{"id":26634,"date":"2019-06-06T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-07T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=26634"},"modified":"2019-06-08T22:13:44","modified_gmt":"2019-06-09T03:13:44","slug":"nascar-thursday-texas-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/06\/nascar-thursday-texas-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Thursday Texas Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Ben Rhodes, Johnny Sauter top Texas practice sessions<\/b><\/p>\n

Ben Rhodes led Thursday\u2019s opening Gander Outdoors Truck Series practice in preparation for Friday night\u2019s SpeedyCash.com 400 at Texas Motor Speedway (9 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with a speed of 180.681 mph around the 1.5-mile Fort Worth high banks – just besting five-time Texas winner Johnny Sauter.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ben Rhodes, driver of the #99 Carolina Nut Ford, walks throught he garage during practice for the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series SpeedyCash.com 400 at Texas Motor Speedway on June 06, 2019 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sauter answered by pacing the second practice (184.168 mph) over his ThorSport Racing teammate and championship leader Grant Enfinger then leading the final practice Thursday evening over Matt Crafton and Austin Hill.<\/p>\n

Another championship contender Stewart Friesen \u2013 currently ranked second in the points standings – suffered a setback midway through the second session, crashing in his No. 52 Chevy truck after posting the ninth-best speed of the session. Friesen\u2019s team confirmed he\u2019ll have to go to a back-up Chevrolet for Friday\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

Qualifying for the race will be 5:35 p.m. ET on Friday. And this Texas race features the return of 2000 series champion Greg Biffle, who is driving the Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 51 Toyota Tundra. Biffle was 11th in opening practice,  12th in the second and 16th in the final session.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A detail view of The Trip logo for the Triple Truck Challenge during practice for the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series SpeedyCash.com 400 at Texas Motor Speedway on June 06, 2019 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Triple Truck Challenge offers up to $500,000 bonus<\/b><\/p>\n

The state of Texas prides itself on doing things B-I-G and this weekend marks the debut of the Truck Triple Challenge. The winner of the next three truck races \u2013 starting with Friday\u2019s SpeedyCash.com 400 will earn $50,000. Should the same driver win again in the next \u201cChallenge\u201d race at Iowa Speedway, he gets a $150,000 bonus. Should that same driver win a third time \u2013 at the next venue World Wide Technology Raceway (formerly known as Gateway Raceway in Madison, Ill.) he would walk away with a $500,000 paycheck \u2013 all thanks to a well-received incentive program from the Gander Outdoors company.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the biggest purse I\u2019ve raced for,\u2019\u2019 truck series rookie Harrison Burton said Thursday between practices at Texas. \u201cIt\u2019s really cool for Gander Outdoors to put it up for us, a really cool opportunity for us.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Greg Biffle, driver of the #51 Toyota Toyota, stands in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series SpeedyCash.com 400 at Texas Motor Speedway on June 06, 2019 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pressure mounting for KBM youth movement to develop<\/b><\/p>\n

Kyle Busch Motorsports teammates Todd Gilliland and Harrison Burton conceded they feel a lot of pressure to win driving a pair of the best trucks in the Gander Outdoors Truck Series this year. However, they maintain, the pressure is from within. \u2026 not necessarily with their superstar team owner Kyle Busch, who has been vocal in urging his young proteges along.<\/p>\n

The 18-year old Burton, son of retired NASCAR star Jeff Burton, has four top-10 and six top-11 finishes through the opening eight races of the year driving the No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota.  His best finish is a third place at Dover and he\u2019s ranked ninth in the championship.<\/p>\n

The 19-year old Gilliland, son of NASCAR star David Gilliland, has four top-10 finishes in the No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota truck, including a best of third place at Kansas two races ago. He\u2019s ranked eighth in the championship standings. He finished fourth in the truck race here last Fall \u2013 a best ever showing in Fort Worth.<\/p>\n

Burton told reporters Thursday at Texas Motor Speedway in advance of Friday night\u2019s SpeedyCash400.com that he completely understands his owner Busch\u2019s frustrations at the two \u2013 who tangled together in the Daytona season-opener. But he also understands and appreciates where Busch is coming from. He recognizes that to be a better driver you have to ask for advice and be open to criticism.<\/p>\n

And always learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this level of the sport, you have to be very pro-active especially at a young age,\u2019\u2019 Burton said. \u201cYou have to ask a lot of questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to make it happen in a short amount of time and it\u2019s tough,\u2019\u2019 Burton explained. \u201cIf it were easy, everyone would do it. If there weren\u2019t times like this everyone would be a seven-time champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about who comes through these times, gets motivated by these and starts kicking butt again basically. That\u2019s my mindset anyway.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Matt Crafton, driver of the #88 Chi-Chi’s\/Menards Ford, drives during practice for the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series SpeedyCash.com 400 at Texas Motor Speedway on June 06, 2019 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Crafton making slow progress back to the top<\/b><\/p>\n

Matt Crafton is a two-time truck series champion and perennial race favorite, but even he concedes 2018 was one of the toughest years of his 19 fulltime seasons in the series. He didn\u2019t win a race for the first time in seven seasons.<\/p>\n

This year, Crafton and his ThorSport Motorsports team are motivated to right the ship and through the opening eight races seem to be doing so. Crafton has seven top-10 finishes through the opening eight races \u2013 actually he\u2019s only finished worse than eighth place one time. He won the pole positions at the two races leading into Texas (at Kansas and at Charlotte) and he\u2019s ranked fifth in the championship.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s won twice at Texas (2014 and 2015) and earned three pole positions. Crafton said, he\u2019s ready to right this ship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was real pissed off last year with the way we ran,\u2019\u2019 Crafton said. \u201cLast year was definitely one of the most frustrating seasons I\u2019ve had in my career. I can honestly say I was angry every week.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

This year, however, Crafton allowed, \u201cIt\u2019s been better. We haven\u2019t been great, but it\u2019s been better.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Chastain switches gears, declares for Gander Outdoors Truck Series points<\/b><\/p>\n

Popular driver Ross Chastain formally declared he would be running for the Gander Outdoors Truck Series championship \u2013 switching his original plan from challenging the Xfinity Series, where he declared himself championship eligible at the beginning of the year.<\/p>\n

Chastain must still win a race sometime in the remainder of the regular season and get into the top-20 in the points standings to earn a championship berth. He won at Kansas two races ago and is a perfect eight-for-eight in top-10 showings. Now he will start earning points toward the championship.<\/p>\n

As unorthodox as it may be to switch championship focuses in the middle of the season, Chastain\u2019s decision was well-received in the truck series.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a great guy,\u2019\u2019 said Stewart Friesen, who is currently second in the championship standings. \u201cI\u2019ve gotten to know Ross a little bit the last year or so. He\u2019s a great competitor and it\u2019s cool.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically we\u2019ve been racing him all year long anyway so he\u2019s been there, just not on the scoreboard midweek. He\u2019s a great racer so he\u2019ll be good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Ben Rhodes, Johnny Sauter top Texas practice sessions Ben Rhodes led Thursday\u2019s opening Gander Outdoors Truck Series practice in preparation for Friday night\u2019s SpeedyCash.com 400 at Texas Motor Speedway (9 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with a speed of 180.681 mph around the 1.5-mile Fort Worth high<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":26641,"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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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":[16,663,21],"class_list":["post-26634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-gander-outdoors-truck-series","tag-texas-motor-speedway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-6VA","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Crafton_TexasNGOTS_060619-1.jpg?fit=3421%2C2281&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26634","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=26634"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26642,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26634\/revisions\/26642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}