NASCAR
Do any of the Truck Series Championship 4 Stand Out from the Rest?
In the Craftsman Truck Series it all comes down to Phoenix. 150 laps in the desert will crown a 2023 champion in NASCAR’s third-tier division. Four drivers have elevated themselves into the Championship 4, each with a 25% chance at taking the Truck Series’ ultimate prize. Are any of them favored heading into the Craftsman 150 title fight? Let’s look at the seasons so far for each of these drivers.
Corey Heim
Regular season champion Corey Heim has been the picture of consistency in 2023. The TRICON Garage No. 11 has been to victory lane three times, at Martinsville, Mid-Ohio, and most recently at Bristol. Aside from those three wins, Heim has a series-best 19 top-10s and a 6.2 average finish. These amazing stats come in spite of missing one race with illness. Heim looked back positively on the remarkable season to date and wanting to finish it out strong.
“It’s been a good season for us for sure,” Heim said. “There was a lot of question marks coming into 2023 with a new team, organization – and for me, a new crew chief and spotter. All new stuff, with a lot of question marks. But we really put together such a solid season and so much progress from start to finish. Super thankful for TRICON Garage and Toyota Racing for all the support. I wouldn’t be in this position without them. It has been such a cool year to see all of the progress and hard work people have put in from start to bottom in this organization. All of the support from TRD as well. We’ve got one more, hopefully we can keep it going. One more big one to win, and hopefully we complete a good year for us.”
“For me, it is all Phoenix. I don’t really look into similar tracks too much. The truck package hasn’t changed much in a long time. So that gives us the ability to kind of read back into last year. I know the track changes here and there, but configuration wise, the track hasn’t changed much. And as far as the truck, it hasn’t changed much either. I definitely look at previous years – I’ve raced there the last year for the finale as well. Throughout we were relatively good, but I’ve learned a lot since then. I feel like just being able to improve on the last performances from Truck and ARCA there is big for me. I just read into Phoenix for the most part.”
Raw speed has been on Heim’s side more often than not this season. Their only races outside of the top-10 were Atlanta and Bristol Dirt. Expect Heim to unload as a top truck again in Phoenix. His team should also see perfect execution throughout the sprint race.
Carson Hocevar
Perhaps the driver with the most momentum entering Phoenix is Carson Hocevar. After winning at Homestead, the No. 42 has a series leading four wins in 2023. Hocevar said afterwards that he went into the Homestead weekend treating it like a test run for Phoenix. Treating last week as a dress rehearsal, the Niece Motorsports No. 42 left with the trophy. As a result, their confidence and momentum to get it done again are sky-high.
“I treated (Homestead) like it was Phoenix,” Hocevar said. “You’re not going to just randomly show up and be perfect that weekend. I wanted to be perfect before I got there. I wasn’t perfect, our weekend wasn’t perfect. But if we hold ourselves to that standard then maybe we can get a little bit there. I looked at it like it was a practice for Phoenix, and we ended up winning. We were able to capitalize, never lost focus, and did the job we had to.”
“If we work as much as we have, then we’ll have a shot. I could be leading into [turn] three coming to the white [flag], have a yellow come out, and we make the wrong call. This team’s plenty capable of winning the championship, but so are plenty others. We’re going to focus up and work like we did (in Homestead) and weeks in advance. All the hard work’s at the shop and in the sim. We just get to take advantage on those days of our hard work. That’s what we’re going to do when we get to Phoenix, work as hard as we can. I’ve focused on Phoenix ever since leaving there last year. I’ve tried to just prepare and make myself as perfect as I can be.”
Hocevar has been nothing short of one of NASCAR’s breakout stars for 2023. Coming into this season winless, Hocevar has elevated himself into a weekly threat as one of the best Truckers on the grid. More victories than any of his competition has swagger high in the 42 camp. Niece Motorsports should have more than a fighter’s chance at their first championship.
Grant Enfinger
The No. 23 GMS Racing team and Grant Enfinger may be the most motivated to show out at Phoenix. GMS Racing will not exist past Phoenix, trying to go out as champions again. When Enfinger has been on this year, he’s been very tough to beat in three very dominant victories. Other weeks however have seen the No. 23 battle from behind on speed and grind out blue-collar results. Enfinger is more than optimistic about the effort his team will bring to this literal win-or-go-home race.
“These guys deserve to be running for a championship in Phoenix,” Enfinger said. “I’m pretty disappointed in our execution, you can’t make mistakes against these guys. We were blessed to have a second opportunity. Jeff made some great calls on the truck. The truck was as good as it was going to be on those last two stints. That was all we had. We could have thrown a Hail Mary and maybe that would have given us a shot at winning, but he made the right call to race for a championship. Congratulations to all these guys, I really wanted this for Mike Beam, Maury Gallagher, Ron Booth, everybody at Champion Power Equipment, and Jeff Hensley. All these guys deserve to race for a championship. So we are incredibly blessed and thankful that the Lord blessed us with this opportunity. Hopefully we make the most of it.”
Enfinger and GMS Racing may be the sentimental favorites to end their tenure together on top. The Alabama native is still unsure about his racing plans past Phoenix. Shutdown is imminent for both GMS and Kyle Busch Motorsports; the Truck Series will look wildly different in 2024. It would be fitting for the Chevrolet powerhouse to cap off 2023 with their third title.
Ben Rhodes
Making the Championship 4 by the skin of his teeth, Ben Rhodes will race for a second Truck Series title. The ThorSport Racing No. 99 Ford makes it back to Phoenix for the second time in three years. 2022 saw Rhodes take the championship, while 2023 was a close runner-up for the Kentucky driver. The 99 only has one win so far this season though (Charlotte). Rhodes is likewise a snake in the grass looking to play upset.
“The good news is that at Phoenix we have a really good track record,” Rhodes said. “Finished second there last year in the championship, won it the year before, so I should be celebrating right now. We have a chance to go for another championship. (Homestead) was just an absolute blessing to finish the way it did, but it didn’t seem like one.”
“We almost won the championship last year on a similar call (to Homestead). This is a big deal and (Rich Lushes) as our leader is important. To have the ability to make calls like that and confidence to be thrown to the wind if that’s what happens, he does that and doesn’t care if that’s the result. He just wants to win. He’s got faith in me to back it up, but that’s a little too daring for me.”
Only one win may seem lackluster for a championship season. It almost matches the results put up by Rhodes two years ago however. That season, the 99 only won the opening two races and went winless across the rest of the year. Rhodes simply had to finish third to claim that title, a rare occurrence in the winner-take-all format.
All of ThorSport has been noticeably behind on raw speed this season. This team is racing for another title thanks to a very daring off-strategy call at Homestead that luckily paid off. If opportunity arises for another similar play in Phoenix, Rhodes may pull off the unthinkable win. Can the cards fall right again for this team’s gambling efforts?
Next Friday night on the desert mile has the potential to be an all-time classic championship battle. Two young guns and two veterans will be pitted against each other to stamp their place in NASCAR history. The Craftsman 150 will go green Friday, November 3 at 10:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. All that’s left to do is race it out for 150 quick laps to crown one of these four drivers as the king of the Truck Series.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credit to Sean Gardner/Getty Images
