Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series 2020 season in review

The 2020 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series season kicked off at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 14 with the NextEra Energy Resources 250. Grant Enfinger led a race-high 41 of 100 laps around the 2.5-mile track in Daytona Beach, Florida, becoming the first driver to not only wave a checkered flag but also lock himself in the 2020 NASCAR Playoffs, which would begin 19 races later. Enfinger beat Jordan Anderson to the finish line by .010 seconds.

Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch won his seventh consecutive race in one of his Kyle Busch Motorsports trucks at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Feb. 21. His dominant 5.958-second margin of victory sparked the $100,000 bounty offered to any full-time Cup Series driver who could beat Busch in a Gander Truck Series race. The COVID-19 pause, which lasted more than two months, postponed the bounty, but it came to fruition when the series returned at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 26. Chase Elliott beat Busch by .627 seconds to capture the prize, ultimately donated to coronavirus relief.

Unbeknownst at the time, this season’s Gander Truck Series champion, Sheldon Creed, won his first-ever race on July 11, 2020 at Kentucky Speedway. The victory came on his 37th career start. It was a rain-shortened event, completing just 71 laps of the 150-lapper. There was a three-wide restart on Lap 52 that saw Creed make a bold move around Ben Rhodes and rookie Zane Smith to ultimately wind up out front at an unexpectedly perfect time. Creed went on to win four more races in 2020, including the season finale for the championship.

After claiming the 2019 Gander Truck Series title without a single trip to Victory Lane, then-reigning champion Matt Crafton snapped his 67-race winless streak at Kansas Speedway on July 25, 2020. His last triumph was in 2017 at Eldora Speedway. Crafton has three championships under his belt, along with 15 career wins. He finished fifth in the final 2020 standings after failing to qualify for the Championship 4 and missing out on the chance to defend his title.

Zane Smith captured his first of two wins in 2020 at Michigan International Speedway on Aug. 7. Driving the No. 21 GMS Racing Chevrolet, Smith made a last-lap pass in double overtime, holding off fellow rookie Christian Eckes by .318 seconds to take the checkered flag. That punched Smith’s ticket into the playoff field, which led to an impressive Championship 4 appearance and runner-up finish in the final standings. Smith closed out his first full-time run with Rookie of the Year and Most Popular Driver honors for the series.

Already in the midst of a rather unorthodox season due to COVID-19 precautions and procedures, the Gander Truck Series raced at Darlington Raceway on Sept. 6, 2020. The last time the trucks took on the 1.366-mile track in Darlington, South Carolina, known as “Too Tough to Tame” was 2011. NASCAR had to revise all three national-series schedules due to the ongoing pandemic, prioritizing closer venues for the adapted one-day shows. Ben Rhodes ultimately brought a truck back to Victory Lane there after opting to stay out rather than pit like the leaders just before an overtime restart. Rhodes went from fourth to first.

Driving in a part-time role for GMS Racing in 2020, Sam Mayer celebrated his first career win in the Gander Truck Series at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sept. 17. The race marked the start of the postseason, so Mayer essentially stole an advancement bid from one of the 10 playoff drivers. Mayer beat teammate and 2018 champion Brett Moffitt to the finish line by 4.413 seconds after passing him for the lead on Lap 171 of 200. Mayer, 17, marked the second-youngest driver to record a Gander Truck Series victory.

The Gander Truck Series faced an unexpectedly tough Round of 10 cutoff race due to the COVID-19 schedule revisions. It was originally supposed to be held at Bristol Motor Speedway but moved to Talladega Superspeedway, NASCAR’s longest oval at 2.66 miles. Raphael Lessard earned his first career win after a two-lap shootout ended prematurely with a final-lap crash. Lessard had just taken the lead when the yellow flag out, making him the winner as four playoff contenders were eliminated from the title run. Lessard was not a part of the 10-driver postseason battle that took place on Oct. 3, 2020.

Phoenix Raceway hosted NASCAR’s Championship Weekend for the first time ever in 2020. The Gander Truck Series held its finale at the 1-mile track in Arizona on Nov. 6. The Championship 4 drivers were Sheldon Creed, Grant Enfinger, Brett Moffitt and Zane Smith – whoever had the best finish walked away with the title trophy. The race went into overtime and came down to tires, as leaders Moffitt and Enfinger stayed on the track and Creed pitted to freshen up. Creed restarted ninth but made a four-wide move on the bottom to pass the field and cross the finish line with a .617-second margin of victory. It was Creed’s first career championship, in his second full-time season. Smith finished second to be the season’s runner-up. Moffitt was 10th to place third in the standings. Enfinger’s 13th-place result left him fourth overall.

The Gander Truck Series will be known as the Camping World Truck Series in 2021.