA. He started on pole in this race last year, but a crash relegated him to a 27th-place finish. He has three finishes of seventh or better.
Closing out the regular season
After a weekend off, the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series hits the track the next three weekends to close out the regular season. And the series will be visiting three very different tracks as the postseason field is determined. Here’s a look at the tracks and some of the best performances at each by drivers not currently locked into the Playoffs with a win.
Pocono Raceway (Saturday, July 27, 1 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) – The 2.5-mile “Tricky Triangle” has three unique turns (Turn 1 – 14 degrees of banking, Turn 2 – eight degrees, Turn 3 – six degrees) and long straights (frontstretch – 3,740 feet, backstretch – 3,055 feet, shortstretch – 1,780 feet). Last week, Pocono announced that they would add the PJ1 traction compound in all three of its turns, helping add another lane option for passing opportunities.
There aren’t any championship-eligible Gander Trucks drivers with a previous series win at Pocono. However, Grant Enfinger (June, 2016) and Harrison Burton (June, 2018) have recorded wins in the ARCA Menards Series at the track.
Matt Crafton has a pair of top fives at the track in the Gander Trucks, while Stewart Friesen and Ben Rhodes each have one top-five finish there.
Eldora Speedway (Thursday, August 1, 9 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) – The half-mile dirt track is the only non-paved venue that the NASCAR national series visit, and it always provides thrilling action. The trip to the track in rural Ohio also provides drivers and fans with a unique qualifying experience, as the field is set by a series of five qualifying races and a last chance qualifying race. This summer marks the seventh race at the track for the series.
Matt Crafton is the only championship-eligible driver with a win at the track. In fact, his victory in 2017 was the last time the two-time series title winner visited Victory Lane – and he would love to secure a Playoff berth by becoming the first two-time Eldora winner.
Crafton, Enfinger and Friesen all have two top fives apiece at Eldora. They are the only Gander Trucks championship-eligible drivers with top fives at the dirt track.
(Of note, last year’s winner Chase Briscoe is scheduled to return to defend, but he’s not eligible for Gander Trucks points.)
Michigan International Speedway (Saturday, August 10, 1 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio – The Irish Hills provide the backdrop for this spacious, smooth and speedy two-miler that features 18 degrees of banking in the corners. The Gander Trucks have raced 19 times at Michigan.
The only championship-eligible Gander Trucks drivers who have won at Michigan have already visited Victory Lane in 2019 (Brett Moffitt won in 2016 and 2018 at Michigan, while Johnny Sauter won in 2014).
Crafton has a trio of top-five finishes in 17 starts at the track. Todd Gilliland finished fifth in his first visit to the track last year. They are the only two drivers with top fives who are still trying to lock themselves into the Playoffs.
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