After a 16-race regular season stretching from February to August, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series has finally entered crunch time, as the series embarks on its seven-race post-season journey to crown a champion.
The first stop on that quest takes the NASCAR Truck Series to West Allis, Wisconsin, for Sunday’s LiUNA! 175 at The Milwaukee Mile.
Six different organizations have managed to place at least one driver in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs this season.
McAnally-HIlgemann Racing leads the series with three eligible drivers, while ThorSport Racing and TRICON Garage have two apiece. REV Racing, Spire Motorsports, and CR7 Motorsports are also in contention for the driver’s championship.
First, let’s look at the 10 drivers who will compete in the seven-race battle for NASCAR Truck Series supremacy:
COREY HEIM (TRICON Garage) is making his second appearance in the NASCAR Truck Series Playoffs, driving the No. 11 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro. Heim boasts a series-high five victories, and his 8.2 average finish is second-best among full-time drivers.
CHRISTIAN ECKES (McAnally-Hilgemann Racing) is in the NASCAR Truck Series Playoffs for the fourth time and his second with MHR. Eckes has been Heim’s biggest challenger this season, with three wins (Bristol, Martinsville, and Nashville), and one finish outside the top-10
TY MAJESKI (ThorSport Racing) comes into the NASCAR Truck Series Playoffs with a wave of momentum, winning the last two events at Indianapolis Raceway Park and Richmond Raceway. Majeski is making his third post-season appearance.
NICK SANCHEZ (REV Racing) has highlighted his year with victories at a pair of famous tracks, Daytona and Charlotte. A mechanical issue at Richmond marked the first finish outside the top-20 for the No. 2 team in 2024.
RAJAH CARUTH (Spire Motorsports) is making his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut this season for Spire Motorsports, driving the HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado. The season started off with a bang, winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
GRANT ENFINGER (CR7 Motorsports) is the oldest driver in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs at 39 years old but drives for an organization in CR7 Motorsports, that is in an unprecedented situation. Enfinger will look to bring Codie Rohrbaugh to Victory Lane, and maybe even the Championship 4.
TYLER ANKRUM (McAnally-Hilgemann Racing) has breathed some life back into his NASCAR career, making his third run at the NASCAR Truck Series Playoffs, and his first since racing for GMS Racing in 2020.
TAYLOR GRAY (TRICON Garage) is still looking for his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory, but in his first complete season has qualified for the NASCAR Truck Series Playoffs. Jeff Hensley, Gray’s crew chief, brought Grant Enfinger to the Championship 4 in 2023.
DANIEL DYE (McAnally-Hilgemann Racing) snuck into the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs with a strong run at Richmond, displacing Tanner Gray by 12 points. Dye is still searching for his first career win and will look to advance deep into the post-season before moving on to the Xfinity Series in 2025.
IS THIS A TWO-HORSE RACE?
All season, Corey Heim and Christian Eckes have been the class of the field in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, combining to win an incredible eight of 16 regular-season events and lead 1,231 of 2,531 laps (48.64%).
There’s no doubt that they’re the favorites for the championship, and will be battling it out together.
Eckes enters Sunday’s playoff opener at The Milwaukee Mile on a stretch of five consecutive top-three results, dating back to World Wide Technology Raceway in June. The McAnally-Hilgemann Racing driver won the regular-season title handily but still enters the post-season as the No. 2 seed.
“Based off of last year, I feel like it’s championship or bust,” said Eckes. “I think everything we’ve done this year in preparation has kind of led toward that being the mentality. I definitely feel like we’re capable of that, so that’s what we’re going to try and achieve.”
Heim, on the other hand, was able to rely on a series-high five victories (COTA, Kansas, North Wilkesboro, Gateway, and Pocono) to leapfrog his main championship rival to start the post-season, despite losing the regular-season title.
“I think [Christian Eckes] has been really good, especially in the last few weeks,” Heim said regarding his competition. “He has been putting up a lot of points – kind of reminds me of my season last year, where he may not have gotten the wins that he deserved throughout the year, but they have been lights out consistent and in contention every single week.”
In this sport, though, nothing is certain. Eckes and Heim are not immune to bad weekends or bad luck, and should it strike, either one of the championship favorites could be axed from the post-season, and if something wild happens, maybe even both.
A world in which both Eckes and Heim don’t advance to the Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway would blow the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship fight wide open, with eight other drivers capable of playing spoiler.
CAN MAJESKI KEEP HIS MOMENTUM?
While Corey Heim and Christian Eckes are the far-and-away favorites for the championship, Ty Majeski and ThorSport Racing continue to lay in the weeds, seeded third of the 10 eligible post-season drivers heading to Milwaukee.
Majeski has won back-to-back NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series events at Indianapolis Raceway Park and Richmond Raceway, and now comes to his home track of The Milwaukee Mile, where he and Joe Shear, Jr. have brought a fast Ford F-150.
The final seven races of the year include stops at Milwaukee, Bristol, Kansas, Talladega, Homestead, Martinsville, and Phoenix. This season, the 30-year-old driver has been lights out on short tracks, which make up four of the final seven rounds, while also having a victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
It isn’t a guarantee, by any means, but there’s significant evidence to suggest that Majeski could be in a fantastic position to sneak out a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship in Phoenix come November.
“I think we’re one of those top three contenders, for sure, especially coming off these two wins,” said Majeski. “I think we’re probably carrying the most momentum in the series right now. I feel like maybe our valleys have been a bit lower than [Eckes] and [Heim], but I feel like our peaks have been similar, so as long as we can just peak at the right time and keep this momentum going, there’s no reason why we can’t be a competitor when we hopefully get to Phoenix.”
The Seymour, Wisconsin-native has an average finish of 12.1 heading into the post-season, which currently ranks sixth of the 10 championship contenders, behind Nick Sanchez, Rajah Caruth, and Grant Enfinger, as well as Eckes and Heim.
CAN BEN RHODES WIN IT AGAIN?
Entering the final seven races of 2024, Ben Rhodes is looking to match ThorSport Racing teammate Matt Crafton as a three-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion, and all before turning 28 in February.
Showing up at the back end of the NASCAR Truck Series campaign has been a trademark of Rhodes, but the Louisville, Kentucky-native is going to have to kick it up a couple of notches if he wants to contend come Phoenix in November.
Rhodes is winless through the first 16 events of the season and has only collected a pair of top-five finishes, both of which happened several months ago, at Darlington and Charlotte. His 16 laps led is a career-low for Rhodes, who has led 50+ laps in each of his full-time campaigns.
For his first championship in 2023, Rhodes was the third-place seed to start the post-season, but last season, the ThorSport Racing driver was in danger of elimination from the start, being seeded seventh.
“Just the fact that we’ve done it, I think that’s going to tell us we can do it again,” said Rhodes. “It’s just that we have the blueprint. We’ve done it twice and we’ve done it when our back has been against the wall.”
“We’ve done it when we had to get in on tiebreaks, where we had to do crazy strategy and we’d get in on a point We’ve been put through the crucible. We’ve gone through the wringer and somehow, we’ve found a way to make it to the next round. I can thoroughly say that the pressure doesn’t get to us at all.”
No dark storm clouds are hanging over the head of Rhodes, that’s for sure, with the seven-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series winner believing that the speed can be there for the No. 99 Ford F-150 team to advance to Phoenix and compete for a championship.
“Yeah, the speed can be there. We’ve got to unload a little closer, though,” said Rhodes. “That’s kind of where we’re at with this Next Gen practice session. You have to unload off your transporter straight from the race shop perfect, and there’s no opportunity to really tune on the truck. There are a lot of times when I know what’s wrong, but I don’t have the tools available to me to fix it. “
Rhodes will start Sunday’s LiUNA! 175 furthest back of the Playoff drivers, in 18th.
LOOKING FOR LANDMARKS:
There are seven races left on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule this season, and while the fight for the title is the most important thing for those eligible, there are also some exterior motivations.
Taylor Gray and Daniel Dye are both in search of their maiden wins in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. With both drivers in the rumor mill as potential Xfinity Series drivers for 2025 (Dye announced his deal with Kaulig on Friday), they’ll look to check that off the list before potentially moving on from the series.
While Grant Enfinger has been to Victory Lane on 10 occasions in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, the organization he’s currently competing with, CR7 Motorsports, has yet to make that trip. The Fairhope, Alabama native has finished second twice this year at North Wilkesboro and Pocono.
Tyler Ankrum isn’t in the exact same boat as his MHR teammate Daniel Dye, but it’s been half a decade since the San Bernardino, California native has been in Victory Lane in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The 23-year-old has set a new career-high in top-five results this year and finished runner-up at Las Vegas in March.
Christian Eckes is searching for his landmark tenth win in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, currently sitting at eight. Earlier this year, Corey Heim became the youngest driver to achieve 10 NCTS wins. Reaching that mark before the season’s end would rank Eckes third, behind Heim and Brett Moffitt.
ThorSport Racing is three victories away from its 50th win in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, a mark that could be achieved by Ben Rhodes or Ty Majeski, as well as non-playoff drivers Matt Crafton, Jake Garcia, or Conner Jones.
Tanner Gray, although not in the post-season, will look to become the seventh driver to finish top-20 in every single NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event in a season.
THE OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP:
This season, in addition to an intense battle for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Driver’s Championship, the series is also poised to have a fantastic fight for the Owner’s Championship. The teams eligible for the NASCAR Truck Series Owner’s Playoff Field, are as follows:
- #11 TRICON Garage (Driver: Corey Heim)
- #19 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing (Driver: Christian Eckes)
- #98 ThorSport Racing (Driver: Ty Majeski)
- #2 REV Racing (Driver: Nick Sanchez)
- #71 Spire Motorsports (Driver: Rajah Caruth)
- #9 CR7 Motorsports (Driver: Grant Enfinger)
- #18 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing (Driver: Tyler Ankrum)
- #7 Spire Motorsports (Drivers: Sammy Smith, Connor Zilisch, Connor Mosack)
- #45 Niece Motorsports (Drivers: Kaden Honeycutt, Connor Mosack)
- #17 TRICON Garage (Drivers: Taylor Gray)
Spire Motorsports (No. 7) and Niece Motorsports (No. 45) are the only two teams without a full-time driver to be in the battle for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Owner’s Playoffs and have therefore displaced the ThorSport Racing No. 99 and McAnally-Hilgemann Racing No. 43.
There are no major seeding changes when it comes to seeding in the NCTS Owner’s Playoffs, with Spire Motorsports putting the No. 7 in eighth, and Niece Motorsports having the No. 45 in ninth. As a result, the TRICON Garage No. 17 falls to 10th.
Spire Motorsports will have Sammy Smith in the entry at The Milwaukee Mile, Connor Mosack behind the wheel at Kansas Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway, and Connor Zilisch driving at Bristol Motor Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and Martinsville Speedway. No driver has been announced for the season finale at Phoenix.
Niece Motorsports will have Kaden Honeycutt behind the wheel of the No. 45 Chevrolet Silverado in six of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoff events, with Connor Mosack finishing out the year at Phoenix Raceway.
Honeycutt has been a force to be reckoned with in his select NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series starts this year, with a top-five at Kansas and four top-10 finishes in seven starts, with an average finish of 12.1
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs will begin Sunday at The Milwaukee Mile, with coverage of the playoff opener beginning at 4:00 PM ET on FOX Sports 1.
