Homestead’s final championship weekend begins with the Truck Series. Meet the contenders.
Brett Moffitt is looking to repeat as a champion. Matt Crafton, who hasn’t won a race this year, is looking for his third overall title and first since going back-to-back in 2013 and 2014. Ross Chastain and Stewart Friesen, meanwhile, hope to claim their first NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series championship.
It will all be decided Friday as the Ford EcoBoost 200 concludes the 25th season of NASCAR’s truck series and begins the 18th and final championship weekend held at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The race begins at 8 p.m. and will be televised on Fox Sports 1.
Moffitt, 27, has a field-best four wins this season, including two in the playoffs. Moffitt, starting with his first win of the season at the M&M’s 200 in Newton Iowa, has finished in the top 10 in 11 of the past 13 races with eight top-fives. He clinched his first truck series title with his win at Miami-Homestead last year. Moffitt led for 59 of the 134 laps, including the final 29 to seal the win. He’s the only driver from last year’s championship field to make another run at the title.
Crafton, on paper, is the underdog of the group. Even with 17 top-10 finishes and three stage wins, the 43-year-old has led for just 35 laps over the course of 22 races. He’s the only one in the Champion 4 field who has not won a race this season. However, Crafton has had success at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the past, winning the race in 2014 to clinch his second series title and posting two other top-five finishes. Crafton could become the first driver since Austin Dillon in 2013 to win one of NASCAR’s three national series championships despite not winning a single race in the season.
Friesen won two races this year — the first two victories of his three-plus season career competing in the truck series. None was bigger than last weekend’s Lucas Oil 150 in Phoenix to secure his spot in the Championship 4. Friesen overcame an early penalty that sent him to the back of the 32-car field to edge past Brandon Jones for the victory that clinched his spot as a final contender at Homestead. Friesen, 36, finished seventh in the truck series in 2018 and 14th in 2017 — his first full season in the series.
Chastain made the championship field after getting a late start to the competition. The 26-year-old switched from earning points in the Xfinity Series to the truck series eight races into the season. He won two of the truck series’ final eight regular-season races — the CarShield 200 in Madison, Illinois, and the Gander RV 150 . in Long Pond, Pennsylvania — and racked up enough points to qualify for the eight-driver playoffs. Chastain had top-10 finishes in five of the six playoff races — including runner-up spots at the World of Westgate 200 in Las Vegas and the NASCAR Hall of Fame 200 in Ridgeway, Virginia — to lock up his chance to compete for his first series title on Friday.
This story was originally published November 14, 2019 at 12:05 PM.
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