Five drivers to watch in NASCAR Craftsman Trucks race Saturday at Kansas Speedway
Three previous winners of NASCAR Craftsman Trucks races are entered in the Heart Of America 200 at Kansas Speedway on Saturday night.
Matt Crafton is a three-time winner at the track in Kansas City, Kan. Christian Eckes is the current series points leader and he won last fall’s race at Kansas Speedway. Grant Enfinger won last spring’s race here.
Here’s a bit more about each of those three drivers, plus two others to watch this weekend:
Christian Eckes, No 19 Chevrolet
Eckes, 23, has won at Bristol and Martinsville this season and owns seven career wins in the series. In eight trucks starts at Kansas, he has one win, four top-five finishes and six top 10s. Eckes also won the 2019 season-ending ARCA race at Kansas en route to the series championship for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing.
Matt Crafton, No 88 Ford
The three-time truck series champion owns a vast majority of trucks records at Kansas Speedway, including 27 starts, three wins; seven top-fives; 14 top-10s; 4,148 laps; and fastest time of 139.857 mph in 2015. Crafton, 47, finished 11th in the 2023 spring Kansas race for ThorSport. His most recent Kansas win was in the spring of 2020.
Grant Enfinger, No. 9 Chevrolet
Enfinger, 29, has yet to crack the top five this season, but he’s the defending champion in this race and always seems to be in the picture at Kansas. In 11 starts here, he has one win, six top-fives and eight top-10s. Enfinger was the hard-luck loser of the trucks playoffs last year, losing the championship by 1 point to Ben Rhodes.
Brett Moffitt, No. 16 Toyota
Moffitt, the 2018 trucks series champion, will make his season debut for Tricon Garage as part of a part-time schedule. Moffitt, 31, has made 93 career trucks series starts and has posted 13 victories, including the fall 2020 race at Kansas. Moffitt, of Grimes, Iowa, also has recorded 40 top-fives and 54 top-10s with more than 1,230 laps led in his career.
Connor Mosack, No. 7 Chevrolet
Mosack, one of the most versatile drivers in the sport, will make his 2024 debut for Spire Motorsports at Kansas Speedway. In 2023, Mosack competed in six ARCA races and averaged a 3.5 finish, including a win last September in Kansas. Mosack, 24, has made 24 career Xfinity Series appearances. Mosack finished 19th at Las Vegas in his lone trucks series start of 2024.
