It's that time of the year again! After the Worldwide Express 250 at Richmond, the 2023 playoff drivers in the Craftsman Truck Series have been set. The 2023 Truck champion is amongst these 10 drivers. Who will it be?

Starting off from the 10th seed is Matt Crafton, arguably the heavy hitter in this group when it comes to past success. He has the most wins of any active driver and is a 3-time series champion. It still will not be easy for him. Since 2017, he has only won 2 races, the last taking place in 2020. However, Crafton has defied the odds in 2019. Despite being winless, Crafton was able to win his 3rd championship matching Jack Sprague while doing so for second on the most championships. Still, with all that success, he is hungry to match Ron Hornaday Jr. for the most Truck championships with 4. While this season has definitely been a struggle, matching the fewest top 5s since 2003 and the fewest top 10s in 15 races since 2002, Crafton will fight and claw till the end

The 9th seed is the feel-good story of this group, Matt Dibenedetto

Dibenedetto was at one point a full-time Cup driver. For 7 years, he worked on getting opportunities, which peaked in 2020 when he got the chance to race for the Wood Brothers. It would be his only playoff appearance in the NASCAR Cup Series and finished 13th in the standings. At the end of 2021, he would be replaced by Harrison Burton, meaning Dibenedetto had no choice but to go back a tier. Turns out he would have to go to the Truck Series for the first time in his racing career, joining a newly formed Rackley W.A.R Racing team. The organization was a long-time late model team but made the jump to the Trucks in 2021 and had multiple drivers behind the wheel. In 2022, Dibenedetto and the 25 team had a respectable season with 6 top 10s in the regular season. They broke the glass sealing at Talladega when they scored their 1st career win in dramatic fashion. It looked like Matt had finally shown that he could win races, and Rackley W.A.R Racing are now race winners in the Craftsman Truck Series. In 2023, it looked like it would be a disappointing season, but Dibenedetto and crew chief Chad Kendrick got together and hit a solid streak, scoring 6 consecutive top 10s which helped them massively in making this year's playoffs. The 25 truck has already beaten their stats from a year ago, so just like Dibenedetto said in his post race interview at Richmond. Let's see what this team from Tennessee can do.

Then we have the rookie of the playoffs drivers. Starting the playoffs 8th will be Nick Sanchez

Sanchez was the 2022 Arca champion for Rev Racing, short for Revolution Racing. The owner, Max Siegel, has played a key role in drivers' careers. Before founding this organization in 2010, he was the former team president of Dale Earnhardt Incorporated. So he has some experience to build off of running a team. Max has played a key role in getting drivers like Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace, and Daniel Suarez to where they are today. All won races in Cup, and two of the three have won either a Cup or Xfinity championship along the way to this point. Nick Sanchez gave Siegel an Arca championship last year and saw the opportunity with an alliance with Kyle Busch Motorsports to join the Truck ranks full-time. Nick has already shown talent to be a star. He won the pole in the season opener at Daytona and proceeded to get 3 more in the regular season. He has also scored 2 top 5s and 8 top 10s. His highlight this year was Texas. 172 laps were run in that race, Nick led 168 of them but didn't win the race after crashing on the last lap going for it in the end. Experience in the Trucks will definitely be key for the long-term in Nick Sanchez's career, crew chief Danny Stockman Jr. has that experience. He's been around for a long time and has won the Truck championship in 2011 and an Xfinity championship in 2013 with Austin Dillon, who is a Cup driver today. Definitely will be huge for Sanchez's development.

The 7th seed, Ben Rhodes is what everyone has the goal to be, a champion. Rhodes won his first championship in 2021 and is chasing after his 2nd. A lot has changed since he made his Truck debut in 2014. He has been with ThorSport since 2016, driven manufacturers Chevrolet, Toyota, and Ford, driven 4 different numbers which are #32, #41, #27, and now #99, and has worked with 7 crew chiefs. Don't get it twisted it's not that Rhodes is difficult to work with or the crew chiefs couldn't handle it. But some have found different opportunities, and other times it's internal changes inside the organization trying to get everyone better. This is the first time though he had a crew chief change in the middle of the year. With all the changes, Ben Rhodes can adapt quickly. It also helps when you have speed. Last year, at this point, he had a win 5 top 5s and 9 top 10s. Now he has a win 4 top 5s and 10 top 10s with an average finish of 10.9, Last year, he had an average finish of 11.7 average finish for the entire season. Ben Rhodes can be under the radar, but when the pay window is open, he is in contention. When he won the championship in 2021, he won the first two races of that season and never won for the rest of the year. The man could be a dark horse for 2023.

Staying in the ThorSport Racing organization is Ty Majeski  who is seeded 6th

So far, it might be the same song as the second verse for Majeski. Starting the playoffs without a win but showed some promise early in the year. This was the time Ty hit his stride. Last year, at this time, he had 7 top 5s and 10 top 10s. This year, he matched his top 5s and has 11 top 10s.  A manufacturer switch can easily have an adjusting period for a team and driver. Switching from Toyota to Ford in the off-season has not affected Majeski and his team. Now, with the number 98, Majeski is aiming to get back to Phoenix to win a championship. He'll have to not do what he did at Richmond, make a mistake with the fastest truck. He won stage 1 and stage 2 but had to go to the back for speeding on the last caution flag pitstop, however he drove his way all the way back to 2nd and still had a chance to win until being beat on a tire strategy. It's a team sport, and the 98 team still are unified and stand strong together, aiming to get back to the championship 4 with a shot at the big trophy.

Heading in the top 5 now is a driver who has been around for 7 years. The man seeded 5th is Grant Enfinger

2023 has started off better for the 23 team. Enfinger and company have double the top 5s at this time than they did last year. A bonus is they have 2 wins this season when they got their only win last year in the playoffs. The turnaround has a lot of factors, like the crew chief, Jeff Hensley. When Grant was having his best seasons at ThorSport, Jeff was the guy on top of the box. Since they reunited, the 25 races they have put together came with 3 wins, 10 top 5s, and 14 top 10s. Grant has 9 total wins in his career, and 8 of those came with Jeff Hensley. Last year in Cup, Joey Logono had the moto "22 in 22." Could the Truck Series have a situation with 23 in 2023?

Now, for a driver that has had to find a new racing home and possibly have something to prove, it's the 4th seed, Christian Eckes

The 2020s have definitely been a rollercoaster for him. Fresh off the Arca championship in 2019, he got an opportunity of a lifetime being able to race for Kyle Busch Motorsports in his rookie season, which has a lot of expectations. You are expected to win races and fight for a championship almost instantly. Eckes almost won the 2020 Vankor 250 but finished 2nd to the bossman himself. Ultimately, with 7 top 5s and 11 top 10s, Eckes had to go elsewhere to race. In 2021, he got a part-time gig at ThorSport Racing and maximized the most of it by winning at Las Vegas leading a 1-2-3-4 for the organization. That meant so much to him and his career that he was able to be full-time at ThorSport last year. It looked very promising despite being winless. He had gotten close multiple times and finished with a season average finish of 10.9. Compared to 2020, when he got a 12.3, most thought he would return to ThorSport. But he would leave the team in the off-season to join McAnally Hilgermann Racing. Since he has won multiple races in a season for the first time in his career and for the first time, MHR are winners in the Truck Series. Now, with a career season on all fronts, can they possibly get the best trophy at Phoenix?

Next up is the driver who arguably has the most momentum going into his 3rd playoff appearance, 3rd place Carson Hocevar

For the longest time, the question has been asked, "When will Hocevar win?" Now he has done just that. In his 64th start, Carson Hocevar got his 1st win at Texas after only leading one lap, the most important one. It looked like things would only go up for Hocevar, right? Not exactly right away. 2 races later at Martinsville while running in the top 10, he got squeezed 3 wide by Taylor Gray. Carson did not appreciate it at all, so he hung a left, trying to wreck him but failed. Instead, Carson got a 2 lap penalty. This is not the first time Carson has made questionable moves on the racetrack. In the past, when he has had flat tires, he spun out on purpose to cause a caution and wrecked others from either massive mistakes or losing sight of the bigger picture. On the podcast "Door Bumper Clear," Hocevar revealed that after winning Texas, he thought his problems were solved. But after Martinsville, the same issues came back, AL Niece from Niece Motorsports, who Carson drives for has had tough conversations with him about his actions. What MIGHT have possibly been the final key was Dale Jr., who Hocevar looked up to. One day, when Carson visited JR Motorsports, Dale sat him down and said he was better than what he was doing. After that, a switch went off. Carson put together the best stretch of racing in his career. He not did he get 2 top 10s in in his last 4 Xfinity races, Hocevar got to make his Cup debut. He was wheeling a Spire Motorsports car in the top 15 in Gateway until a brake rotor failure ended his day. In the Truck Series since Martinsville, Carson only finished worse than 12th once, that was Kansas when he was in a wreck not of his doing. 2 wins and 6 top 5s in the last 8 races is competing at a very high level. Perhaps with a newfound maturity, he could be a dark horse in the championship 4.

Starting 2nd is a guy aiming to go back to back. Defending series champion Zane Smith.

He is honestly an elite talent. In the short amount of time he has been racing, he's backed that up. It may surprise some that this almost didn't happen. He made his debut in the series for what is now known as Tricon Garage in 2018, getting a top 5. The next step was getting a part-time opportunity at JR Motorsports in 2019, getting to run 10 races. 2 top 5s and 7 top 10s later got him a full-time ride at GMS. He won 2 races, the rookie of the year award, and almost won the championship, coming up just short to Sheldon Creed in 2020. In 2021, while he results took a slight step backward, Smith still got to the Round of 8. Being winless at that moment in a must win situation in the cutoff race at Martinsville, Zane had to drive out of his skin not just to have a shot at the championship but to have a race seat in 2022. That late in the year, Zane had no idea where he was going to be at and his future was hanging by a thread. Many drivers have had amazing chances taken away from a multitude of things, lack of sponsorship, a team downsizing, possibly being at the wrong place at the wrong time, not delivering quick enough and many more reasons. Like many have said however, every race you are applying for a job. Every race you are trying to show sponsors and teams how you can go out on track and deliver strong results. With all of that in mind, Zane won Martinsville and got to the championship finale. In Phoenix, it looked like Smith was going to win the championship, but Ben Rhodes had other ideas. Late in the race, Smith was defenseless  to Rhodes hard charge. For the 2nd year in a row, Smith finished 2nd in the championship, and you could see the dejection clearly. Smith just had no idea if he would ever get this chance again. In the off-season, he made calls and did everything he could, hoping he'd be able to have a ride in 2022. Bob Jenkins of Front Row Motorsports gave Smith that chance. With a new lease on his racing life, Smith instantly won the season opener at Daytona and showed pure speed. So much halfway through the year, he knew for the foreseeable future that he would have a home Front Row Motorsports and Ford in general. Smith already has had a better season once again getting to the championship 4, but that time in his words, "3rd time is the charm."  Zane Smith ended a near perfect championship season with 4 wins, 14 top 5s, and 19 top 10s. If that doesn't show you that he is a great racecar driver, nothing will. Smith, while getting 2 wins this year, has had a little bit of a rough patch this year. Still, he ended the regular season 3rd, not too shabby. Speed is not the issue for the 38 team at all. Don't be surprised now knowing they have what it takes to be champions that they can put together a great run and fight for that championship again.

Last but certainly not least is the 21 year old from Marietta, Georgia. In his first full-time Truck season, he has already shown it with results on the racetrack that he is an amazing talent. After locking up the regular season championship and the 15 playoff points that come with it, he is after the real championship trophy. Driver of the #11 Toyota Tundra for Tricon Garage,

Corey Heim

He made his splash into the Truck Series in 2021 when Kyle Busch signed him. His breakout moment came in 2022, where he won the FR8 208 at Atlanta after making a last lap against Chandler Smith. Corey showed later that year it was no fluke, getting the checkered flag at Gateway from the pole. In the 16 races he ran in 2022, his stats were 2 wins, 6 top 5s, 10 top 10s, and 2 poles. When Kyle Busch announced his departure from Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing, it was clear that Heim would need a new home for 2023. Toyota had Corey under contract, so a deal worked for Corey to race for David Gilliland, Johnny Gray, and many more people aiming to carry the Toyota banner in the Truck Series. They've done just that, Corey has been the definition of consistency and lately dominating before the playoffs. Nobody has led more laps than Corey Heim in 2023, and he has a crushing 13 top 10s this year. The only times he didn't get a top 10 were at Atlanta when he got in a wreck, Bristol dirt when he was struggling, and at Gateway because he wasn't even there due to an illness. If this team can keep doing what they are doing, they can easily make it to Phoenix and win a championship.

After all that, I hope to interact with you. Who do you think will get to the championship 4 in Phoenix? Possibly, who do you think at this moment in time will win it all?