Charlotte Gander Trucks race could shake up standings

The Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star weekend kicks off Friday night with the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 (8:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race under the lights. And while it’s essentially a “home” race for most of NASCAR’s three major series, it’s actually an away show for the series’ championship leading team, ThorSport Racing, which is based in Ohio. And that’s fine with this group of drivers, who figure that makes a victory this weekend all the more dramatic. RELATED: All-Star weekend schedule ThorSport Racing has certainly been setting the tone of the season with Grant Enfinger leading the championship standings by 13 points over defending series champion Brett Moffitt. Enfinger’s teammate Johnny Sauter is the defending race winner. Another teammate, Matt Crafton, is one of only three multi-time Charlotte race winners – 2008 and 2016. This weekend may well open up the title chase again. Enfinger’s lead over Moffitt is tenuous. Former championship leader Stewart Friesen is only 15 points back and Enfinger’s three teammates – Ben Rhodes (-33 points), Sauter (-35) and Crafton (-42) round out the top six. And Enfinger, who made it to the Championship Four in 2018, acknowledged with a smile that while everyone else may be “excited” to race at Charlotte, he still feels a bit “snake bit” at the track; change in luck this weekend will be welcome. He’s still looking for his first victory of the season despite leading the point standings four different times. “I know everybody else is excited about the race but I’m more excited about just getting through Charlotte and hoping we can just get through this race," Enfinger said smiling. “It seems like the last couple races myself and [crew chief] Jeff Hensley, I just struggled, just missed it a little bit so I say that jokingly, I feel like we’ve got a really good package, we’re bringing our best mile-and-a-half truck here, No. 44. I am really excited about it, but at the same time, in back of my mind, we’ve just run so badly there the last couple of years, so hopefully we can get all that fixed. I’ve got confidence in the guys working on it so hopefully we’re going to be good." Certainly one driver Enfinger and the rest of the field will need to deal with on Friday night is Kyle Busch, who will be making his fifth and final Gander Trucks start of the season. Busch has won all four previous truck races he entered this year and is a record seven-time winner of the Charlotte truck race. In 12 starts, he has finished first or second 10 times. His only finish outside the top-10 is … 11th place (2007).