DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – NASCAR announced Monday a new three-race program for the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series which will offer teams a chance to earn up to a half-million dollars in bonus money.
Dubbed the Triple Truck Challenge, the initiative is similar to the Dash 4 Cash series which has been held in recent years in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, to rousing success.
The trifecta of summer races kicks off at Texas Motor Speedway on June 7, travels to Iowa Speedway on June 15 and wraps up under the lights at Gateway Motorsports Park on June 22.
The winner of any one of the three events will pocket a $50,000 bonus from the program. If a driver can win two of the three events, he or she will see their winnings jump to $150,000, and a driver able to sweep all three race wins will pocket a total of $500,000.
“It’s neat in the sense that it’s a little bit different,” said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR’s managing director of racing operations and international development who formerly raced in the Truck Series as a driver himself. “There’s no qualifying ahead of time or any of that. It’s solely focused on the Truck Series drivers — you have to declare driver points in order to participate and then you’ve also got to win. It focuses on winning.”
Johnny Sauter won last year’s summer Truck Series stop at Texas, while Brett Moffitt and Justin Haley captured Truck Series victories at Iowa and Gateway, respectively.
Only drivers who have declared for Truck Series points will be able to enter the Triple Truck Challenge races, a program focused on winning and one that series sponsor Gander Outdoors was involved in the formation of.
“(Gander Outdoors was) very involved in the process; they’ve really been involved a lot (transitioning) from Camping World to the Gander Outdoors brand,” noted Kennedy. “They’re really excited about the Truck Series and what we’re going to bring to the table this year.”
For a series which has gone to the NT-1 spec engine as a way to help cut costs for racers and teams, the Triple Truck Challenge program marks a huge opportunity for series regulars to bolster their programs from a financial standpoint.
“Putting half a million dollars on the line is certainly a big number for any team, let alone a Truck Series team,” said Kennedy. “I think anytime you can shake it up, especially in the summer and especially at stand-alone tracks, it’s big.
“We learned on the Xfinity side that running consecutively really helps build that energy and excitement. You don’t forget about it; it’s fresh on your mind.”
