The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series rolls into Bristol Motor Speedway on Thursday (Sept. 11), and it’s a new opportunity for the 10 drivers currently in the playoffs to lock themselves into the Round of 8.
Of those 10 drivers, none are competing for Rookie of the Year — making the Truck Series the only series of NASCAR’s premier series to not have at least one rookie qualify for the playoffs in 2025.
That means the Rookie of the Year will not automatically be clinched by the rookie that qualifies for the playoffs (a la Shane van Gisbergen in the Cup Series). So we get a natural points battle through Phoenix Raceway for the Rookie of the Year title. Wow, a full season points battle — what a concept.
Anyone who’s watched much of the Truck Series season knows that Gio Ruggiero has been leading the rookie charge pretty much every week — sure, he’ll find trouble and end up crashing out or suffer a poor finish, but most of the time he’s been a top-10, or at worst top-15, driver. In fact, Ruggiero was the rookie class’ best chance at making the playoffs, missing out by just 31 points in the end.
As such, Ruggiero currently leads the Rookie of the Year battle over his five other opponents. But the margin of his lead is nowhere near as much as you’d think. Here I was thinking Ruggiero had a million-point lead (much like his TRICON Garage teammate Corey Heim has a million-point lead in the championship).
Nope. His margin is only 97 points.
The driver trailing him? Connor Mosack.
Somehow, Mosack has managed to keep the No. 17 within reach for the Rookie of the Year title despite having zero top fives to Ruggiero’s four, and two top 10s to Ruggiero’s eight.
It’s no disrespect to Mosack — he has had a great rookie season of his own, sitting 14th in points and riding a current streak of seven straight top 20s.
But in a season where Ruggiero has seemingly been the only rookie consistently putting up results and getting media attention, the fact that he’s only 97 points ahead of Mosack is all the more surprising.
One place where Mosack does have Ruggiero beat is stage points, with Mosack scoring 67 against Ruggiero’s 55. While 12 points isn’t a whole lot, it could mean everything should Ruggiero have some sort of late-season collapse that allows Mosack to take the title.
Ruggiero’s lead over Mosack is equivalent to a little over a race-and-a-half’s worth of points — that’s including winning both stages, the race and the fastest lap to earn a total of 61 points on the weekend. Though with the way the two have performed, 97 feels more like a two- or even three-race gap between the two.
However, as they say, a win can change everything. Both drivers have shown flashes of winning speed this season, even if just once, and all it takes is the right break, the right strategy, the right race to either flip the rookie battle upside down or clinch the title early.
As for the other rookies, Andres Perez is next in line, and he trails Mosack by 43 points and Ruggiero by 140 points, so realistically this is a two-horse race.
But at the same time, all Ruggiero has to do is stay consistent in his performances. He’s finished better than the No. 81 of Mosack 13 times in the 19 races we’ve run so far this season — as mentioned earlier, provided he doesn’t suffer an utter collapse in performance, you could almost start etching his name on the 2025 award now.
But Mosack has a couple aces up his sleeve that could turn the momentum in his favor. Having raced many times in the ARCA Menards Series and zMAX CARS Tour in recent years, the short tracks of Bristol, Martinsville Speedway and even New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Phoenix could see him contend.
Then of course, Talladega Superspeedway is a crapshoot anyone could win, but Mosack was a contender all day in the Truck Series’ race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, qualifying on pole, leading 30 laps and scoring a combined 11 points in the stages despite crashing and finishing 25th in the race.
Then, there’s the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL — which could be Mosack’s best shot at outshining Ruggiero, if not winning the race. Mosack came from a Trans-Am background and has never not been stout on road courses, be it in ARCA, the Truck Series or the Xfinity Series. Mosack finished a disappointing (for his standards) 16th in the first two road-course races at Lime Rock Park and Watkins Glen International, but has experience at the ROVAL in an Xfinity car, which could help him as he pulls Truck/Xfinity double duty that weekend.
So Mosack could be a dark horse to eke out wins in any of the final six races, theoretically. But Ruggiero has shown that he is a quick study and could just as easily outperform Mosack and sneak a win himself over the final six races.
But this is why, when the playoffs start, we shouldn’t stop paying attention to anyone who isn’t fighting for the drivers’ championship. There’s real interesting stuff going on throughout the field, and one bad finish from Ruggiero combined with one good finish for Mosack would make the Rookie of the Year battle incredibly interesting down the stretch despite neither competing for the title.
While we’re on the topic of rookies, let’s take a look at the full 2025 Rookie of the Year standings.
- Gio Ruggiero — 506 points
- Connor Mosack (-97)
- Andres Perez (-140)
- Dawson Sutton (-203)
- Toni Breidinger (-272)
- Frankie Muniz (-299)
(NOTE: Frankie Muniz is currently out with an injury. Meanwhile, Luke Fenhaus’ status as a Rookie of the Year contender has never officially been confirmed, so he has been left off this list.)
Follow @AnthonyDamcott on X.
Anthony Damcott joined Frontstretch in March 2022. Currently, he is an editor and co-authors Fire on Fridays (Fridays); he is also the primary Truck Series reporter/writer and serves as an at-track reporter. He has also assisted with short track content and social media, among other duties he takes/has taken on for the site. In 2025, he became an official member of the National Motorsports Press Association. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight coordinator in his free time.
You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.