2018 Stratosphere 200


The 2018 Stratosphere 200 was the third stock car race of the 2018 NASCAR [Camping World Truck Series] season, and the 22nd iteration of the event. The race was held on Friday, March 2 in North [Las Vegas, Nevada] at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a permanent D-shaped oval racetrack. The race took the scheduled 134 laps to complete. In a late race restart, Kyle Busch of Kyle Busch Motorsports was able to hold off a charging Sauter and Moffitt for the last 11 laps to win the race, the 50th NASCAR [Camping World Truck Series] win of his career and the first of the season. To fill out the rest of the podium, Johnny Sauter of GMS Racing and Brett Moffitt of Hattori Racing Enterprises finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively.

Background

Las Vegas Motor Speedway, located in Clark County, Nevada outside the Las Vegas city limits and about 15 miles northeast of the Las Vegas Strip, is a 1,200-acre complex of multiple tracks for motorsports racing. The complex is owned by Speedway Motorsports, Inc., which is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Practice

First practice

The first practice was held on Thursday, March 1 at 5:05 PM EST. Justin Marks of DGR-Crosley would set the fastest time of the session with a 30.313 and an average speed of.

Second and final practice

The second and final practice was held on Thursday, March 1 at 7:05 PM EST. Johnny Sauter of GMS Racing would set the fastest time with a 30.114 and an average speed of.

Qualifying

Qualifying was held on Friday, March 2, at 6:05 PM EST. The qualifying system was a single car, single lap, two round system where in the first round, everyone would set a time to determine positions 13-32. Then, the fastest 12 qualifiers would move on to the second round to determine positions 1-12.

Race results

Stage 1 Laps: 40
Pos.#DriverTeamMakePts
118Noah GragsonKyle Busch MotorsportsToyota10
24Spencer DavisKyle Busch MotorsportsToyota9
351Kyle BuschKyle Busch MotorsportsToyota0
452Stewart FriesenHalmar Friesen RacingChevrolet7
513Myatt SniderThorSport RacingFord6
641Ben RhodesThorSport RacingFord5
721Johnny SauterGMS RacingChevrolet4
816Brett MoffittHattori Racing EnterprisesToyota3
92Cody CoughlinGMS RacingChevrolet2
1088Matt CraftonThorSport RacingFord1

Stage 2 Laps: 40
Pos.#DriverTeamMakePts
152Stewart FriesenHalmar Friesen RacingChevrolet10
213Myatt SniderThorSport RacingFord9
351Kyle BuschKyle Busch MotorsportsToyota0
441Ben RhodesThorSport RacingFord7
516Brett MoffittHattori Racing EnterprisesToyota6
618Noah GragsonKyle Busch MotorsportsToyota5
724Justin HaleyGMS RacingChevrolet4
821Johnny SauterGMS RacingChevrolet3
998Grant EnfingerThorSport RacingFord2
104Spencer DavisKyle Busch MotorsportsToyota1

Stage 3 Laps: 54