NCWTS Buckle Up in Your Truck 225 Preview

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series hustles into the newly repaved and reconfigured 1.5-mile Kentucky Speedway for the sixth annual Buckle up in Your Truck 225. 32 drivers are entered for 32 spots in the Thursday Night Special, a 225 mile and 150 lap shootout. 

 

This is the tenth race for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in 2016. There have been 18 races held at the Kentucky Speedway for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. 15 different drivers have won a pole at Kentucky Speedway. Ryan Blaney, who set on the pole in 2013, was the youngest pole winner, and Ron Hornaday Jr., who won the pole in 2009, is the oldest pole winner. 14 drivers have mastered Kentucky Speedway through a win. Ty Dillon is the youngest winner and Ron Hornaday Jr. is the oldest. Three races have been won from the pole with the last one by Matt Crafton in 2015. Mike Bliss set the race record in 2002 with a speed of 143.515 mph. Austin Dillon holds the qualifying record set in 2011 with a speed of 179.868 mph.

 

John Wes Townley, who was scheduled to race Thursday night, has been replaced with Parker Kligerman due to a possible concussion. Townley is currently under treatment. 

 

Drivers to watch include Kyle Busch, Daniel Suarez, John Hunter Nemechek, Tyler Roddick, and Johnny Sauter

 

Drivers are excited about the chance to race at Kentucky Speedway.

 

Matt Crafton talks about racing at Kentucky. “Kentucky Speedway and I have had a love-hate relationship in the past, to be quite honest. It’s been really good to us at times, and really bad for us too. Junior (Joiner, crew chief) and all the guys worked really hard, brought back a completely different setup last year and we were finally able to get the monkey off our backs and get a win. With the track repave this year it will be an entirely new animal. Turns 1 and 2 will have more of a progressive banking, which means more speed down the backstretch and be completely different than Turns 3 and 4 that didn’t undergo any changes. It sounds like the biggest change will be the racing groove – it’s pretty wide coming out of Turn 4 onto the straightaway and then narrows up getting into Turn 1 because they increased the width of pit road exit. We get three practice sessions on Wednesday to test out the new surface and get accustom to the track, so it will be interesting to see how the truck handles and changes as the trucks lay down rubber.”

 

Kyle Busch explains how he believes Kentucky will race after the repave. “It will be just like any other race on a repave — there are going to be a lot of unknowns and a lot of different variables. With the reconfiguration of the track – the paving, banking, angle changing in (turns) one and two versus three and four – you basically have a whole new race track. I think it’s going to be a benefit running all three races this weekend so I can learn to understand the nuisances of the new configuration and learn how to pass on a single-groove race track.”

 

Despite being one of the top drivers at Kentucky, Johnny Sauter talks about racing at Kentucky.  “Kentucky is definitely not one of my best tracks. With that said, there’s no reason we can’t turn that around. We’ve had a great season so far and I feel like the No. 21 team has really grown over the last few races. I’m looking forward to seeing how the track races with the new surface. I think it will add a lot of speed and certainly change the way you would normally prepare for Kentucky.”

 

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will have three practice sessions on Wednesday. Qualifying for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will begin 5 pm eastern on Fox Sports 2, and the race will begin at 8:30 pm on Fox Sports 1. Motor Racing Network has the call starting at 8 pm eastern,Thursday night.

Caleb Whisler
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