Kroger and Power Stroke Diesel to Storm O’Reilly Raceway Park

Both the Kroger 200 and the Power Stroke Diesel 200 are set to take place at the O’Reilly Raceway Park before the end of the month. The Nationwide Series‘ Kroger 200 is set to take place this Saturday on the 0.686-miletrack. This is something that shouldn’t surprise anybody, as the race has been taking place at the O’Reilly Raceway since 1982.

Last year the action at the Kroger 200 was very exciting. A late caution resulted in a five-lap sprint to the finish where it was anyone’s guess who would be taking home the trophy. Greg Biffle led the pack out of the restart, with Jason Leffler, David Reutimann, Carl Edwards and Ron Hornaday Jr. hot on his tail. A further restart proved to go in Leffler’s favor and by the end of the race it was Jason Leffler who crossed the finish line first. This year Leffler will be back to defend his victory, but he will be going up against the likes of Carl Edwards, the current defending series champion, so it will be difficult to predict who will take the winner’s trophy home from the outset.

With fans barely recovered from the action and excitement of the Kroger 200, competitors from the Craftsman Truck Series’ Power Stroke Diesel 200 will be revving their engines in preparation for their race. This great race is set to provide fans with plenty of action after the exciting race that took place at Kentucky last weekend. At the moment the points battle is red hot with some driver’s having only a one-point advantage over others. The Craftsman Truck Series has been racing at O’Reilly Raceway Park every year since 1995. It’s a tough track and it seems that it is hard to hold onto the winner’s trophy. So far only three drivers have managed to do so on more than one occasion. They are Mike Sinner, Jack Sprague and Ron Hornaday Jr.

The short track will no doubt result in the trucks suffering a lot of damage from each other but this will no doubt only add to the excitement. Johnny Benson, winner of the race at Kentucky last weekend, managed to jump from fourth place to first place in the overall series standings. But he only has a one-point advantage over Matt Crafton who took third place at the last race. The two face stiff competition from Ron Hornaday Jr. who was at the top of the standings with a massive 27-point lead until suffering a bad run at the Kentucky track, which resulted in him finishing in 10th place, pushing him down to third in the standings just five points behind Crafton. The three will be facing Sprint Cup points leader Kyle Busch who is also expected to run in both the Kroger 200 and the Power Stroke Diesel 200.