Truck playoff race coming down to wire as drivers ready for Friday show at Pocono

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series returns to competition after a week break, with only three races remaining to set the 2024 10-driver playoff field.

McAnally-Hilgemann Racing driver Christian Eckes shows up at Pocono Raceway for Friday‘s CRC Brakleen 175 (5:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) fresh off one of the most dominating performances of the season. The three-race winner went wire-to-wire to win the most recent Truck Series race two weeks ago at Nashville Superspeedway.

There are four drivers with guaranteed playoff positions — four-race winner Corey Heim, three-race winner Christian Eckes, two-race winner Nick Sanchez and a first-time series‘ winner, Rajah Caruth. Ty Majeski is fifth in the playoff standings with a healthy 144-point edge on the cutoff line. Tyler Ankrum, Taylor Gray, reigning series champ Ben Rhodes, Grant Enfinger and Tanner Gray are currently above the playoff elimination line.

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Tanner Gray holds only a slim 14-point advantage on Daniel Dye and a 17-point advantage on veteran Stewart Friesen in that final position. Three-time series champion Matt Crafton is 54 points behind Gray.

NASCAR Cup Series‘ champion Kyle Busch earned his third Pocono Truck Series win last year. There are no former winners entered this week. Heim, who has won three races just since May, finished runner-up to Busch last summer and was fourth in his debut at the “Tricky Triangle” in 2022.

A pair of Cup Series drivers are on the Pocono entry list. Ross Chastain will run the No. 45 Neice Motorsports Chevrolet and former Truck Series champion Zane Smith will drive the No. 91 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet.

Heim, Taylor Gray and Dye will all pull double-duty competing in both the trucks and Xfinity Series races at Pocono.

Practice for the CRC Brakleen 175 is Friday at 2 p.m. ET followed immediately by Cometic Gasket pole qualifying at 2:30 p.m. ET. Both sessions will be televised live on FS2.