NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Next Race: ToyotaCare 250
The Place: Richmond Raceway
The Date: Saturday, April 17
The Time: 1:30 p.m. ET
TV: FS1, 12:30 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 187.5 miles (250 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 70),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 140), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 250)
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Kyle Busch Motorsport’s No. 51 gets 51st victory
For the second week in a row, the No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota visited Victory Lane, and the win marked the 51st for the truck number.
And the victory came in unusual fashion – without the team’s namesake behind the wheel.
Martin Truex Jr. made his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start since 2006 – and only the third of his career – nearly two weeks ago at Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt as a way to get some time on the dirt track before the NASCAR Cup Series race. And he made the most of the outing by winning the race in dominant fashion.
The week prior, Kyle Busch won at Atlanta Motor Speedway for the 50th victory for the No. 51.
Busch has recorded 40 of those 51 wins in that truck number, including the first win on May 19, 2006, at Charlotte Motor Speedway. In fact, he won the first 13 races that the No. 51 posted.
A total of eight different drivers have won in the No. 51. Erik Jones is second on that list in wins with four – the first for him coming at Phoenix in November of 2013. He then posted three wins in the truck in 2014 (Iowa, Las Vegas and Phoenix).
Aric Almirola recorded wins number 14 and 15 for the No. 51 at Dover and Michigan in 2010. Denny Hamlin then won at Martinsville in 2012.
Daniel Suarez won at Phoenix in 2016 for the only victory for that truck number that year. Greg Biffle won with the No. 51 at Texas in 2019, while Brandon Jones won at Pocono last year.
Since the number was first run in the series in 2006, there have only been three seasons in which the truck has not posted multiple wins – 2006, 2012 and 2016. The nine wins by the No. 51 in 2014 were the most in a year for the truck.
Preparing for round two of the return to Richmond
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will be sitting out the Martinsville spring weekend and will gear up for the ToyotaCare 250 on Saturday, April 17, at Richmond Raceway (1:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The Camping World Truck Series first ran at Richmond from 1995-2005, but then took a hiatus from the track until returning in 2020. Grant Enfinger won that return trip, which was the final race in the regular season for the series last year.
His ThorSport Racing teammates Matt Crafton and Ben Rhodes finished second and third, respectively, in the race. Brett Moffitt and Tyler Ankrum completed the top five.
This year the Richmond race will be the sixth race of the season.
In 2020, the sixth race of the season was at Pocono, which was won by Brandon Jones, in the earlier mentioned No. 51 truck for Kyle Busch Motorsports.
Hocevar maintains Sunoco Rookie of the Year lead
After taking a one-point lead in the Sunoco Rookie of the Year points standings following Atlanta, Carson Hocevar finished 21st on the Bristol dirt to up his advantage to 14 points over Chandler Smith coming out of Thunder Valley. Smith finished 34th after being caught in a multi-truck incident.
The remainder of the standings stayed the same following Bristol, too. Chase Purdy was the highest-finishing rookie at Bristol, finishing 18th. Hailie Deegan was 19th.
Hocevar and Smith both raced the Camping World Truck Series race at Richmond last year, with Smith finishing 12th and Hocevar was 22nd.
SUNOCO ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
ROOKIES-POINTS-AWARDS
- Carson Hocevar 109 2
- Chandler Smith 95 2
- Chase Purdy 71 1
- Hailie Deegan 69 0
- Kris Wright 37 0
- Tim Viens 0 0
COURTESY NASCAR INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
Enjoyed reading through this, very good stuff, thanks. “Whenever you want to marry someone, go have lunch with his ex-wife.” by Francis William Bourdillon.