Five things to watch for in Friday's Truck race at Las Vegas
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series on Friday makes the first of two stops this season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Cody Coughlin, GMS Racing, Chevrolet Silverado Jeg's
Russell LaBounty / NKP / Motorsport Images
Here are five things to watch in Friday night’s Stratosphere 200:
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Ben Rhodes earned his first series victory in the standalone race at Las Vegas last season, holding off eventual series champion Christopher Bell with a block on the apron following a late race restart. He’s looking to become just the third driver to win multiple races at Las Vegas – and it hasn’t been done for a decade. Jack Sprague (1996 and 1998) and Mike Skinner (2006 and 2008) are the only drivers with more than one win at Vegas.
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With the Vegas Truck races now both part of race weekends with Cup and Xfinity series races, the opportunity has presented itself for Las Vegas native Kyle Busch to take part. Busch is competing in all three races this weekend, including drive the No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota in Friday night’s race. Busch has competed in one previous Vegas race – he started third and finished ninth in 2001. He has previous won Xfinity and Cup races at the track.
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Brett Moffitt, fresh off giving Hattori Racing Enterprises its first every series win last weekend at Atlanta, will try for two in a row on Friday night. His team is bringing the same No. 16 Toyota they ran last week and he was second-fastest in both of Thursday’s practice sessions. This is Moffitt’s first series start at Las Vegas.
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There have been 11 different winners in the last 11 Truck races at Las Vegas. The streak started with Travis Kvapil’s win in 2007 and carried on through Rhodes’ win last year. Only three drivers entered in Friday’s race have been a part of that streak – Kvapil, Johnny Sauter and Rhodes.
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Following fuel mileage learnings from the Truck race at Atlanta Motor Speedway last weekend, NASCAR updated the stage lengths for Friday night’s race. The stages will now end on Lap 30, Lap 60 and Lap 134.
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