The 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season was a wild one for the No. 16 driver, Ryan Truex, the brother of the 2017 Cup Series Champion. Like others, he was involved in an unfortunate Lap 1 accident at Daytona which ended his season opener very early.
It was not until Martinsville where Truex would earn his first top 10 of the season. He continued his consistency in the top 10 by finishing sixth at Kansas, fourth at Charlotte, 10th at Dover, fourth at Fort Worth and seventh at Gateway. But, the following week at Iowa, Truex was out of the race on Lap 166 due to overheating and wound up finishing 20th. It did not get better a week later at Kentucky, when the Mayetta, New Jersey driver was involved in a crash that relegated him to a 23rd place finish.
With the exception of Eldora and Bristol, Truex started to finish inside the top 10 again starting at Pocono, where he finished third. Chicago was home to the cutoff race for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Truex needed to get enough points in order to make himself Playoff eligible. The day started off great for him as he started on the pole. He even won Stage 1 and finished eighth in Stage 2.
When the night was done and over with, the scoring pylon showed the 25-year-old finished fourth. Unfortunately, it was not enough for Truex as he would miss the Playoffs by a tiebreaker.
The Playoff races were rocky for Truex. He would finish inside the top five only twice (Loudon, Homestead). At Talladega, he was collected in a crash on Lap 19 and went on to finish 28th. Martinsville saw him finishing 13th with a 19th at Phoenix after another crash. Although, at the season finale, he ended the season on a high note by starting sixth and finishing fourth.
2017 saw Truex capture eight top fives and 13 top 10 finishes and lead 115 laps. He had an 8.9 average start and an average finish of 11.4, along with five DNF’s and two poles at Chicago and Las Vegas.
For more on Truex’s racing career, you can follow him on Twitter @Ryan_Truex and on Instagram @Ryan_Truex.
