NASCAR Truck Series: Round-by-round playoff predictions

Predictions: Round of 8

There is a 13-day break on the schedule between the final round of 10 race and the round of 8 opener.

The NASCAR Truck Series is slated to visit the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Kansas Speedway oval in Kansas City, Kansas for its third race this season and the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Texas Motor Speedway oval in Fort Worth, Texas for its second race of the year.

Then the four-turn, 0.526-mile (0.847-kilometer) Martinsville Speedway oval in Ridgeway, Virginia is set to host the penultimate race weekend for all three NASCAR national series.

I predict that Christian Eckes will break through for his first career win in this round, subsequently advancing him to Championship 4. Eckes won the 2019 ARCA season finale at Kansas Speedway, he led 52 laps en route to a runner-up finish in the first Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway this season, and he took the pole position for the 2019 race at Martinsville Speedway. These three race tracks will be excellent opportunities for the rookie driver.

As a result of Eckes’s win, seven drivers will battle for the remaining three Championship 4 spots throughout the rest of the round. Playoff points will aid those drivers in these three races. Sheldon Creed, Grant Enfinger and Zane Smith are the only three drivers with at least 10 playoff points entering the playoffs.

Austin Hill and Matt Crafton won the two races of the Kansas Speedway Truck Series doubleheader earlier this season. In addition to Eckes, Creed also has an ARCA win at Kansas Speedway. Smith led laps in that doubleheader and won both stages in the second race, and he has led the second-most laps of all Truck Series regulars this year.

Only Crafton has been victorious (twice) at Texas Motor Speedway. He and Todd Gilliland are the only two playoff drivers to lead more than 100 laps there. The SpeedyCash.com 400 could be the wild card race of the round of 8. Also, consider the fact that non-playoff drivers Johnny Sauter and Stewart Friesen have both run well at the track, which could lead to a lost opportunity for a playoff driver to secure a win.

Finally, Martinsville Speedway is set to host the 200-lap NASCAR Hall of Fame 200. Gilliland and Crafton have gone to victory lane there in the Truck Series, and Brett Moffitt won the 2010 ARCA Menards Series East race there. Although Creed has struggled at the track, he has improved his finishing position in each of his three races there.

I predict the four drivers who will make the Championship 4 are Creed, Eckes, Hill and Smith. Crafton, Enfinger, Gilliland and Moffitt will be eliminated from the playoffs after the round of 8.