NCWTS: Gateway Motorsports Park Weekend Recap

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series showed numerous excitement during the entire weekend in it’s return to the Gateway Motorsports Park for the first time since 2010. The weekend was pretty much dominated by the young drivers all race weekend long in practice, qualifying and the race.

On Saturday afternoon in qualifying, young 16-year-old driver Cole Custer captured the pole with a lap of 32.985 seconds, 136.426 mph. Custer did not just score the pole, but also broke two series records, the first breaking the track qualifying record that was set in 2005 by series veteran Ted Musgrave and becoming the youngest pole winner at 16 years, four months, 22 days. The previous record was held by Chase Elliott which scored the pole at the Bristol Motor Speedway on August 21st.

When the evening was all over, Darrell Wallace Jr. came out with the race win after leading a total of 85 laps during the event. Last night was his 29th career start in the truck series to capture his second win in the series and first win of the 2014 season, becoming the third different winner this year. He heads into Kentucky in two weeks hoping to capture his second win to get him up further into the points standings as he sits ninth and 43 points behind the points leader.

After getting into some trouble late into the event, German Quiroga was able to score a second-place finish, which was his best career finish in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series since joining in 2011. Quiroga got into Erik Jones off of turn two to send him around to end their night. He goes into the Kentucky Speedway event sitting sixth in the points standings.

Timothy Peters, who did not have a great run last weekend at Texas after being involved in a accident with his teammate Quiroga, came out of Gateway with a third-place finishing position. Last night he scored his fifth top-10 finish of this season after seven races complete. Peters will leave Gateway fourth in the points standings.

Chase Pistone came out with the ninth-place finishing position for the highest finishing rookie of the race. Pistone also had a great weekend after being the fastest truck in the first practice session on Friday afternoon. Pistone rolled off of pit road starting in the fifth spot when the night started.

Matt Crafton was having a solid run until lap 123 when he cut down a tire in turn four. Crafton came into Gateway with a win last weekend at the Texas Motor Speedway and as the points leader. This crash will loose him the points lead going into Kentucky as it’s now held by his teammate, Johnny Sauter.

The race this past weekend at the Gateway Motorsports Park was certainly fantastic and applaud what the new owners did to the place to make this event happen. The only thing about this great event that lacked was the number of fans who came out. One of the things they should tweak for next year is the ticket prices as it was $36.00 for a general admission ticket. They also charged fans $20.00 for parking, and if you wanted to leave for a little bit, to get back in it would be another $20.00 charge. Hopefully next year they’ll have cheaper prices that is more afordable to the race fan.

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will return to action on June 26 at the Kentucky Speedway at 7:30 p.m. Et, live on FOX Sports 1. The radio coverage of the race can be heard live on the Motor Racing Network that starts also at 7:30 p.m.

Brett Winningham
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