Following the Gander Trucks’ return to racing under the lights at Charlotte Motor Speedway two weeks ago to welcome the series back after the break from the COVID-19 pandemic, the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series is back in action this Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway for the Vet Tix Camping World 200 at 1 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio – the fourth race of the season.
Saturday’s event will be the 19th race for the Gander Trucks at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the first being on March 13, 2004. Bobby Hamilton started 12th in the inaugural event in a Dodge and won the race.
The previous 18 series races have produced 11 different Gander Truck pole winners at Atlanta. Ty Dillon holds the record as the youngest at 20 years, 6 months and 4 days old (2012). The Gander Trucks has also produced 13 different race winners at Atlanta, including John Hunter Nemechek who is entered this weekend and holds the record as the youngest series winner at 18 years, 8 months and 16 days old (2016). Four of the last five Gander Truck race winners (Kyle Busch, Brett Moffitt, John Hunter Nemechek and Matt Crafton) are all entered this weekend.
The 2020 season has been a wild one, Grant Enfinger secured the season-opening win at Daytona International Speedway and Kyle Busch returned to the series at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and took home the checkered flag. Then Chase Elliott made his return to the series at Charlotte Motor Speedway, battling for the bounty against Kyle Busch, and won the race.
Matt Crafton, the 2019 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series champion, will make his 19th start at Atlanta, the most of any active driver in the series. He is the only driver to have competed in every race since the inaugural one in 2004.
Behind him is Kyle Busch, who will be back behind the wheel of the No. 51 Toyota, with 11 previous starts. Busch has dominated at Atlanta, winning five of the 18 races run at the track. He’s the only driver to have won back-to-back races (2007-2008) and he won the most recent race last season.
Only five drivers in history have won the race at Atlanta from the pole and twice a driver has won from the 18th starting position.
A Toyota has won the last three years and in total has eight victories. Dodge has the one win from the inaugural race and Chevrolet has nine wins.
In 2018, Moffitt won at Atlanta and went on to win the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Series championship.
Drivers that won for the first time at Atlanta Motor Speedway and won the championship in the same year:
- Bobby Hamilton – 2004
- Todd Bodine – 2006
- Christopher Bell – 2017
- Brett Moffitt – 2018
Quick facts about Atlanta Motor Speedway for the upcoming race:
- The Hampton, Georgia track is 1.54-miles.
- The race length is 200.2 miles, which is 130 laps. There is 24-degree banking in corners and five-degree banking on straightaways. The frontstretch is 2,332 feet and the backstretch is 1,800 feet.
- Ron Hornaday Jr. still holds the race record from March 18, 2005 at 142.424 mph.
- The closest margin of victory was in 2005 at 0.008 seconds and the greatest margin of victory was in 2015 at 8.752 seconds.
- There have been 12 different pole winners, 13 different race winners and 11 different winning truck owners.
- Five of 18 races have been won from the pole.
