By: Ashley McCubbin

Nick Sanchez. Kyle Busch. Rajah Caruth. These three drivers can say they have won a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race in 2024, with a fourth name hoping to join the list at Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend.

The trio will be hoping to prevent that from happening as they are all entered into the Weather Guard Truck Race. Each of them has their own argument as to the possibility of making that happen, with one of those seeming more obvious than the others.

• Sanchez has yet to run a truck on the concrete configuration, but placed fourth in the ARCA Menards Series event in 2021.
• Busch has five wins and eight top-five’s in 11 appearances with an average finish of 7.9 making him an obvious favorite.
• Caruth placed sixth last fall at Bristol in the truck series.

Now who are the drivers among the favorites to make it four different winners in four races?

Current points leader Tyler Ankrum as he has not finished worse than 11th this season, highlighted by a runner-up in the most recent event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Unfortunately, he has only scored one top-10 (seventh) in five trips to Bristol.

Bristol’s more recent race winner Corey Heim as it was one of the many victories that helped propel him to a Championship 4 appearance a year ago. You also cannot shake your head at his 2024 season results to date, with a runner-up and pair of thirds.

Grant Enfinger has the best average finish (4.9) of 36 drivers entered into the event, boasting five top-five’s in seven appearances. He also has some momentum as after a pair of results outside the top-15 to kick off 2024, he placed seventh at Las Vegas.

Short track late model ace Ty Majeski, who currently sits second in the series standings with no finishes worse than 15th, including a runner-up at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He won in his inaugural trip to Bristol in 2022, only to back it up with a 19th last season.

Taylor Gray has momentum on his side following back-to-back fourth-place finishes at Atlanta and Las Vegas. He also ran well at Bristol last season with a fifth.

Christian Eckes has the third-best average finish (7.3) of drivers entered into the event, including a runner-up last season after winning the pole. He also rebounded from brake issues at Atlanta to score a sixth at Las Vegas for his second top-10 of 2024.

Matt Crafton has been quietly consistent through three races of the 2024 campaign, with a pair of sevenths alongside a 13th-place finish in Atlanta. Although he has yet to pick up a checkered flag at Bristol, he has scored five top-five’s and 14 top-10’s in 21 appearances.

Jake Garcia could use a top-10 after starting his season with a crash at Daytona, and placing 11th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He has yet to accomplish this feat at Bristol with finishes of 22nd and 11th in his previous appearances.

Defending series champion Ben Rhodes has been hit and miss at Bristol, as evident by six top-10’s and an average finish of 11.8 in nine appearances. It has not been the start to his chase for a third title that he would have expected, with a best result of 11th in three events to rank him 17th in the standings.