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LOUDON, N.H. — The inaugural Camping World Truck Series Chase is upon us, which means the pressure, nerves and action that come along with it are set to rise to unparalleled levels over the next eight weeks.
So is the tension.
After John Hunter Nemechek and Cole Custer fought, quite literally, to the finish and beyond at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park last month — rguably costing the JR Motorsports his spot in the Chase, as the driver of the No. 8 Chevrolet came away victorious in that one — the consensus is that Custer will find a way to repay the favor to Nemechek at some point during the series’ first playoff season.
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The two-time 2016 winner doesn’t see it that way.
“I wouldn’t say we have a target on our back; we’re all racers,” Nemechek said Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, site of Saturday’s Chase-opening UNOH 175 (1 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). ” … You can’t really worry about it. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. You just kind of have to take it race by race, lap by lap. And we’re going to go out there and focus on our race and do everything we have to do to get another win.”
Custer narrowly missed out on the Chase cut, ending up tied with Cameron Hayley as the first drivers on the wrong side of the standings bubble. Taking that into consideration, along with how the future Stewart-Haas Racing XFINITY Series driver charged at Nemechek following the Mosport checkered flag, it may be a stretch to think that Nemechek won’t be targeted for payback at some point during the Chase.
William Byron didn’t cross too many drivers on his way to notching the top spot for the landmark CWTS Chase, but he did cross plenty of finish lines ahead of them — five, in fact.
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Unlike Nemechek, the Kyle Busch Motorsports driver sees the level of competitiveness rising — potentially along with the tempers.
“I think the competition and intensity is going to ramp up here in the last seven races,” Byron said Friday at the “Magic Mile.” “We’ve seen that in the (Sprint) Cup Series and so now we’re going to be able to experience that here in the Truck Series, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Regardless of whether the threat of payback looms large or not, there’s an incumbent sense of pressure and nerves that comes along with being among the youngest drivers — not to mention title favorites — in the first-ever Chase format for the series.
The nerves haven’t fully crept in yet, but that could change in a hurry.
“We’re going to take it race by race and we’re not going to let the pressure or nerves get to us unless it’s a pressure situation where we have a bad race,” Nemechek said. “We’re going to go out and do what we do best and that’s to run our race, try and lead laps and run up front and hopefully get another win. If you can’t do that, salvage a bad day into a good day. You just can’t make mistakes. You have to make every day the best you possibly can.
In reality, nobody really knows what to expect come Saturday.
“I think a little bit of nerves just with the unexpected of what this format is going to be like for us, but honestly it’s exciting and it’s something new and it’s the new era of the playoff-type format, so I’m looking forward to it,” said Byron.
“It’s something that we’ve been preparing for and I think we’re going to see what happens here in the next seven races.”