While much of the focus in Victory Lane in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series this season has been on Kyle Busch Motorsports with their four consecutive wins in the most recent four races, what may be overlooked is that Toyota has actually started the season with six straight wins.
ThorSport Racing’s Ben Rhodes opened the season by sweeping the races on the two Daytona configurations. KBM then started their streak, with John Hunter Nemechek winning at Las Vegas, team owner Kyle Busch taking the checkered at Atlanta, Martin Truex Jr. on the dirt at Bristol, and Nemechek once again last weekend at Richmond.
This marks only the fourth time in series history that a manufacturer has started out the season with six or more wins in as many races and is the second time Toyota has done it. Toyota actually owns the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series record for the most consecutive wins to start a season with 10 in 2014.
Dodge and Chevrolet have each had seasons with eight wins to start out – Chevrolet in 1995 and Dodge in 2001.
The record-setting Toyota run in 2014 has one thing in common with the current streak – Kyle Busch. Busch won five of those 10 opening wins in that season.
| Season | Manufacturer | Race Winners | Track |
| 2014 | Toyota | Kyle Busch | Daytona |
| 2014 | Toyota | Matt Crafton | Martinsville |
| 2014 | Toyota | Kyle Busch | Kansas |
| 2014 | Toyota | Kyle Busch | Charlotte |
| 2014 | Toyota | Kyle Busch | Dover |
| 2014 | Toyota | Matt Crafton | Texas |
| 2014 | Toyota | Bubba Wallace | Gateway |
| 2014 | Toyota | Kyle Busch | Kentucky |
| 2014 | Toyota | Erik Jones | Iowa |
| 2014 | Toyota | Bubba Wallace | Eldora |
Looking at the driver standings in the Camping World Truck Series, Toyota drivers hold six of the top seven slots and seven of the top 10 positions. Nemechek and Rhodes are sitting one-two in the standings, while Austin Hill and Matt Crafton are fourth and fifth.
How they’ll line up
Unsurprisingly, based on their performance this season, Toyotas will occupy the top five starting positions for this Saturday’s Wise Power 200 (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The most recent race winner, Kyle Busch Motorsports driver John Hunter Nemechek, will start on the pole with team owner Kyle Busch alongside him on the front row. ThorSport Racing will take up the second row with Ben Rhodes in third and Johnny Sauter starting fourth. Another KBM driver, Chandler Smith, will start fifth.
Todd Gilliland breaks up the Toyota pack by starting sixth in a Front Row Motorsports Ford, followed by Hattori Racing’s Austin Hill in seventh in another Toyota.
The Chevrolets of GMS Racing drivers Sheldon Creed and Zane Smith will start eight and ninth, respectively. And the Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota of Stewart Friesen wraps up the top 10.
Saturday’s front row has seen success on the 1.5-mile track. Nemechek has three starts in the series at Kansas, posting a pair of top-five results. Busch has five series starts there with a pair of wins and three top fives.
