Points Battle Shuffles with Seven Races to Go

Points Battle Shuffles with Seven Races to Go

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series points battle is just heating up. After leading the series points for seven straight weeks, Timothy Peters fell to with a 19^th-place finish in Iowa. Ty Dillon was able to capitalize on Peters’ stumble with a hard-fought, second-place finish, allowing him to grab the lead with an eight-point cushion.

Four of the top-five drivers in points going into the race including Peters, James Buescher, Parker Kligerman and Justin Lofton were all a part of on-track incidents giving Dillon the opportunity to take sole possession of the series lead for the first time in his short NASCAR national series career. Dillon and Peters were tied for the series points lead after Michigan but Peters remained in first place with a tie-breaker based on a win earlier in the season at Iowa.

Matt Crafton and Justin Lofton swapped positions with Crafton moving into fifth and Lofton falling into seventh. Joey Coulter is sixth. Kligerman is 31 points off the lead with Crafton trailing by 43.

First Win for Brad Keselowski Racing and Ryan Blaney as Duo heads to Kentucky  

Ryan Blaney collected the first win for Brad Keselowski Racing in the team’s 63^rd start last Saturday at Iowa Speedway. It also was the initial victory for Blaney in only three starts in the No. 29 RAM. Blaney became the youngest winner in the truck series at 18 years eight months and 15 days, breaking the record previously held by Kyle Busch (20 years 18 days in 2005). He led 50 laps during the American Ethanol 200 Presented by Hy-Vee at Iowa Speedway.

The High Point, N.C., native is the seventh different first-time winner in the truck series this season which ties the previous record set in 1997 and matched the following year. The record for most different winners was set in 1998 and 2005 with 14 winners. There have been 12 different winners in this season’s first 15 races with only two drivers counting multiple wins.  Could the series break another record?

Blaney heads to the 1.5 mile track of Kentucky Speedway this weekend to pull double-duty. He will kick off his weekend in the No. 29 Ram for BKR in the truck series Kentucky 201 and jump into the No.  22 Dodge for Penske Racing on Saturday afternoon for the Nationwide Kentucky 300. Blaney posted an 11th-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the truck series race and finished 15th at Kentucky earlier this year in the No. 36 Nationwide car for Tommy Baldwin, Jr.

Turner Motorsports Has Their Intermediate Program Figured Out

It’s no secret that James Buescher and the Turner Motorsports camp have dominated at the intermediate tracks this season. Buescher has collected three wins including his first truck series win at Kansas, followed by Kentucky and Chicagoland. Teammate Nelson Piquet Jr. collected the victory at Michigan International Speedway, which marked his first series win in 42 attempts. In eight intermediate events this season, the Turner Motorsports camp has collected half of those wins.

Returning to Kentucky Speedway this weekend, Buescher undoubtedly will be gunning for the "sweep." Piquet holds the highest average finishing position (4.2) for the program if you remove tracks where he has been involved in an accident. Buescher holds a 6.3 average finish overall on all intermediate tracks.

New series points leader, Ty Dillon holds a 6.8 average finish on intermediate tracks this season. Dillon finished third back at Kentucky in June after qualifying fourth.