There's Been More Wrecking Than Chasing In NASCAR's Truck Series Chase So Far

By  Alanis King

The green flag just dropped on the first race of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series' inaugural Chase for the Championship, but there hasn't been much race-paced chasing yet. Drivers hadn't finished two laps before a caution came out, and the yellows kept on coming, oh, a couple of minutes apart.

Caleb Roark came first in the No. 10 truck, as he appeared to be pulling down pit road on the second lap when he pulled down some sand barrels instead.

After a lengthy caution to clean up the spilled sand, MBM Motorsports driver Akinori Ogata drove down into Josh Wise and crumpled both trucks.

Neither of the first two early wrecks involved one of the eight drivers left in contention for the championship, but the third one did. Brake problems turned Daniel Hemric around on lap 25, sending him behind the wall. The most recent "points as they run" graphic shown by FOX puts Hemric in eighth place, 22 points back.

Soon after Hemric's troubles, fellow Chase contender John Hunter Nemechek turned himself around as well. At least he didn't take anyone with him in a wreck this time, since he learned that doing so sometimes ends in a revenge tackle from Cole Custer. These cautions are coming so quickly that it looks like the Fox Sports Twitter accounts got tired of making GIFs for them all.

To be honest, I keep trying to publish this post and then another caution comes out. This time, it was Custer. How fitting with the theme.

Someone remind me again on why a countdown clock for cautions exists in this series? Wait, you're saying we don't need it? Oh, OK. Let's just roll with it then. Roll in a straight line, that is—not into the wall. That'll cause a caution.

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