The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series continues this weekend with the Tyson 250 held at North Carolina’s North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Built in 1947, the track operated from 1949, when NASCAR began, until 1996, when the track closed because ownership was reluctant to make necessary improvements to the facility (and raise ticket and concession prices for fans in what had previously been a wallet friendly venue in order to do so). The track sat in limbo for much of the next 30 years, passed around to no end as various groups tried to raise the funds necessary to save the speedway, it held a few one-off races from lower tiers of American driving, and the owners attempted to find a worthy buyer to no avail.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper took a bet on the speedway as an opportunity to increase tourism to the state in late 2021, signing renovations to the track into the following year’s state budget.
As such, the speedway is back in action for the 2023 NASCAR racing season. The truck series ran there just two times during the first half-century of the speedway’s operation, in 1995 and 1996 as the track began to wind down operations.
Set in the scenic town of North Wilkesboro in the foothills of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, the Speedway is an incredibly short course (coming in at .625 miles, good for a 156.25-mile total for the 250-lap race). The main defining features is an uphill stretch on the back end, making for a racing downhill on the front stretch. The short straightaways (and subsequently quick curves) make it difficult for drivers to build up much speed, and it’ll be interesting to see how top heavy trucks negotiate the terrain.
As of right now, Kyle Larson (who drives for Chevrolet) is the favorite to win the Tyson Cup. Larson is listed at or around +250 to top the podium in the rebooted race, but odds can vary dramatically from sportsbook to sportsbook.
Make sure you shop around before placing what you think is a winning wager so that you can lock in the best possible odds on the best sports betting apps, which come loaded with promotional bets for you to make use of.
It’s been a busy week for Larson, who also competes in the NASCAR Cup Series: one of the most versatile drivers in the sport today, it’s always worth tuning in whenever he’s on the track. Larson only takes part in the Truck Series on a part-time basis, so while he won’t be bringing home a championship on that front this year (he currently sits No. 66 in the standings), the bookies like him in this race for some reason.
That could be because of what happened last week, when Ross Chastain forced him to wreck in the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, taking both drivers out of the race with just six laps to go.
Larson seemed pretty mad about the incident, which comes on the heels of several other races where Chastain forced him or another driver to crash, saying over his team’s radio during the race that Chastain was “a hack.”
The infuriating finish could push him to new heights like his first Truck Series win since 2021.
Chastain will be competing in the event as well, so get ready to see some fireworks if the two end up on the same stretch of track.
Rick Hendricks, who owns Larson’s team, said after the incident that “If you wreck us, you’re going to get it back.”
This comes on the heels of Ford driver Brennan Poole saying that Chastain “probably needs to get his butt whooped” after another crash caused by the surly racer took Poole out of the Würth 400 roughly one fifth of the way into the race.
Chastain made comments alluding to his need to stop crashing into things earlier this week, but whether he legitimately plans to turn over a new leaf (or is just trying to take some of the heat off himself) remains to be seen: luckily, we won’t have to wait long to find out the answer to that pressing question.
While there haven’t been many races at the speedway during the past quarter century (at least not on the NASCAR circuit) the best comparison for the course is, perhaps, the nearby Martinsville Speedway over the border in Virginia, owing to the fact that both courses have short straightaways and narrow turns, although the North Wilkesboro turns have a steeper bank (and the Martinsville straightaways are flatter).
