2022 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series preview: Mid-Ohio
Brenden Martin previews the O'Reilly Auto 150 at Mid-Ohio where Trackhouse Racing co-owner Justin Marks gets behind the wheel in the No. 41 for Niece Motorsports.
It has been two weeks since the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series ran at Nashville Superspeedway where Ryan Preece won for the second-straight time at the concrete track.
With only two races left in the regular season, racers outside the playoff bubble need to start thinking about winning in order to compete in the Round of 10 at the end of the month. Winning has come at a premium for full-time truck drivers this season as part-time truck drivers have won the last five races. The previous truck series regular to win was Stewart Friesen at Texas Motor Speedway on May 20.
One of those part-time drivers, Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 51 Corey Heim, will start on the pole for the second time going into his 11th career start. Heim has two wins this season for KBM, winning at Atlanta Motor Speedway and World Wide Technology Raceway.
Rackley WAR No. 25 Matt DiBenedetto is 13th in the standings and sits 62 points below the cutline and needs a win to make the playoffs in his first season since driving in the No. 21 car for Wood Brothers Racing in the Cup Series.
DiBenedetto has his best chance to win his way into the playoffs at Mid-Ohio. He will start on the third row in sixth alongside ThorSport No. 88 Matt Crafton, who sits 29 points ahead of McAnally-Hilgemann Racing No. 19 Derek Kraus for the final playoff spot.
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course represents the third road course of the season. Front Row Motorsports No. 38 Zane Smith earned his second of three race wins this season at Circuit of the Americas on March 26 and Kyle Busch won in his final truck start of the season at Sonoma Raceway on June 11.
The series makes its first trip to Mid-Ohio Sports, a 2.258-mile and 13-turn road course in Lexington, Ohio, just one hour north of Columbus.
While the truck series has never been to Mid-Ohio, the field does see a former NASCAR Xfinity Series winner at the track as Trackhouse Racing co-owner and Niece Motorsports No. 41 Justin Marks will make his first NASCAR national series start since September 2018.
Marks won his first career NASCAR race at Mid-Ohio after leading a race-high 43 laps in a rain-filled race in August 2016. His experience in the rain at Mid-Ohio came in handy on Friday for qualifying. Marks qualified for the fourth in Group B and will start eighth in the Worldwide Express Chevrolet Silverado.
Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain won at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the No. 41 car for Niece Motorsports on May 27.
While practice early Friday morning was relatively dry, qualifying in the afternoon saw heavy showers that caused many trucks to spin and the final round to be canceled.
Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 18 Chandler Smith spun at the very start of qualifying for Group A, one of the very many spins he had. He eventually needed a tow after getting stuck in the gravel. Smith will start 31st.
Luckily for Smith and many others, the forecast for Saturday’s race shows no rain in the area.
Niece Motorsports No. 42 Carson Hocevar will start third, continuing to nurse the broken tibia in his right ankle he suffered at the end of the Toyota 200 at Gateway on June 4. He says it feels a lot better and hopes to be fully recovered soon.
The battle for the regular season championship is heating up with the next race at Pocono Raceway in two weeks marking the last race before the playoffs. Zane Smith currently leads Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 4 John Hunter Nemechek by 21 points going into Mid-Ohio.
The battle doesn’t only involve them as ThorSport Racing No. 99 Ben Rhodes, the defending champion, trails Nemechek by nine points and Chandler Smith only behind by five points in fourth.
The regular season champion earns 15 playoff points going into the Round of 10, the equivalent of three wins.
The O'Reilly Auto 150 at Mid-Ohio will be 67 laps long with stage breaks on laps 20 and 40.
The race is on Saturday, July 9, at 1:30 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1. The race can also be listened to on Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Practice Results:
Starting Lineup:
To the rear - Unapproved adjustments
No. 19 Derek Kraus, No. 22 Austin Wayne Self, No. 44 Kris Wright
Pit Stall Selection:
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series – Race No. 15 – 67 laps / 151.29 miles
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (2.258-mile road course) – Lexington, Ohio
Fast Facts for June 8-9, 2022
Tire: Goodyear Eagle 15-inch Road Course Radials
Set limits: 5 sets for the event
Tire Code: D-6122 (same on all four tire positions)
Tire Circumference: 2,240 mm (88.19 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front — 22 psi; Right Front — 20 psi; Left Rear — 17 psi; Right Rear — 17 psi
Notes – Truck Series debuts at Mid-Ohio on COTA/Sonoma tire: This is the first race at Mid-Ohio for NASCAR Camping World Truck Series teams after the Xfinity Series raced there for the past eight seasons . . . as on all NASCAR road courses, Truck teams will run the same tire on all four tire positions at Mid-Ohio . . . these teams have already run this tire at both COTA and Sonoma earlier this season . . . as on all NASCAR road courses, teams will not run inner liners in their tires at Mid-Ohio.
Wet Weather Tires – White-lettered tires on hand: Goodyear will bring its wet weather radials for use by Truck Series teams at Mid-Ohio, should NASCAR decide that conditions warrant . . . Truck will have 4 sets of wets available for their event, with a maximum of 3 sets for the race . . . Truck teams last ran in the wet at COTA in 2021 . . . in addition to the obvious difference of a tread pattern versus Goodyear’s dry weather “slick” tires, the “Goodyear” and “Eagle” lettering on the sidewalls of the wet weather tires is white, not the standard yellow.
— Goodyear Racing —