2022 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series preview: Nashville
Michael Manny previews the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Nashville Superspeedway.
With just three races remaining in the regular season, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series hits Nashville Superspeedway for the Rackley Roofing 200 Friday at 8 p.m. EST.
Last year’s Nashville truck winner, Ryan Preece is starting on pole for the first time in his career. Preece’s Nashville win was his series debut and the first at the truck level. It will be his sixth start of the season in the David Gilliland Racing No. 17 truck.
Preece came close to another win earlier this season at Texas Motor Speedway, leading 27 laps and finishing third.
Front Row Motorsports’ Zane Smith starts opposite of Preece in second. Carson Hocevar, Corey Heim and Derek Kraus round out the top five. Kraus’ crew chief, Shane Wilson, has been suspended tonight for an improperly mounted ballast and the driver has been given a 10-point penalty according to Fox Sports’ Bob Pockrass.
Last weekend at Knoxville Raceway, the Gilliland family had likely one of their most special race weekends ever. Driving for his father’s team for the first time, Todd Gilliland took home his third career truck series victory in his first start since moving up to the Cup series full-time. DGR now has a chance to continue that momentum this week.
As the regular season winds down, five series regulars have clinched spots in the 10-truck playoffs via a win: Smith, John Hunter Nemechek, Ben Rhodes, Chandler Smith and Stewart Friesen.
Among that list, Smith leads the series with three wins. But Nemechek leads Smith 481 points to 476 for the regular season championship. Non-winners in the top 10 include Ty Majeski, Christian Eckes, Carson Hocevar, Grant Enfinger and Matt Crafton.
Though he has not won at Nashville, Crafton has the most experience of any driver in the field at the track, racing every year at Nashville dating back to 2001. The 46-year-old was the second-fastest in practice but has not won since Kansas in 2020.
Todd Bodine returns to the field for his 799th national series start. Bodine has a win at Nashville in 2010 and has won two poles at the track. Another notable driver in the field this week is Camden Murphy, who is making his first start of the season. Murphy is pulling double duty this weekend, competing in a Monster Jam event at Nissan Stadium, the home of Tennessee Titans, Saturday.
Bret Holmes (No. 32), Justin Carroll (No. 90), Jennifer Jo Cobb (No. 10), Clay Greenfield (No. 84), Tate Fogleman (No. 26) and Trey Hutchens (No. 14) did not qualify. Hutchens and Max Gutierrez’s qualifying times were disallowed for their ride heights being too low. Gutierrez will start from the back row.
The race can be found on Fox Sports 1, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, with the stages running through laps 45, 95 and 150.
Starting lineup:
Pit stall assignments:
Goodyear tire notes:
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series – Race No. 14 – 150 laps / 199.5 miles
Nashville Superspeedway (1.33-mile oval) – Lebanon, Tenn.
Fast Facts for June 24-25, 2022
Tire: Goodyear Eagle 15-inch Speedway Radials
Set limits:
Xfinity: 5 sets for the event;
Truck: 6 sets for the event
Tire Codes: Left-side — D-6110; Right-side — D-6128
Tire Circumference:
Left-side — 2,225 mm (87.60 in.);
Right-side — 2,250 mm (88.58 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation:
Left Front — 18 psi; Left Rear — 18 psi;
Right Front — 42 psi; Right Rear — 40 psi
Notes – Xfinity, Truck teams on on popular left-side tire at Nashville: Being on 15-inch bead diameter tires, Xfinity and Camping World Truck teams will run a different tire set-up than those in the Cup Series at Nashville this week . . . compared to what these teams ran at Nashville last season, this left-side tire code aligns this track with several other speedways, while this right-side code features a minor compound change . . . this left-side is one that teams in both of these series have run at Charlotte, Las Vegas and Texas already this season . . . Truck teams have also run this left-side at Kansas . . . Xfinity teams ran this right-side at Dover in May . . . despite the Truck Series running a shorter race than the Xfinity Series, Truck teams will have six sets of tires compared to five sets for Xfinity teams because the Trucks are the first series on track for practice on a “green” race track and have the first race of the weekend . . . as on all NASCAR ovals greater than one mile in length, teams are required to run liners in all four tire positions at Nashville . . . air pressure in those inner liners should be 12-25 psi greater than that of the outer tire.
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— Goodyear Racing —