By: Ashley McCubbin

It is safe to say the season opener for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series did not go as planned at Daytona International Speedway with a wreck around each turn. That is one of the eager reasons the drivers are excited to turn the page with a trip to Atlanta Motor Speedway, in hopes of putting on a much better show.

Nick Sanchez may have been one of a few leaving Daytona with a smile on his face, courtesy of his first career victory. There is a good chance he can keep the momentum rolling with perhaps another checkered flag as he finished second to Christian Eckes last year. They say once you knock the monkey off, the rest will follow….

Eckes, by the way, is one of the drivers that a lot of people are keeping their eye on after an impressive 2023 campaign which saw him take Bill McAnally-Hillgemann Racing further than expected. He has always been strong at Atlanta in his career, as evident by placing third in his first trip to the Georgia track with Kyle Busch Motorsports. He began the 2024 campaign with a solid 10th at Daytona.

This weekend’s trip to Atlanta is just another reminder of the impact that KBM being out of the series currently has. After all, they had won four of the last seven races at the facility with Christopher Bell, Corey Heim, and the boss Kyle Busch on two occasions himself. Busch will be in the field this weekend, driving for Spire Motorsports, which bought KBM at the end of 2023. With six wins, nine top-five’s, and an average finish of 6.9 across his 13 appearances at Atlanta, it will be a good gauge whether Spire can keep the performance rolling that Busch offered before.

Spire Motorsports, for the record, started off the season with a career-best runner-up for Rajah Caruth, 20th for Corey Lajoie, and 28th for Chase Purdy at Daytona. Caruth and Purdy will be running the full schedule for the team in hopes of improving upon Purdy’s performance that left him outside of the playoffs last season with KBM. Caruth placed 25th last year at Atlanta with GMS Racing, while Purdy was seventh with KBM.

Heim, meanwhile, is in the midst of his second season with TRICOR Motorsports after being one of the drivers in the Championship 4 in 2023. He began his season on a solid note at Daytona with a third-place finish, and will hope to not crash out of the event at Atlanta like he did a year ago.

None of the drivers mentioned, though, enter this weekend as the points leader. Eckes’ teammate Tyler Ankrum snuck out of Daytona atop the standings by a single point over Sanchez when you combined his stage performances with an 11th-place finish. He could use a good run this weekend at Atlanta, considering he has never scored a top-10 with a best finish of 11th in 2022.

Grant Enfinger hopes to repeat his past performance, as he knows what it takes to win a race at Atlanta with having done so in 2020. Although that win came with the now-closed GMS Racing, the same confidence could linger with several of those employees joining him at CR7 Motorsports for 2024. He kicked off the season with a 17th-place finish at Daytona.

Defending Series Champion Ben Rhodes boasts one of the best average finishes at Atlanta of drivers in the field, posting a 6.8 across eight appearances with five top-five finishes – including fifth in 2023. Could this be the year he picks up a checkered flag? He could use it after crashing out of the event at Daytona en route to 30th.

His ThorSport Racing teammate Matt Crafton knows how to get around Atlanta as well, placing ninth in the 2023 edition to make it 12 top-10’s in 22 appearances, including a victory in 2015. However, it is worth noting he has only scored a pair of top-10’s in the last five races at Atlanta. He began the season solidly with a seventh at Daytona.