Editors note: Ross Chastain, driver the No. 44 Niece Motorsports truck and former winner of the MMS 200, failed post race inspection. As a result, Chastain’s win was taken away and Brett Moffitt is the new winner of Sunday’s Truck Series race at Iowa. The Niece Motorsports team can appeal the decision. Updated post race news to follow!
Ross Chastain won the 11th Annual M&M’S® 200 presented by Casey’s General Store at Iowa Speedway. This was his second victory in 69 Gander Outdoors Truck Series races and the 10th top-10 finish in 2019.
“Man, it was incredible,” Chastain said in his post race interview with MRN Radio. “The truck, it’s absolutely incredible that race trucks can go this fast, it’s all to a testament to Niece Motorsports and how far they came, and the people behind the scenes. We all started with GMS fabrication and they give us good baselines, we took it from there and we just go because we’re racers. We’ve had a lot thrown out us this year, but at the end of the day, it’s just a bunch of racers racing and I get to come out here, and live my dream, be competitive in NASCAR. Thanks to TruNorth and Al Niece, he’s (Al Niece) is not even here this weekend, they couldn’t make it. Awesome, I hate I’m going to miss the Xfinity race in a couple of hours, but I will be in the booth (MRN Radio) with you guys.”
After being postponed due to weather from Saturday night, the MMS 200 started a day later and it was well worth the wait.
Since qualifying was also rained out, rising star Chandler Smith started on the pole for his first Truck Series race and current championship points leader Grant Enfinger, started outside pole.
Stage 1 went 60 laps and it remained green without any incidents for the most part.
The first came on lap 15 for Chandler Smith who reported they were having radio issues. Smth’s team could hear him, but Smith could not hear the pit crew. Smith continued to ride it out until a caution late in the stage. The next incident occurred two laps for Juan Manuel Gonzalez who had a right front tire go down. There would be no cautions for either incidents.
Smith continued to put a beating on the field leading most of the stage despite not receiving any radio communication from the spotter or crew chief.
The first caution came out on lap 52 of 60 for Stage 1 and it was for Manuel Gonzalez, who had another tire go down and wound up hitting the wall off Turn 4.
This allowed Smith to come down pit road to fix the radio problem, which he did, but nearly took one of his crew members with him when he tried leaving his pit box. Brennan Poole was penalized for too fast entering.
With the late yellow in the first stage, this would set up a two lap shoot out for the stage finish and it was quite something.
Thorsport had most of its trucks in the top five for the two lap shoot out, but failed to get the stage win as Ross Chastain took the top groove and made a three wide pass on Matt Crafton and Grant Enfinger for the win. Smith would end up finishing 16th after fixing his radio issue.
The race restarted for Stage 2 and was back underway on lap 66, and it saw a 54 lap green flag run with out any yellows.
The only biggest mover of the stage was Chandler Smith, who moved his way up to fifth in the famed No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports truck.
Chastain would continue his domination and end up winning the stage again.
Stage 3 would be one of the most interesting stages of the season as far as Truck Series competition goes.
Another caution broke out on lap 137 for the two-time champion Johnny Sauter, as his truck would wind up hitting the Turn 4 wall. However, replays showed it was Austin Hill who wrecked him on purpose to bring out the caution. It appeared the two had been running each other hard a couple of laps earlier, prior to the incident taking place.
After the incident, Sauter was upset with what took place and retaliated against Hill, and tried to wreck Hill back under caution. Due to Sauter’s action, NASCAR officials would end up parking him for the remainder of the race. With the finish of 28th, it would continue Sauter’s mid-season frustration with his fourth finish outside the top-10.
Well then… pic.twitter.com/vfRBzPvgQA— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) June 16, 2019
When the action was said and done, surprisingly the last restart of the race would take place on lap 144 and Chastain led the rest of the way to pick up his second win of the season.
With the win in the Triple Truck Challenge, Chastain and his Niece Motorsports team will pick up an additional $50,000. However, the money will not be a personal gain for the Florida native, rather it will go toward the teams finances.
“It’s going to Al (Niece, Team Owner), we’re not funded for the whole year,” Chastain added in his post race interview with MRN Radio. “This money will be spent on race trucks and able to go get another chassis, so we have another bullet later in the year.”
Chastain led one time for 141 laps and won all two stages. Despite the win and the selection of getting Truck Series points, he continues to be outside the top-20 in driver standings.
There were four cautions for 25 laps with four lead changes among three lead changes.
Up Next: The NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series continues their Midwest swing by visiting the World Wide Technology Raceway in St. Louis, Missouri (formerly known as Gateway Motorsports Park) on Saturday night June 22.
