2021 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Race Twenty-Two Phoenix

A bright evening sun bathes half of the track in gold as 36 trucks take the field. Chandler Smith (18) won the pole. Reigning Truck Series Champ Sheldon Creed (2) will start outside pole. Matt Crafton (88), John Hunter ‘JHN’ Nemechek (4), Ben Rhodes (99) and Zane Smith (21) are vying for the 2021 championship. John Hunter’s pre-race comments indicated that NASCAR has told the rest of the field to remain hands-off of the championship four, so the race will likely be boring. The stages are 45-45-60 laps.

Sheldon Creed (2) gets the early lead.

Something happened to JHN. The television broadcast doesn’t provide insight mostly showing views from his windscreen, which shows nothing of interest. He started sixteenth and fell back to 25th.

Nemechek has a flat left front and heads to pit road under green on lap 7 of 150.

Caution on lap 11 of 150 for Lawless Alan (45) tagging the outside wall.

I hope the whole race call on MRN won’t be the John Hunter Nemechek 150 as it has been so far. They’ve occasionally mentioned Sheldon Creed (2) leading the event, but mostly it’s been the trials and travails of JHN.

Restarting on lap 18 of 150 with Sheldon Creed (2) and Chandler Smith (18) on the front row.

Sheldon Creed (2) again gets the early lead.

FS1 is showing only the battle between Chandler Smith (18) and Sheldon Creed (2) for the lead. MRN has only been calling it.

Chandler Smith (18) finally takes the lead on lap 34 of 150. Smith battled Creed for a good 15 laps.

On lap 41 of 150 the lights are on at the track as the sun rapidly sinks toward the horizon falling behind the Estrella mountains.

Chandler Smith wins the stage.

The 17 truck of Taylor Gray is sitting facing the wall after the green and white checker flag flies.

Restarting on lap 53 of 150 with Sheldon Creed (2) and Ben Rhodes (99) at the head of the field.

Sheldon Creed (2) gets the early lead.

FS1 is making th unfortunate choice to use the windscreen shot frequently so it impossible to see the racing action and nauseating to watch the bumpy shot from the windscreen. They’ve also utilized the bumper-cam to similarly unwatchable effect.

Ty Dillon (32) tags the wall on lap 56 of 150 and continues on.

Chandler Smith (18) catches up to leader Sheldon Creed (2) on lap 82 of 150.

Chandler Smith takes the lead on lap 88 of 150 as Creed is trapped behind two lapped trucks, Jordan Anderson (3) and Will Rodgers (34), who are racing side-by-side.

Chandler Smith (18) wins stage two.

Sheldon Creed (2) gets a Camping World bonus of $50,000 and his team wins $25,000 for leading the most laps.

Restarting on lap 99 of 150 with Stewart Friesen (52) and Chandler Smith (18) on the front row.

Sheldon Creed (2) pushes Stewart Friesen (52) ahead of the field then promptly passes Friesen for the lead.

Caution on lap 100 of 150 for Tate Fogleman stopped on pit road.

The quickie caution puts JHN back on the lead lap. It appears the only video FS1 has of JHN getting side-swiped earlier in the race is the windscreen video which is rather useless. MRN mentioned that JHN’s crew-chief Eric Phillips is his uncle. It’s apparently good to be related to a lot of folks in NASCAR. It will get you a great truck regardless of your talent.

Restarting on lap 105 of 150 with Sheldon Creed (2) and Stewart Friesen (52) leading the pack.

Sheldon Creed (2) gets the early lead and MRN has gone back to calling the JHN 150.

On lap 132 of 150 Chandler Smith (18) takes the lead from Sheldon Creed (2).

MRN has switched to calling the Zane Smith (21) Ben Rhodes (99) 150 as they are the two highest placed contenders and are battling each other.

white flag.

Chandler Smith (18) wins the race. Chandler Smith wins Rookie of the Year.

Ben Rhodes (99) is the series champion.

Boring race. Disappointing person named champ.

I am very grateful I did not attend the race. It’s my birthday weekend. I’ve wanted to attend a NASCAR race in a warm locale for my birthday. I was reluctant to attend the Texas race which was traditionally held on my birthday weekend, but the race became so boring.

JHN is whining to MRN that it was somebody else’s fault that he didn’t win, calling the 24 (Jack Wood) a ‘dumbass’ and saying the 02 (Kris Wright) shouldn’t be on the track. He is such an entitled little, whiny brat. If he had been named champion it would’ve been a bigger travesty than the current result.

Sheldon Creed (2) said he’s been called to the NASCAR hauler. He said he told the 3 “if he slid up in front of him again he was going to put him in the wall. When he did, [I] punted him.”

ThorSport wins the owner’s championship.

The best drivers in the series for 2021 were mostly excluded from the final four. Sheldon Creed (2), Stewart Friesen (52), and Zane Smith (21) should each have been in the final four along with John Hunter ‘JHN’ Nemechek (4).

JHN had the fastest truck – a Kyle Busch Motorsports truck – in the field. The speed of the truck and the quality of the crew chief and pit crew yielded the expected wins. Almost anyone with experience should be able to get in a KBM truck and win. John Hunter Nemechek has experience in both the Xfinity and Cup series. So John Hunter Nemechek’s wins were expected and unexceptional. Greg Biffle came back from about five years out of NASCAR, and about 15 years out of the truck series and won a couple of races in a KBM truck. If you have experience you should win. Nemechek did not win a race in the playoffs. He should have. He had a lot of blame for other drivers when he did not win, but at no point did he place blame where it belonged – on himself and his lack of talent and lack of skill and lack of ability to improve on the level needed.

In the end only Zane made the final four. The series is not producing great drivers, nor great racing. It is providing a stepping-stone for kids-with-connections to get their names out there on their pre-cleared path to the Cup series. Drivers with a lot of talent, but without great connections have a much bigger challenge. They not only have to actually learn to drive well in the series, they also have to patch together enough funding to put together a decent truck and battle rules designed to protect the nepotism enabled. The talented, non-connected drivers start out several steps behind and have to catch up faster than reasonable in order to appear to be equal to the sons of NASCAR. To reach that level the talented nobodies have already proven themselves superior to the ‘haves’, yet they continue to have to fight the favortism shown toward the ‘haves’ so they get the best opportunities without regard for actual talent.

Bunny and I agreed that the Truck race was not worth the price of admission. A disappointing end to a lackluster truck season overall.

My Christmas wish for the Truck series is a much better crop of drivers and better racing. I would like them to have better trucks across 40% of the field, and talented, mature, experienced drivers in 80% of the field. I wish for fewer restrictions on how hard they can race and money that allows 60% of the field to become funded enough to be legitimately compeitive for wins at least 75% of the season.

I’m a dreamer. I hope someone in NASCAR – or Marcus Lemonis of Camping World – also value the Truck series and are willing to dream big to improve the series.

Motorsport News:

2021 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Race Twenty-Two Phoenix

Next Race: Daytona

GO 88!!!!