Regular Season Championship
42 points separate Corey Heim and Zane Smith for the pursuit of the regular season championship in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Barring an unforeseen circumstance, Heim will be the No. 1 seed heading into the playoff opener at IRP in a couple of weeks.
The top seed in the playoffs was represented in the Championship 4 in 6 of the 7 years under this format including all consecutively. The No. 1 seed also has won 3 championships in this era but just two in the last 5 years though. One was last year.
Heim, despite missing a race (World Wide Technology Raceway) for a sickness, has finished in the top eight in all but two starts this season. In fact, he’s not finished worse than eighth since Bristol Dirt including finishes of 2nd, 4th, 1st and 2nd respectively over his last four tries.
Meanwhile, Smith has a pair of runner-up finishes in the last three races but it was that slump of finishes of 22nd, 32nd, 23rd, 20th and then 34th on Saturday in Pocono in a 7 race span as to why he trails by so much.
He won the regular season title and championship just last season. Smith has advanced to the final round in all three of his years in the Truck Series as well.
If he can finish in the top 5 on Saturday, it would give him 8 top 5 finishes this regular season. He had 9 a year ago. The only difference? Smith has 3 wins in 2022 and 2 so far this year. It’s also in top 10’s. Smith had 13 in 2022 with far more consistency. He has 7 right now.
Playoff Bubble
7 drivers are locked into the playoffs right now. Heim, Smith, Christian Eckes, Grant Enfinger, Carson Hocevar and Ben Rhodes are all in on wins. Ty Majeski (+110) is in on points. But, there’s three more spots for the taking.
Right now, Matt DiBenedetto (+31), Nicholas Sanchez (+21) and Matt Crafton (+9) are on the good side of the cut line.
Stewart Friesen (-9) is really the only other driver who can get in on points.
The key for the three above the cutline is not dropping to the bottom spot. DiBenedetto is 22 points up on Crafton and 10 points up on Sanchez. Crafton trails Sanchez by 12.
DiBenedetto has 8 top 10 finishes over the last 10 races on the season including 6 straight.
Sanchez has 4 top 10’s in the last 5.
Crafton has 2 in the last 9 and just one top five finish all season (Bristol Dirt). Friesen has 4 in the last 8. He had 1 in the previous 7. Over the last 6 in general, he’s finished 13th, 22nd, 3rd, 18th, 4th and 32nd too.
That sets up a potential colossal battle between Crafton vs. Friesen for that final spot. Friesen has made the playoffs in 4 of his 6 seasons thus far. Crafton has finished in the top 10 in 16 straight years now. He’s been in the top 10 in 10 of the last 11 at that.
Tanner Gray (-47), Chase Purdy (-54), Tyler Ankrum (-71), Jake Garcia (-94), Taylor Gray (-136), Daniel Dye (-142), Rajah Caruth (-147), Hailie Deegan (-154), Colby Howard (-169), Dean Thompson (-190) Bret Holmes (-201), Lawless Alan (-223) and Spencer Boyd (-271) are each trying to win their ways into the postseason.
The most interesting one is Taylor Gray. He was third in Pocono and sixth in this race last year. He also had a shot to win at IRP a year ago before being moved by John Hunter Nemechek for the lead late.
The 18-year-old had to skip the first three races to the season because he wasn’t old enough. He didn’t turn 18 until March 25. He’s been solid in his 12 opportunities this year and can steal a win on Saturday night.
KBM Nets Win 100
Kyle Busch gave his own Truck team their 100th trip to victory lane last Saturday in Pocono. It was fitting that he passed the points leader and former driver, Corey Heim, on the final lap in the second turn to do so.
Eighteen different drivers contributed to KBM’s 100 wins, including the driver of the No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota, Corey Heim.
| KBM Race Winners | NCTS Wins |
| Kyle Busch | 48 |
| Christopher Bell | 7 |
| William Byron | 7 |
| Erik Jones | 7 |
| John Hunter Nemechek | 7 |
| Bubba Wallace | 5 |
| Chandler Smith | 5 |
| Denny Hamlin | 2 |
| Noah Gragson | 2 |
| Corey Heim | 2 |
| Brian Scott | 1 |
| Daniel Suarez | 1 |
| Todd Gilliland | 1 |
| Greg Biffle | 1 |
| Martin Truex Jr. | 1 |
| Raphael Lessard | 1 |
| Brandon Jones | 1 |
| Kasey Kahne | 1 |
How quickly will it take Kyle Busch Motorsports to reach 101? Could possibly happen this weekend, the KBM organization has won the last two races at 0.75-mile track – Chandler Smith (2021) and John Hunter Nemechek (2022).
This weekend, Chase Purdy and Matt Mills will try to get them No. 101.
Ben Rhodes After 100th Career Top 10 Finish
Ben Rhodes has had an okay year thus far. He sits fourth in points and has a win in Charlotte. But, he’s going for a feat on Saturday night and that’s scoring his 11th top 10 finish of the season. If he can do so, it will mark No. 100 for him in making him the 15th driver to ever do so.
He enters having scored five in-a-row in his No. 99 Ford. He was only 18th here a year ago, but he has the capability to do so too.
His 53 top five finishes rank him 15th all-time too.
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