Twenty-four races down and three competitors are still standing – the largest championship contingent entering a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series finale since 2003.
The title is 21-year-old Austin Dillon’s to control. He holds a 20-point advantage over Johnny Sauter and leads James Buescher by 28. Ron Hornaday Jr. is 48 points behind and will be eliminated when Dillon takes the green flag in South Florida.
Dillon guarantees himself his first championship by finishing 16th or better; or 17th or better with at least one lap led; or 18th or better with the most laps led in Friday night’s Ford 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Dillon – or Buescher, also 21 – would become the youngest champion in the series’ 17 seasons. Travis Kvapil, winner of the 2003 championship in a four-way, final-race battle with Brendan Gaughan, Ted Musgrave and Dennis Setzer, was 27 years old.
The grandson of Richard Childress, Dillon would be the second champion to sit in RCR’s black No. 3 Chevrolet. Skinner became the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series’ first titleholder in 1995, edging Joe Ruttman by 127 points.
Here’s what the contenders are saying:
• Dillon, who would become the first to win a championship and rookie of the year in consecutive seasons: “The pressure isn’t too bad, actually. I know we have a great truck and I have a very capable team. We know we are capable of doing what we need to do there.”
• Sauter, 10 times the points leader: “All you can ask for is a shot and I’m privileged right now. That’s the coolest thing about racing. You never know how it’s going to turn out.”
• Buescher, who has battled back from his failure to qualify for the season’s second race: “We’re going with one goal, which is to win the race. We know we have to get the most points we can in order to have a chance to win the championship.”
• Hornaday, who will make his final start for Kevin Harvick, Inc., where he won championships in 2007 and 2009: “It would be really great for us to … give Kevin and DeLana one last trip to Victory Lane.” Hornaday won in Miami in 2002.
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