NASCAR Truck Series: 2019 season in review

Before the year 2019 comes to an end, let’s take one last look back at what the 2019 NASCAR Truck Series season had to offer.

Just one more day remains in the year 2019, and as the calendar flips to 2020, the focus will shift to the 2020 NASCAR Truck Series season. But before that officially takes place, let’s take one more look at what the 2019 season featured.

If you look at the winners of all 23 races that were contested throughout the nine-month season and you are trying to find the champion, you won’t have any success whatsoever.

That is because, for the first time in the 25-year history of the Truck Series, the champion did not win a single race all year. It was ThorSport Racing’s Matt Crafton who took home the overall trophy without netting a single individual race trophy throughout the nine-month season.

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In the era of the modern playoff format, which rewards wins above all else, this feat was particularly impressive for the three-time champion.

As for the race winners who ultimately came up short of the title, there were plenty. In fact, Crafton was not only the only Championship 4 driver who failed to win a race all season, but he was the only driver who finished in the top six in the championship standings who did not win a race all season. Going one step further, all of the other top five finishers won multiple races.

It was actually Kyle Busch Motorsports team owner Kyle Busch who led the series in wins, as he won five races in five starts.

Among full-time drivers, GMS Racing’s Brett Moffitt, one of the other three Championship 4 drivers, and Hattori Racing Enterprises’ Austin Hill, who actually won the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, led the series with four victories each.

Hill’s first victory of the season at Daytona International Speedway made him a first-time winner, and he was not alone in that category. In fact, series runner-up Ross Chastain, who only declared for Truck Series points halfway through the 16-race regular season, finished the season with three victories, the first three victories of his Truck Series career.

There were four other first-time winners throughout the season. Halmar Friesen Racing’s Stewart Friesen won twice while DGR-Crosley’s Tyler Ankrum, Kyle Busch Motorsports’ Todd Gilliland and Young’s Motorsports’ Spencer Boyd all won one race. Gilliland and Boyd both won playoff races, but neither one qualified for the playoffs.

Ankrum won the Rookie of the Year Award as the only rookie who qualified for the playoffs.

Greg Biffle, who drove in one race for Kyle Busch Motorsports, won what was his first Truck Series start since 2004 at Texas Motor Speedway. Johnny Sauter also won one race.

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The 2020 NASCAR Truck Series season is scheduled to get underway on Friday, February 14 with the NextEra Energy 250, which is set to be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 from Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET. What does the 23-race 2020 season have in store?

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