The NASCAR Gander RV and Outdoors Truck Series headed out west this past weekend for their first of two races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. To no one’s surprise, the all-time series wins leader, Kyle Busch, dominated the race and won his seventh consecutive Truck Series race.
However, it wasn’t all that easy for Busch as he did have some challengers throughout the race who, if the opportunity presented itself, could beat Busch in the end. But the Las Vegas native was unbeatable Friday night and went to victory lane. For the rest of the field, some flew under the radar and had a great run, while others had a difficult night at the 1.5-mile speedway.
Here are this week’s Power Rankings following the Strat 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
- Austin Hill – Hill followed up a strong run at Daytona with another solid finish Friday night at Vegas. The Georgia native started sixth, ran top five for most of the night and ended up passing Matt Crafton for third coming to the checkered flag. He was penalized after a pit stop but still rebounded for his ninth career top-five finish. Hill was able to place fifth in Stage 1.
Previous Week Ranking – Second - Johnny Sauter – Sauter had one of the best races in his career at Vegas Friday night. The ThorSport driver qualified on the pole and was never really out of contention. Sauter only led seven laps early but that doesn’t show how well his truck ran all night. Despite not leading a lot of laps, the Wisconsin native finished third and 10th in both stages, respectively. It was almost a flawless race for Sauter but he fought handling issues as well. Still, Sauter found himself with a shot to win late as he was trying different lines but ran out of time to catch Busch. All in all, not a bad outing for him as Sauter’s 2020 is off to a good start.
Previous Week Ranking – Third - Sheldon Creed – You could very well say that Creed also had the truck to challenge Busch for the win. There were a couple of restarts that occurred late in the going where Creed battled side-by-side with Busch for several laps before settling into second. The GMS Racing driver had a close moment with race leader Busch as Creed got loose off Turn 4 but he was able to save it and continued racing. However, it cost him a lot of spots and eventually a great finish. Creed was relegated to a 10th place finish after having a great truck early and qualifying on the outside pole.
Previous Week Ranking – Not Ranked - Todd Gilliland – It was a quiet night for Gilliland who was in the top three at one point in the race. However, at one point, he almost made contact with Christian Eckes, as Eckes was behind him and got into the wall, which cut his tire down. Gilliland avoided that incident and continued on racing. It wasn’t all that easy for the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports driver as he qualified 25th, but Gilliland made his way up to the front early on. He finished ninth in the second stage before winding up in the seventh position.
Previous Week Ranking – Not Ranked - Matt Crafton- Like Gilliland, Crafton also flew under the radar but showed his potential by competing in the top five and 10. He wasn’t able to place at all in Stage 1 but finished fifth in the second stage. Crafton had to fight tire management throughout the night which probably prevented him from getting up front to challenge Busch but he still came home with a fourth-place finish. It easily could have been a third-place finish but he was passed by Hill coming to the finish line on the last lap. A nice rebound for Crafton this week after he finished 15th last week at Daytona.
Fell Out
1. Grant Enfinger – Enfinger was caught up in a crash on Lap 89 and received significant damage to the left-front. He did have a great truck early, finishing fourth in the second stage. It was a disappointing night for the Alabaman as he finished 31st after winning Daytona the previous week.
Previous Week Ranking – Second
2. Jordan Anderson – It was a tough outing for Anderson who finished 20th this past weekend at Vegas after so much attention surrounding him about his Daytona finish. While winning most certainly wasn’t the expectation, a top-10 or top-15 would have been. But Anderson finished two laps down in the final running order.
Previous Week Ranking – Fourth
