NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

Winning is important for Round of 6 Truck Chasers, but not vital

Published Nov. 15, 2016 3:18 p.m. ET

Chase Wilhelm

Six NASCAR Camping World Truck Series drivers remain in the championship fight as the Chase Round of 6 is set to begin at Martinsville Speedway.

William Byron, Christopher Bell, Timothy Peters, Matt Crafton, Ben Kennedy and Johnny Sauter are the drivers still in the hunt heading into Saturday’s Texas Roadhouse 200 (1 p.m. ET, FS1).

Although winning to automatically advance to the championship round at Homestead-Miami Speedway is important, it’s not the end-all-be-all for drivers.

For Peters, consistency has paid off for his No. 17 Red Horse Racing team, a trend he hopes will continue at Martinsville.

“We worked hard as a team all year long and we feel like consistency helped us get to this point, Being at home, I put a lot of extra pressure on myself to do well, said Peters, a native of Virginia and winner of the second Chase race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “In the past we’ve always had a lot of success here. If we can’t get the win, our main goal is try to get a good top-five finish, stay consistent and hopefully that win is right around the corner. We have to be really consistent with top threes I feel like to point our way through to Homestead if we can’t win.”

Rookie Kyle Busch Motorsports driver Byron kicked off the Chase with a win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Since then, he’s had this race circled on the calendar.

“We’ve been waiting for this since New Hampshire. We’re looking forward to it,” Byron said. “Hopefully we start this round off strong and hopefully with a win. If we can’t do that, just try to get top threes to get to Homestead. That’s the ultimate goal."

Two-time Truck Series champion Crafton feels like he has a good shot at “The Paperclip” to punch an early ticket to the championship round at Homestead.

“I always look forward to going to Martinsville,” Crafton said. “It’s one of my favorite tracks. We’ve won a couple times here and have always ran good in the past. We were off a bit in the spring, but we feel like we know why.”

But Crafton admitted he doesn’t put much effort into worrying about where he’s positioned in the Chase standings.

“I don’t really pay a whole lot of attention to the Chase,” he added. “I just go race each race like it’s the last race of the season. If you advance, you advance. If you don’t, you don’t.”

And that’s what it all comes down to for each of the six drivers over the next three races.