(Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)
LONG POND, Pa. — Nick Sanchez is trying to point his way into the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoffs. Though he’s just two points above the cutline, he isn’t changing his mindset.
“Stage points are key, but other than that, nothing really changes,” Sanchez told The Podium Finish at Pocono Raceway on Friday. “We’re racing our own race. We’re not worried about any [other playoff contenders]. I think that’s a good thing because we know where we are as a team and we know we have the speed as fast as any other truck every single week.”
Sanchez, a 22-year-old from Miami, Florida, is in his first season with Rev Racing in the Truck Series after winning the ARCA championship with the organization last season. In 14 races, Sanchez has seven top 10s and is among four drivers in a hornet’s nest for the final three playoff spots. Sanchez is ninth in points, three points below Matt DiBenedetto for eighth and one point above Matt Crafton for 10th. Stewart Friesen sits just one point behind Crafton outside the cutline.
While Sanchez hasn’t locked himself into the playoffs, he’s contended for victories. At Texas Motor Speedway in April, Sanchez dominated and led 168 laps before getting caught up in a crash during NASCAR Overtime. He led laps at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway in the spring, as well as 37 circuits last month at Nashville Superspeedway.
But that hasn’t resulted in a victory.
“I think my whole career, all the ARCA wins that I’ve gotten, I’ve kind of gotten [them from a] last lap pass, last restart — I was never the fastest car. Here, I’m learning — a lot of times when I lose those races, I am the fastest car and lead all the laps,” Sanchez said. “It’s kind of roles reversed. I’ve kind of had to learn how to put together a race from start to finish up front. There’s a lot of different things that I’m getting used to here. Even pit stops. Every week I’m still getting better at those, stages, point strategy — all these different things I really didn’t have to worry about last year.
“Our bad days are no longer wrecking, 20th, 15th. Our bad days are eighth, ninth, even in Nashville third,” Sanchez said. “I’m learning how to finish races, come back from adversity and still rally to a top 10. I don’t take pride in a top 10 — I want to win, but I feel like [eighth or ninth] is now our bottom-end result. I think that’s good for this team because we could look back on the weekend and say, yeah, we all want to win, but we’re disappointed with an eighth or ninth. I think that just shows where we’re at.”
(Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)
Rev Racing came into the truck series as Kyle Busch Motorsports made the switch to Chevrolet in light of team owner Kyle Busch moving to Richard Childress Racing from Joe Gibbs Racing. Rev is closely aligned with KBM as Sanchez is in the team’s equipment.
With Busch leading competition meetings between the organization, it’s something that Sanchez has viewed as an advantage.
“Kyle [Busch] is still a very good mentor to me, helps answer a lot of my questions and a lot of the little nuances that I don’t know yet,” Sanchez said. “I’ve been leaning on him a bunch for that. We’re very embedded over there and I think it shows on the speed charts every week.”
Including his two trucks, Busch said he thinks Sanchez has been the fastest and most impressive among the alliance in 2023.
“Sanchez has done a great job. I think he’s probably shown the most speed in our stuff this year,” Busch said at Pocono on Friday. “They dominated [Texas] and just didn’t quite have enough there toward the end when they all got side-by-side and started side-drafting each other. It’s just a matter of execution and being able to do it. Those truck races are really tough. I kind of think the trucks are more competitive than the Xfinity Series at times just with the amount of trucks and the driver talent pool being so close, so equal. It really puts on for some strong races. Guys have to really be on top of their game the whole race.”
Two races remain in the Truck Series regular-season — Pocono Raceway on Saturday and Richmond Raceway on July 29. Sanchez has turned laps at Pocono in two previous ARCA races, but he’s yet to race in Richmond.
Sanchez is excited about the challenge of learning a new racetrack, but he’ll have to survive a sprint at Pocono. Saturday’s CRC Brakleen 150 is just 60 laps around the 2.5-mile triangle tucked in the mountains of Northeast Pennsylvania. He said it’ll be important to run up front all day to try and gain ground on some of his bubble competitors.
(Photo: Aaron Brink | The Podium Finish)
“I know it’s not going to be easy with some of the guys in the field, but I think you got to have track position,” Sanchez said. “Hopefully, there’s not nearly as many cautions as there were last year, but you just have to be up front.
“If everyone flips the stage, I’m gonna stay up for stage points. Obviously, in that position, I could be leading and I come out 10th or 11th, and I’m fine with that. So, in that regard, I know I’m probably going to be behind the strategy sometimes even if I’m leading or running in the top three.”
Should he make the playoffs, Sanchez views the team as championship-caliber. They just can’t beat themselves.
“I think once the points reset, I think everything should fall into place a little bit more,” Sanchez said. “I’ve done a lot to get us behind in points … boatloads of points left out there and possible wins, too. I think when it all resets, I want to go to Phoenix with a chance to win the championship.”
Sanchez will have the best seat in the house — the pole for Saturday’s CRC Brakleen 150. The race is set for 12 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
