The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series returns to action in Saturday night’s Clean Harbors 250 (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Richmond Raceway – the last regular season race of the year and one that will formally set the 10-driver 2024 Playoff field and crown the Regular Season Champion.
Five drivers have earned Playoff positions with victories this year – including Christian Eckes, Corey Heim, Nicholas Sanchez, Ty Majeski and Rajah Caruth. Five other drivers are currently “In” Playoff position via points – Tyler Ankrum (+85), Grant Enfinger (+77), Taylor Gray (+48), defending series champion Ben Rhodes (+22) and Tanner Gray (+5).
Daniel Dye (-5) and Stewart Friesen (-16) are just below the cutoff line and within reasonable distance to challenge for a Playoff position in the right race circumstances Saturday night. Three-time series champion Matt Crafton is just behind Friesen in the standings, 43 points back.
McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Eckes holds a 50-point advantage on TRICON Garage’s Heim for the regular season title despite Heim’s series best five-win tally. The 23-year-old Eckes could clinch the Regular Season Championship by scoring 11 or more points on Saturday – the regular season title includes the all-important 15-point bonus Playoff points to carry throughout the seven-race postseason. If Eckes claims that title, he would be the eighth different driver to do so.
Enfinger, driver of the No. 9 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet, is the only fulltime driver in the field that has a previous win at Richmond, claiming the 2020 victory in the series’ first race back at the three-quarter miler after a 15-year break. And Enfinger’s 5.5 average finish (four top-10s in as many races) is best among those with at least four starts at the track.
Carson Hocevar – now a rookie in the NASCAR Cup Series – won the Richmond truck race last year by more than 2-seconds over Majeski, who led a race best 168 of the 250 laps. Among the four drivers closest to the cutoff mark, Rhodes was 12th last year, Tanner Gray was 16th, Dye was 21st and Friesen was 27th.
Of that foursome, Rhodes boasts the best average finish of 10.0 in his four Richmond starts with a pair of top-10s and 79 laps led. Tanner Gray has never scored a top-10 at Richmond with a best showing of 16th-place in three of his four starts there. Dye has just one previous race at the track and Friesen has one top-10 in his four starts – 10th place in 2020 – and has never led a lap.
Highly-touted young ARCA Menards Series drivers Connor Zilisch, 18, and William Sawalich, 17, will be on the starting grid this Saturday. Zilisch will drive the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet making his second of five scheduled starts on the season. Sawalich will be making his make his fourth start this season driving the No. 1 TRICON Garage Toyota Tundra. He scored a season best 12th-place finish at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in the last race. He finished 10th at Richmond last year.
A half-hour practice is scheduled for the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series at 2:35 p.m. ET, followed by Cometic Gasket Pole Qualifying at 3:05 p.m. ET.