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Author: Briar Starr

Newgarden Wins In Indycar Thriller At Texas

Josef Newgarden held off multiple challenges from Alexander Rossi in the final laps of the race and took the victory in the IndyCar Series DXC Technology 600 at Texas Motor Speedway. Newgarden crossed the finish line 0.8164-of-a-second ahead of Rossi and captured his 13th IndyCar Series win and the third this season.

The conclusion of race number nine marks the halfway point of the season and the fast mile-and-a-half oval did not disappoint.

Rahal-Letterman Lanigan Racing driver, Takuma Sato, sat on the pole during Saturday’s afternoon qualification session with a time of 47.074. However, it was Newgarden who started seventh was the victor for the third time this season after holding off a hard charging Alexander Rossi at the end.

“Ah these guys (Pit Crew man, I’m just trying to get it done,” Newgarden said in his post race interview with NBCSN. “How about this Fitzgerald car? It looked good and great to have the Fitzgerald’s here tonight. I knew we had a rocket ship, it was just a matter of getting to the front. We were better in the front, then we were in the back. I knew if we could get in that position, we’d be okay. Team Chevy did a great job for us, just a good day to capitalize on some points. These guys put me in position, so hats off to them.”

After Sato started on the pole, he dominated in the early going stretching the lead out over Scott Dixon and putting a beating on the field. However, everything went on south on the first round of pit stops, as he slid through his pit, hit the pit wall and wound up hitting one of his pit crew members. Sato would receive a stop and go penalty by Indycar officials, which eventually put him two laps down and taking him out of contention for the win. His crew member would have issues with his right wrist, but was later checked in and released from the care center.

With that in mind, Ryan Hunter-Reay secured the lead on lap 72 after the initial round of pit stops.

During the long green flag run, the No. 23 of Charlie Kimball had a right wheel bearing failure on lap 94 that took him out of the race.

In the meantime, on track battles began to heat up between Colton Herta and Alexander Rossi who had a thrilling battle. Hunter-Reay was continuing to stretch his fuel mileage and pitted on lap 113 to began the second round of pit stops.

The race eventually became a fuel mileage race, as Hunter-Reay would have stop two more times and would be needing a few lucky breaks in order to contend for the win at the end. Dixon came out second after the round of stops and was on a three stopper strategy.

By going almost halfway in to the race, the first caution occurred on lap 134 for Honda driver Zach Veach, who had a thrilling spin on the backstretch. Veach was trying all he could to save the car by spinning out, getting back going, but wound up hitting the Turn 3 wall. Due to that incident, Veach suffered a broken toe length that also took him out of the shot at winning.

Under caution, Newgarden, Will Power and Sato all pitted to change the fuel mileage race.

A.J. Foyt Racing driver, Matheus Leist was out of the race early on as he suffered handling problems. Both Foyt Racing drivers, Tony Kanaan would also have a disappointing night by finishing 16th continuing the teams frustration on the 2019 season.

Before the caution, 2019 Indy 500 winner Simon Pagenaud hit a pit equipment during the round of pit stops. He received a warning and will be addressed a fine later in the week for his actions.

Rookie Felix Rosenqvist also was penalized for pit lane speed violation.

This set up a lap 143 restart, which became under review by Indycar officials. No action was taken afterwards.

After the restart, Hunter-Reay was needing to save more fuel as he could not make it to the end without help of caution flag laps.

Despite no action being taken after the restart, it was determined that Tony Kanaan was penalized for jumping the restart and had to serve a drive thru penalty.

On lap 155, Herta and James Hinchcliffe was also under investigation for an on track incident, but officials took no action.

Things started to become interesting as the race went on, as last weeks winner at Detroit, Scott Dixon passed race leader Hunter-Reay on lap 164. It appeared Hunter-Reay would be saving fuel at the time, as Alexander Rossi went on by him and would take the lead from Dixon on lap 175.

Hunter-Reay had to make a pit stop on lap 179, five laps short of his next scheduled pit stop window. While that happened, Dixon and Rossi traded the lead with each other multiple times before pit stops began.

Dixon was able to pass Rossi for the lead once more, as Rossi began to save fuel on this green flag run. On lap 186, Rossi passed Dixon back and pitted on the same lap. Pagenaud also ended up pitting as well.

The time eventually came for race leader Dixon to pit on lap 190 and ended up giving the lead to Newgarden, which cycled out as the new race leader for the first time of the night.

After the pit stops, there was only three cars on the lead lap but the top three including Newgarden would have to pit again.

Power pitted on lap 197 along with Newgarden and Sebastien Bourdais pitted on lap 202. Newgarden would once again be the leader.

Despite having one caution, Hunter-Reay continued to suffer as he still didn’t have enough fuel to make it to the end unless another caution came out late.

His wish was granted on lap 219, as Hinchcliffe would end up crashing on the backstretch to bring out the caution. This saw Hunter-Reay pit while race leader Newgarden stayed out.

A late race restart was seen with 22 to go and the intensity began to pick up. Just three laps later, Colton Herta and Scott Dixon was involved in a crash in Turns 3 and 4. Herta and Dixon would wind not up finishing the race.

Indycar officials did a great job getting the track cleaned up in time and set up a 12 lap dash to the finish.

It was all Newgarden and Rossi who would battle it for the race win at Texas. Rossi was only able to get the side of Newgarden in Turns 1 and 2, but had to back out of the throttle and settle behind him, before making another run at Newgarden. In the end, the Hendersonville, Tennessee native held off Rossi in a thrilling finish to earn his third win of the 2019 NTT Indycar season.

“Yeah, he (Alexander Rossi) was fast,” Newgarden added in his post race interview with NBCSN. “I mean, honestly, you know he ran a great race. Both him and (Scott) Dixon ran a great race there at the end. It was hard to get away at the restart, that was my biggest concern was just getting the jump back going again. He (Alexander Rossi) was good man, he was hard to hold off. He was so good in dirty air. I saw how he good he was earlier in the race behind people. I knew it was going to be tough. You saw the speed I had on the fronstretch to hold him off. Thanks to Team Chevy, so yeah, it was a good day in Texas! I’m glad to finally figure this place out, it’s been a while!

After having a strong car for most of the night, Alexander Rossi came home in second place when the thrilling battle with Newgarden was over with.

“The second lane never came in,” Rossi said in his post race interview with NBCSN. “It’s disappointing, because he was really nowhere and then they called a great race, and he had a fast car. So ultimately, once he had track position, there wasn’t much I could do. I could get halfway around, get to the outside of one, then the front would take off and couldn’t complete the pass. He drove as he should, covered the inside, it was not much I could do. Nonetheless, I think it was a really good day, it was close there with (Scott) Dixon and Colton (Herta). It was good to be able to get through that.”

Graham Rahal had a quiet race, qualified in the ninth position and wounded out the podium finishers.

“Yeah, it was good!,” Rahal excitedly said in his post race interview with NBCSN. “The car was good enough that you could pass. I made a couple of moves in the outside of (Turn) 1. Second lane was starting to come in there in (Turns) 1 and 2. I think overtime, this track is going to get better. When they first repaved it, did the line wash, it definitely hurt the grip. I just think with more races, Cup guys, us, that second lane is going to come in. Our Fleet Cost & Care guys did a great job tonight. The first stop was awesome! We’ve come along ways. We did an amazing job on the fuel mileage and we could go forever. In the end, I am happy. We get a weekend off, guys worked hard and get rewarded just a little bit, it feels pretty good.”

Even though his fuel mileage strategy didn’t quite workout, Ryan Hunter-Reay finished in the fifth position wounding out the top five finishers.

“I thought tonight was the night that we were going to pull in this No. 28 DHL car in to victory lane,” Hunter-Reay said in his post race interview with NBCSN. “Get the cowboy hat and shoot off some guns, but it wasn’t meant to be unfortunately. Just leading that much maybe could have put us in a position to pit a lap or two early and it became a fuel mileage race with the way the yellows fell. So, nothing really went our way again tonight, but we definitely showed we were here and that we were capable of winning. It was unfortunate we couldn’t turn this in to a W because I think it was a night to take advantage of. The car was awesome, but then it got to a point, where I was looking at the fuel map, letting guys go and it was a disaster after that. Big thanks to the guys and we’ll move on to Road America, and hopefully get a win there.”

There were three caution flags for 22 laps and 13 leaders among eight lead changes.

The average speed was 186.084 mph.

With the win, it was Newgarden’s third of the season, his first on a big oval. He led twice for 54 laps to secure the win.

Official Results

1. Josef Newgarden
2. Alexander Rossi
3. Graham Rahal
4. Santino Ferucci (R)
5. Simon Pagenaud
6. Ryan Hunter-Reay
7. Marcus Ericsson (R)
8. Sebastien Bourdias
9. Will Power, One lap down
10. Marco Andretti, One lap down
11. Conor Daly, One lap down
12. Felix Rosenqvist, Two laps down
13. Ed Carpenter, Two laps down
14. Spencer Pigot, Two laps down
15. Takuma Sato, Three laps down
16. Tony Kanaan, Three laps down
17. Scott Dixon, 20 laps down, OUT- Contact
18. Colton Herta, 20 laps down, OUT-Contact
19. James Hinchcliffe, 30 laps down, OUT- Contact
20. Zach Veach, 76 laps down, OUT- Handling
21. Charlie Kimball, 162 laps down, OUT- Mechanical
22. Matheus Lesit, 175 laps down, OUT- Handling

Up Next: The NTT Indycar Series takes a brief hiatus and will return to on-track action for the tenth race of the season at Road America Sunday June 23 on NBC.

June 9, 2019
ThorSport Racing places two drivers in the top five at Texas

The ThorSport Racing team started out strong at Texas Motor Speedway, winning Stages 1 and 2 in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race. But after Johnny Sauter wrecked early on and Ben Rhodes had a transmission failure, only Matt Crafton and Grant Enfinger had a realistic shot of winning the race for the team.

Matt Crafton was the highest of the ThorSport finishers. falling 0.963 seconds short to eventual race winner Greg Biffle. Crafton started 10th and stayed in the top-10 for most of the night.

In Stage 1, Crafton worked his way up to finish fifth in the first stage and eighth in the second stage. He remained relatively quiet in the third stage, avoiding all the wrecks which put him up front for a late race restart with 10 to go, starting on the second row.

Crafton, who has been winless for almost two years, was chasing down Greg Biffle in the closing laps in hopes of snapping his winless streak. However, the No. 88 Menards Ford F-150 would have to wait for another race to break the winless drought.

“Just trying to get to his (Greg Biffle) rear bumper,” Crafton told MRN Radio in his post-race interview. “With four to go, getting down into Turn 1, I just got really tight and didn’t make up the difference. Maybe I should have waited until one to go. It’s just so aero-dependent, track position just sucks. I wanted that 50 grand bad.”

It was Crafton’s six top five of the 2019 season.

His teammate, Grant Enfinger, also finished in the top five by placing his No. 98 in the fourth position. Enfinger finished third and fourth in both stages and led two times for 44 laps.

“We kept getting the raw deal under caution,” Enfinger said describing his race. “I still haven’t figured that out, everyone makes mistakes I guess. I saw a yellow flag come out one of those times and I slowed down, everybody went around us. Just frustration, because we gave them everything we got. Got an incredibly fast Protect The Harvest ThorSport Racing Ford F-150. Definitely capable of winning this race tonight, just didn’t have the track position when we needed it. Don’t know if we could have done anything different. I got into some hairy spots. Got our air taken off, got pushed around a little bit but was able to save the truck and survive a wild night here, but I feel like we really gave away a chance to win.”

The fourth place finish was Enfinger’s fifth top five of the year.

Johnny Sauter won Stage 1 but was caught up in a wreck during Stage 2 which took him out of contention to win. Sauter earned a disappointing 13th place finish after starting on the outside pole.

Ben Rhodes had a pretty similar night winning Stage 2, but a transmission failure plagued the No. 99 Carolina Nut Company Ford F-150 to a 21st place finish.

June 8, 2019
Tyler Ankrum recovers from spin and finishes third at Texas

Just when you thought that the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race couldn’t get any wilder, it did. Tyler Ankrum, the recent high school graduate, went for a wild slide down pit road after a restart Lap 74 but still managed to score a top-five finish at Texas Motor Speedway.

The San Bernardino, California native started the race in the eighth position. While he did not earn any stage points, the No. 17 DGR-Crosley driver was able to avoid all the crashes and the melee that took place throughout the night for a third-place finish.

“I had it sideways because (Stewart) Friesen got off my door and I saw pit road, and I gunned it,” Ankrum said to MRN Radio about his wild pit road slide. “I was like alright, we’ll either hit the grass or pit road, and I thought I had it semi saved and we started heading toward the wall. I thought this was going to hurt. So just slammed on the brake and turned left, pushing the clutch just thinking to myself, this is going to hurt. It eventually stopped, spun back but man, it was a nerve-wracking moment for me. At that point, I thought our night was done because we were coming back from two laps down. We were two laps down again at that point because when you go down pit road at 190 mph, they kind of don’t like that, so they penalize you for that. And also going a lap down because we blew all four tires. It was definitely an eventful night for us.”

Despite finishing in the third position and earning his best career finish since his sixth-place finish at this track earlier in the year, Ankrum doesn’t know if he’ll be racing the next two races.

“We really don’t know for the next two races for money,” Ankrum said. “You know, struggling to find sponsorship, I don’t know if we will or not. Altogether, our season has been escalating tremendously. I felt our No. 17 DGR truck, our No. 17 Railblaza Toyota Tundra could win a race. I think tonight proved it. We led laps and actually passed for the lead, and maintained the lead and maintained a solid gap. I think this DGR-Crosley team could do it, but it’s going to take a lot of resources to do it to pull it together. I think going forward, we can do it.”

It was a memorable night for Ankrum who graduated high school on stage tonight during driver intros. He led nine laps during the race to capture his first Truck Series top five.

June 8, 2019
Greg Biffle wins Truck Series race at Texas in return to NASCAR

Greg Biffle raced his way into victory lane at Texas Motor Speedway Friday night after winning the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race. It has been 15 years since the 2000 Truck Series champion was last seen in a Truck Series race.

His last start in the series came in 2004 at the season finale in Homestead where Biffle started 24th and drove to an eighth-place finish. However, the last time NASCAR nation saw Biffle in victory lane in the series was in 2001 at ISM Raceway, formerly named Phoenix International Raceway.

And now, 18 years later, Biffle returned to Texas Motor Speedway in hopes of getting a win for the famed No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports team who has been on fire this year. And he did just that.

It looked like Biffle had not missed a beat as he qualified sixth for the race. Stage 1 saw him finish 16th, but Stage 2 had a better outcome as he wound up sixth.

After a long green flag run, a caution came out with 15 to go when Austin Wayne Self stalled on the bottom of the race track. This saw Biffle restart on the front row with a 10 lap shootout. He had two-time champion, Matt Crafton, chasing him down, but in the end, Biffle saved enough fuel and was able to run away with the checkered flag.

“I don’t know if it was that easy,” Biffle told MRN Radio in a post-race interview. “I had my work cut out for me at the beginning of the race. So much odd stuff happened. I had a bunch of people wrecking in front of me and behind me. I was just trying to keep myself clean. You know beat the fenders in a little bit, but Mobil 1 Toyota ran really good tonight. I thank those guys for coming on board and helping us. You know Kyle Busch assembled a great group of guys. Pit stops were phenomenal, Rudy (Fugel, Crew Chief) did a great job calling the race on top of the box. It’s not easy to win these, but I can see how Kyle (Busch, Team Owner) has done very well.”

The SpeedyCash.com 400 was broken up into three stages that saw 40 laps in Stage 1 and Stage 2, and 87 laps in the final stage.

There’s an old joke that goes around every once in a while and that’s, “Everything Is Bigger In Texas.” Well so were the cautions. There were four cautions in the first stage along with one red flag.

The first occurred on Lap 12 for Gus Dean who wrecked on the backstretch. The second was on Lap 21 when Niece Motorsports driver Kyle Benjamin got loose off Turn 4 and smacked the wall. On Lap 27, the third caution flew and this time it was for the No. 9 of Codie Rohrbaugh. And the final caution for the first stage came on Lap 34, as Angela Ruch spun off Turn 2 and wrecked.

After four cautions and one red flag in Stage 1, Johnny Sauter, who has been to victory lane at Texas numerous times, survived the carnage and won Stage 1.

Stage 2 saw the green flag fly on Lap 46 and saw tons of cautions again.

This time, it was Stage 1 winner Sauter, who received heavy damage to his truck as he and Austin Hill made slight contact with each other, which sent Sauter into the wall with major rear end damage to the truck. This would eventually take Sauter out of contention to win the race.

On Lap 63, Texas native Cory Roper spun off Turn 2 to bring out another caution. Just a few laps later after having a strong night, Todd Gilliland spun in Turn 2 after his truck got loose on the restart which ended his night as well.

Coming to Lap 75, the new high school graduate Tyler Ankrum made a spectacular save sliding onto pit road without hitting anything. There was no caution for the incident. Turn 2 seemed to be the trouble spot again as Jordan Anderson spun there on the final lap of Stage 2 which ended the stage under caution.

Sauter’s Thorsport teammate and Kentucky native Ben Rhodes wound up wining the stage.

The third and final stage finally came with 80 to go. Young’s Motorsports drivers Sheldon Creed and Tyler Dippel were on the front row for the restart. However, troubles rose again, as they made contact with each other with Dippel wrecking on Lap 89 after having a flat tire go down.

There were more problems on the restart with 73 to go, as Stage 2 winner Rhodes, had to pull out of the lead when his truck started to go south. As that happened, another incident broke loose as Spencer Boyd, Natalie Decker and Trey Hutchens all made contact with each other on the backstretch to bring out another caution.

Rhodes issue was later diagnosed as a transmission failure. The No. 99 Carolina Nut Ford F-150 did not return to the track and wound up finishing a disappointing 21st.

With 64 to go for the restart, Biffle was up front and took the lead for the first time since 2001. However as we had seen throughout the night, the caution came out again with 60 to go. After having numerous cautions in the first half of the race, the field finally settled down a little bit and got into a long green flag run.

Teams began making pit stops with 30 to go as they could not make it the rest of the way. It began with Anthony Alfredo who was having a solid night in the top-10, then Ross Chastain with 27 to go and race leader Austin Hill with 21 to go.

Another caution with 15 to go changed everything as Biffle, along with others, chose not to make a pit stop. A late race restart was set up with 10 to go and Biffle had to hold off Crafton, Ankrum, Enfinger, Burton and Creed, who were all looking for their first win of the season.

By not pitting, Biffle could have been the only one to run out of gas. But luck was on his side as he was able to fend off the two-time champion of Matt Crafton and drive into victory lane for his first Truck Series win since 2001.

“I probably wasn’t as nervous as Rudy (Fugel, Crew Chief) was,” Biffle said to MRN Radio in his post-race interview describing the fuel situation. “But I knew it was close, it was a good call by Rudy to keep us out there. We had no tires and a little bit of gas wasn’t going to do anything, we were all ready for it. So, I figured we would stay out.”

With this win, the Washington State native claimed the first victory of The Triple Truck Challenge and won $50,000. Several people wondered if Biffle would continue the three-race span in hopes of collecting half a million by the time Gateway ended.

“You know, I don’t know,” Biffle added. “I think they (Kyle Busch Motorsports) already have a plan put together for all three trucks to win, but we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”

This was Biffle’s first win at Texas since 2000, a whopping 19 years ago. He led twice for 18 laps. This was Kyle Busch Motorsports’ sixth win of the season.

There were 13 cautions for 63 laps along with 12 lead changes among nine drivers.

The No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports truck continues to lead in the owner points over the No. 98 Thorsport Racing team by 32 points.

Up Next: The NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series continues their exciting season and The Triple Truck Challenge by continuing their Midwest swing visiting Iowa Speedway Saturday, June 15.

June 7, 2019
ARCA Menards Racing Series Preview- Michigan

The 2019 ARCA Menards Series season heads to Michigan International Speedway this week for race number nine, almost reaching the halfway point of the season.

And what a season we have seen so far in the ARCA Menards Series. When the season opened up at Daytona, we saw upcoming superstar Harrison Burton take the checkered flag with the powerhouse team of Venturini Motorsports. The Venturini’s continued their dominance by winning back-to-back with Michael Self at Five Flags in Pensacola and Salem.

From there, it looked liked Self and the No. 25 Venturini team would run away with the championship. However, troubles were ahead after having early season success. They still had a decent run at Talladega finishing fifth, but frustrations started to grow at Nashville, Toledo and Charlotte.

At Nashville, the No. 25 of Self was caught up in an accident which took him out of contention and he wound up 15th in that race. Toledo had a better showing for the team, as they finished fourth after starting on the pole and leading 12 laps. Although, Self and company still felt like it was a race they had given away. His teammate, Chandler Smith would go on to win the Toledo race. Then Charlotte came and it looked like the 25 team was back on track to dig themselves out of a hole.

Self started on the pole once more and led a whopping 91 laps of the scheduled 100. But issues arose late in the going when oil and smoke came out of the back of the car. It would eventually go away on restarts, but then on lap 87 of 100, Self spun out when leading the race. The team never could rebound which led to a frustrating fifth place finish in a race they should have won.

Last week at Pocono, Self finished 11th but is starting to grow tired of not winning, even though they feel like they have a car capable of winning every race.

And now ARCA heads to Michigan International Speedway, not too far from the racing capital of the world. Manufacturers like Chevrolet and Ford, among others, are located there and it gives drivers like Self extra motivation to go out and win.

For Self and the No. 25 Venturini team, they only have one start together which came in last year’s race. The Park City, Utah native has one top-five finish in his only outing finishing third after starting third and leading 23 laps. Despite finishing third there last year, Self and the No. 25 team are hoping to finish the race this weekend after having some frustrating finishes of as late.

“After the last few weeks, I think I’m just really hoping for a completely smooth day at Michigan from the first lap of practice to the checkered flag at the end of the race.” Self said. “We’ve been off-kilter a bit, between mistakes by me and mechanical issues, I just want to focus on getting that cleared up. Once we do, we’ll be rock solid. The Venturini Motorsports guys bring the fastest cars to the racetrack every weekend, but we’ve beat ourselves the last two races on track where I feel like we should’ve excelled. I really like Michigan and think it’s a ton of fun to race there, and hope this is the place we can piece everything back together and have a shot at another win.”

Despite Self’s issues, another driver is starting to heat up their on-track performance and that’s Chad Bryant Racing driver Ty Majeski. He won his second consecutive race last week at Pocono after a late race charge to the lead passing Riley Herbst for the win.

At Michigan, Majeski has just one start that came two years ago finishing sixth. Majeski drove the Cunningham Motorsports car that is now owned by Chad Bryant.

Even with only one start at the track, Majeski and the No. 22 team are looking to continue their winning ways this week at Michigan after having much success as of late in a part-time schedule.

“It’s been a great few weeks,” said Majeski. “I can’t thank Chad (Bryant), Paul (Andrews) and the rest of the No. 22 Crestliner guys for their hard work and belief in me. We worked hard at Charlotte and Pocono to come away with the win and we’re going to take the same approach that we did the last two races and apply it to Michigan and hope for the same result.”

With only one ARCA start at Michigan, the No. 22 Chad Bryant Racing driver hopes to build upon that sixth place finish two years ago.

“Michigan International Speedway is a beast, but it’s a blast of a place to race,” added Majeski. “It’s a very wide race track with a lot of room to race with incredibly fast speeds. I’m hoping I can apply some of what I learned a couple of years ago to our No. 22 Crestliner Ford Fusion during practice and qualifying on Friday.”

While Majeski and Self both have one start to their track record, the No. 15 Venturini Motorsports driver Christian Eckes will be making his first ARCA start or stock car start of any kind this weekend at Michigan.

With no experience, Eckes is excited to get to the 2-mile racetrack that is Michigan International Speedway.

“I’ve done a lot to prepare for Michigan this week,” said Eckes. “I’m excited to make my first laps on track. I’ve spent time on the sim at TRD and just basic stuff like film and notes. I feel extremely prepared to go have another great run this weekend.”

Another possible future superstar will have added track time experience this weekend. Joe Graf Jr. will be running the ARCA race and also making his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut for Richard Childress Racing at Michigan.

Graf Jr. has one start at Michigan that came last year, where he finished fifth after starting deep in the field. Even though he has only had one start at Michigan, he is ready for the additional track time and believes it will be his best finish yet.

“I’m very excited about Michigan this weekend,” said Graf Jr. “It’s been an incredibly busy week with preparation, testing and then getting to Michigan. I’m incredibly focused and look forward to the chance to have my strongest results of the year.”

Myatt Snider, a former NASCAR Truck Series regular and now a part-time driver for ThorSport Racing makes his return to the ARCA Menards Series this weekend. He had one win, three top fives and six top-10 finishes in just 10 races in his short ARCA career before making the move to trucks.

After completing a limited schedule, Snider made the jump to the Truck Series to drive for Kyle Busch Motorsports in his rookie season and then to the dominant ThorSport Racing team in 2018. Snider’s best finish in the Truck Series was second at Talladega last fall.

At Michigan, he has one start in the Truck Series finishing 18th after starting eighth. In the ARCA Series, Snider started on the pole in his only race three years ago but finished a disappointing 23rd after crashing on Lap 38.

This time around, the 24-year old returns in a Venturini Motorsports No. 20 prepared Toyota.

“Glad we could put this deal (together) late in the game so I could make a return to the 2-mile superspeedway,” said Snider. “Michigan is one of the toughest tracks on the ARCA circuit. But that’s what makes it so fun. Really excited for the weekend.”

The ARCA Menards Series will see an 18 car field in Friday’s race at Michigan International Speedway. Other drivers include Dick Doheny, Morgen Baird, Tanner Gray, C.J. McLaughlin, Tommy Vigh Jr, Riley Herbst, Bret Holmes, Travis Braden, Brandon McReynolds, Thad Moffitt, Brad Smith, Scott Melton and Tim Richmond, who will all look to tame the 2-mile superspeedway located outside Brooklyn, Michigan.

Since 1980, Michigan International Speedway has seen 38 ARCA races and the winners are a list of whos-who.

The list of winners include Joe Rutmann, Tracy Leslie, Dave Mader III, Stanley Smith, Bob Keselowski, Jeff Purvis (who won three in a row), Ron Barfield Jr, Tim Steele, Mark Thompson, Frank Kimmel, David Keith, Kerry Earnhardt, Blaise Alexander, Chad Blount, Casey Mears, Reed Sorenson, Steve Wallace, David Stremme, Brent Sherman, Erik Darnell, Justin Lofton, Parker Kligerman, Mikey Kile, Ty Dillon, Chris Buescher, Brennan Poole, Austin Theriault, Ross Kenseth, Brandon Jones and Sheldon Creed.

The ARCA Menards Series will see another different winner this weekend.

Qualifying is very important at Michigan where the winner has come from the pole position six times, occurring in 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006 and the last in 2017. The lowest a race winner has come from to win was 28th in 1997 set by Tim Steele. Since then, the lowest a driver has ever started to win was ninth (twice, which occurred in 2001 by Kerry Earnhardt and 2012 by now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series star Chris Buescher).

The race winner has also come from the second starting spot, 10 times which occurred in 1994, 1996, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2018.

The ARCA Menards Series teams will get on track early Friday morning with the only practice session taking place at 8:30 a.m. ET lasting until 10 a.m. ET, live on ArcaRacing.com.

Qualifying takes at noon ET and will also be live on Arcaracing.com.

The VizCom 200 green flag is scheduled to fly at 6:15 p.m. ET live on Fox Sports 1. There will be 100 laps to make up the 200 miles.

June 6, 2019
NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Preview-Texas II
The NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series gets back on track this Friday night in the Lone Star state at Texas Motor Speedway for race number nine of the 2019 season after a couple of weeks off.

Normally, the summer race would be the site of the first of two races of the season with the final race taking place in November and being one in the Playoffs. However, the schedule changed this year by placing the November race in early spring and using the summer race as the final race for the Truck Series at Texas Motor Speedway. It will also be the first of many standalone races for the series as well.

The Truck Series will have a unique twist when they get on track Friday night, as the series will introduce the Triple Truck Challenge over the span of the next three races. Should a driver win at Texas Friday night, Iowa or Gateway, Gander Outdoors will award the driver an additional $50,000 bonus for winning any of these events. If the driver wins two out of three, the title sponsor awards $150,000. Win all three and the driver will earn themselves $500,000. That’s extra motivation for any driver to win throughout the upcoming races.

With that said, there are currently 33 Trucks entered on the preliminary entry list for the SpeedyCash.com 400.

Here are five drivers to keep an eye on Friday night.
1. Johnny Sauter – It shouldn’t be a surprise that Sauter tops this list and there’s a reason why. He has a stellar track record at the 1.5-mile track and has always run well. Sauter has only finished outside the top-10 in five races there, while every other finish is either a win or a top-10. He has five wins (sweeping the 2012 season, 2016, 2017 and 2018). With those five wins, Sauter has collected 11 top fives and 17 top-10 finishes along with 368 laps led. He also has four poles with the last coming in the November race. His average start is 8.4 with an average finish of 6.1. Sauter has never had a DNF at Texas and has completed 100% of the laps dating back to his first start in 2005. It would be a mistake to bet against the two-time champion. Only something catastrophic or an ill-handling truck would prevent Sauter from having a great finish. Don’t be surprised if you see the Wisconsin native wheel the No. 13 into victory lane on Friday night.
2. Grant Enfinger – Texas could be the site of Enfinger’s first checkered flag of the season. The Thorsport driver has just five starts with a best finish of third coming in his first outing in 2017 with the No. 98 team. Since then, he’s earned three top fives and four top-10 finishes with 16 laps led. In the spring race, Enfinger earned the front row starting position by starting on the pole and wound up fourth after leading eight laps. He won the first stage while finishing seventh in Stage 2. Enfinger only has one finish outside the top-10 that came in the November race last year, finishing 12th. In the summer race last year, he finished fourth after starting eighth and led seven laps. Look for Enfinger and the No. 98 Thorsport team to be a strong contender this weekend.
3. Todd Gilliland – Gilliland only has three starts at the 1.5-mile track in the Lone Star state with a best finish of sixth in the summer race last year. The No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports driver even started on the outside pole and led 62 laps. He finished fourth in November and wound up 14th in the previous race in March of this year. At 1.5 mile tracks this year, Gilliland’s best finish came at Kansas last month with a finish of third where he challenged for the win late. Other finishes include ninth at Atlanta, seventh at Las Vegas and seventh at Charlotte. Gilliland has faced a lot of pressure to perform lately and he Triple Truck Challenge just might give him a little extra motivation to win this Friday night.
4. Stewart Friesen – Speaking of first-time winners, there could be one this weekend and it might be the No. 52 Halmar Racing driver Stewart Friesen. He has five starts with a best finish of second twice (2018 and March of 2019). His first two outings did not go well with finishes of 22nd and 14th. However, since the summer race, Friesen finished second, eighth and second. The Canada native sat on the pole and led 13 laps last year in the summer race. Those finishes have led to 26 laps led and an average finish of 9.6 at Texas. Friesen has been close multiple times to victory lane, falling short to Kyle Busch in March. Friday night could be redemption for Friesen and the No. 52 Halmar Racing team.
5. Greg Biffle – When people see the entry list this week, they’ll see a familiar name making a one-off start and his first race in quite some time. NASCAR fans will see Greg Biffle entered in the famed No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Truck Friday night. It will be his first Truck Series start since 2004 at Homestead where he finished eighth. Before making the jump to the Cup Series, the Washington State native used the Truck Series as a stepping stone to get to the Busch Series and eventually to the Cup Series in 2002. Biffle won the Truck Series championship 19 years ago in 2000. In his championship season, he earned five wins, 18 top fives and 18 top 10 finishes. In 1999, the year before he won the championship, Biffle set the record in the Truck Series by winning nine races, the most in a single season. Only one driver has come close and that was William Byron in 2016 when he earned seven wins that season. At his last Texas start in November of 2000, he finished 25th driving for Jack Roush. However, he won that year as well at Texas. Biffle practiced in Kyle Busch’s truck at Texas earlier this March to adjust to the truck. It will be interesting to see how the 2000 Truck Series champion performs this Friday night.
Cory Roper will be back with his own team this week, driving the No. 04 Roper Racing Ford, Codie Rohrbaugh will be in the No. 9, Trey Hutchens will compete in the No. 14, Anthony Alfredo will pilot the No. 15, Ted Minor will be in the No. 25, Scott Stenzel will drive the No. 34 and Kyle Benjamin will be in the No. 45.

Texas Motor Speedway has hosted 43 Truck Series races dating back to its first year in 1997.

Johnny Sauter has the most wins with five, while former series regular Brendan Gaughan is the only driver to win four in a row and that occurred in the 2002-2003 season.

The list of winners include Kenny Irwin Jr, Tony Raines, Dennis Setzer, Jay Sauter, Greg Biffle, Bryan Reffner, Jack Sprague, Travis Kvapil, Todd Bodine, Clint Bowyer, Ted Musgrave, Ron Hornaday, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Jeb Burton, Ty Dillon, Matt Crafton, Erik Jones, William Byron, Christopher Bell and Justin Haley.

The lowest a race winner has ever come from to win was 22nd set by Todd Bodine in 2004. The race winner has started on the pole five times and includes drivers Jay Sauter, Biffle, Reffner, Bowyer and Bodine, who was the last to do so in 2007.

The Truck Series will be on-track Thursday afternoon with two practice sessions. The first occurs at 2:05 p.m. ET and the final is set for 6 p.m. ET. There will be no live TV coverage for either practice session. Qualifying is scheduled for Friday afternoon at 5:35 p.m. ET with no live TV coverage as well.

The SpeedyCash.com 400 green flag will fly shortly after 9 p.m. ET live on Fox Sports 1 and MRN Radio. The event will see three stages as usual with the first stage ending on Lap 40, the second stage on Lap 80 and the final stage on Lap 167.
June 4, 2019
Ty Majeski goes back to back after winning at Pocono

Majeski and the No. 22 Chad Bryant Racing team earned his second win of the 2019 ARCA Menards Series after passing Riley Herbst with 14 to go, beating Herbst on the final round of pit stops.

“Ah man, this is a dream come true,” Majeski excitedly told Fox Sports 1 in his post-race interview. “Like I said last week, from losing my ride last year to Chad Bryant (Team Owner) taking a chance on me, man this is so special! Coming into the season, the goal was to win one race, one pole, but I’ll take wins any day over a pole. So this is really cool. Huge thank you to Crestliner for coming on board. That was so special. Paul Andrews (Crew Chief) made great calls all day long. Man, this Chad Bryant team works so hard, day in and day out. This Crestliner Ford was fast all day. It was just a matter of beating the 18 (Riley Herbst) off pit road in those green flag stops. I feel like whoever came out with track position was going to win the race.”

The #AnywhereIsPossible 200 green flag flew shortly after 5:30 p.m. ET and it looked like Herbst was going to completely dominate the whole race.

There were only a couple of incidents that did not bring out the caution. Pole sitter Harrison Burton had a right front tire go down while Steve Glasson had a flat left front tire go down one lap later.

On lap 29, the first and only caution came out for Bobby Gerhart who stalled in the tunnel turn but was able to refire his car after the caution flag flew. After the caution, nothing really changed, other than the fact that Burton was back up to fifth after having a flat tire a couple of laps earlier.

On lap 43, points leader, Michael Self had issues that began when he had a right rear tire go flat and eventually fuel pressure problems on Lap 76, which would eventually take him out of contention for the win. Flat tires continued to cause problems as Burton would suffer another one on Lap 50.

The final round of pit stops began with 20 to go and Hailie Deegan was the first to pit. Christian Eckes who was running third, came to pit but overshot his pit with 17 to go.

With 13 to go, eventual race winner, Majeski, would pit, taking only two right side tires. One lap later, race leader Riley Herbst made his final pit stop.

After making his pit stop, Majeski was already crossing the start/finish line while Herbst was entering Turns 1 and 2. There’s an ARCA rule where you have to stay below the yellow line after pitting. Herbst tried all he could to be the leader after pit stops, but Majeski went by him on the backstretch.

Herbst would need a caution in order to have another shot at Majeski but that would not happen as Majeski and the No. 22 Chad Bryant Racing team would go on to win their second straight race.

“The dirty air is real tough,” Majeski said in his post-race interview when describing catching Riley Herbst. “I could get within a couple of car lengths of him before I would just die. The inside is so preferred here. It’s tough to get clean air on the nose and get the front end to turn. I did all I could there. Fortunately, I made that pass on pit road and didn’t make it on the race track. I was thinking about my green flag pit stop and my marks, and it paid off.”

After leading 68 of the scheduled 80 laps, the No. 18 Monster Energy Joe Gibbs Racing driver, Riley Herbst would have to finish a disappointing second after being so dominant earlier on.

“I think right there at the end, we took two tires, just really tightened us up too much and couldn’t get back to the 22 (Ty Majeski),” Herbst said. “It just sucks. Man, when you have a dominating car like that to come home second, I just drove hard there and couldn’t do anything about it.”

It was Majeski’s second consecutive ARCA win in his first ARCA outing at Pocono. Majeski started fifth and took the lead with 13 laps to go from Herbst.

There would be just one caution and only four cars finished on the lead lap.

Final Results

1. Ty Majeski
2. Riley Herbst
3. Christian Eckes
4. Raphael Lessard
5. Bret Holmes, One Lap Down
6. Harrison Burton, Two Laps Down
7. Hailie Deegan, Two Laps Down
8. Joe Graf Jr., Two Laps Down
9. Cole Glasson, Three Laps Down
10. Travis Braden, Three Laps Down
11. Michael Self, Four Laps Down
12. Ed Pompa, Seven Laps Down
13. Scott Melton, Eight Laps Down
14. Tim Richmond, 12 laps down
15. Brad Smith, 33 laps down
16. Bobby Gerhart, 61 laps down
17. Tommy Vigh Jr, 71 laps down
18. Dick Doheny, 77 laps down

Up Next: The ARCA Menards Series continues their summer stretch to Michigan International Speedway on Friday, June 7, live on Fox Sports 1.

May 31, 2019
Harrison Burton paces only ARCA practice, wins pole at Pocono

When the ARCA Menards Series teams got to Pocono Raceway this morning, they would have to wait for nearly half the morning to get on track. Showers and thunderstorms were in the area and made for a wet race track.

Weepers were also a problem during track drying and with limited time, ARCA officials decided to forego qualifying and used the shortened practice session to set the field for today’s race.

Harrison Burton was the fastest in the 30-minute practice session and will start on the pole for the General Tire #AnywhereIsPossible 200. This continued Venturini Motorsports’ hot streak of earning a front row starting spot. This will be his first pole in the ARCA Menards Series in over 14 races for the 18-year-old.

Last week’s winner, Ty Majeski, was fifth fastest in the practice session thus earning him a fifth place starting spot.

2. Riley Herbst
3. Michael Self
4. Hailie Deegan
5. Ty Majeski
6. Joe Graf Jr
7. Raphael Lessard
8. Cole Glasson
9. Christian Eckes
10. Bret Holmes
11. Travis Braden
12. Ed Pompa
13. Bobby Gerhart
14. Tim Richmond
15. Scott Melton
16. Tommy Vigh Jr
17. Brad Smith
18. Dick Doheny

While showers and thunderstorms plagued the area earlier this morning, there will be no weather woes for Friday night’s #AnywhereIsPossible 200.

The race can be seen on Fox Sports 2 a little after 5:30 p.m. ET and 80 laps will make up the 200-mile race.

May 31, 2019
ARCA Menards Series Preview-Pocono 1
The ARCA Menards Series continues their summer stretch by visiting Pocono Raceway located in Long Pond, Pennsylvania this Friday night after a short turnaround racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway last Thursday night.

Chad Bryant Racing driver Ty Majeski visited victory lane at Charlotte for the first time of his ARCA Series career and is once again entered in this week’s ARCA race at Pocono.

There are only 19 cars are entered in this week’s General Tire #AnywhereIsPossible 200.

Riley Herbst and Harrison Burton are the only repeat winners that are entered for Friday’s race. Herbst won in 2017, while Burton is the race winner of last year’s spring race at Pocono.

Raphael Lessard will be making his second ARCA start this year, his previous coming at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida where Lessard finished eighth after starting sixth driving for Mike Bursley. He will once again drive for Bursley, but this time he will be piloting the No. 28 KBR-Development Chevrolet.

It will be a stacked field of NASCAR’s future stars like Thad Moffitt, Christian Eckes, Riley Herbst, Harrison Burton, Joe Graf Jr, Raphael Lessard and Hailie Deegan.

Here are five drivers you should keep an eye on in this weeks #AnywhereIsPossible 200 at Pocono Raceway.
1. Harrison Burton – Burton is the previous race winner. He will also make his first Truck Series track debut at Pocono but will be preparing for that by driving in the ARCA race Friday night. This year, Burton has three ARCA starts winning at the season opener in Daytona. Since then, his best finish came last week at Charlotte by finishing fourth. In last year’s race at Pocono, he led 24 of the scheduled 80 laps to win. After pulling a different double duty last week, racing on Thursday night and graduating high school the next day, Burton can now focus on racing this summer.
  
  “This track is amazing,” said the recent high school graduate. “Pocono is a technical race track with every corner being completely different than the last so that’s a lot of fun for the drivers. It creates a lot of good racing opportunities, good passing zones, there’s drafting on the straightaways and I’m excited to be back to defend.”
2. Christian Eckes – Eckes will be visiting his home track this weekend, as he grew up not too far from Pocono being born in New York. He has just two starts at Pocono, both coming last year. The Tricky Triangle was tricky last year for Eckes and his No. 15 Venturini Motorsports team. Both finishes came outside the top-10 with a finish of 11th in his first outing and 13th in his second outing. He has had an up and down season so far, and bad luck has bitten him as of late. In last week’s race, Eckes had to deal with two flat tires and spent two laps down throughout the race before rebounding to finish seventh. However, the ARCA Series had an open test on Wednesday before being canceled early due to thunderstorms. Eckes topped the speed charts, completing 36 laps with a best time of 53.17 seconds. Whether this speed will transfer to the race is yet to be seen, but it is encouraging for the New Yorker who is ready to turn his season around this Friday.
  
  “Pocono has always been a place I’ve enjoyed going to,” said Eckes. “Being almost a ‘Home Race’ for me it’s pretty cool to have my whole family out to watch. The race track itself has been super fun. We haven’t gotten the results we deserved in our two attempts but we’re here to change that this week. Everybody on the JBL team has been working really hard, we’re ready to take the triangle head on.”
3. Riley Herbst – Aside from Burton, Herbst is the other winner entered for this weeks race at Pocono. He won the 2017 race after leading well over half the race (45 laps). To date, it’s Herbst’s only ARCA win of his career. Aside from not competing in one race that year, he has two full seasons under his belt in the ARCA Series. In last year’s spring race, Herbst finished fifth after leading 11 laps to continue his success at Pocono. Herbst is only doing a part-time schedule this year, sharing the ride with Ty Gibbs. He only competed in three races this season with a best finish of second at Talladega. Herbst and the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team was sixth fastest in the afternoon test session.
4. Ty Majeski – It’s hard to not to count out last week’s winner Majeski who is looking to carry momentum from his race win at Charlotte. He has just one start in an ARCA car coming in 2017 driving for the Cunningham Motorsports team finishing seventh. For those who don’t know, Chad Bryant Racing took over the reins from Briggs Cunningham last year. If Wednesday’s test means anything, Majeski was fourth fastest. Chad Bryant brought two other cars to the test with Corey Heim who was third fastest and Joe Graft Jr. who was 10th fastest.
5. Travis Braden – Braden only has two starts at Pocono in the ARCA Menards Series with a best finish of fourth in the spring race last year. In his other start later in the summer, he finished ninth, giving Braden one top five and one top-10 finish.
  
  “As a driver, you need to hit all three corners just right,” Braden said. “if you miss one corner it messes up all three of them. Everyone looks at the long straightaways and you think you want to reduce drag, but the corners are where the speed is at.”
  
  Who To Watch:
  
  Hailie Deegan will be making her second ARCA start this season, piloting the No. 55 iK9 Toyota for Bill Venturini.
  
  Cole Glasson returns to the ARCA Menards Series driving the No. 32 Win Tron Racing Chevrolet. Glasson has one ARCA start coming in last year’s season finale at Kansas, finishing 10th.
  
  Raphael Lessard makes his track debut at Pocono this Friday. Lessard was fifth quickest Wednesday in ARCA’s afternoon test.
  
  Michael Self will look to rebound after finishing a disappointing fifth when he led a dominating 91 laps.
  
  Wayne Peterson Racing will bring a new Toyota after their Chevy was destroyed last week in a crash.
  
  Venturini Motorsports looks to continue their qualifying streak by qualifying on the pole this Friday.
  
  The ARCA teams had a morning and afternoon open test session before the afternoon session was shortened by thunderstorms. Christian Eckes was the fastest in the afternoon session.
  
  2. Chandler Smith
  3. Corey Heim
  4. Ty Majeski
  5. Raphael Lessard
  6. Riley Herbst
  7. Michael Self
  8. Harrison Burton
  9. Cole Glasson
  10. Joe Graf Jr
  11. Hailie Deegan
  12. Bret Holmes
  13. Scott Melton
  14. Ed Pompa
  15. Bobby Gerhart
  16. Jonas Fors
  17. Tim Richmond
  
  The ARCA Menards Series has visited Pocono Raceway before it was known as The Tricky Triangle since 1987. Since then, the track has hosted 63 races with multiple race winners. The winners include Bob Schacht, Lee Raymond, Bob Keselowski, Jimmy Horton, Ben Hess, Tim Steele, Jeff Purvis, Mike Wallace, Frank Kimmel, Blaise Alexander, Kerry Earnhardt, Ryan Newman, Damon Lusk, Casey Atwood, Casey Mears, Scott Riggs, Ryan Hemphill, Chase Miller, Chad McCumbee, Michael McDowell, Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Justin Allgaier, Joey Logano, Justin Lofton, Craig Goess, Robb Brent, Tim George Jr, Ty Dillon, Brennan Poole, Chad Hackenbracht, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Justin Allison, Trevor Bayne, Cole Custer, Grant Enfinger, Chase Briscoe, Justin Haley and Zane Smith to name a few.
  
  After an open test session on Wednesday, the ARCA teams will have a one day show Friday with one practice session on Friday morning at 9 a.m. ET lasting an hour. Qualifying is slated for 12 p.m. ET and will be live on Arcaracing.com.
  
  The #AnywhereIsPossible 200 is scheduled to get underway shortly after 5:30 p.m. ET live on Fox Sports 2 and is scheduled for 80 laps. There will be a same-day replay on Fox Sports 1 later that night.
May 29, 2019
Exclusive interview with Grant Enfinger-Part 2

In the conclusion of our interview with ThorSport Racing’s Grant Enfinger, we discuss his career in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series.

The Alabama native made his first Truck Series start in 2010 at Talladega driving the No. 95 Truck for Danny Gill. It would be his only start that year. Enfinger started 12th and finished 22nd due to a late-race crash, but he stills remembers that day vividly.

“I can definitely believe it was seven years ago,” Enfinger told Speedway Media. “I remember the big wreck, but at the end of the day, it was an awesome experience. You know, I remember that one because that’s in the hometown state and all that, so obviously that was a memorable start and obviously a memorable memory winning there a few years ago. It’s definitely a place that holds a special place but a frustrating one too.”

In 2017 Enfinger competed in his first full-time Truck Series season with ThorSport Racing. He ended the season with nine top fives and 10 top-10 finishes. The next year saw him win at Las Vegas in September with seven top fives and 15 top 10s by the end of 2018.

“Man, I feel like I found a home here,” Enfinger said. “That was definitely what I was looking for, you know, surrounded by racers. All I want to do is compete and win, take whatever we got and make it better. I feel like being paired with Jeff Hensley (Crew Chief) has been a good thing, we both talk in the same language as racers. From where we have started to where we are now, I feel like we have the same core guys. To see where we were then to where we are now, it’s a good feeling. We’ve built this by growing together and being on the same wavelength. Everybody has each other’s back and I feel good about the momentum we’ve carried from the second half of last year to the overall progress we’ve made from the beginning, the mentality where we need to be legitimate to run for the championship this year.”

Enfinger is also appreciative of teammates like Johnny Sauter, Matt Crafton, Ben Rhodes and Myatt Snider who work with each other throughout the weekend.

“I honestly feel like it’s a good thing,” he said, in describing his teammates. “I mean I think if you look down on the entry blanks on any given weekend, I think ThorSport Racing is stacked. I feel like we have the talent to where any of our teams can win. I feel like our teams are capable of doing that, it’s just a matter of which one hits it that weekend. Knowing your teammate has a shot at winning, makes you work that much harder. It feels like we’ve been working together and I think it has shown that this year, more so than years past. Our F-150’s have been running more together and more consistently up front. We still obviously got work to do it, but I feel like we’ve made progress as a whole at the ThorSport organization.”

When asked what the Truck Series would look like 20 years from now, Enfinger responded, saying, “Man, there ain’t no telling. I feel like the direction for the nearer future is to get rid of these couple of mile and half races, and go to some more short tracks. Everybody in America has been saying that for a long time and I feel like we’re finally going in that direction. But it’s changed so much in the last 10 years that I really don’t know.

“Racing as a whole kind of goes back around to where the teams go out there and get the drivers. I think ThorSport Racing is one of the few old school teams, Duke and Rhonda Thorson do everything they can do to make it all work the way it’s supposed to, rather than a driver going to wherever he wants and bringing the funding to do that. So I feel like eventually, that cycle has to end and I feel like we’ve started to see a few examples of that in the Cup Series this year. I feel like it eventually has to come back around. I don’t know how long that will take and I don’t know where the Truck Series will be at that point. Maybe 20 years from now, but that’s wishful thinking. I’m hopeful it will come back around.”

Introduced this year is the Triple Truck Challenge which starts at Texas Motor Speedway on June 7 and also includes Gateway and Iowa. Should any driver win one of those races, they will receive an additional $50,000 bonus.

“I’m definitely excited about it for a lot of reasons,” Enfinger said. “Number one, that money means a lot to these Gander Outdoors Truck Series teams. That could potentially help us keep going racing at ThorSport Racing. It’s a large amount of money. What’s also huge is the notoriety the series is going to get.

“I understand that we are kind of the third tier team in NASCAR and I get that, but I also feel like everybody you talk to will say the Truck Series is the best racing. It is the most exciting and that’s what they’re trying to model this Cup Series package around. I feel like it will be a great deal to some of the more true Truck Series fans and maybe get us some of the exposure we deserve. I think it’s great that the sponsor of the series Gander Outdoors is so involved to make that happen for everybody. That’s a win-win to everybody involved from the sponsors to the series to the teams. I think it’s huge and we’ve needed it for a while. That’s pretty exciting.”

During a driver’s career, there are always one or more races that they wish they could do over again. Whether it’s for a shot at the win or simply getting a better finish.

“There’s a lot of them,” Enfinger said. “You know, I would go back and change my last restart at Charlotte the other day. We weren’t going to win the race regardless, but we would have finished better. I mean, hell, I think of a hundred of them. I don’t know which one you want to know, but there’ve been some screw-ups along the way where there’s been some stuff that crap happens. A lot of could’ve, would’ve, and should’ve in racing.”

We also discussed his goals for this season and the team’s championship hopes. Currently, Enfinger has 98 starts in the Truck Series with two wins at Talladega and Las Vegas, 22 top fives, 42 top-10 finishes plus four poles along with 337 laps led following the Charlotte race.

The key, he said is, “definitely more wins. “We’ve got the solid finishes, but really it’s the peak that matters most. We haven’t peaked in my opinion to this point this year but we have been solid. Last year, from the last half of the second season on, we were solid then too. We stood a chance to win a few of them, winning one. We really had a terrible second stage of the Playoffs is what it boiled down to in a must-win situation at Phoenix. We were almost able to get that done but just a little short. The stars didn’t align for us. I don’t feel like it was really a lack of performance, it just wasn’t quite meant to be last year.

“I think we’re close. We ran fast, speed wise through the entire Playoffs. We had the speed to get the job done, we were just inconsistent in the result outcome, some self-inflicted issues and some crap luck too. That’s what racing is sometimes. I feel like we’re in an even better spot this season than we were last year. Just continue following down that path further. I’ll be honest with you, I feel like we have a lot of things going for us this year.”

Currently, Enfinger has 98 starts in the Truck Series with two wins at Talladega and Las Vegas, 22 top fives and 42 top ten finishes, and four poles along with 337 laps counting following the Charlotte race.

For those who aren’t familiar with Enfinger, he describes himself as “the blue collar guy that’s worked his ass off to get here. I’m not the guy that someone picked up and wrote a check for me to be here. I’m living my dream, this has always been my dream. I’ve worked my butt off here to get be in the Truck Series. I’ve done the hard stuff. Like I talked about earlier in ARCA by start and parking. I was driving haulers, pulling motors, cleaning these things and doing whatever no one else wanted to do.

“I feel like I can relate to the guy that works his butt off every day to make a living to go out on the weekends and enjoy it. I feel like I am that guy, I’m living that dream. I feel like God has let me do what I dreamed of doing. I’m just trying to live up to that, I guess.”

You can follow Enfinger as he pursues his championship dream on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

May 28, 2019