NASCAR Truck Series playoff picture after 2018 Lucas Oil 150

Following the Lucas Oil 150 at ISM Raceway, the field for the 2018 NASCAR Truck Series Championship 4 is set. Who will race for the title at Homestead-Miami Speedway?

After GMS Racing teammates Johnny Sauter and Justin Haley won the opening two races of the second of three rounds of the 2018 NASCAR Truck Series playoffs, the round of 6, at Martinsville Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway, respectively, to lock themselves into the Championship 4, Hattori Racing Enterprises’ Brett Moffitt closed out the round of 6 with a victory in the Lucas Oil 150 at ISM Raceway to do the same.

Moffitt won the 150-lap race around the four-turn, 1.022-mile (1.645-kilometer) ISM Raceway oval in Avondale, Arizona after going from third place to the lead on the final restart with only three lap remaining, passing fellow round of 6 drivers Grant Enfinger of ThorSport Racing and Noah Gragson of Kyle Busch Motorsports in the process.

The final two incident-related caution flag periods that led up to the exciting finish of this race both produced restarts that were extremely intense considering the fact that two berths in the Championship 4 remained on the line with just a handful of laps remaining.

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NEMCO Motorsports’ John Hunter Nemechek led the race after he took just two new tires on his final pit stop. Enfinger, who needed to win to advance to the Championship 4 as the laps wound down and fewer points became available with the first two stages in the books and several drivers having been knocked out the race, ran in second place with four new tires.

Gragson, who needed to finish the race at least seven positions ahead of Moffitt to advance to the Championship 4 if Enfinger won it, ran in third with four new tires. Kyle Busch Motorsports’ Harrison Burton ran in fourth while Moffitt ran in fifth.

Nemechek spun out with just 22 laps remaining, putting Enfinger in the lead and bumping Gragson below the Championship 4 cut line despite the fact that he moved up to second place, effectively meaning that Gragson now needed Moffitt, who now ran in fourth, to finish in ninth or lower in order to advance to the Championship 4 assuming Enfinger went on to win the race.

On the ensuing restart, Gragson shot to the lead and pulled away. But DGR-Crosley’s Riley Herbst hit the wall with seven laps remaining, bringing out another caution flag period. Gragson restarted in the lead with Enfinger in second place and Moffitt in third. The three drivers battled hard, but it was ultimately Moffitt who prevailed to lock himself into the Championship 4.

While the race did not result in the victory that Gragson wanted, it did result in him becoming the fourth and final driver to the Championship 4 as opposed to Enfinger because of the fact that it was Moffitt who won the race as opposed to Enfinger. Gragson finished in second place while Enfinger finished in fourth, as Burton managed to tie his career-high finish with a third place finish.

ThorSport Racing’s Matt Crafton, the only other diver aside of Enfinger who absolutely needed to win the race to advance to the Championship 4 as the laps wound down, finished in 11th place and therefore did not advance.

Here is how the NASCAR Truck Series playoff picture looks with only the Championship 4 race remaining on the 2018 schedule.

Rank – Driver, Car, Team, Manufacturer: Points (Behind), Playoff Points (Rank)
1st – Johnny Sauter, #21, GMS Racing, Chevrolet: 4000 (-), 49 (1st)
1st – Brett Moffitt, #16, Hattori Racing Enterprises, Toyota: 4000 (-), 33 (2nd)
1st – Justin Haley, #24, GMS Racing, Chevrolet: 4000 (-), 20 (4th)
1st – Noah Gragson, #18, Kyle Busch Motorsports, Toyota: 4000 (-), 25 (3rd)

The Ford EcoBoost 200, which is the 2018 NASCAR Truck Series Championship 4 race, is scheduled to take place on Friday, November 16. This race is set to be broadcast live from Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida beginning at 8:00 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1, so be sure not to miss it. Who will be crowned 2018 Truck Series champion following this race?