CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Playoffs' Round of 8 starts now

Today at 11:59 AM

The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series begins the final three-race Playoff round to set the Championship Four with Friday‘s Love‘s RV Stop 225 at Talladega Superspeedway (4:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Last weekend‘s Kansas winner Corey Heim arrives at the 2.66-mile superspeedway now boasting six wins on the season – double that of any other competitor, The 22-year-old TRICON Garage driver scored the win in the final race of the opening round last week when race leader, ThorSport‘s Ty Majeski ran out of gas on the final lap. Heim finished just ahead of Front Row Motorsports‘ Layne Riggs, who had won the previous two races but is not among the Playoff drivers.

Regular Season Champion , McAnally-Hilgemann‘s Christian Eckes, Majeski and REV Racing‘s Nick Sanchez sit safely atop the cutoff mark entering the first race of this all-important round. Rajah Caruth trails Sanchez by eight points just outside the Playoff bubble with Tyler Ankrum and Grant Enfinger both -11 points and Taylor Gray -15 points back.

Enfinger is the only current Playoff driver with a previous Talladega win, earning his trophy in 2016. Former series champion Johnny Sauter — the 2013 Talladega trophy winner — will be competing this weekend for Hattori Racing Enterprises. Brett Moffitt is the defending race winner.

There have been eight different winners in the last eight Talladega races. Heim, Eckes and Enfinger (2) are the only Playoff drivers to have scored top-five finishes at the big track.

Among those entered this week, William Sawalich (No. 1 TRICON Garage Toyota) and 18-year-old Connor Zilisch (No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet) are hoping to make their first career superspeedway start. And crowd favorite, veteran Norm Benning is hoping to qualify for his first race of the season.

Cometic Gasket Qualifying is set for 1 p.m. ET Friday (FS2). Chase Purdy is the defending polesitter.

— NASCAR News Wire —