NCWTS: M&M’s 200 Presented by Casey’s General Stores Race Preview

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series heads to Iowa Speedway for Friday’s M&M’s 200 presented by Casey’s General Stores. The race will be the ninth stop for the series in 2017. William Byron, who is not entered into the Friday night showdown, is the defending race winner. Byron led 107 of the 200 circuits to score his third win of the season in 2016.

 

The Camping World Truck Series entry list features 33 drivers. That means one driver will not qualify for the event. Qualifying for the M&M’s 200 will take place at 6:05 p.m. ET. and will not be televised. You can follow the three rounds of knockout qualifying via NASCAR.com’s live leaderboard.

 

Brandon Jones will join the Camping World Truck Series for the third time of 2017. The young racer, who runs full-time in the NASCAR XFINITY Series for Richard Childress Racing, looks to take the No. 99 Soleus Air Chevrolet to a top five.

 

The last time out in the Camping World Truck Series at Dover, Jones took the No. 99 team to a sixth-place finish. The young rising star started that event in the 14th spot.

 

Jones led the Camping World Truck Series final practice session on Friday at Iowa Speedway.

 

John Hunter Nemechek rides into Iowa Speedway with momentum after scoring the victory on Saturday in the Drivin’ for Linemen 200 at Gateway Motorsports Park. The young driver, son of former Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series veteran racer Joe Nemechek, led 46 of the 160 laps to score his fourth career victory.

 

Through eight races in 2017, Nemechek holds one victory, three top five, and three top 10 finishes. He holds an average start of 12.4 and an average finish of 16.2. The No. 8 Chevrolet sits ninth in points.

 

Johnny Sauter continues to lead the Camping World Truck Series driver standings by 38 points over Christopher Bell. Matt Crafton, Chase Briscoe and Ben Rhodes round out the top five.

 

“I enjoy racing at Iowa. I had a streak of top-five finishes going on at one point but in the last three or four years that changed, so hopefully we can get back to that this year,” said points leader Johnny Sauter. “Spencer (Gallagher) did well there last season and I think that will definitely play into what Joe (Shear, Jr., crew chief) decides to do this weekend. It always helps to have info like that when you come back to a track where maybe we didn’t do as well as we would have liked; something new for us to try and build on.”

 

Sauter finished third last weekend at Gateway Motorsports Park. He started the Drivin’ for Linemen 200 in ninth.

 

The M&M’s 200 presented by Casey’s General Stores will take place at 8:30 p.m. ET. on FOX Sports 1. The Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM Channel 90 will carry the live radio broadcast.

Brett Winningham
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