With one race remaining and one position yet to be decided in setting the 10-driver NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series championship-eligible field, there’s potential for a lot of action and drama in Saturday afternoon’s Team EJP 175 (1:30 p.m. ET on FS1, NRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
The regular season finale will officially set the Chase field. Only six drivers have fully guaranteed their entry, including points leader, Front Row Motorsports’ Layne Riggs, TRICON Garage’s Kaden Honeycutt, Rigg’s teammate Chandler Smith, McAnally-Hilgemann’s Christian Eckes, TRICON Garage’s Gio Ruggiero and ThorSport Racing’s Ty Majeski.
CR7 Motorsports’ Grant Enfinger and ThorSport’s Ben Rhodes haven’t officially clinched their positions, but they have enough of a points cushion, it should be a formality.
McAnally-Hilgemann teammates Daniel Hemric and Tyler Ankrum, however, still need to turn in a good performance to solidify the final Chase spots. Hemric holds a 35-point advantage on 11th place Stewart Friesen and Ankrum is up 20. He and Friesen exchanged the final transfer points position following Richmond when Ankrum finished 11th and Friesen crashed out, suffering a last place 36thplace
ThorSport’s Jake Garcia is only a single point behind Friesen.
“It’s going to be the first guy who blinks at New Hampshire,” Ankrum said after climbing out of his truck following the Richmond race. “Pressure was on today. I don’t know exactly what happened to Friesen, whether somebody got into him or it was self-induced. That’s just one of those things where it’s like, just one of those uncontrollable factors. Nothing that’s anybody’s fault.
“So, going to New Hampshire, it’s still a tall hill for everybody to climb,” he added. “We’re all going to have to rise to the top and perform really, really well, and I feel like that the person who doesn’t blink first will be the one to make it to the Chase.”
Reigning series champion Corey Heim is the defending race winner, claiming pole position and leading a dominating 124 of the 175 laps last year.
Practice is set for Friday at 4 p.m. ET followed by Kennametal Pole Qualifying at 5:05 p.m. ET – available on Fox One.
— NASCAR News Wire —