{"id":20802,"date":"2018-07-27T15:25:10","date_gmt":"2018-07-27T20:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=20802"},"modified":"2018-07-29T16:12:23","modified_gmt":"2018-07-29T21:12:23","slug":"nascar-friday-pocono-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/27\/nascar-friday-pocono-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Friday Pocono Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

For Brett Moffitt, winning provides a welcome comfort zone<\/b><\/p>\n

LONG POND, Pa. \u2013 There are five NASCAR Camping World Truck Series<\/a> drivers who are feeling comfortable.<\/p>\n

There are three who have every reason to be nervous<\/p>\n

With three races left before the series Playoffs start at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, Johnny Sauter, Brett Moffitt, Noah Gragson, Ben Rhodes and Justin Haley are locked into Playoff on the strength of race victories.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Grant Enfinger, driver of the #99 Champion Power Equipment\/Curb Records Ford, practices for the Nascar Camping World Truck Series Gander Outdoors 150 at Pocono Raceway on July 27, 2018 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jeff Zelevansky\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

On the other hand, Grant Enfinger, Stewart Friesen and Matt Crafton are winless. And though those three drivers are in comfortable positions to make the Playoffs on points, a victory by any of the drivers chasing them could have dire consequences.<\/p>\n

Eight drivers will make the Playoffs, with race wins taking precedence over position in the standings.<\/p>\n

With three victories, Moffitt knows he\u2019ll have a Playoff spot. And with 16 Playoff points in his pocket, he ought to be a contender for the series championship.<\/p>\n

Those Playoff points could prove critical, given the three tracks in the first round: the road course at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, high-speed Las Vegas and unpredictable Talladega.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing locked in is a huge weight off your shoulders,\u201d Moffitt said on Friday before opening NCWTS practice at Pocono Raceway. \u201cAnd I think with the Truck Series, the same thing as our races being short, our season\u2019s short, so all you can do is go out there and try to win races.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, you don\u2019t want to make any moves to take yourself out of races, but at the end of the day, you\u2019ve got to win and get Playoff points to secure yourself through that first round, with it being Canadian Tire and Talladega in one round–that\u2019s kind of messy.\u201d<\/p>\n

GRANT ENFINGER LOOKING FOR WIN TO SOLIDIFY PLAYOFF PROSPECTS<\/b><\/p>\n

Of the three top-eight drivers in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, Grant Enfinger perhaps has the least cause for anxiety.<\/p>\n

The driver of the No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford is fourth in the series standings, 120 points ahead of ninth-place Myatt Snider with three races left in the regular season.<\/p>\n

But Enfinger has only two Playoff points\u2014the result of stage victories\u2014and he feels his team needs to find some extra speed to be a contender for the title.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve still got a little ways to go,\u201d Enfinger said on Friday at Pocono Raceway, venue for Saturday\u2019s Gander Outdoors 150 (1 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). \u201cWe\u2019re solid.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a fair amount better speed this year than we had last year, but I still feel like we\u2019re lacking a little bit in that department. We haven\u2019t got a win yet. We\u2019ve had a few shots at it. We\u2019ve had speed enough to win at a few of \u2018em, but it just hasn\u2019t worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enfinger came tantalizingly close July 18 at Eldora Speedway, where he battled side-by-side against race winner Chase Briscoe for the final two laps but came up short by .038 seconds. A victory would have locked Enfinger into the Playoffs. Without it, he still has to walk a tightrope between caution and aggression.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, we really can\u2019t do anything different,\u201d he said. \u201cWe still need stage points, and we still need to contend for wins. So we can\u2019t just lay it all on the line, and we can\u2019t run conservative either. We pretty much have to keep doing what we\u2019ve been doing all year.”<\/p>\n

SHORT STROKES<\/b><\/p>\n

Opening NASCAR Camping World Truck Series practice was halted after 20 minutes on Friday because of the threat of lightning in the area. Spotters were told to leave the roof of the main grandstand. Practice resumed after ARCA qualifying at the 2.5-mile track and ran continuously through the conclusion of final practice at 3 p.m. ET\u2026<\/p>\n

Late in final NCWTS final practice, Brett Moffit\u2019s No. 16 Toyota came to rest on an access road after the engine expired. “It acted like it was out of fluid for a second, and then it just blew up,\u201d Moffitt said on the team radio. \u201cIt started to fall on its face, and I just shut it off. The oil pressure wasn’t even down when it first fell on its face. I don’t know if it dropped a valve or what.”\u2026<\/p>\n

With fewer than three minutes left in happy hour, Todd Gilliland spun his No. 4 Toyota in Turn 1 but avoided contact with the wall. \u201cI just got too loose,\u201d Gilliland said. \u201cThrough (Turns) 2 and 3, it felt really good coming up to speed. I hammered the gas and it came around on me.\u201d Noah Gragson topped the speed chart for the session with a lap at 168.732 mph\u2026<\/p>\n

Ben Rhodes wrecked his No. 41 ThorSport Racing Ford in the final minute of practice and will go to a backup truck for Saturday\u2019s race. Rhodes had run the eighth fastest lap in Happy Hour. Both Rhodes and Moffitt, who had to change engines, will start from the rear of the field in the Gander Outdoors 150.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service For Brett Moffitt, winning provides a welcome comfort zone LONG POND, Pa. \u2013 There are five NASCAR Camping World Truck Series drivers who are feeling comfortable. There are three who have every reason to be nervous With three races left before the series Playoffs start at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":20804,"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":[16,252],"class_list":["post-20802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-pocono-raceway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/2018_Pocono2_Enfinger_072718.jpg?fit=3600%2C2401&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-5pw","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20802"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20805,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20802\/revisions\/20805"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}