{"id":21279,"date":"2018-08-15T19:23:13","date_gmt":"2018-08-16T00:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=21279"},"modified":"2018-08-17T19:33:12","modified_gmt":"2018-08-18T00:33:12","slug":"bristol-motor-speedway-nascar-camping-world-truck-series-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/15\/bristol-motor-speedway-nascar-camping-world-truck-series-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"Bristol Motor Speedway NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – As if Camping World Truck Series<\/a> racing wasn\u2019t exciting enough at the Bristol Motor Speedway<\/strong> \u201cbullring,\u201d Thursday night\u2019s regular season cap, the UNOH 200 will officially set the Playoff field and crown the regular season champion.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Tommy Joe Martins, driver of the #44 Cross Concrete Construction Chevrolet, leads Daniel Hemric, driver of the #19 Blue Gate Bank Ford, during the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway on August 17, 2016 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/NASCAR via Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Two-time series champion and four-time 2018 race winner Johnny Sauter needs only to take the green flag (8:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) to officially earn regular season top honors.<\/p>\n

But the veteran is wisely preparing himself for the bigger picture \u2013 there\u2019s a championship trophy to hoist following the Nov. 16 season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. And the competition for that podium is as intense as it\u2019s ever been.<\/p>\n

Brett Moffitt collected his fourth victory of the season last weekend in Michigan to tie Sauter\u2019s regular season trophy haul. He will be second when the Playoff points are reset for the opening round of the postseason, Aug. 26 on the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park road course.<\/p>\n

Sauter will earn a 15-point bonus for winning the regular season and points will be distributed in a waning order throughout the top of the standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a great season to this point, and we\u2019re really proud of what we\u2019ve accomplished,” the 26-year old Moffitt said. \u201cI\u2019ve said all year we don\u2019t have the most people or the most equipment, but [crew chief] Scott [Zipadelli] and our entire team has made the most of what we do have. To have four wins is great, but there\u2019s a bigger prize out there and that\u2019s where our focus is.”<\/p>\n

Sauter, 40, and Moffitt certainly are motivated to win the regular season finale and make a strong statement as the Playoffs begin.<\/p>\n

Sauter won three of his races in a four-week span early in the season and has five top-10s in the seven races since his last win at Texas in April. He was runner-up to Moffitt last weekend in Michigan in the No. 21 GMS Racing Chevrolet. He\u2019s winless in 10 Bristol truck starts with a best showing of runner-up in 2011. He has finished top-10 in the last five races there, however.<\/p>\n

Moffitt has won two of the last five races in the No. 16 Hattori Motorsports Toyota. He\u2019s only competed in one truck series race at Bristol and finished runner-up in 2016.<\/p>\n

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series<\/b><\/p>\n

Next Race: UNOH 200<\/b><\/p>\n

The Place:  Bristol Motor Speedway<\/b><\/p>\n

The Date: Thursday, Aug. 16<\/b><\/p>\n

The Time: 8:30 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n

TV: FOX<\/b><\/p>\n

Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio<\/b><\/p>\n

Distance: 106.6 miles (200 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on lap 55),<\/b><\/p>\n

Stage 2 (Ends on lap 110), and Final Stage (Ends on lap 200)<\/b><\/p>\n

What to Watch For:<\/b> This is the regular season finale and will set the eight driver series Playoff field. \u2026 There are currently six winners that have automatically earned Playoff positions. \u2026 Veteran and two-time series champion Matt Crafton is still looking for his first victory of the season. He has not had a winless season since 2012. \u2026 Two of the series most promising young talents, rookies Myatt Snider and Todd Gilliland may be considered wildcards for this weekend\u2019s Bristol race. Neither would qualify for the Playoffs based on their current points positions, but both are candidates to win this weekend and both are making their series debut at the track. Gilliland is coming off a season best fifth-place at Michigan. And Snider\u2019s last top-10 came at Chicago, five races ago. \u2026 Harrison Burton is entered this weekend \u2013 his first series race since Iowa, where he won the pole position and finished third. He has three top-10 finishes in as many races this year. \u2026 Stefan Parsons, son of FOX commentator Phil Parsons, will make his series debut this week driving the No. 15 Chevrolet for Premium Motorsports. \u2026 Chevrolet leads the manufacturer standings by three-points over Toyota.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – As if Camping World Truck Series racing wasn\u2019t exciting enough at the Bristol Motor Speedway \u201cbullring,\u201d Thursday night\u2019s regular season cap, the UNOH 200 will officially set the Playoff field and crown the regular season champion. Two-time series champion and four-time 2018 race winner Johnny Sauter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5124,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[177,16,268],"class_list":["post-21279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-bristol-motor-speedway","tag-nascar","tag-ncwts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/BMS_081716_10-e1471716260263.jpg?fit=615%2C399","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-5xd","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21279"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21281,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21279\/revisions\/21281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}