Setting The Truck Series Championship 4

This weekend, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series heads to Homestead-Miami Speedway for the final race in the Round of 8.

Heading into the Baptist Health 200, only one driver in Ty Majeski can breathe easy after locking himself into the Championship 4 with his first career win at Bristol Motor Speedway. And in a perfect world, ThorSport Racing has the opportunity to put two more of its drivers into the title race, though that might be a little difficult.

Defending champion Ben Rhodes sits just three points above the cut line and in a precarious position to put up a title defense. And if we’re being realistic, Homestead hasn’t exactly been kind to the driver of the No. 99 Toyota in five prior starts.

His lone top 10 came in a 10th-place finish in 2019, though Rhodes holds an average finish of 15.8 with 45 career laps led at the mile-and-a-half track.

Unfortunately, the playoffs haven’t gone all that well for Rhodes, who has a pair of runner-up finishes combined with three results of 13th or worse. He also hasn’t led more than single-digit laps since World Wide Technology Raceway Park in June. That’s not exactly the championship form needed to go back-to-back.

Just behind Rhodes, sitting three points below the cut line, is his teammate Christian Eckes. But their results at Homestead couldn’t be more different.

In just two starts at the track, the driver of the No. 98 Toyota has a pair of top 10s and one top five. He’s also got an average start of third, giving him a history of much-needed track position in such a short race. And while he’s winless this season, Eckes has just one finish outside the top 10 in the playoffs at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (16th). If Eckes can’t win the race, he will definitely need some help in the form of problems for the competition, but his prior results at the track put him in a good position heading into the weekend.

Meanwhile, just two drivers enter this event with a mathematical shot at locking themselves in on points. Chandler Smith and Zane Smith, who sit 30 and 18 points above the cut line, respectively, can control their destinies a little more readily than the rest of the playoff drivers.

Chandler Smith needs to score just 29 points, regardless of who wins the race and where the rest of the playoff drivers finish. But he comes into the weekend with a bit of a handicap because he hasn’t raced at Homestead before. The good news for the driver of the No. 18 Kyle Busch…