Trucks: Three Things to Know after Las Vegas

The second race in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Chase saw a driver not in the Chase win the race. Tyler Reddick cruised to victory, beating teammate Daniel Hemric for Brad Keselowski Racing’s first one-two finish.

The DC Solar 350 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was dominated by Tyler Reddick, a non-Chase driver. Reddick led the race five different times for 70 laps and combined with teammate Daniel Hemric to lead 108 of 146 laps.

Here are the three things you need to know after the second Truck Series Chase race at Las Vegas.

Brad Keselowski Racing had a chance to put Hemric in the next round

The biggest news of the weekend could have been Daniel Hemric going from last place in the Chase to advancing to the Round of 6. But it wasn’t, as his teammate stole the spotlight.

Hindsight is always 20-20, but team orders in this instance probably wouldn’t have worked out. But I am sure like many of us, BKR had to think about it for a second.

If it were Talladega and the drivers were running 1-2, maybe then Reddick would push Hemric to the race win. At Las Vegas though, it is much tougher to make that case. After the last restart, Hemric came within one second of Reddick on a few occasions but couldn’t capitalize on any of the lap traffic Reddick was in.

The best truck won at Las Vegas, it just happened to be the wrong BKR truck that needed the win.

May 6, 2016; Kansas City, KS, USA; NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Matt Crafton (88) leads William Byron (9) during the Toyota Tundra 250 at Kansas Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports /

No legitimate Chase challenger for Byron, yet

Tyler Reddick, Daniel Hemric and Cole Custer all looked strong at Las Vegas. For William Byron, he will take that as only one of those three drivers are in the Truck Series Chase. At times this season, Byron has looked as strong, if not better, than last year’s champion Erik Jones.

The Round of 6 will feature races at Martinsville, Texas and Phoenix. Byron finished third and first at Martinsville and Texas this year. His only start at Phoenix was in 2015 and resulted in a 31st place finish after being involved in a crash on lap six.

This is not to say that veterans Matt Crafton and Johnny Sauter or teammate Christopher Bell or dark horses Ben Kennedy and Timothy Peters can mount a change. Anything can happen in the Chase, we’ve seen that. This is just to say that no one has shown a truck truly capable of challenging Byron when it matters most, yet.

Talladega will be a true wild-card race

Last year a crash on the backstretch resulted in the caution being displayed as the trucks entered turn three. The caution stopped the race while Timothy Peters was the leader, giving him the race victory.

Typically at Talladega you want to wait until the last lap to make your move for the race win so the other drivers can’t build up momentum and retake the lead from you. Can you imagine the battle in the closing laps to be the race leader in case a caution flag comes out?

Seven of the eight drivers in the Round of 8 still haven’t punched their ticket to the next round. Essentially leaving the door wide open for one of the drivers currently above the cutoff line to be left out after Talladega.

This should be fun.

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