Little was decided in the Aug. 25 opener of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs at The Milwaukee Mile, but the race for the title should take on more definition after Thursday night‘s UNOH 200 Presented by Ohio Logistics at Bristol Motor Speedway (8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Non-playoff driver Layne Riggs won at Milwaukee, denying all 10 title contenders the prospect of advancing to the Round of 8 with a victory.
In addition, the two drivers who enter Friday‘s race below the current cut line — defending series champion Ben Rhodes and Rajah Caruth — are well within sight of the positive side of the playoff bubble.
RELATED: Truck playoff standings | Bristol schedule
With the field set to be cut from 10 to eight drivers on Sept. 27 at Kansas, Rhodes and Caruth trail eighth-place Grant Enfinger by two points and four points, respectively.
In three Truck Series starts at Bristol, Caruth has two top 10s to his credit.
“The key to success at Bristol is precision,” Caruth said. “You have to be plugged in and remain aware of everything going on around you. It‘s a super-fun race track, but you are going fast, there‘s a lot of banking, it is tough to see, and things happen very quickly.
“I‘ve raced pretty much everything there, from ARCA to Trucks to Xfinity. Hopefully, we can build off our past runs and punch our ticket to the next round of the playoffs.”
Series leader Christian Eckes (60 points above the current cutoff) won the spring race at Bristol. Fellow playoff driver Corey Heim is the defending winner of the UNOH 200.
Note: Connor Zilisch, who won his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut from the pole last Saturday at Watkins Glen, will make his third Truck start of the season in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.
