An Eye-Popping NASCAR Truck Series Streak Has to End This Week, Right?

• Knoxville, this week's NASCAR Camping World Truck Series stop, is generally considered co-No. 1 with Eldora as this country’s best-known and most compelling dirt track.

• Qualifying for Knoxville will be radically different from other NASCAR series.

• Qualifying will include four 15-lap heat races that pay “qualifying points” based on finish position and how many trucks each driver passes in those 15 laps.

The unofficial odds are good that an unusual winning streak will end this weekend in Knoxville, Iowa. After all, nothing this good lasts forever, right? Or maybe the streak just goes on and on and on for another weekend.

In the past 10 years the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series has run 10 races on dirt tracks in Ohio, Tennessee, and Iowa. Against all odds, there hasn’t been a two-time winner in those 10 races dating to 2013. It is absolutely inevitable that somebody will (as they say) eventually do a “dirt double-dip,” maybe this weekend at Knoxville Raceway.

The Cup Series and Xfinity Series have the weekend off, giving the Truck Series a rare opportunity of having the NASCAR spotlight all to itself. Saturday night’s 150-lap, 75-mile Corn Belt 150 at 9 p.m. ET will be divided into stages that end at 40, 90, and 150 stages.

After a short break, the Cup and Xfinity teams will rejoin the Truck Series next weekend for a three-day show at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway. Knoxville is the seventh in a streak of eight consecutive races that ends next weekend. Teams have already raced at Darlington, Kansas City, Fort Worth, Charlotte, St. Louis, and Sonoma, and will finish the run at Knoxville and Nashville.

Some dirt-tracking background:

NASCAR first sent its Trucks to Eldora Speedway in Ohio in 2013, then sent them again every year through 2019. Those seven winners: Austin Dillon, Bubba Wallace, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Matt Crafton, and Chase Briscoe. Stewart Friesen was the most recent Eldora winner, in 2019.

Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway has hosted two CWTS races on its half-mile, high-banked, paved surface that’s covered once-a-year with trucked-in dirt. Martin Truex Jr. won in 2021 and Ben Rhodes won earlier this year.

Knoxville, generally considered co-No. 1 with Eldora as this country’s best-known and most compelling dirt track, hosted its first Truck Series race last summer, when Austin Hill won. He’s not entered this year, ensuring a new winner. Last year’s inaugural race saw seven different drivers swap the lead 20 times. Chandler Smith led the most laps (71) and Derek Kraus won the first two stages, but Hill emerged as the winner by leading the last 10 laps.

Only three previous CWTS dirt-track winners are entered this weekend: Crafton from 2017 at Eldora; Friesen from 2019 at Eldora; and Rhodes, the 2021 defending Truck Series champion, from this spring at Bristol. He dominated that weekend, leading 95 of 150 laps, for his first dirt victory. He started 18th last year at Knoxville and finished seventh.

Rhodes, a one-race winner, is atop the standings after 12 of this year’s 23 races. Chandler Smith, another one-race winner, is second, followed by three-time winner Zane Smith. One-time winner John Hunter Nemechek and winless Ty Majeski round out the top 5. One-time winner Friesen, Christian Eckes, Carson Hocevar, Grant Enfinger, and Crafton complete the top 10.

Four drivers not running for points have won the other five races: two for Cory Heim and one each for Kyle Busch, William Byron, and Ross Chastain.

Qualifying for Knoxville will be radically different from other NASCAR series. It will include four 15-lap heat races that pay “qualifying points” based on finish position and how many trucks each driver passes in those 15 laps. A random draw will establish the grid for each heat race.

Each driver’s start position for the 150-lap feature will be determined by total qualifying points, i.e., finish position points, plus “passing points.” In case of ties—a very likely possibility—owner points will determine grid positions.

Anybody care to bet on 11-for-11?