NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series News & Notes – Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park

NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series

Next Race: TSport 200
The Place: Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park
Track Length: 0.686 Mile Asphalt Oval
The Date: Friday, July 25
The Time: 8 p.m. ET
The Purse: $782,900
TV: FS1, 8 p.m. ET
Radio: NRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 137.2 miles (200 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 60),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 120), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 200)

Where To Watch NASCAR This Weekend:

Friday, July 25

NCTS Practice & Kennametal Pole Qualifying (FS1 at 3 p.m. ET)

NCTS Race: TSport 200 (FS1, NRN, SiriusXM at 8 p.m. ET)

Saturday, July 26

NXS Practice & Kennametal Pole Qualifying (CW App at 1 p.m. ET)

NCS Practice & Busch Light Pole Qualifying (truTV, IMS, SiriusXM at 2:30 p.m. ET)

NXS Race: Pennzoil 250 (CW Network, IMS, SiriusXM at 4:30 p.m. ET)

Sunday, July 27

NCS Race: Brickyard 400 (TNT Sports, IMS, SiriusXM at 2 p.m. ET)

NCS Race: Brickyard 400 – In-Season Challenge Altcast (truTV, IMS, SiriusXM at 2 p.m. ET)

Indianapolis Storylines and Insights:

• This weekend marks the 21st running of a NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (1995-2025).
•  This is the 16th race of the 2025 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series schedule, three races to go until the Playoffs.
• Stages for LOIRP: Lap 60, Lap 120, Lap 200.
• ThorSport got their first win of the season at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in 2024, it was race 15 of the season.
• Seven of 10 Playoff positions are now held by race winners with three to go in the regular season, every driver with a win is locked into the Playoffs.
• There are two short tracks (LOIRP and Richmond) and a road course (Watkins Glen) in the final three races of the regular season.
• Ty Majeski won at both Indianapolis and Richmond in 2024.
• Ty Majeski won the last two races at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.
• The last time Tyler Ankrum finished outside the top-10 on a short track was 2023 (10 short-track races since).
• It will be 27 days between Lime Rock and Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, the longest stretch without a race in the 2025 season.
• There will not be more than one off week between events for the final 10 races of 2025.
• Corey Heim won Stage 2 in the last five races of 2025, the longest streak of all time.
• Stewart Friesen will be making his 200th NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series start this weekend, no driver has ever won in their 200th Truck start with the best result being Brendan Gaughan finishing second at Charlotte in May 2013.
• Tyler Ankrum will make his 150th consecutive NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series start this weekend, the third longest streak among active drivers.
• Corey Heim has held the regular season points lead since the fourth race of 2025.
• Corey Heim can clinch the regular season Championship by scoring 39 points at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, Heim is averaging 46 pts/race in 2025.
• Corey Heim is averaging 46 pts/race in 2025, the most all-time.
• Chandler Smith won the last two races on short-tracks, the only driver to win three straight short-track races was Ron Hornaday Jr. who won five straight in 1997 (Kyle Busch won in three consecutive short-track starts but they spanned four seasons between 2016 and 2019).
• Defending series champion, Ty Majeski, has won the last two consecutive Truck races at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (2023-24). Grant Enfinger (2022) is the only other active driver with a win at LOIRP.
• Ty Majeski currently occupies the 10th and final Playoff transfer spot in the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series driver point standings, up +38 points on Jake Garcia in 11th, and up +65 points on Giovanni Ruggiero in 12th.
• Kaden Honeycutt in eighth (+67) and Grant Enfinger in ninth (+64) hold healthy leads above the Playoff cutline with three races to go.
• Corey Heim has won five of the 15 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races this season, his best finish at Indianapolis is fifth (2022).
• Corey Heim has accumulated 39 Playoff points this season. The all-time most Playoff points a Truck Series driver has earned to take into the Playoffs is 49 by John Hunter Nemechek in 2021.

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Clinch Scenarios Following Lime Rock Park:

Already Clinched:

• The following seven drivers have clinched a spot in the 10-driver postseason field: Corey Heim, Chandler Smith, Layne Riggs, Daniel Hemric, Tyler Ankrum, Stewart Friesen and Rajah Caruth.

Can Clinch Via Win:

The following drivers would clinch on their win alone:

• Kaden Honeycutt, Grant Enfinger, Ty Majeski, Jake Garcia, Giovanni Ruggiero, Ben Rhodes, Tanner Gray, Connor Mosack, Matt Crafton, Andres Perez De Lara, Jack Wood, Matt Mills, Dawson Sutton, Spencer Boyd, Toni Breidinger and Frankie Muniz.

Can Clinch Regular Season Championship:

Additionally, the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Regular Season Championship could be clinched by the following drivers:

• Corey Heim: Would clinch with 39 points.

NASCAR & Indianapolis, Etc.

Historical and Significant Events at Indianapolis Motor Speedway:

• The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was built in 1909 by a partnership of four local businessmen whose primary purpose was to develop a track that would be a testing facility for the growing Indianapolis auto industry (by 1913 the Indianapolis area was the second largest automobile producer in the US).
• A test track required long straightaways and gradual turns to fully test the capabilities of the cars of that time. Carl Fisher a former bicycle racer, car racer and industrialist was the driving force for the project.
• Outside of the city limits at Crawfordsville Road four adjoining tracts of flat farmland totaling 320 acres were for sale. The property was acquired for a total of $72,000.
• Railroad tracks ran past the property directly to downtown Union Station. The track is located in Speedway, a separate self-sufficient municipality within the city of Indianapolis. Formed in 1926 it provides its own town services.
• The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Company was incorporated in March 1909. The original design was for a three mile speedway with a two mile road course through the infield, but the length was changed to 2.5 miles to allow for grandstands. Plans for the infield road course were quietly forgotten.
• Four major events for the opening season in 1909 were scheduled, including balloon (the inaugural event), motorcycle and auto races.
• The track surface was graded then built up with layers of gravel coated with asphaltum oil. The surface quickly proved to be woefully inadequate. Violent crashes and serious injuries led to the cycle event being canceled before the final scheduled day of races. The problems with the track led to the famous resurfacing.
• Carl Fisher immediately canceled all future races. It was decided to resurface the entire track with paving bricks. The work was completed in a remarkable 63 days. Roughly 3,200,000 bricks were utilized in resurfacing the 2.5 miles giving rise to the name that sets the track apart from every other in the world.
• The track has had major resurfacing six times the most recent in 2004. The 1961 resurfacing replaced all but a three foot strip of the original bricks at the start/finish line, “The Yard of Bricks”.
• After four years of inactivity during WWII the track was in total disrepair. The track was resurrected by Terre Haute IN businessman Tony Hulman who purchased the facility from Eddie Rickenbacker for a reported $750,000. Ownership has remained in the Hulman family until November 2019 when Roger Penske bought IMS and the IndyCar series.
• In 2002 Indianapolis was the first track to install a SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) barrier, first tested during the Indianapolis 500 that year. The Speedway and IRL worked with engineers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to develop a ‘soft wall’ that was practical for racing.
• “Yellow Shirts”: In 1948 IMS established its own security staff, featuring dark-blue uniforms and pith helmets. Over time the hot wool uniforms were traded out for short sleeved shirts and dark blue was changed to the very recognizable yellow. Since 1975 the safety patrol at IMS have worn the very recognizable yellow shirts and baseball caps.
• How big is Indy? Indianapolis Motor Speedway covers 560 acres, these eight things that would all fit inside Indianapolis Motor Speedway: Vatican City, Churchill Downs, The White House, Taj Mahal, Liberty Island, The Rose Bowl, Yankee Stadium, Roman Colosseum.
• The Dirt Track at IMS: In 2018 Indianapolis introduced The Dirt Track at IMS with the running of the Driven2SaveLives BC39 presented by NOS Energy Drink. The event made USAC history with an at the time entry of 118 Midget cars. The quarter-mile clay oval is located inside of Turn 3.