The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will be making their official series debut, Friday night, at the Chicagoland Speedway with the running of the Enjoy Illinois Dot Com 225. This is debut week for NASCAR’s truck series. Following their debut in Chicago the series will be making their debut at the Iowa Speedway during Labor Day weekend.
PRE RACE NOTES OF INTEREST
Just because this race is an official series debut event doesn’t mean there aren’t series regulars who have experience racing at the Chicagoland Speedway.
Topping that list is Kyle Busch, driver of the #51 Billy Ballew Motorsports Toyota. Last year Busch swept the Chicagoland NASCAR weekend by winning both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series races there. Commenting on the facility he said “the track doesn’t seem to change very much, it just get cooler and gains grip.”
As usual Kyle Busch will be doing double duty again this weekend. He will be juggling his busy schedule between the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event in Chicago and the Nationwide Series which will be racing in Montreal-Canada. Colin Braun, driver of the #6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford, will also be doing double duty this weekend.
Other drivers, with previous experience at the Chicagoland Speedway, include pre race favorites Ron Hornaday Jr and Mike Skinner. These series veterans have a combined 8 starts, in the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series, at Chicago.
These same two drivers share prominent stats when it comes to the series making official debuts at new venues. Over the years Hornaday has been the winner at nine of these debut tracks while Skinner has performed that deed six times.
Yet another series regular who has a lot prior experience at the Chicagoland Speedway is Stacey Compton. His experience there comes from previous starts in the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series. Compton has logged nearly 1,400 laps at Chicago and compares racing there to the Kentucky Speedway.
THE RACE BREAKDOWN
The Enjoy Illinois Dot Com 225 is comprised of 150 laps/250 miles around the speedway’s 1.5 mile high banked oval.
This is going to be a special weekend for racing fans in Chicago. The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will be sharing the billing with the Indy Racing League who will be racing there on Saturday. The special combination was scheduled for three events during the current racing season.
The race has 40 entries vying for the 36 starting berths.
15 of those entries are on the “go or go home” list meaning they are not guaranteed a starting berth based on their owner’s points rankings and must make the race field based on their qualifying speeds.
The Raybestos Rookie of the Year standings is extremely close going into Friday night’s race. Tayler Malsam, representing Randy Moss Motorsports, has 156 points but it’s only one single point ahead of Johnny Sauter from Curb Motorsports. Still very much in this rookie picture is James Buescher, representing team owner Tom Mitchell, who is only ten points away from the leader.
In the manufacturer’s standings Toyota and Chevrolet are running neck and neck, 111 versus 109 points, based on excellent seasons from drivers Kyle Busch and Ron Hornaday Jr. Ford is third in the standings, at 64 points, followed by Dodge at 46 points.
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