The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will take on the track often referred to as the “tricky triangle”, but better known as the Pocono Raceway, for Saturday’s running of Good Sam RV Emergency Road Service 125. This NASCAR style tailgate party is bound to please any fan who loves trucks on a race track. That’s something we’ve all come to expect from this series since its inception back in 1995 and, year after year, it’s never let us down.
THE STORY BREAKDOWN
[media-credit name=”Kyle Ocker” align=”alignright” width=”253″]
[/media-credit]At the half way point of their season, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will be bringing a very tight, but highly entertaining, championship points battle to Pocono this weekend. Despite a recent bout of bad racing luck, Johnny Sauter continues to remain on top of the standings but only holds a four point advantage over Austin Dillon. James Buescher, Timothy Peters who won last weekend’s race at the Lucas Oil Raceway and Cole Whitt complete the top five in the points standings this week. Going into Saturday night’s Pocono race, there are only 29 points separating these five drivers.
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A totally separate series’ points battle features the likes of Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick both, of whom, will be in the starting line for the Pocono race. These two owner/drivers are busy competing for the coveted truck series owner’s championship. Kevin Harvick Inc won the title at the conclusion of the 2009 season while Kyle Busch Motorsports won the championship last year. Going into the Pocono race Busch currently holds a 33 point advantage over Harvick who has trimmed 56 points off of that lead over the course of the last three races.
Busch will be driving his #18 CocoVia.Com Toyota Tundra this Saturday. It’s the Kyle Busch Motorsports chassis #4 which has won seven races in its last ten starts. Harvick will also be bringing a winning truck to Pocono as well. It’s the #2 Ollie’s Bargain Outlet Chevrolet that won last year’s race with driver Elliot Sadler behind the wheel.
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NASCAR veteran Mark Martin will also be in Saturday’s race making his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start since 2007. He will be driving the #32 Turner Motorsports Chevrolet with sponsorship from Exide Batteries. Martin certainly knows how to get the job done in NASCAR’s truck series. Since 1996 he’s made 23 series’ starts and has collected seven wins, 16 top five finishes, 19 top ten finishes and set fast time in qualifying three times. He’s also led 830 laps while compiling an average start ratio of 7.2 along with an average finish ratio of 7.1.
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However Mark Martin is not the oldest driver that’s going to be in the field for Saturday’s race. That honor belongs to NASCAR racing veteran James Hylton who will be turning 77 years young on August 26th. This ageless wonder will be making his official NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut at Pocono driving the #75 Chevrolet owned by Norm Benning.
Believe it or not, Hylton will be doing double duty at Pocono on Saturday. He’s a regular with the ARCA Racing Series, presented by Menards, where he’s currently 12th in the series’ points standings. He will be driving his Hylton Motorsports Ford in the Pennsylvania 125 ARCA event and then will climb into the Chevrolet truck for his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut. Whoever coined the phrase “you’re as young as you feel” certainly must have been thinking about James Hylton.
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Series crew chief Chad Kendrick will be allowed to perform his normal duties as usual at Pocono this Saturday pending an appeal of his suspension announced by NASCAR officials last Wednesday. The #23 Gun Broker.Com/Joe DeNette Motorsports Chevrolet driven by Jason White failed an opening day inspection, prior to last weekend’s truck race at the Lucas Oil Raceway, when NASCAR Tech officials discovered a problem with the installation of the truck’s fuel cell. Specifically the problem centered around the location of the fuel cell’s top rack.
Kendrick was fined $2,500 and placed on suspension from all NASCAR events until September 7th. The length of that suspension covers the next four series races. The crew chief was also placed on probation until December 31st. In a prepared statement, Kendrick said “I respect NASCAR for keeping a level playing field for all competitors. However, I don’t feel like the fuel cell in question was an illegal part. My history in this sport should indicate that there was no intent to deceive NASCAR;s rule book. I feel like the penalty handed down by NASCAR was extensive for this particular violation and hope that the Appeal Board will consider our case due to the evidence we hope to present.”
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THE RACE BREAKDOWN
The Good Sam RV Emergency Road Service 125 is 50 laps/125 miles around the the Pocono Raceway’s mammoth three turn triangle shaped track that is virtually flat all the way around.
The race has 29 entries for an event that can accommodate up to 36 race trucks. That means all entries will be able to start the race and the traditional go or go home qualifying procedure, based on owner’s points standings, will not apply for this event.
Weather could be a major concern for Saturday’s race. The Long Pond-Pennsylvania area forecast is calling for a 40 percent chance of rain and thunderstorms.
The Good Sam RV Emergency Road Service 125 will be broadcast live by the SPEED Channel beginning with the “Set Up” show at 1230 pm eastern time.
