Rajah Caruth will return as the driver of the No. 71 Chevrolet Silverado RST entry for Spire Motorsports for the 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season.
The news come as the 22-year-old Caruth from Washington D.C. is coming off his second consecutive full-time campaign in the Truck circuit, where he achieved his first career victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March. In doing so, Caruth joined Wendell Scott and Bubba Wallace as the only African-American competitors to win across NASCAR’s top three premier series. In addition to the Vegas victory, Caruth notched his first two career poles, five top-five results, 12 top-10 results, 56 laps led and an average-finishing result of 11.6. After qualifying for his first Truck Playoffs this past season, he settled in seventh place in the final driver’s standings and was named the 2024 Most Popular Driver in the series.
Caruth’s announcement of his 2025 racing plans also occurred on December 13th, the day he graduated from Winston-Salem State University with a Bachelor of Science in Motorsports Management.
“It is great to have a home and stability heading into next year,” Caruth said in a released statement. “I believe this is the first time in my career I won’t be with a new team or competing in a different series at the start of the season. I really appreciate the opportunity [owners] Jeff [Dickerson] and T.J. [Puchyr] have given me, and I’m excited to continue preparations for 2025. Our organization has really grown over the past year, and we have shown what we are capable of. We have set the bar high for the season and the expectation is to win more races and compete for a championship.”
Caruth, whose racing career started virtually through iRacing in 2018, made his Truck Series debut at World Wide Technology Raceway in June 2022, where he piloted the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet entry to an 11th-place result. After making three additional Truck starts with Spire for the remainder of the 2022 season, he campaigned in his first full-time season in the series with GMS Racing in 2023. During the season, he notched four top-10 results, an average-finishing result of 18.2 and settled in 16th place in the final standings before he returned to Spire on a full-time basis in 2024.
Through 50 current starts in the Truck Series, Caruth has achieved one victory, two poles, five top-five results, 16 top-10 results, 57 laps led and an average-finishing result of 15.7. He has also made 19 career starts in the Xfinity Series and 25 in the ARCA Menards Series, the latter of which he notched 14 top-10 results and finished in third place in the final driver’s standings during the 2022 season while competing for Rev Racing.
“I’m thrilled to confirm that Rajah Caruth will be back with us in 2025 driving the No. 71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado,” Jeff Dickerson, co-owner of Spire Motorsports, said. “He took the incredibly high expectations we placed on him to start the year and exceeded them in every way. I’m impressed with how he’s balanced his commitments to his race team, his craft, the media and his growing fanbase while managing a full workload at Winston-Salem State University. Our organization believes in Raj and he has consistently shown the leadership, form and work ethic that every team looks for in a driver. Everyone at Spire Motorsports is really happy to run it back with him next season.”
As part of Caruth’s return to the Truck Series, HendrickCars.com, which sponsored Caruth for the entire schedule in 2024, will also return to sponsor him for the entire 25-race schedule in 2025. Caruth was also sponsored by HendrickCars.com when he competed in the 2023 Xfinity Series finale at Phoenix Raceway for Hendrick Motorsports, where he finished 14th after starting 13th.
“Rajah is a young man of tremendous character and has proven to be a great representative of HendrickCars.com and our nearly 11,000 teammates across the country, Rick Hendrick, chairman and CEO of Hendrick Automotive Group and owner of Hendrick Motorsports, said. “In addition to being extremely talented, he has an incredible work ethic. We couldn’t be prouder to make this announcement on the same day Rajah and his family celebrate his college graduation. He has a very bright future in the sport, and we are thrilled to continue supporting his journey in 2025.”
The remainder of Spire Motorsports’ driver and crew chief lineup for the 2025 NASCAR season remains to be determined.
With his plans for next season set, Rajah Caruth’s 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season is scheduled to commence at Daytona International Speedway on February 14 at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
Christian Eckes capped off a dominant run by pulling a late bump-and-run move on Playoff rival Taylor Gray that enabled him to clinch a Championship 4 berth after winning the Zip Buy Now, Pay Later 200 at Martinsville Speedway on Friday, November 1.
The 23-year-old Eckes from Greenville, New York, led all but 13 of 200-scheduled laps in an event where he started on the pole position. He captured the event’s first two stage periods before he pitted for the first and only time before the start of the final stage period with 90 laps remaining. After reassuming the lead from Ben Rhodes with 84 laps remaining, Eckes would retain the top spot through three caution periods and two restart periods.
Then, during the event’s final restart period with five laps remaining, Eckes was caught in a controversial incident with Taylor Gray. It resulted in Eckes bumping and sending Gray up the racetrack and out of the lead after Gray had taken it from Eckes at the start of the restart. Eckes would then duel, swap spots and bump Rhodes for the top spot during the following two laps before he moved Rhodes out of the racing groove in the same turn as he moved Gray. With the late clean air to his advantage, Eckes retained the lead for the final two laps and cruised to his fourth NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory of the 2024 season and secured his first-ever berth to the Championship 4 round.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, Playoff contender Christian Eckes notched the pole position with a lap at 96.830 mph in 19.556 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender Ty Majeski, who clocked in his best qualifying lap at 96.805 mph in 19.561 seconds.
Before the event, the following names including Playoff contender Tyler Ankrum, Justin Carroll, Tanner Gray and Clayton Green dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective trucks.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Christian Eckes motored his No. 19 Gates Hydraulics Chevrolet Silverado RST ahead of Ty Majeski, who struggled to launch at the start, and the field through the frontstretch as he had both lanes to his control through the first two turns and the backstretch. As the field behind jostled for early spots, Eckes led the first lap while Majeski fended off Playoff contenders Nick Sanchez and Taylor Gray for the runner-up spot as rookie Layne Riggs followed suit.
Over the next four laps, Eckes stretched his early advantage to as high as seven-tenths of a second over Majeski while Sanchez followed suit in third place as the field behind bumped and jostled amongst one another for early spots. Behind, Riggs was in fourth place ahead of Taylor Gray while Ben Rhodes, Playoff contender Corey Heim, Chase Purdy, Kaden Honeycutt and Playoff contender Rajah Caruth were in the top 10.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Eckes was leading by nine-tenths of a second over Majeski while Sanchez, Riggs and Taylor Gray were racing in the top five ahead of Rhodes, Heim, Purdy, Honeycutt and Caruth. Behind, Jack Wood, Johnny Sauter, William Sawalich, Dean Thompson and Matt Crafton were in the top 15 while Timmy Hill, Stewart Friesen, Daniel Dye, Landen Lewis and Matt Mills pursued in the top 20. Meanwhile, Playoff contender Grant Enfinger was up to 24th place while Playoff contender Tyler Ankrum was mired in 31st place.
Ten laps later, Eckes extended his advantage to more than a second over Majeski while third-place Sanchez trailed by two seconds. Behind, Riggs and Taylor Gray remained in the top five ahead of Rhodes, Heim, Purdy, Honeycutt and Caruth as Enfinger and Ankrum were mired in 22nd and 31st, respectively.
Another 10 laps later, Eckes stabilized his advantage to more than a second over runner-up Majeski and by more than three seconds over third-place Sanchez while Riggs and Taylor Gray remained racing in the top five. Meanwhile, Enfinger cracked the top 20 as he was up to 20th place while Ankrum gained four spots to 27th place. By then, Heim retained seventh place behind Rhodes while Caruth continued to race in 10th place behind Purdy and Honeycutt.
Then on Lap 35, the event’s first caution period flew due to Matthew Gould slowly coming to a halt in the backstretch after he fell off the pace through the frontstretch earlier. During the caution period, some led by Rhodes and including Enfinger and Ankrum, the latter of whom was spared from losing a lap, pitted while the rest led by Eckes remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Matt Crafton and Landen Lewis were both penalized for speeding on pit road.
When the race restarted under green on Lap 42, Eckes fended off Majeski to retain the lead through the first two turns while 10th-place Caruth tried to throw a three-wide move beneath teammate Purdy for more positions towards the front. The following lap, Purdy and Dean Thompson made contact entering Turn 1 as Thompson tried to make a tight move beneath Purdy for position. With a bevy of competitors continuing to bump, fan out and jostle for spots, Eckes proceeded to drive away with the lead as he retained the top spot by the Lap 45 mark.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 50, Eckes, who came into Martinsville 38 points above the top-four cutline in his pursuit to make the Championship 4 round, captured his 10th Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Majeski followed suit in second as he was followed by Sanchez, Taylor Gray and Riggs while Heim, Honeycutt, Purdy, Sawalich and Connor Zilisch were scored in the top 10. Meanwhile, Caruth plummeted to 28th place after he went up the racetrack in Turn 3 on Lap 49 while Enfinger and Ankrum settled in 14th and 17, respectively.
Under the stage break, some led by Taylor Gray and including Caruth pitted while the rest led by Eckes remained on the track. By then, the top seven competitors including Eckes, Majeski, Sanchez, Heim, Honeycutt, Purdy and Sawalich were the only ones who had yet to pit. During the pit stops, Jake Garcia was penalized for pitting outside his pit box.
The second stage period started on Lap 60 as Eckes and Majeski occupied the front row. At the start, Eckes fended off Majeski and Sanchez to retain the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. Eckes retained the lead for the following lap while Majeski was racing in second place ahead of Sanchez and Heim. Towards the Lap 65 mark, Honeycutt was in fifth place and he was followed by Sawalich while Purdy, who was trapped on the outside lane, was dueling with Friesen and Rhodes for seventh place.
Just past Lap 70, Eckes extended his lead to more than a second over Majeski while Sanchez and Heim continued to trail in third and fourth, respectively. As Honeycutt retained fifth place in front of Sawalich, Friesen, Rhodes and Zilisch, Purdy dropped to 10th place as he was racing ahead of Enfinger while Ankrum, Taylor Gray and Caruth were mired in 14th, 16th and 22nd, respectively.
At the Lap 80 mark, Eckes’ advantage stood to nearly two seconds over runner-up Majeski while third-place Sanchez trailed by three seconds. With fourth-place Heim trailing by four seconds, Enfinger and Ankrum were mired in 10th and 11th, respectively, Taylor Gray was up to 15th place and Caruth was mired in 22nd place.
Ten laps later, Eckes extended his advantage to more than three seconds over Majeski as Sanchez and Heim trailed as far back as six seconds. Behind, Sawalich was up into fifth place and trailing the lead by seven seconds while Friesen, Rhodes, Honeycutt, Enfinger and Ankrum were in the top 10 ahead of Zilisch, Riggs, Taylor Gray, Daniel Dye and Purdy.
Another four laps later, Eckes lapped Caruth, who was the lowest-running Playoff contender on the track in 25th place and placed in a “must-win” situation to keep his Playoff hopes alive. Eckes would proceed to stretch his lead to four seconds over Majeski just past the Lap 95 mark as both Sanchez and Heim trailed by seven seconds.
Then on Lap 97, the caution flew as Dylan Lupton slid and wrecked his No. 02 Young’s Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado RST hard against the Turn 2 outside wall. Lupton’s incident was enough for the second stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 100 to officially conclude under caution as Eckes captured his second Truck stage victory of the event and the 11th of the 2024 season. Majeski followed suit in second ahead of Sanchez, Heim and Sawalich while Friesen, Rhodes, Honeycutt, Ankrum and Enfinger were scored in the top 10. With seven of eight Playoff contenders racking up the event’s second round of stage points, Caruth, the only Playoff contender to not score stage points, was mired in 25th place.
Under the stage break, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Eckes pitted while Ben Rhodes remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, the following names that include Justin Carroll, Daniel Dye and Dean Thompson were all penalized for their respective pit crews jumping over the pit wall too soon. Soon after, Caruth, who pitted twice under the caution period, took his No. 71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado RST behind the wall and the pit crew went under the hood of Caruth’s truck to address a potential left-front braking issue. The issue was enough to knock Caruth both out of the lead lap category and in contention to advance into the Championship 4 round.
With 90 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced under green as Rhodes and Eckes occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out through the frontstretch as Rhodes retained the lead ahead of Eckes through the first two turns and the backstretch. Rhodes would proceed to lead the following lap ahead of Eckes while Majeski and Sanchez battled for third place in front of Heim. Behind, Taylor Gray, Ankrum and Enfinger were strapped from seventh to ninth, respectively, as Eckes closed in on Rhodes for the lead with 85 laps remaining.
Then with 84 laps remaining, Eckes gave Rhodes a slight bump in Turn 3, which allowed Eckes to draw himself even with Rhodes’ No. 99 Kubota Ford F-150 through the frontstretch before he muscled back ahead and reassumed the lead. As Eckes proceeded to lead with 80 laps remaining, Sanchez started to close in on Rhodes for the runner-up spot while Majeski and Heim trailed in the top five.
With 70 laps remaining, Eckes stretched his advantage to more than three seconds over Sanchez and Majeski while Rhodes dropped to fourth place. Meanwhile, Heim retained fifth place ahead of Friesen, Taylor Gray, Ankrum, Enfinger and Sawalich while Caruth, who had his left-front brakes addressed, returned to the track despite being strapped 20 laps down in 33rd place.
Fifteen laps later, Eckes’ advantage grew to five seconds over runner-up Sanchez while third-place Majeski also trailed by five seconds. In the process, Heim retained fifth place while trying to fend off Friesen and both Taylor Gray and Ankrum battled for seventh place while Enfinger was in 10th place.
Another 15 laps later, Eckes retained the lead by six seconds over Sanchez while Majeski trailed the latter by nearly a second in third place. Behind, Friesen moved up to fifth place as he trailed Rhodes on the track while Ankrum, Taylor Gray, Sawalich, Enfinger and Riggs occupied the top 10 in front of Heim, Corey Day, Honeycutt, Crafton and Zilisch.
Then with 38 laps remaining, the caution flew when Honeycutt, who was racing in the top 15, made contact with the outside wall in between Turns 1 and 2 after he blew a right-front tire. During the caution period, some led by Rhodes and including Taylor Gray, Enfinger and Heim pitted while the rest led by Eckes and including Sanchez, Majeski and Ankrum remained on the track.
The start of the ensuing restart period with 29 laps remaining featured Eckes muscling ahead and leading the field with both lanes under his control through the first two turns while Sanchez and Majeski dueled for the runner-up spot. As Eckes muscled away with a reasonable lead for the following lap, Sanchez, who was placed in a “must-win” situation to maintain his Playoff hopes, muscled his No. 2 Gainbridge Chevrolet Silverado RST away with the runner-up spot ahead of Majeski, who got bumped by Friesen in Turn 1.
With Friesen settling in fourth behind Majeski, a three-wide action then ensued between Riggs, Rhodes and Taylor Gray during the next lap while Purdy almost got turned by Corey Day through the backstretch. As more bumping and jostling for late spots ensued within the field, Eckes was ahead by more than a second with the lead with 25 laps remaining.
Then with 19 laps remaining, the caution returned when Dean Thompson bumped and sent teammate Tanner Gray into Brett Moffitt as both went up the track and wrecked against the Turn 3 outside wall while Corey Day slid sideways and spun past both to avoid the carnage. During the caution period, some including Riggs, Crafton, Sawalich and Ankrum pitted while the rest led by Eckes remained on the track.
Down to the final 12 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Eckes fended off Taylor Gray, whom Eckes shared on the front row, through the first two turns and the backstretch to retain the lead. With Gray settling behind Eckes and in front of a stacked field, Sanchez tried to pursue both from third place as Eckes led the following lap. Then in Turn 1, Gray, who was placed in a “must-win” situation to advance to the Championship 4 round, bumped Eckes through the first two turns. Seconds later, the caution returned when Friesen, who was racing in sixth place, got bumped by Enfinger as the latter was hit by Purdy, which sent Friesen for a spin in Turn 2 as Sauter limped his No. 66 TSPORT Ford F-150 to pit road with damage and sparks flying out of the truck.
The start of the next restart period with five laps remaining featured Eckes and Taylor Gray sharing the front row for a second time, where Gray dueled with Eckes through the first two turns until Gray used the outside lane to muscle his No. 17 JBL Toyota Tundra TRD Pro ahead with the lead through the backstretch. Then entering Turn 3, Eckes bumped and sent Gray up the racetrack, which allowed Eckes to reassume the lead while Gray dropped to fifth place.
During the following lap, Rhodes bumped and drew himself into a side-by-side with Eckes through the first two turns and the backstretch before Rhodes muscled his way into the lead through Turns 3 and 4. Rhodes proceeded to lead the next lap before Eckes bumped and drew himself back beneath Rhodes through the first two turns and the backstretch. Eckes would then slip up and cause Rhodes to go up the track, which allowed Eckes to muscle back away with the lead as Purdy came storming in his No. 77 Bama Buggies Chevrolet Silverado RST into the runner-up spot. Purdy and Rhodes would both bump and jostle for the runner-up spot during the following lap as Eckes motored away.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Eckes remained in the lead ahead of a tight side-by-side battle between Purdy and Rhodes for the runner-up spot. With the latter two battling amongst one another and not closing the gap to the lead, Eckes would smoothly cycle his No. 19 Chevrolet around the Martinsville circuit for a final time before he returned to the frontstretch and claimed the checkered flag by more than a second over Rhodes, who edged Purdy at the finish line for the runner-up spot.
With the victory and the Martinsville sweep of the season, Eckes notched his ninth career win in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series division, his fourth of the 2024 season and his first since winning at Nashville Superspeedway in late June. He also recorded the fourth Truck victory of the season for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing and the 12th for the Chevrolet nameplate.
Above all, Eckes, who is in his fourth and final campaign in the Truck Series before he graduates to the Xfinity Series in 2025, officially clinched his spot into this year’s Championship 4 round for the first time in his career as he will contend for his first Craftsman Truck Series championship next weekend at Phoenix Raceway.
Photo by Patrick Sue-Chan for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“[Contending for the championship] feels great,” Eckes, who was met with mixed reactions from the crowd, said on FS1.” Like I told everybody, I wasn’t gonna let us lose this race. The truck was too good. [Racing with Taylor Gray], it was just hard racing. I feel bad about [Rhodes]. I just got way too loose entering the corner, but everybody’s really happy with me. I don’t really care. Proud of everybody for working hard. We’ll go on to Phoenix.”
Not long after, Eckes, who was bumped into the rear by Taylor Gray during the cooldown lap, was met with Gray on the frontstretch as the latter vented his verbal frustration over the late bump and contact caused by Eckes that took Gray out of contention for both the victory and a spot to the Championship 4 round. With both competitors exchanging words while being surrounded by crew members and officials, Gray would give Eckes a light shove to the chest after issuing his warning before he stormed away.
“[Am I happy] With the exchange? No,” Gray, who finished fourth at Martinsville but missed the Championship 4 cutline by 28 points, said. “I got shipped to the fence whenever I raced him perfectly clean in [Turns] 1 and 2. What comes around goes around. I have to race him next year all year long. I guess he’s got that one for him.”
Overall, Gray joins Nick Sanchez, Tyler Ankrum and Rajah Caruth as the bottom four Playoff contenders in the standings to not transfer into the Championship 4 round. On the contrary, Corey Heim and Ty Majeski, who finished seventh and 11th at Martinsville, respectively, claimed the final two berths to the Championship 4 round as both join Eckes and Grant Enfinger in the final Playoff round to contend for their first Truck Series championship.
Rhodes and Purdy finished second and third on the track at Martinsville while Taylor Gray and Nick Sanchez finished in the top five. Layne Riggs, Corey Heim, Tyler Ankrum, Grant Enfinger and Stewart Friesen completed the top-10 final running order.
There were six lead changes for three different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 46 laps. In addition, 19 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Christian Eckes, 187 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner
2. Ben Rhodes, 12 laps led
3. Chase Purdy
4. Taylor Gray, one lap led
5. Nick Sanchez
6. Layne Riggs
7. Corey Heim
8. Tyler Ankrum
9. Grant Enfinger
10. Stewart Friesen
11. Ty Majeski
12. Connor Zilisch
13. Matt Crafton
14. William Sawalich
15. Dawson Sutton
16. Bayley Currey
17. Dean Thompson
18. Corey Day
19. Matt Mills
20. Jake Garcia, one lap down
21. Timmy Hill, two laps down
22. Spencer Body, two laps down
23. Lawless Alan, two laps down
24. Clayton Green, three laps down
25. Justin Carroll, three laps down
26. Jack Wood, four laps down
27. Matthew Gould, five laps down
28. Johnny Sauter – OUT, Accident
29. Tanner Gray – OUT, Accident
30. Brett Moffitt – OUT, Accident
31. Rajah Caruth, 21 laps down
32. Daniel Dye – OUT, Brakes
33. Kaden Honeycutt – OUT, Accident
34. Dylan Lupton – OUT, Accident
35. Landen Lewis – OUT, Brakes
36. Norm Benning – OUT, Brakes
*Bold indicates Playoff competitors
Playoff standings
1. Grant Enfinger – Advanced
2. Christian Eckes – Advanced
3. Corey Heim – Advanced
4. Ty Majeski – Advanced
5. Taylor Gray – Eliminated
6. Nick Sanchez – Eliminated
7. Tyler Ankrum – Eliminated
8. Rajah Caruth – Eliminated
The 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season is set to conclude at Phoenix Raceway, where a champion will be crowned. The finale is scheduled to occur next Friday, November 8, and air at 8 p.m. ET on FS1.
Three weeks after securing a Championship 4 berth by winning the Playoff’s Round of 8 opener at Talladega Superspeedway, Grant Enfinger doubled down in his bid to be known as a legitimate championship contender for this season’s finale by winning the Baptist Health 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday, October 26, following a fuel-mileage battle to the victory.
The 39-year-old Enfinger from Fairhope, Alabama, led twice for 32 of 134-scheduled laps in an event where he started ninth and cruised to a sixth-place result during the event’s first stage period. Then in the closing laps of the second stage period, he charged up the leaderboard and overtook pole-sitter Corey Heim to assume the lead and race his way to the second stage victory. Despite getting entangled with an on-track incident with Playoff contender Christian Eckes at the start of the final stage period that forced Enfinger to eventually pit and lose a lap amid a tire rub, the Alabama veteran seized an opportunity to rally back through the field that started when Conner Jones intentionally wrecked Matt Mills with 60 laps remaining. During the caution period, he received the free pass to cycle back on the lead lap and pitted for fuel that would enable him to reach the event’s scheduled distance.
Then starting with the final restart period with 52 laps remaining, Enfinger began his fuel economy run to the finish while also carving his way back up the leaderboard. While most of his fellow Playoff contenders pitted for fuel midway into the final stage period, Enfinger remained on the track and returned to the lead with 21 laps remaining. Despite reducing his pace for the remainder of the event, Enfinger had built a reasonable gap from his closest competition and had enough fuel saved in his tank to reach the event’s scheduled distance and claim the checkered flag for his second NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory of the 2024 season and in recent weeks.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, October 25, Playoff contender Corey Heim notched his first Truck pole position of the 2024 season with a pole-winning lap at 165.062 mph in 32.715 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender and teammate Taylor Gray, who clocked in his best qualifying lap at 164.689 mph in 32.789 seconds.
Prior to the event, the following names that include Tanner Gray, Matt Mills and rookie Layne Riggs dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective trucks.
When the green flag waved and the race started, the field quickly fanned out through the frontstretch as teammates Corey Heim and Taylor Gray dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. As the field continued to fan out through the backstretch, Heim managed to muscle his No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro ahead from the inside lane through Turns 3 and 4 and he would proceed to lead the first lap.
Over the next four laps and amid a series of early on-track action within the field, Heim proceeded to extend his advantage to as high as seven-tenths of a second over teammate Taylor Gray while Playoff contender Christian Eckes followed suit in third place. Behind, Kaden Honeycutt and Connor Mosack trailed in the top five ahead of Playoff contenders Rajah Caruth and Stewart Friesen while Playoff contenders Ty Majeski, Grant Enfinger and Nick Sanchez followed suit in the top 10.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Heim stabilized his advantage to four-tenths of a second over teammate Taylor Gray while third-place Eckes trailed by eight-tenths of a second. Behind, Honeycutt and Mosack remained in the top five ahead of Majeski, Caruth, Friesen, Enfinger and Sanchez while Daniel Dye, Dean Thompson, Matt Crafton, Connor Zilisch and Playoff contender Tyler Ankrum were racing in the top 15.
Five laps later, Heim stretched his early advantage to nine-tenths of a second over Honeycutt, who overtook Taylor Gray for the runner-up spot a few laps earlier, while Eckes followed suit in fourth place as he trailed Gray by a second. Not long after, Majeski would move into the top five in fifth place as a trio of Playoff contenders that include Caruth, Enfinger and Sanchez were racing from seventh to ninth, respectively, while Heim retained the lead by half a second over Honeycutt at the Lap 20 mark.
By Lap 25, Honeycutt used the outside lane to gain a big draft on Heim through the backstretch, but Heim moved in front of Honeycutt’s No. 45 Moore’s Venture Foods Chevrolet Silverado RST to stall his momentum. Honeycutt, who was running faster lap times than Heim, would proceed to use the outside lane to continue to gain more ground towards Heim’s rear bumper through every corner and straightaway during the proceeding laps as Heim was navigating his way through lapped traffic.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 30, Heim, who came into Homestead 30 points above the top-four cutline in the Playoff standings, fended off Honeycutt to notch his ninth Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Honeycutt settled in second ahead of Majeski, Taylor Gray and Eckes while Enfinger, Mosack, Sanchez, Caruth and Dean Thompson were scored in the top 10. With all but one of eight Playoff contenders racking up the event’s first round of stage points by finishing in the top 10, the remaining Playoff contender, Tyler Ankrum, settled in 16th place behind teammate Daniel Dye.
Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Heim pitted for a first round of pit service that included a change of four fresh tires. Following the pit stops, Heim retained the lead as he exited pit road first ahead of teammate Taylor Gray, Honeycutt, Eckes and Enfinger while Majeski, who lost three spots following his pit service, exited in sixth place ahead of Sanchez, Thompson, Mosack and Matt Crafton. Shortly after, Sanchez was sent to the rear of the field due to speeding while exiting pit road.
The second stage period started under green on Lap 38 as teammates Heim and Taylor Gray occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out through both the frontstretch and the backstretch as Gray received a draft from Eckes to muscle ahead of Heim through the backstretch. As Enfinger muscled into fourth place ahead of Majeski and a steaming pack of trucks through Turns 3 and 4, Eckes challenged Gray for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch during the following lap while Heim followed in close pursuit.
Taylor Gray would then slide his No. 17 Place of Hope Toyota Tundra TRD Pro in front of Eckes’ No. 19 NAPA Chevrolet Silverado RST entering the frontstretch and lead the next lap before Eckes pulled a crossover move to the inside lane and assumed the lead through Turns 1 and 2 on Lap 40. Shortly after, Heim overtook teammate Gray for the runner-up spot as Eckes led the following lap. Heim then overtook Eckes to reassume the lead entering the frontstretch on Lap 42 and he would proceed to slowly muscle away with the top spot. By Lap 45, Heim stretched his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Eckes while Taylor Gray, Enfinger and Majeski followed suit in the top five. Behind, Mosack occupied sixth place as Caruth, Honeycutt, Crafton and Dye were in the top 10.
At the Lap 50 mark, Heim extended his advantage to a second over Eckes while Enfinger muscled his way up to third place as he trailed the lead by two seconds. Meanwhile, Taylor Gray fell back to fourth place ahead of Majeski while Mosack, Caruth, Honeycutt, Dye and Crafton were in the top 10. Towards the middle of the field, Playoff contenders Ankrum and Sanchez were mired in 17th and 19th, respectively, as Heim proceeded to lead by seventh-tenths of a second over Eckes by Lap 55.
Then on Lap 57, Enfinger, who overtook Eckes for the runner-up spot a lap earlier and had been gaining ground on the leaders, steered his No. 9 Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet Silverado RST into the lead from Heim through Turns 3 and 4 while he also almost got sideways entering the frontstretch. He then fended off Heim entering Turns 1 and 2 to retain the top spot.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 60, Enfinger, who is already guaranteed a spot into this year’s Championship 4 field by winning the Playoff’s Round of 8 opener at Talladega Superspeedway earlier in October, notched his third Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Heim settled in second ahead of Eckes, Majeski and Honeycutt while Taylor Gray, Dye, Mosack, Caruth and Crafton were scored in the top 10. With six of eight Playoff contenders racking up the event’s second round of Playoff points, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Ankrum and Sanchez were mired in 16th and 17th, respectively.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Enfinger returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Enfinger exited pit road first as he was followed by Taylor Gray, Heim, Connor Zilisch, Eckes, Honeycutt, Majeski, Caruth, Mosack and Thompson. Shortly after, Zilisch returned to pit road for service due to the Charlotte rookie missing his pit stall during the first cycle with the field.
With 67 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced under green as Enfinger and Taylor Gray occupied the front row. At the start, Taylor Gray muscled ahead into the lead from the inside lane while Eckes and Enfinger collided against one another entering the first turn. As the field fanned out through the first two turns, Eckes fended off Majeski for the runner-up spot while Enfinger, who quickly reassumed third place through the backstretch, had a left-rear tire rub and smoke puffing out of his truck. During the following lap, Enfinger continued to nurse his damaged truck on the track despite dropping out of the top five mark and losing more spots as Taylor Gray retained the lead.
With 64 laps remaining, however, Eckes and Taylor Gray dueled for the lead as Heim and Majeski followed suit in close pursuit. As Enfinger pitted under green to have his damaged truck assessed prior to the following lap, Eckes was out in front of a tight four-truck battle for the lead that involved Heim, Gray and Majeski. Heim then rocketed back into the lead with 62 laps remaining while Eckes followed suit in second. As Gray and Majeski battled for third place, Layne Riggs carved his way up to fifth place while Caruth, Honeycutt, Sanchez, Mosack and Thompson were in the top 10.
Then with 60 laps remaining, the caution flew due to Matt Mills, who was racing in the top 20, getting loose after he received a bump from Conner Jones’ No. 66 TSPORT Ford F-150 and smacked the outside wall in Turn 4 as flames erupted out of his No. 42 Utilitra/J.F. Electric Chevrolet Silverado RST. Following the incident, Mills managed to climb out of his damaged truck under his own power while Jones, who vocally expressed his displeasure with Mills over an earlier on-track battle, was assessed a two-lap penalty for reckless driving. Mills would eventually be taken to a local hospital for further evaluation.
During the caution period, some led by Riggs and including Sanchez and Ankrum pitted while the rest led by Heim remained on the track. Enfinger, who received the free pass during the caution period, also pitted.
The start of the next restart period with 52 laps remaining featured Heim receiving a draft from Majeski to muscle ahead of Eckes to retain the lead as the field fanned out through the first two turns. Then exiting the backstretch, Majeski, who was in third place, shot his No. 98 Poppi/Road Ranger Ford F-150 below the track entering Turns 3 and 4 as he tried to bolt into the lead. Heim, however, used the outside lane and a draft from Eckes to muscle back ahead and retain the lead for the following lap. By then, Majeski managed to claim the runner-up spot as Caruth intimidated Eckes for third place.
Then as Caruth tried to go below Eckes for third place in Turns 3, he got loose, which allowed Riggs and Dye to overtake him as Caruth was left to battle Sanchez and Taylor Gray for seventh place. Shortly after, Riggs overtook Eckes and Majeski on his four fresh tires before he assumed the lead from Heim with 49 laps remaining.
With less than 45 laps remaining, Riggs extended his advantage to more than a second over Sanchez, who also bolted his No. 2 Gainbridge Chevrolet Silverado RST to the front on four fresh tires. With Heim dropping to third place, Mosack followed suit in fourth place ahead of Enfinger, Majeski, Ankrum, Dye, Friesen and Ben Rhodes while Eckes, Caruth and Taylor Gray dropped to 11th, 12th and 13th, respectively. As Heim was overtaken by both Mosack and Enfinger, Riggs retained the lead by a second with 40 laps remaining.
With 36 laps remaining, mixed strategies within the field ensued as Caruth pitted his No. 71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado RST for four fresh tires and fuel under green. Eckes would then pit for the following lap before more names including Crafton, Honeycutt and Majeski pitted during the next lap. Teammates Heim and Taylor Gray would then pit their respective Toyotas under green with 33 laps remaining as Riggs, who was approaching lapped traffic, stabilized his advantage to six-tenths of a second over Sanchez.
Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Riggs, who was among several competitors who continued to race on the track and aiming to stretch their fuel tank to the scheduled distance, continued to lead by a second over Sanchez while third-place Enfinger also trailed by a second. As Mosack, Ankrum, Friesen, Rhodes, Tanner Gray, Chase Purdy and Dawson Sutton followed suit in the top 10, Heim, the first competitor who recently pitted under green, trailed the lead by 31 seconds in 11th place as Majeski, Timmy Hill, Eckes and Caruth were mired in the top 15, with Taylor Gray trailing in 17th place.
Three laps later, Enfinger challenged Riggs for the lead and he would overtake him to lead the following lap. Enfinger, who was also racing on fumes to stretch his fuel tank to the scheduled distance, would proceed to lead by half a second over Riggs while Sanchez trailed in third place by nine-tenths of a second. Meanwhile, Heim trailed the lead by 26 seconds in 10th place as he remained ahead of Majeski, Eckes and Caruth.
With 15 laps remaining, Enfinger, who was slowly reducing his speed while remaining on the track to stretch his fuel tank, continued to lead by more than a second over Riggs while third-place Sanchez trailed by more than two seconds. With Mosack and Friesen in the top five ahead of Ankrum, Heim carved his way up to eighth place and trailed the lead by 24 seconds.
Five laps later, Enfinger retained the lead by more than two seconds over runner-up Riggs and by more than three seconds over Sanchez while Heim, who was still in eighth place, trailed by 21 seconds. By then, Caruth and Taylor Gray, both of whom were strapped in 13th and 14th, respectively, un-lapped themselves while Majeski and Eckes were racing in ninth and 11th, respectively.
Down to the final five laps of the event, Enfinger stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Riggs, who was slowly gaining ground on the former, as Sanchez continued to trail in third place by nearly seven seconds. A lap later, Heim cycled to seventh place but still trailed the leader Enfinger by 18 seconds. Another two laps later, Riggs ran out of fuel as he coasted his No. 38 Love’s RV Stops Ford F-150 below the apron through the first two turns and past Purdy, who also ran out of fuel.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Enfinger remained in the lead by more than 10 seconds over Sanchez. As Sanchez ran out of fuel and dropped off the pace through the backstretch, Enfinger managed to have enough fuel in his dry tank to coast his No. 9 Chevrolet around the Homestead circuit smoothly for a final time and return to the frontstretch victorious for his second consecutive checkered flag of the 2024 Truck Series season.
With the victory, Enfinger notched his 12th career win in the Craftsman Truck Series division and his first at Homestead as this marks the first time ever where the Alabama veteran has notched back-to-back Truck victories in recent weeks. The Homestead victory was also the second ever for CR7 Motorsports and the 10th of the season for the Chevrolet nameplate as Enfinger eyes additional momentum before his bid and the primary focus for the championship battle in the season-finale event at Phoenix Raceway two weeks from now.
“I think the truck we had here was equally as good [as the one from Darlington Raceway] and I feel like we were able to take a disadvantage with whatever happened on that restart [with 67 laps remaining],” Enfinger said on the frontstretch on FS1. “I didn’t think I did anything wrong and my buddy Christian [Eckes] was, I guess, trying to split the middle and just cut our tire a little bit, but just racing. At the end of the day, [crew chief] Jeff Stankiewicz just had the best truck out here. This Champion Power Equipment Chevy was really fast after about five laps yesterday and it was the same way today. [Spotter] Tim [Fedewa] did a good job of managing me with the tires and then Jeff did a good job managing me with the fuel. I felt like I saved at least 20% more than I did in the first run, but Jeff was on me pretty hard. Hard to beat these two weeks.”
“We’ve had potential all year,” Enfinger added. “There’s been some times I haven’t executed. There’s been some times we just had bad luck, but maybe this is the time we get our momentum and like I told the guys, we’ll just not get too worked up over this one. Just focus on Phoenix, but it’s hard not to have momentum. Just overall, proud of the execution of these guys. More than anything, just proud of the speed. We had the fastest truck all day and when you do that, you can even have some slip-ups or mistakes and overcome them.”
With Enfinger winning the race, Ty Majeski came home in second place and Connor Mosack settled in third place while Corey Heim could carve his way back up to as high as fourth place ahead of Tyler Ankrum.
Stewart Friesen, Daniel Dye, Rajah Caruth, Christian Eckes and Taylor Gray finished in the top 10. Meanwhile, Sanchez, who ran out of fuel on the final lap, ended up in 13th place, the final competitor scored on the lead lap, while Riggs fell back to 22nd place, a lap down.
As a result, Heim, Eckes and Majeski enter next weekend’s Round of 8 finale above the top-four cutline to the Championship 4 field while Caruth, Taylor Gray, Ankrum and Sanchez trail the cutline.
There were nine lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured three cautions for 19 laps. In addition, 13 of 34 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Grant Enfinger, 32 laps led, Stage 2 winner
2. Ty Majeski
3. Connor Mosack
4. Corey Heim, 68 laps led, Stage 1 winner
5. Tyler Ankrum
6. Stewart Friesen
7. Daniel Dye
8. Rajah Caruth
9. Christian Eckes, three laps led
10. Taylor Gray, four laps led
11. Matt Crafton
12. Ben Rhodes
13. Nick Sanchez
14. Kaden Honeycutt, one lap down
15. Dean Thompson, one lap down
16. Corey Day, one lap down
17. William Sawalich, one lap down
18. Connor Zilisch, one lap down
19. Dawson Sutton, one lap down
20. Tanner Gray, one lap down
21. Lawless Alan, one lap down
22. Layne Riggs, one lap down, 27 laps led
23. Timmy Hill, two laps down
24. Jake Garcia, two laps down
25. Conner Jones, two laps down
26. Chase Purdy, three laps down
27. Spencer Boyd, three laps down
28. Conor Daly, three laps down
29. Nathan Byrd, four laps down
30. Marco Andretti, seven laps down
31. Bayley Currey, nine laps down
32. Justin Mondeik, 20 laps down
33. Frankie Muniz, 29 laps down
34. Matt Mills – OUT, Accident
*Bold indicates Playoff competitors
Playoff standings
1. Grant Enfinger – Advanced
2. Corey Heim +49
3. Christian Eckes +38
4. Ty Majeski +22
5. Rajah Caruth -22
6. Taylor Gray -24
7. Tyler Ankrum -41
8. Nick Sanchez -43
The Round of 8 in the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs is set to conclude at Martinsville Speedway for the Zip Buy Now, Pay Later 200, which will determine this year’s Championship 4 field. The event is scheduled to occur next Friday, November 1, and air at 6 p.m. ET on FS1.
The feeling of winning at home never felt sweeter for Grant Enfinger, who guaranteed himself an early shot to contend for this year’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship after capping off a dominant performance with a victory in the Love’s RV Stop 225 at Talladega Superspeedway on Friday, October 4.
The 39-year-old Enfinger from Fairhope, Alabama, led nine times for a race-high 34 of 85-scheduled laps in an event where he started in fourth place and spent a majority of the event racing upfront amid the draft and up against both his fellow Playoff and non-Playoff contenders. After finishing second in the first stage before winning the second stage, Enfinger, who would endure three restarts throughout the final stage period, retained the lead at the start of the final one with nine laps remaining. He then fended off late challenges from Playoff contenders Christian Eckes and Taylor Gray through the frontstretch on the final lap and amid a multi-truck wreck approaching the finish line to record his first elusive victory of the season and automatically transfer his way into this year’s Championship 4 round.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, William Sawalich, the 2024 ARCA Menards Series East champion, notched his first Truck Series career pole position after he posted a pole-winning lap at 175.764 mph in 54.482 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Ben Rhodes, who posted his best qualifying lap at 175.648 mph in 54.518 seconds.
Prior to the event, Keith McGee dropped to the rear of the field as a result of replacing Bryan Dauzat in the FDNY Racing entry. Bayley Currey also dropped to the rear of the field due to an engine change to his Niece Motorsports entry.
When the green flag waved and the race started, William Sawalich muscled his No. 1 Starkey/Soundgear Toyota Tundra TRD Pro ahead with the lead from the inside lane as he was followed by Ben Rhodes and Playoff contenders Ty Majeski and Taylor Gray through the first two turns. Sawalich proceeded to lead through the backstretch as a bevy of competitors behind dueled early for positions in two drafting lanes. When the field returned to the frontstretch, Playoff contender Grant Enfinger received a draft from Chase Purdy from the outside lane to rocket his No. 9 Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet Silverado RST ahead and lead the first lap ahead of Sawalich.
Through the second to fifth lap, the field fanned out to three drafting lanes as Purdy, Enfinger and Matt Mills all took turns leading at the front while Jake Garcia, Sawalich, Connor Zilisch, Dean Thompson, Majeski, Playoff contender Tyler Ankrum, Dean Thompson and Lawless Alan all followed pursuit. By then, Ben Rhodes, who started on the front row alongside Sawalich, was penalized for jumping the start, as he launched ahead of Sawalich when he was not in control of bringing the field up to race pace before the event’s start. After serving a drive-through penalty for the penalty, however, Rhodes was penalized a second time, this time for a blend violation as he moved up the racing surface early through the backstretch. The pair of penalties would result in Rhodes losing a lap to the field while Mills and Enfinger dueled for the lead in front of the field.
Through the first 10-scheduled laps, Enfinger was leading ahead of Purdy, Sawalich, Mills and Majeski while Garcia, Playoff contender Taylor Gray, Zilisch, Ankrum and Dean Thomson were racing in the top 10. Behind, Playoff contender Corey Heim occupied 11th place ahead of, Lawless Alan, Playoff contender Christian Eckes, Playoff contender Rajah Caruth and Ryan Reed while Bret Holmes, Nick Sanchez, Stefan Parsons, Stewart Friesen and Tanner Gray were mired in the top 20.
Five laps later, Enfinger, who led three of the previous five laps, was leading by a hair amid a side-by-side battle with Mills while the rest of the field racing in two-packed lanes followed suit. By then, Garcia, Sawalich and Zilisch were running in the top five as Playoff contenders Majeski, Taylor Gray and Ankrum were racing in the top-10 mark. In addition, Heim and Caruth were battling within the top-15 mark while Eckes and Sanchez were mired within the top-20 mark. Meanwhile, Johnny Sauter, who was making his second Truck start of the season with Hattori Racing Enterprises, had pitted to have a broken spoiler brace fixed.
With two laps remaining in the first stage period, Sanchez and Currey pitted their respective entries, primarily for fuel, as Enfinger retained the lead.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 20, Matt Mills received a draft from Garcia to overtake Enfinger from the outside lane through the backstretch and claim his first Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Enfinger settled in second ahead of Garcia, Zilisch and Sawalich while Thompson, Majeski, Alan, Taylor Gray and Tanner Gray were scored in the top 10 on the track. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders that included Ankrum, Heim, Eckes and Caruth were mired within the top 16 while Sanchez was down in 32nd place.
Under the stage break, a majority of the field led by Mills pits while the rest including Stewart Friesen, Matt Crafton, Spencer Boyd and Sanchez remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Enfinger exited pit road first ahead of Majeski, Garcia, Alan, Zilisch, Eckes, Thompson, Taylor Gray, Caruth and Tyler Ankrum. Friesen, Crafton and Boyd would eventually pit prior to the second stage’s start while Sanchez, who pitted before the first stage’s conclusion, remained on the track and inherited the lead.
The second stage period started on Lap 27 as Sanchez and Enfinger occupied the front row. At the start, Sanchez and Enfinger dueled for the lead for a full lap and in front of two stacked lanes. Enfinger was being pushed by Garcia while Sanchez was being pushed by Majeski and Zilisch. By then, Taylor Gray pitted to have a punctured tire on his No. 17 Place of Hope Toyota Tundra TRD Pro removed as both Sanchez and Enfinger continued to duel for the lead by the Lap 30 mark.
Then with three laps remaining in the second stage period, the caution flew after Sanchez, who had both lanes to his control before Enfinger came storming back to challenge him for the lead, got loose by Zilisch through the frontstretch. Sanchez then slid sideways into the path of Zilisch, where Zilisch kept pushing Sanchez’s spinning No. 2 Gainbridge Chevrolet Silverado RST while Sauter, Rhodes and Purdy all wrecked against the outside wall while trying to avoid the wreck. The incident occurred as Mills and Parsons made contact, but avoided igniting a wreck entering the frontstretch while being mired behind Playoff contenders Heim, Ankrum and Taylor Gray, the latter of whom had lost a lap to the field.
The multi-truck incident on Lap 37 was enough for the second stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 40 to officially conclude under caution as Enfinger was awarded his second Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Garcia, Eckes, Alan, Caruth, Thompson, Heim, Tanner Gray, Ankrum and Stefan Parsons were scored in the top 10.
Under the stage break, some, led by Crafton and including Boyd while the rest led by Enfinger pitted. During the pit stops, Mason Maggio, who made contact with Ankrum on pit road, was penalized for having too many men over his pit wall. Soon after and amid the caution period, a bevy of names including Playoff contender Taylor Gray, Sanchez all returned to pit road for additional services.
With 39 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced under green as Dye and Caruth occupied the front row. At the start, Daniel Dye, who received drafting help from a bevy of Chevrolet teammates, including teammate Eckes, muscled his No. 43 NAPA Nightvision Chevrolet Silverado RST ahead of Caruth before he then moved in front of Caruth entering the backstretch. Eckes would also follow suit and he also transitioned his No. 19 NAPA Chevrolet Silverado RST in front of Caruth on the inside lane. By the following lap, Dye was leading ahead of a five-truck breakaway from the field along with teammate Eckes, Ankrum, Caruth and Dean Thompson while Enfinger and Corey Heim dueled for sixth place in front of two lines of stacked competitors.
With 35 laps remaining, teammates Eckes and Dye dueled for the lead in front of two stacked lanes of competitors. Five laps later, the top-10 competitors on the track were separated under a second as Eckes was leading ahead of Enfinger, teammate Dye, Caruth and Parsons while Mills, Garcia, Alan, Kaden Honeycutt and Sanchez were in the top 10.
Then with 28 laps remaining, a majority of field led by Eckes and Enfinger pitted under green. During the pit stops, Caruth blew a tire while he was slamming on the brakes and locking up his front tires of his No. 71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado RST while trying to enter pit road. Caruth, however, would be penalized for being too fast while trying to enter pit road as he eventually lost a lap. In addition, Dye missed pit road and could not pit with the front-runners while Norm Benning spun on pit road after making contact with Stefan Parsons. Soon after, Purdy was seen limping his slowed truck below the apron on the backstretch, but he continued without drawing a caution.
Back on the track with 25 laps remaining, Jason White was leading ahead of Dawson Sutton, Mason Maggio, Honeycutt and Sanchez while Enfinger, Eckes, Garcia, Riggs and Friesen were scored in the top 10.
Shortly after, the caution flew when Garcia got turned off the front nose of Parsons that resulted in Garcia colliding with rookie Layne Riggs and clipping Riggs again that sent Riggs back across the track and into Tanner Gray and Matt Mills up against the outside wall. Connor Zilisch and Dean Thompson would also get involved in the carnage while Playoff contenders Tyler Ankrum and Taylor Gray slid through the infield grass and kicked up dirt to avoid the carnage.
During the caution period, some led by the leader Jason White and including Sutton, Mason Maggio, Clay Greenfield, Cory Roper, Spencer Boyd and Ankrum pitted while the rest led by the new leader Honeycutt remained on the track.
Down to the final 17 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Honeycutt received a draft from Eckes on the inside lane to rocket ahead with the lead through the first two turns. As the field started to fan out to three lanes through the backstretch, Eckes made his move to the outside lane as he overtook Honeycutt while he was followed by Sanchez. Sanchez then made a move beneath Eckes in Turn 4 as he assumed the lead and led the following lap ahead of Honeycutt and Eckes. Sanchez would then be placed on defense to block Eckes and Honeycutt as Enfinger and Taylor Gray started to muscle up into the top five by the following lap.
The caution would then return with 15 laps remaining after Sanchez received a push from Eckes that got him sliding sideways below the apron entering Turn 3. While trying to save his truck from spinning, Sanchez slid up the track backward in between Turns 3 and 4 and barely clipped Dye, which sent Dye for a spin below the turn’s grass. With nearly the entire field dodging Sanchez’s truck, Keith McGee and Mason Maggio wrecked along with Dawson Sutton while avoiding Sanchez.
The start of the following restart period with nine laps remaining featured Enfinger rocketing ahead with the lead with drafting help from Eckes and Alan while Taylor Gray, who restarted outside the front row, blended in line in fourth place ahead of Ryan Reed and Ankrum. With a majority of the front-runners running in a long single-file line towards the inside lane, Enfinger retained the lead for the following lap and ahead of Eckes, Alan, Ankrum and Reed.
Down to the final five laps of the event, the top 12 competitors were racing under a second while the top 16 were separated within a second. In the process, Enfinger was leading ahead of Eckes, Alan, Taylor Gray and Reed while Ankrum, Friesen, Heim, Caruth and Majeski were mired in the top 10 ahead of Bret Holmes and Spencer Boyd.
During the following lap, the field behind Enfinger slowly started to fan out to multiple drafting lanes as Heim, racing in eighth place, was leading a charge from the outside lane with drafting help from Caruth. Heim and Caruth then made contact entering the backstretch, which stalled their momentum and forced both to blend back in the long drafting lane towards the double yellow lines and behind Enfinger, who continued to lead in front of Eckes.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Enfinger remained as the leader ahead of Eckes, Alan, Taylor Gray and Reed while Daniel Dye was trying to ignite a final drafting charge from the outside lane along with Caruth, Parsons and Heim. Enfinger would continue to lead through the backstretch along with Turns 3 and 4 as both Taylor Gray and Ankrum transitioned to the outside lane to receive the drafting momentum Dye was receiving.
Then through the frontstretch and with the finish line in sight, Lawless Alan would then transition to the outside lane, but Taylor Gray and Eckes pinned him in three-wide formation. As Enfinger retained the lead, trouble ignited as Ankrum was bumped and sent spinning through the frontstretch before he was hit in the driver’s side by Friesen. Eckes then slid sideways off the front nose of teammate Reed and shot back across the track, where he collected a majority of the front-runners. Meanwhile, Enfinger managed to fend off a charge from Taylor Gray to claim the checkered flag and grab the victory.
With the victory, Enfinger, who scored his first series victory at Talladega in 2016, became the first Playoff competitor to win the Truck Series Playoff event at Talladega and he became the fifth competitor to achieve multiple Truck victories at Talladega. He also notched his 11th career win in the Craftsman Truck Series and his first since winning at the Milwaukee Mile in August 2023.
Above all, Enfinger, who came into Talladega strapped in seventh place in the Playoff standings, became the first competitor to clinch a spot into this year’s Championship 4 round, where he will contend for the 2024 Craftsman Truck Series championship at Phoenix Raceway on November 8.
“[My team] knew stuff was going to get dicey,” Enfinger, who credited spotter Tim Fedewa with the victory, said on FS1. “We didn’t make all the perfect decisions today, but we had a Champion Power Equipment Chevy [that] was fast enough to get it done today. That was hairy coming right [to the finish]. I knew Taylor [Gray] was coming with a run. Tim told me to go up, then he told me to come down. It’s just Talladega right there. Hopefully, all the fans enjoyed it. It’s nothing like winning at your hometown, home track. On top of that, we get to race for a championship at Phoenix.”
Enfinger’s Talladega victory was also the first ever for CR7 Motorsports, a team that debuted in 2018 and had hired Enfinger as a part-time competitor in 2021 before signing him to a full-time, multi-year deal at the start of this season. Now after recording five top-five results and barely transferring into the Playoff’s Round of 8 throughout the previous 19 events on this year’s schedule, the organization will receive its first opportunity to contend for a NASCAR championship with the veteran Enfinger also setting his sights on claiming the title one year after being one position shy of claiming it.
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“There are just so many people that make this team,” Enfinger added. “It’s a little bit of the little team that could, but we have great resources with our friends over there at [McAnally-Hilgemann Racing]. Obviously, great resources from everybody at Team Chevy. We’ve been knocking on the door. I know it’s speedway race, but we’ve been knocking on the door at all the tracks. I feel like we stumbled that first round of the Playoffs, but it really doesn’t matter now. [I was] able to win our way to Phoenix. Now, we can just focus on that. Looking forward to having some fun the next couple races, but a championship’s on the line now.
Behind Enfinger, Taylor Gray tied his career-best result of second place as he just missed his first victory and an early ticket to the Championship 4 round by 0.041 seconds. Daniel Dye managed to cross the finish line in third place with a destroyed race truck while Rajah Caruth and Lawless Alan finished in the top five. Christian Eckes, Ryan Reed, Stefan Parsons, Bret Holmes and Spencer Boyd finished in the top 10 on the track.
With Playoff contenders Enfinger, Taylor Gray, Caruth and Eckes finishing in the top 10 on the track, the remaining Playoff contenders that included Corey Heim, Ty Majeski, Tyler Ankrum and Nick Sanchez ended up 11th, 12th, 14th and 22nd, respectively. As a result, Eckes, Heim and Majeski leave Talladega above the top-four cutline to the Championship 4 round while Caruth, Gray, Sanchez and Ankrum trail the cutline.
There were 27 lead changes for 12 different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 25 laps. In addition, 23 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Grant Enfinger, 34 laps led, Stage 2 winner
2. Taylor Gray
3. Daniel Dye, three laps led
4. Rajah Caruth, two laps led
5. Lawless Alan
6. Christian Eckes, eight laps led
7. Ryan Reed
8. Stefan Parsons
9. Bret Holmes
10. Spencer Boyd
11. Corey Heim
12. Ty Majeski
13. Stewart Friesen, one lap led
14. Tyler Ankrum
15. Clay Greenfield
16. Cory Roper
17. Danny Bohn
18. Mason Maggio
19. Kaden Honeycutt, three laps led
20. Jason White, seven laps led
21. Norm Benning
22. Nick Sanchez, 10 laps led
23. Matt Crafton, one lap led
24. Dawson Sutton, four laps down, one lap led
25. Chase Purdy, 14 laps down, one lap led
26. Keith McGee – OUT, Accident
27. William Sawalich, 21 laps down
28. Layne Riggs – OUT, Accident
29. Jake Garcia – OUT, Accident
30. Tanner Gray – OUT, Accident
31. Matt Mills – OUT, Accident, 14 laps led, Stage 1 winner
32. Dean Thompson – OUT, Accident
33. Connor Zilisch – OUT, Accident
34. Johnny Sauter – OUT, DVP
35. Ben Rhodes – OUT, Accident
36. Bayley Currey – OUT, Rear Gear
*Bold indicates Playoff competitors
Playoff standings
1. Grant Enfinger – Advanced
2. Corey Heim +30
3. Christian Eckes +29
4. Ty Majeski +5
5. Rajah Caruth -5
6. Taylor Gray -13
7. Nick Sanchez -20
8. Tyler Ankrum- 23
The second Round of 8 event in the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs is set to occur at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida, and is scheduled to occur on October 26 and air at noon ET on FS1.
Corey Heim capped off a roller coaster event that started with starting at the rear of the field to quickly carve his way to the front, dominating and playing a late fuel-mileage battle to perfection on the final lap to win the Kubota Tractor 200 at Kansas Speedway on Friday, September 27.
The 22-year-old Heim from Marietta, Georgia, led three times for a race-high 64 of 134 scheduled laps in an event where he started at the rear of the 34-truck field due to hitting the wall when a part of his suspension rubbed against his right-side tire while trying to post a qualifying lap, which resulted with his No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota team opting to repair the truck and the driver not posting a qualifying lap.
Once he took the green flag from the rear of the field, Heim quickly rocketed his way to a third-place result after the first stage period that spanned 30 laps. He would then muscle the lead away from Playoff rival Christian Eckes at the start of the second stage period and proceed to claim the stage victory. Heim would dominate the final stage period before pitting from the lead with less than 30 laps remaining as part of a late cycle of green flag pit stops.
Then as he cycled his way back to the front in the closing laps, Heim zipped by Playoff contender Ty Majeski, who ran out of fuel on the final lap after he was trying to stretch his fuel tank to the event’s scheduled distance and proceeded to cruise to his sixth NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory of the 2024 season. As a result of his victory, Heim and seven additional Playoff contenders officially transferred from the Playoff’s Round of 10 to 8 while two contenders, including the reigning series champion Ben Rhodes, were eliminated from title contention.
On-track qualifying determined the starting lineup on Friday. Playoff contender Ty Majeski secured his fifth Truck Series pole position of the 2024 season with a pole-winning lap at 175.023 mph in 30.853 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Connor Mosack, who posted his best qualifying lap at 174.565 mph in 30.934 seconds.
Before the event, Playoff contender Corey Heim dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to his TRICON Garage Toyota entry.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Ty Majeski received a push from Playoff contender Christian Eckes from the inside lane to muscle ahead of Connor Mosack through the first two turns and the backstretch. As the field behind fanned out to multiple lanes, Eckes issued an early side-by-side challenge with Majeski for the lead through Turns 3 and 4, where he would lead the first lap by a narrow margin from the outside lane.
Over the next three laps, Eckes and Majeski dueled fiercely for the lead through every corner and straightaway while Connor Mosack followed closely in third place. Amid the early battle for the lead, early trouble struck for Playoff contenders Rajah Caruth and Daniel Dye, both of whom hit the outside wall on separate occasions, with Caruth hitting the wall entering the backstretch on the second lap as Dye scraped the wall entering the frontstretch on the third lap. Amid the scrapes, both kept their trucks running straight and proceeding without drawing a caution.
By the fifth lap, Eckes managed to muscle ahead of Majeski to have both lanes under his control with the top spot. As Conor Daly served a pass-through penalty through pit road for diving his No. 44 Polkadot Chevrolet Silverado RST below the frontstretch’s white lines before taking the green flag, Playoff contender Taylor Gray bounced off the frontstretch’s outside wall and got loose off the front nose of Dawson Sutton while just behind, rookie Layne Riggs nearly spun sideways after he almost brushed the wall. Miraculously, both continued to race straight.
Through the first 10-scheduled laps, Majeski, who reassumed the lead from Eckes two laps earlier, was leading by over Eckes as Playoff contender Nick Sanchez, Stewart Friesen and Mosack were in the top five. Behind, Kaden Honeycutt, Playoff contender Ben Rhodes, Playoff contender Taylor Gray, Dawson Sutton and Layne Riggs were in the top 10 while Tanner Gray, Corey Heim, Jake Garcia, Matt Mills and Daniel Dye were mired in the top 15. With seven of 10 Playoff contenders racing in the top-15 mark, the remaining Playoff contenders including Tyler Ankrum, Grant Enfinger and Rajah Caruth were mired in 18th, 21st and 22nd, respectively.
Shortly after, Daniel Dye, who hit the outside wall for a second time, pitted his No. 43 NAPA Nightvision Chevrolet Silverado RST under green and lost a lap in the process. By then, Majeski had stretched his advantage to two seconds over Eckes as Sanchez, Friesen and Honeycutt followed suit in the top five.
At the Lap 20 mark, Majeski stabilized his advantage to more than two seconds over Sanchez while Eckes dropped to third place. Behind, Honeycutt and Taylor Gray followed suit in the top five while Friesen, Riggs, Heim, Tanner Gray and Mosack were running in the top 10. Meanwhile, Rhodes was mired in 14th, Ankrum was scored in 18th, Enfinger and Caruth were mired back in 20th and 21st, respectively, and Dye was mired in 33rd as he would pit for a second time to address a flat right-front tire, which cost him two more laps in the process.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 30, Majeski, who came into Kansas 58 points above the top-eight cutline in the Playoff standings, captured his sixth Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. With the 10 stage points, Majeski officially clinched his spot into the Playoff’s Round of 8. Eckes followed suit in second along with Heim, who thundered his way from the rear of the field, while Honeycutt, Riggs, Sanchez, Taylor Gray, Tanner Gray, Friesen and Mosack were scored in the top 10. By then, the remaining Playoff contenders that included Caruth, Rhodes, Ankrum, Enfinger and Dye were scored in 16th, 17th, 18th, 21st and 34th, respectively, with the latter three laps down.
Under the stage break, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Majeski pitted for a first round of service while Timmy Hill remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Eckes exited pit road first followed by Heim, Majeski, Sanchez and Riggs. With Hill eventually pitting under the caution period, Eckes cycled back to the lead.
The second stage period started on Lap 37 as Eckes and Heim occupied the front row. At the start, Eckes, who gained a strong start from the inside lane, quickly darted his No. 19 Gates Hydraulics Chevrolet Silverado RST to the outside lane to move in front of Heim. Eckes’ move enabled Majeski to try to gain a run from the inside lane as the field fanned out through the first two turns and the backstretch. With Eckes proceeding to lead the following lap, Majeski and Heim dueled for the runner-up spot while Riggs and Sanchez battled for fourth place in front of Taylor Gray and Kaden Honeycutt. As a series of on-track battles towards the front continued, Eckes led by two-tenths over Heim, with Majeski, Riggs and Sanchez in the top five by Lap 40.
By Lap 45, Heim dueled with Eckes for the lead amid a crossover moves through the frontstretch, where he led a lap for himself for the first time from the inside lane and he would muscle ahead by three-tenths of a second over the following lap. Behind, Riggs trailed in third place by eight-tenths of a second followed by a trio of Playoff contenders that included Majeski, Sanchez and Taylor Gray. With Caruth scored in 11th place behind non-Playoff contenders Tanner Gray, Honeycutt, Bayley Currey and Friesen, Enfinger was in 14th place, Ankrum was scored in 19th place and Rhodes was in 21st place. Meanwhile, Dye was scored two laps down in 31st place.
Five laps later, Heim stretched his advantage to eight-tenths of a second over Riggs, who overtook Eckes for the spot, while Majeski, Taylor Gray and Sanchez continued to follow suit in the top six.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 60, Heim, who had already secured his spot into the Round of 8 by points, notched his eighth Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Riggs followed suit in second place as he trailed by three-and-a-half seconds while Eckes, Majeski, Taylor Gray, Sanchez, Tanner Gray, Honeycutt, Currey and Caruth were scored in the top 10. The remaining Playoff contenders included Enfinger, Ankrum, Rhodes and Dye were mired in 15th, 16th, 21st and 31st, respectively.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Heim returned to pit road for another round of service. Following the pit stops, Heim exited pit road first as he was followed by Riggs and Eckes. Amid the pit stops, Brenden “Butterbean” Queen and Ankrum were both penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation while Dawson Sutton was penalized for being too fast while exiting pit road. Not long after, Taylor Gray, who had a slow pit service, returned to pit road due to an issue with his right front tire.
With 66 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Heim and Riggs occupied the front row. At the start, Heim and Riggs dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Heim muscled ahead from the inside lane. As the field fanned out to multiple lanes while Eckes challenged Riggs for the runner-up spot, Heim rocketed away with the top spot as he led the following lap.
Not long after, Eckes, who was fiercely battling Riggs for the runner-up spot, got loose and caused Riggs to step off the gas as he dropped to fifth place. With Eckes retaining second, Sanchez and Tanner Gray followed suit in third and fourth, respectively. Amid the fierce battle for the runner-up spot, Heim was leading by four-tenths of a second with 60 laps remaining.
A few laps later, the caution returned when Matt Mills, who was battling Taylor Gray and Corey Day for a spot in the top 15, veered dead right into Day as Day made contact against the side of Gray’s No. 17 Place of Hope Toyota Tundra TRD Pro before he hit the Turn 3 outside wall head-on as Mills also slipped and wrecked against the wall. During the caution period, select names including Playoff contenders Majeski, Taylor Gray, and Rhodes pitted while the rest led by Heim remained on the track. Soon after, Rhodes pitted for a second time for fuel that would enable him to reach the event’s scheduled distance on his full tank.
With the race restarting under green with 51 laps remaining, Heim and Eckes battled dead even for the lead in front of two stacked lanes from the first two turns through the backstretch as both Riggs and Sanchez tried to join the battle. Heim would then manage to muscle ahead of Eckes for the lead through Turns 3 and 4 and back to the frontstretch for the following lap. Riggs, who was battling Sanchez for third place during the previous lap, would then overtake Eckes for the runner-up spot a few laps later as he commenced his charge on Heim for the lead while Currey, Sanchez, Chase Purdy and Caruth battled for fourth place.
With nearly 45 laps remaining, the top five competitors were separated by a second as Riggs, who was trying to use every lane to gain ground on Heim through every turn and straightaway, only trailed Heim by a tenth of a second. Behind, Eckes retained third place ahead of Currey and Purdy as Sanchez, Caruth, Mosack, Majeski and Tanner Gray were racing in the top 10. Not long after, Matt Crafton was penalized for a restart violation. Then while trying to serve a pass-through penalty through pit road, Crafton was penalized a second time, this time for missing the commitment line to enter pit road.
As the event was down to its final 40 laps, Heim retained the lead by a tenth of a second over Riggs while third-place Eckes and fourth-place Currey trailed by two seconds. Purdy retained fifth as he trailed the lead by three seconds while Sanchez, Caruth, Majeski, Tanner Gray and Mosack continued to race in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Enfinger, Ankrum, Rhodes, Taylor Gray and Dye were mired in 12th, 13th, 17th, 19th and 27th, with the latter pinned two laps behind.
Then 10 laps later and with Heim slightly stretching his advantage to eight-tenths of a second, a late cycle of green flag pit stops and strategies ensued as Riggs and Enfinger peeled off the track to pit their respective entries. By then, Tanner Gray and Sanchez had pitted under green before Currey and Bret Holmes pitted during the following lap. Mosack, Ankrum and Dean Thompson would pit during the next lap before the leader Heim pitted with 27 laps remaining. More names including Caruth, Eckes, Purdy and Caruth would all pit with 25 laps remaining as Majeski cycled into the lead.
Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Majeski, who opted to remain on the track to stretch his fuel tank and worn tires as far as possible, was leading by seven-and-a-half seconds over runner-up Honeycutt and by eight seconds over third-place Sutton while Rhodes, who commenced his fuel stretch to the event’s scheduled distance and to race his way into the Playoff’s Round of 8, was scored in fourth place. Behind, Heim navigated his way up to seventh place behind teammate Taylor Gray while Enfinger was mired in 17th place behind Caruth.
Five laps later, Majeski continued to lead by nine seconds over Honeycutt while third-place Sutton trailed by 10 seconds. As Rhodes, who was locked in a heated duel with Enfinger for the final transfer spot into the Round of 8, retained fourth place and trailed the lead by 11 seconds, Heim was up to fifth place and trailing the lead by 16 seconds while Friesen, who opted to remain on the track to try to stretch his fuel tank to the distance, dropped to sixth place as he was in front of Riggs.
With 10 laps remaining, Majeski retained the lead by 10 seconds over Honeycutt as Heim boosted his way up to third place. With Sutton following suit in fourth place, Rhodes dropped to fifth place, which left him in jeopardy of not advancing to the Round of 8, as Enfinger, who boosted himself back above the cutline, was up to 13th place on the track and trying to overtake Currey for more.
Down to the final five laps of the event, Majeski, whose lap time continued to decrease while he was on fuel-conservation mode, was ahead by six seconds over a hard-charging Heim while Honeycutt, Riggs and Rhodes were scored in the top five. By then, Eckes and Caruth were in seventh and ninth, respectively, while Enfinger was up to 11th as Sanchez, Taylor Gray, Ankrum and Dye were mired in 15th, 17th, 19th and 27th, respectively.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Majeski, who led by three seconds during the previous lap, remained as the leader by more than a second over Heim, but he dropped his No. 98 Soda Sense Ford F-150 below the frontstretch’s apron as he ran out of fuel. By then, both Friesen and Rhodes also ran out of fuel and lost pace with the field as Heim rocketed past Majeski entering Turn 1. Having enough fuel in his fuel tank, Heim smoothly navigated his No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro around the Kansas circuit for a final time before he returned to the frontstretch victorious as he claimed the checkered flag.
With the victory, Heim, who had already secured his spot into the Playoff’s Round of 8 by points, claimed his 11th career win in the Craftsman Truck Series division, his sixth of the season and his second at Kansas after he won the spring Kansas event in May. Heim also became the first competitor to sweep both Truck Kansas events in a single season as he continues his quest to return to the Championship 4 and contend for this year’s Truck Series championship.
Photo by Ron Olds for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“[I had] Just a deep sigh of relief [when Majeski ran out of fuel],” Heim said on the frontstretch on FS1. “We were the best truck all night. Just huge thank you to my TRICON Garage guys. This is my favorite track. I love coming here. I had a smile on my face all week coming to this place. Just glad we could sweep the year here. It’s just such an awesome place to come. [I] Certainly thought we had [the race] lost there with [Majeski] almost making it on fuel, but it just shows my team made the right [pit] call.”
Behind Heim, rookie Layne Riggs, who was bidding for a third consecutive Truck Series race victory, came home in second place as Christian Eckes, Kaden Honeycutt and Dawson Cram finished in the top five. Ty Majeski, who led 51 laps from pole position, coasted across the finish line in 15th place, the final competitor on the lead lap, after he ended up a single lap shy of having enough fuel to win.
Meanwhile, Grant Enfinger steered his No. 9 Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet Silverado RST to a ninth-place result, which was enough for him to claim the eighth and final transfer spot into the Round of 8. He will join Corey Heim, Christian Eckes, Ty Majeski, Nick Sanchez, Rajah Caruth, Tyler Ankrum and Taylor Gray as eight Playoff contenders transferring into the second round of the Playoffs.
“[Tonight was] Definitely a little bit stressful. Definitely too close for comfort,” Enfinger said. “[Crew chief] Jeff Stankiewicz and all these guys at CR7 Motorsports have done a great job all year, but this is a round we want to forget. We snuck through here and now, we’re looking forward to going to Talladega next week.”
For Ben Rhodes, however, the reigning two-time series champion ended up in 22nd place and a lap down after he ran out of fuel despite trying to stretch his fuel tank in his No. 99 Kubota Ford F-150 to the distance from when he last pitted on Lap 82. The final result left both him and Daniel Dye eliminated from the Playoffs, with the former not remaining in contention for a third title in 2024.
“We could have been a lot better to fire off [tonight’s race],” Rhodes said. “All in all, I’m thankful for all of our partners. I wish we were able to get [my sponsors] another championship run, but the past three seasons have been really good to us.”
The remaining Playoff contenders including Rajah Caruth, Nick Sanchez, Tyler Ankrum, Taylor Gray and Daniel Dye finished seventh, 12th, 14th, 18th and 27, respectively, on the track.
There were 10 lead changes for three different leaders. The race featured three cautions for 20 laps. In addition, 15 of 34 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results:
1. Corey Heim, 64 laps led, Stage 2 winner
2. Layne Riggs
3. Christian Eckes, 19 laps led
4. Kaden Honeycutt
5. Dawson Sutton
6. Tanner Gray
7. Rajah Caruth
8. Bayley Currey
9. Grant Enfinger
10. Connor Mosack
11. Chase Purdy
12. Nick Sanchez
13. Dean Thompson
14. Tyler Ankrum
15. Ty Majeski, 51 laps led, Stage 1 winner
16. Bret Holmes, one lap down
17. Conor Daly, one lap down
18. Taylor Gray, one lap down
19. Nathan Byrd, one lap down
20. Brenden Queen, one lap down
21. Jake Garcia, one lap down
22. Ben Rhodes, one lap down
23. Timmy Hill, two laps down
24. Stewart Friesen, two laps down
25. Matt Crafton, two laps down
26. Justin Mondeik, three laps down
27. Daniel Dye, three laps down
28. Spencer Boyd, five laps down
29. Frankie Muniz, five laps down
30. Lawless Alan, six laps down
31. Jennifer Jo Cobb – OUT, Electrical
32. Corey Day – OUT, Accident
33. Matt Mills – OUT, Accident
34. Marco Andretti – OUT, Brakes
*Bold indicates Playoff competitors
Playoff standings:
1. Corey Heim – Advanced
2. Christian Eckes – Advanced
3. Nick Sanchez – Advanced
4. Ty Majeski – Advanced
5. Rajah Caruth – Advanced
6. Taylor Gray – Advanced
7. Tyler Ankrum – Advanced
8. Grant Enfinger – Advanced
9. Ben Rhodes – Eliminated
10. Daniel Dye – Eliminated
The Round of 8 in the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs is set to occur at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama, for the Love’s RV Stop 225. The event is scheduled to occur next Friday, October 4, and air at 4:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
Three weeks after winning the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoff opener as a non-Playoff contender, rookie Layne Riggs spoiled the Playoffs for a second consecutive race by grabbing a late dominant victory in the UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Thursday, September 19.
Riggs, a second-generation racer from Bahama, North Carolina, led the final 80 of 200-scheduled laps in an event where he qualified 18th and methodically carved his way up the leaderboard, where he would finish in the top 10 at the conclusion of the first stage period before he moved up into the top-five by the end of the second stage period.
Then at the start of the final restart period with 80 laps remaining, Riggs overtook Playoff contender Corey Heim to lead for the first time. Despite having his momentum stalled twice due to a pair of late-race caution periods, starting with 44 laps remaining before occurring again with 19 laps remaining, Riggs, who prevailed during the proceeding restarts, capitalized on the final one with 13 laps remaining to muscle his Ford away from a bevy of Playoff contenders and cruise to his second Truck Series career victory in back-to-back races and of his career at Thunder Valley.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Thursday, Connor Zilisch scored his second pole position in three Truck Series starts after he posted a pole-winning lap at 125.207 mph in 15.325 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender Corey Heim, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 124.186 mph in 15.451 seconds.
Prior to the event, Kaden Honeycutt and Playoff contender Ty Majeski dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries. As a result of Majeski’s penalty, his truck chief Tyler Shullick was ejected for the event and the driver was revoked a pit selection for next weekend’s event at Kansas Speedway.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Connor Zilisch gained an early advantage from the outside lane and proceeded to fend off Corey Heim through the first two turns. As the field jostled for early spots through the backstretch before navigating back to Turns 3 and 4, Zilisch led the first lap in his No. 7 Silver Hare Racing Chevrolet Silverado RST.
Over the proceeding four laps, Zilisch maintained a steady advantage over Heim and William Sawalich while Playoff contenders Rajah Caruth, Christian Eckes and Nick Sanchez followed suit in the top six ahead of Stewart Friesen and Tanner Gray. Behind, Playoff contender Daniel Dye started to battle Tanner Gray for eighth place as Chase Purdy overtook Ty Dillon for 10th place.
Through the first 10-scheduled laps, Zilisch was leading by half a second over Heim as Sawalich, Caruth, Eckes and Sanchez continued to follow suit in the top six. Meanwhile, Friesen, Dye, Tanner Gray and Purdy also followed suit in the top 10 while Matt Crafton, Playoff contender Tyler Ankrum, Ty Dillon, Dean Thompson, Layne Riggs, Playoff contender Grant Enfinger, Stefan Parsons, Jake Garcia, Playoff contender Taylor Gray and Connor Mosack all occupied the top-20 spots. Behind, Playoff contender Ben Rhodes was mired in 23rd place and teammate Ty Majeski was back in 32nd place behind Bret Holmes and Matt Mills.
Fifteen laps later, Zilisch stabilized his advantage to two-tenths of a second over Heim while third-place Sawalich and fourth-place Caruth both trailed by a second. With Eckes and Sanchez continuing to follow suit in fifth and sixth, respectively, ahead of Friesen, Dye, Purdy and Matt Crafton, Majeski was still mired in 28th place and in jeopardy of being lapped by Zilisch while the remaining Playoff contenders that included Ankrum, Enfinger, Taylor Gray and Ben Rhodes were racing within the top-21 mark.
Another 10 laps later, Zilisch retained the lead by a tenth of a second over Heim, who started to close in to Zilisch’s rear bumper as the latter was getting mired in lapped traffic. Behind, Caruth overtook Sawalich for third place while Eckes, who was radioing brake issues to his truck, was trying to fend off Sanchez for fifth place.
On Lap 42, Heim made his move beneath Zilisch through the backstretch before he assumed the lead for the first time through Turns 3 and 4. As Heim started to muscle away with a steady advantage by the Lap 45 mark, Caruth started to challenge Zilisch for the runner-up spot while Sawalich, Sanchez and Eckes trailed by more than a second in the top-six mark.
By Lap 50, Caruth managed to fend his way through lapped traffic to overtake teammate Zilisch for the runner-up spot. While Eckes and Friesen pinned the lapped competitor of Keith McGee in a three-wide battle for sixth place ahead of Riggs, Caruth would then overtake Heim for the lead from the outside lane and through the frontstretch on Lap 52.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 55, Caruth, who came into the event four points below the top-eight cutline in the Playoff standings, fended off Heim amid a bevy of lapped traffic to notch his first Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Heim settled in second ahead of Eckes, Zilisch and Sanchez while Friesen, Sawalich, Riggs, Purdy and Daniel Dye were scored in the top 10. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders Taylor Gray, Majeski, Ankrum, Rhodes and Enfinger were mired in 17th, 20th, 21st, 22nd and 24th, respectively, while 30 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap.
Under the stage break, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Caruth pitted for a first round of pit service while Timmy Hill remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Heim exited pit road first ahead of Caruth, Eckes, Zilisch and Sanchez while Sawalich, Riggs, Tanner Gray, Friesen and Dye followed suit in the top 10, respectively.
The second stage period started on Lap 65 as Timmy Hill and Heim occupied the front row. At the start, Heim used the four fresh tires on the inside lane to rocket his No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro away from Hill with the lead entering the backstretch. With Heim pulling away, Caruth and Eckes overtook Hill for second and third, respectively, as the field behind scrambled for positions. With Zilisch making his way up to fourth place and a series of on-track battles ensuing, Heim proceeded to lead just past the Lap 70 mark.
At the Lap 75 mark, Heim was leading by nearly half a second over Caruth while third-place Eckes trailed by nearly a second. Behind, Zilisch and Riggs were in the top five ahead of Sanchez, Friesen, Sawalich, Crafton and Timmy Hill as Dean Thompson, Purdy, Daniel Dye, Tanner Gray and Majeski trailed in the top 15 ahead of Taylor Gray, Enfinger, Conner Jones, Mosack and newcomer Corey Day. With Playoff contenders Rhodes and Ankrum mired within the top-30 mark, Heim maintained the lead by half a second by Lap 80.
Just past the Lap 90 mark, Heim’s advantage stabilized to four-tenths of a second over Caruth, with both approaching lapped traffic, as Eckes trailed in third place by a second. As Zilisch and Riggs continued to trail in the top five ahead of Sanchez on the track, Caruth started to issue his challenge on Heim for the lead from the inside lane and he would emerge ahead to lead the Lap 100 mark before Heim fought back from the outside lane. Eckes then joined the battle a few laps later and he would overtake Caruth for the runner-up spot while Heim maintained the lead. Heim would then lap Rhodes, who was mired in 29th place, another lap later.
Then on the final lap of the second stage period, the caution flew due to Zilisch spinning in Turn 4 from the top five after he got a bump from Sanchez’s No. 2 Gainbridge Chevrolet Silverado RST exiting the backstretch. The incident involving Zilisch, who lost a lap while trying to straighten his truck, was enough for the second stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 110 to officially conclude under caution as Heim, who came into the event 41 points above the cutline, claimed his seventh Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Eckes, Caruth, Riggs and Sanchez followed suit in the top five while Friesen, Sawalich, Crafton, Thompson and Purdy were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Dye, Taylor Gray, Majeski, Enfinger, Ankrum and Rhodes were mired in 11th, 12th, 13th, 16th, 24th and 30th, respectively, while 27 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap.
During the stage break, select names led by Nick Sanchez pitted for service while the rest led by Heim, including a majority of the front-runners, remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, newcomer Corey Day was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation.
With 80 laps remaining, the final stage commenced under green as Heim and Eckes occupied the front row. At the start, Heim gained a strong launch from the outside lane to retain the lead through the first two turns. Then as Heim transitioned to the inside lane in front of Eckes, Riggs, who restarted behind Heim, remained on the outside lane to challenge and overtake Heim for the lead through the frontstretch. With Riggs leading the following lap by a hair, he then cleared Heim while remaining on the outside lane and proceeded to lead the next lap mark. With Riggs continuing to lead with 75 laps remaining, Heim and Eckes followed suit in second and third, respectively, while Friesen and Caruth battled for fourth place in front of Sawalich and Crafton.
With 65 laps remaining, Riggs stretched his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Heim as Eckes, Caruth and Friesen followed suit in the top five. As non-Playoff contenders Sawalich, Crafton, Purdy and Thompson followed suit in the top nine, Playoff contenders Sanchez, Majeski, Taylor Gray, Daniel Dye, Ankrum and Enfinger followed suit from 10th to 15th, while Rhodes was mired in 30th and trapped a lap down.
Fifteen laps later, Riggs stabilized his steady advantage to half a second over Heim as both Caruth and Eckes trailed by a second in third and fourth, respectively. With Friesen retaining fifth place ahead of Sawalich, Crafton and a hard-charging Sanchez, Playoff contenders Majeski, Taylor Gray, Dye, Ankrum and Enfinger were all mired in the top 15 as Rhodes, who was lapped for a second time, was back in 30th place.
Six laps later, the caution flew when Playoff contender Daniel Dye, who was running in 14th place and had a flat tire to his No. 43 Champion Container Chevrolet Silverado RST, slipped sideways entering the frontstretch and was hit by Kaden Honeycutt as the latter sustained significant damage to his No. 45 Moore’s Venture Foods Chevrolet Silverado RST. With Honeycutt being taken out of contention, Dye would drop out of the lead lap category as his truck was being repaired.
During the caution period, select names including Bayley Currey, Ty Dillon, Enfinger, Tanner Gray, Stefan Parsons, Matt Mills, Lawless Alan and Rhodes pitted while the rest led by Riggs remained on the track.
The start of the following restart period with 29 laps remaining featured Riggs and Heim dueling for the lead through the first two turns until Heim got loose underneath Riggs entering the backstretch. Heim’s slip allowed Riggs to muscle his No. 38 Love’s Travel Stops Ford F-150 ahead with two clear lanes to his advantage as he led the following lap. Riggs would proceed to lead with 25 laps remaining while Playoff contenders Heim, Eckes and Caruth followed suit in the top four ahead of Crafton, Friesen, Sanchez, Sawalich, Purdy and Taylor Gray.
Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Riggs extended his advantage to nine-tenths of a second over Heim as Eckes, Caruth and Crafton trailed in the top five by within two seconds. Another lap later, however, Riggs’ momentum was stalled due to the caution returning as Jack Wood, who was running within the top-20 mark, spun his No. 91 Mongoose Chevrolet Silverado RST due to contact from Ben Rhodes that started when they exited the backstretch before the incident concluded with Wood sliding to a halt below the apron in Turn 4. By then, Dye lost more laps after he pitted under green earlier.
With the race restarted under green with 13 laps remaining, Riggs and Heim again dueled for the lead as Caruth tried to make the battle fanned out to three lanes entering the first two turns. Amid the battle, Riggs used the outside lane to muscle ahead with the lead through the backstretch as Heim, Caruth and Eckes battled for second place in front of the field. With Heim, Caruth and Eckes fiercely battling for the runner-up spot, Riggs continued to lead with 10 laps remaining.
Down to the final five laps of the event, Riggs extended his advantage to over a second over a three-truck battle involving Heim, Caruth and Eckes as Sanchez was up to fifth place ahead of Crafton, Purdy, Majeski, Friesen, Ankrum and Sawalich.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Riggs remained as the leader by a second over Heim and Caruth while Eckes was losing ground and trailing by two seconds in fourth place. With a comfortable advantage and no challengers closing in from behind, Riggs was able to smoothly cruise his way around the Bristol circuit for a final time before he cycled back to the frontstretch and zipped back across the finish line for his second consecutive checkered flag of the 2024 Truck Series season.
With the victory, Riggs, who celebrated his first career win at the Milwaukee Mile three races ago in late August, became the first competitor to back up a first career victory with a second in back-to-back Truck Series starts since Chase Briscoe made the last accomplishment between winning his first career race at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November 2017 and winning in his one-race series’ return at Eldora Speedway in July 2018. Riggs also became the 26th competitor overall to win a Truck race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Riggs’ victory was the fourth of the season and in recent weeks for the Ford nameplate and the 10th overall for Front Row Motorsports in the Truck Series. While this season marks the first time a competitor won the first two Truck races of the Playoffs since Sheldon Creed made the previous accomplishment in 2021, Riggs became the first non-Playoff competitor to commence the Playoffs with back-to-back victories.
“Oh my gosh,” Riggs said on FS1. “We have just learned so much with the cars and trucks. My team, Dylan [Cappello], my crew chief, he’s badass. He works so hard at night. We as a team, we’re a young team. I think the average age [of the No. 38 team] is like in the 20s. It’s so amazing. To be running fifth, 10th and all of sudden, go back to back [with victories] in the Playoffs. Man, I wish I was in the Playoffs so bad. I think we’d be a real threat to win this championship.”
Behind Riggs, Corey Heim edged a hard-charging Rajah Caruth to claim his third runner-up result of the 2024 season. The result was enough for Heim to clinch a spot by points into the Playoff’s Round of 8 as he continues his pursuit for his first series’ championship.
“[I] Didn’t quite have it when the grooves started to move around there,” Heim said. “Every time we got a heat cycle on the tires, it seemed like it got tighter and tighter. Just didn’t quite have it, but solid points day in the Playoffs. That’s what you need. I’ll keep moving forward with TRICON Garage, Safelite, Toyota Racing. Huge thanks to all those guys and looking forward to my favorite place next week [at Kansas].”
In addition to Heim, Christian Eckes and Nick Sanchez have also secured their spots into the Round of 8 by finishing fourth and fifth, respectively.
“It’s a great turnaround for us because I felt like we were maybe a 10th to 12th-place race car in practice,” Eckes said. “Kudos to [crew chief] Charles [Denike] and the [No. 19] guys for getting [the truck] tuned up to run top five. We weren’t race-winning capable, but still a decent run. Just proud of everybody. It’s cool to be locked in the next [Playoff] round, but I got to go take care of business at Kansas first.”
“[I’m] Happy to recover to fifth,” Sanchez added. “Obviously, I show up to win, so [I] need to be a little better than fifth on my end on some things, but yeah, good night. We locked in the Rev Racing Gainbridge Chevrolet [into the Round of 8]. We go to Kansas and just focus on winning.”
Matt Crafton, Chase Purdy, Ty Majeski, Stewart Friesen and Tyler Ankrum finished in the top 10 on the track while the remaining Playoff contenders that included Taylor Gray, Grant Enfinger and Ben Rhodes ended up 12th, 17th and 30th, respectively.
As a result, Daniel Dye and Ben Rhodes are the two Playoff contenders who enter next weekend’s Round of 10 finale below the cutline in the Playoff standings while Enfinger holds sole possession of the eighth and final transfer spot above the cutline by seven points.
There were eight lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 39 laps. In addition, 23 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Layne Riggs, 80 laps led
2. Corey Heim, 65 laps led, Stage 2 winner
3. Rajah Caruth, nine laps led, Stage 1 winner
4. Christian Eckes
5. Nick Sanchez
6. Matt Crafton
7. Chase Purdy
8. Ty Majeski
9. Stewart Friesen
10. Tyler Ankrum
11. William Sawalich
12. Taylor Gray
13. Bret Holmes
14. Dean Thompson
15. Bayley Currey
16. Stefan Parsons
17. Grant Enfinger
18. Corey Day
19. Connor Zilisch, 41 laps led
20. Connor Mosack
21. Jake Garcia
22. Timmy Hill, five laps led
23. Tanner Gray
24. Lawless Alan, one lap down
25. Matt Mills, one lap down
26. Jack Wood, one lap down
27. Ben Rhodes, two laps down
28. Justin Mondeik, two laps down
29. Spencer Boyd, two laps down
30. Ty Dillon, two laps down
31. Mason Maggio, four laps down
32. Daniel Dye, six laps down
33. Keith McGee, six laps down
34. Tyler Tomassi, eight laps down
35. Kaden Honeycutt – OUT, Accident
36. Conner Jones – OUT, Overheating
*Bold indicates Playoff competitors
Playoff standings
1. Christian Eckes – Advanced
2. Corey Heim – Advanced
3. Nick Sanchez – Advanced
4. Ty Majeski +58
5. Rajah Caruth +35
6. Tyler Ankrum +25
7. Taylor Gray +23
8. Grant Enfinger +7
9. Daniel Dye -7
10. Ben Rhodes -12
The Round of 10 in the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs is set to conclude at Kansas Speedway for the Kubota Tractor 200, where the first of two elimination processes will occur. The event is scheduled to occur next Friday, September 27, and air at 8:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
For a second time since the inception of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series’ Playoff format, a non-Playoff contender stole the final spotlight in the Playoff opener as rookie Layne Riggs dominated the final stage and cruised to his first Craftsman Truck Series career victory in the LiUNA! 175 at the Milwaukee Mile on Sunday, August 25.
The 22-year-old, second-generation racer from Bahama, North Carolina, led the final 53 of 175-scheduled laps in an event where he qualified in 16th place but methodically drove his way to the front, where he would spend the majority of the event running upfront with a bevy of Playoff contenders.
Then after notching a total of 13 stage points between the event’s first two stage periods, Riggs flexed his horsepower at the start of the final stage period with 56 laps remaining to move into second place before he then muscled past Playoff contender Ty Majeski for the lead three laps remaining. With the lead in his sole possession, Riggs would maintain it for the remainder of the event and beat Majeski by one-and-a-half seconds to score his first elusive Truck Series career win.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, August 24, Playoff contender Ty Majeski notched his fourth Truck pole position of the 2024 season after he posted a pole-winning lap at 122.556 mph in 29.815 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Tanner Gray, who posted the second-fastest qualifying lap at 122.469 mph in 29.836 seconds.
Prior to the event, Playoff contender Rajah Caruth and Justin Carroll dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective trucks.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Ty Majeski rocketed his No. 98 Road Ranger/Soda Sense Ford F-150 ahead with a strong start from the inside lane and he retained the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch while Playoff contender Christian Eckes, who started behind Majeski on the inside lane, used every inch of the first two turns to muscle his No. 19 NAPA Chevrolet Silverado RST past Tanner Gray’s No. 15 Dead On Tools Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for the runner-up spot. As the field behind jostled for early spots, Majeski proceeded to lead the first lap.
Over the next four laps, Majeski stabilized his lead to as high as six-tenths of a second over runner-up Eckes while Playoff contenders Corey Heim and Nick Sanchez made their way into third and fourth, respectively, ahead of Tanner Gray and Kaden Honeycutt. With William Sawalich, winner of the ARCA Menards Series event at Milwaukee earlier in the day, running in seventh, Playoff contenders and teammates Tyler Ankrum and Daniel Dye followed suit in the top nine while rookie Layne Riggs occupied 10th place ahead of Playoff contender Grant Enfinger.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Majeski extended his early advantage to more than a second over Eckes while Heim, Sanchez and Honeycutt followed suit in the top five ahead of Tanner Gray, William Sawalich, Ankrum, Daniel Dye and Riggs. Behind, Enfinger retained 11th place ahead of Matt Crafton, with Playoff contenders Ben Rhodes and Taylor Gray occupying 13th and 14th, respectively, ahead of Sammy Smith, Jake Garcia, Dean Thompson, Matt Mills, Chase Purdy and Ty Dillon. Meanwhile, Playoff contender Rajah Caruth was up to 24th place after starting at the rear of the field while Bayley Currey plummeted to 36th place, dead last, due to pitting under green from the top-15 mark after getting squeezed into the frontstretch’s outside wall by Taylor Gray and Crafton that cut Currey’s left-front tire on the sixth lap.
Ten laps later, Majeski’s advantage was reduced to eight-tenths of a second over Eckes as Heim and Sanchez trailed the lead as far back as five seconds. Behind, Ankrum retained eighth place and was running two spots ahead of Dye while Enfinger, Rhodes, and Taylor Gray were running 11th, 13th, and 14ty, respectively. By then, Caruth was still mired in 23rd as Honeycutt continued to run as the highest non-Playoff contender in fifth place ahead of Tanner Gray and Sawalich.
Another 15 laps later, Majeski regained his wide advantage from early in the race as he was now leading by more than a second over Eckes. Behind, Heim continued to fend off Sanchez in third place, where the former was ahead of the latter by half a second, while Honeycutt retained fifth place ahead of Tanner Gray, Sawalich, Ankrum, Dye and Riggs. Meanwhile, Caruth cracked the top 20 as he was running in 20th place behind Matt Mills while Playoff contenders Enfinger, Ben Rhodes and Taylor Gray remained in 11th, 13th and 14th, respectively.
Then on Lap 42, Eckes took advantage of Majeski getting mired behind lapped traffic, starting through the backstretch and through Turns 3 and 4 before returning to the frontstretch, to move into the lead as he used the outside lane to overtake Majeski along with lapped competitors Bret Holmes and Chase Purdy. Eckes proceeded to stretch his advantage to more than a second just past the Lap 45 mark while Heim, Sanchez and Honeycutt trailed the lead as far back as six seconds.
Then on Lap 47, the event’s first caution period flew when Jayson Alexander got loose and hit the outside wall in Turn 3, where his truck came to a stop. During the caution period, nearly the entire field led by Eckes pitted while Ty Dillon and Jake Garcia remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Eckes exited pit road first ahead of Majeski, Sanchez, Heim, Riggs and Dye, respectively. Amid the pit stops, Heim was sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road.
With the caution period being extended towards the first stage’s conclusion period at Lap 55, the first stage period officially concluded under caution. As a result, Ty Dillon, who remained on the track, claimed his first Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Jake Garcia, who also remained on the track, followed suit in second ahead of Eckes, Majeski and Sanchez while Riggs, Dye, Tanner Gray, Taylor Gray and Ankrum were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Enfinger, Rhodes, Caruth and Heim were mired back in 13th, 18th, 19th and 22nd, respectively, as they missed the first round of opportunities for stage points.
Under the stage break and extended caution period, select names including the leader Ty Dillon, Garcia, Stewart Friesen, Conner Jones and Chase Purdy pitted while the rest led by Eckes remained on the track.
Amid an extended caution period, where Dexter Bean stalled on the frontstretch just past the Lap 60 mark, the second stage period started on Lap 62 under green as Eckes and Majeski occupied the front row. At the start, Eckes muscled ahead of Majeski to retain the lead through the first two turns and from the inside lane while Riggs overtook Majeski for the runner-up spot entering the backstretch. As Eckes proceeded to lead the following lap, Riggs followed suit in second ahead of Majeski, Sanchez and the Gray brothers while Crafton was battling Dye for seventh place ahead of Ankrum, Honeycutt and Enfinger.
By Lap 70, Eckes maintained a narrow lead over Riggs as Majeski, Sanchez and Tanner Gray followed suit in the top five. Eckes would proceed to slightly stabilize his advantage to three-tenths of a second by Lap 75 over Riggs as Majeski, Sanchez and Tanner Gray continued to trail in the top five. Meanwhile, Heim, who restarted just outside the top 20 amid his pit road speeding penalty, was up to 14th place in his No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro behind Rhodes while Taylor Gray, Dye, Crafton, Ankrum and Honeycutt rounded out the top 10 ahead of Enfinger and Dean Thompson. Amid the battles upfront for a majority of the Playoff contenders, Caruth was mired back in 20th place.
Ten laps later, Eckes retained the lead by half a second over Riggs, with third-place Majeski trailing the lead by a second and fourth-place Sanchez trailing by more than two seconds. Behind, the Gray brothers retained fifth and sixth, with older brother Tanner racing ahead of younger brother Taylor, while Dye occupied seventh place as he was two spots ahead of teammate Ankrum.
At the halfway mark between Laps 87 and 88, Eckes extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Majeski and Riggs as Sanchez, Tanner Gray, Taylor Gray, Dye, Crafton, Anrkum and Honeycutt followed suit in the top 10 ahead of Enfinger, Rhodes, Thompson, Heim, Sammy Smith, Ty Dillon, Matt Mills, Caruth, Garcia and Sawalich.
Through the Lap 100 mark, Eckes stabilized his advantage to more than two seconds over Majeski while Riggs, Sanchez and Taylor Gray trailed the lead as far back as six seconds. By then, Playoff contenders Dye and Ankrum were in sixth and ninth, respectively, while Enfinger, Rhodes and Heim trailed in the top 13. In addition, Caruth was mired back in 18th place behind Dillon and Mills.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 110, Eckes cruised to his ninth Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Majeski followed suit in second ahead of Riggs, Sanchez and Taylor Gray while Dye, Ankrum, Crafton, Honeycutt and Enfinger were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Rhodes, Heim and Caruth were mired back in 11th, 13th and 19th, respectively.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Eckes returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Eckes retained the lead as he exited pit road first ahead of Riggs, Majeski, Sanchez, Dye, Taylor Gray, Ankrum, Heim, Tanner Gray and Enfinger.
With 56 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Eckes and Riggs occupied the front row. At the start, Eckes gained a brief advantage from the inside lane through the frontstretch until he went wide, which allowed Majeski to capitalize and clear Eckes off of Turn 2 with the lead. As the field fanned out to multiple lanes through the first two turns and the backstretch, Riggs then joined the battle for the lead with Majeski and Eckes, but Majeski retained the top spot as Matt Mills got sideways off the front nose of Caruth and hit the wall in Turn 3, though the race remained under green flag conditions. With Majeski leading Riggs for the following lap, Eckes fell back to third as he had Heim, Taylor Gray, Ankrum, Sanchez and more trailing in from behind.
Then with 53 laps remaining, Riggs battled and overtook Majeski to lead for the first time through the backstretch. Riggs proceeded to lead by half a second in his No. 38 Zorn Compressor & Equipment Ford F-150 over Majeski with 50 laps remaining as Eckes, Heim and Sanchez trailed in the top five by less than three seconds. By then, nine of 10 Playoff contenders were running in the top 13 while Caruth, the lone Playoff contender who was not running inside the top 13 on the track, was mired back just within the top-20 mark.
With 40 laps remaining, Riggs stabilized his advantage to six-tenths of a second over Majeski while Eckes, Sanchez and Heim trailed in the top five by as far back as four seconds. Meanwhile, Taylor Gray trailed in sixth place by five seconds while Ankrum, Rhodes, Tanner Gray and Dye were scored in the top 10 ahead of Crafton, Honeycutt, Enfinger, Sawalich and Ty Dillon. Meanwhile, Caruth was mired back in 19th place in front of Dean Thompson.
Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Riggs extended his advantage to a second over runner-up Majeski as Eckes, Sanchez and Heim were running in the top five, with the latter three trailing by more than four seconds. Behind, Taylor Gray, Ankrum, Rhodes, Dye and Tanner Gray followed suit in the top 10 while Playoff contenders Enfinger and Caruth were mired back in 13th and 17th, respectively.
Five laps later, Riggs continued to lead the race ahead of eight Playoff contenders and by a second over his closest challenger Majeski. Riggs would proceed to retain the top spot by seven-tenths of a second over runner-up Majeski with 15 laps remaining while third-place Eckes trailed in third place by one-and-a-half seconds
With 10 laps remaining, Riggs, who was being mired in lapped traffic and had his steady advantage steadily decreasing over the last several laps, continued to lead by nine-tenths of a second over Majeski while third-place Eckes continued to trail by one-and-a-half seconds in third place ahead of Sanchez and Heim. Heim would then be entangled in a battle for fifth place with teammate Taylor Gray and Ankrum while Dye, Rhodes and Crafton trailed in the top 10.
Down to the final five laps of the event, Riggs stretched his advantage back up to a second over runner-up Majeski as Majeski had Eckes trailing him by nine-tenths of a second. By then, fourth-place Sanchez trailed by three seconds while Taylor Gray, who persevered in his late battle against teammate Heim and Ankrum, was running in fifth place and trailing the lead by six seconds.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Riggs remained as the leader by one-and-a-half seconds over Majeski. With Majeski unable to quickly narrow the deficit, Riggs, who was mired within no lapped traffic that could stall his momentum, cycled his Ford smoothly around the Milwaukee circuit for a final time before he streaked back to the frontstretch and claimed his first checkered flag in his 23rd series’ start.
With the victory, Layne Riggs, the leading Rookie-of-the-Year candidate who did not make the 2024 Truck Series Playoffs, became the 125th competitor overall to win in the Craftsman Truck Series division, a list that includes his father and former NASCAR competitor, Scott Riggs. He also joined Nick Sanchez and Rajah Caruth as competitors to record their first Truck victories in 2024 and he notched the ninth Truck career victory for Front Row Motorsports, with the team winning for the first time since Talladega Superspeedway in October 2023 with Brett Moffitt. The victory was also a first for rookie crew chief Dylan Cappello.
Prior to his first Truck career victory, Riggs had only notched four top-five results while ending up with 10 results of 18th or worse through 16 starts in his rookie campaign. Riggs’ Milwaukee victory, which made him the spoiler of the day as a non-Playoff contender, resulted in the 10 qualified Playoff contenders missing their first shot of automatically transferring past the Round of 10 to 8 by not winning the Playoff opener.
The only thing that went wrong for Riggs’ first victory was the driver dislocating his shoulder while standing atop his roof and pumping his fists in the air and in front of the Milwaukee fans after claiming his checkered flag. Nonetheless, Riggs would receive assistance from his No. 38 pit crew to climb back down from his truck’s roof as he then proceeded to celebrate both on the frontstretch and in Victory Lane.
“I don’t even know how to describe [the first win],” Riggs said in Victory Lane on FS1. “The biggest thing I can do is just thank Zorn that was on the truck this weekend. It’s their first race. It’s awesome for them. Thank you to [team owner] Bob Jenkins, [general manager] Jerry Freeze for letting me drive this [No. 38] truck. I mean, it’s been no surprise that we’ve had a terrible year. It’s been an awful year. I’ve learned so much, though, and I went through my rookie season. After the start, I thought there’s no way we were going to get a win. We do the best we can, but we’re just learning for next year. I knew in practice, this [truck] was pretty awesome. [Me and my team] have a good time together and we’re a family now.”
“[My shoulder] hurts like a mug, but hey, it was worth it,” Riggs jokingly added. “It’s not the first time it’s happened to me, but it ain’t going to slow me down.”
Behind Riggs, Ty Majeski, the pole winner who led 45 laps and was a local hero of the venue as a native of Seymour, Wisconsin, settled in second place as he fell short of winning three races in a row in recent weeks while Eckes, the 2024 Truck Series Regular Season Champion who led a race-high 71 laps, came home in third place for his ninth top-three result of the 2024 season.
Amid the disappointments of not winning the Playoff opener and automatically transferring into the second Playoff round, both Majeski and Eckes continue to set their sights on transferring to this year’s Championship 4 round at Phoenix Raceway and contending for their first series championship.
“I think the fact that we missed [the setup] as bad as we did and we were as close as we were is super encouraging,” Majeski, who is 44 points above the top-eight cutline in the Playoff standings, said. “That means we have a lot of speed in our trucks. It’s just up to us to hit the package right. [Crew chief] Joe [Shear Jr.] and I put our heads together to come up with our Phoenix [Raceway] package and come up with some changes to it, to try and make it better for Phoenix. [I] Don’t know that we got there quite yet, but super proud of the run we’ve had the last three races. We’re hitting on all eight cylinders right now and super proud of everybody. Everybody back at the shop has been working hard over the course of the Olympic break, into Richmond and into Milwaukee here to get our trucks better. We’re seeing that improvement and I feel good about where we’re at. We’re poised to make a pretty good run here, so we got to keep it going.”
“I was leading on the bottom [lane] and [the truck] bottomed out for the first time all day,” Eckes, who leads the Playoff standings and is 60 points above the cutline, added. “It shot up the racetrack and just couldn’t recover. I was way too tight. [I] Felt like it was going to build tight and it did and we just weren’t aggressive enough on adjustments. Proud of everybody, but definitely a pretty big missed opportunity. We’ll see what happens, but disappointed in that.”
Nick Sanchez rallied from a late retirement at Richmond Raceway two weeks ago by finishing in fourth place while Taylor Gray muscled his No. 17 JBL Toyota Tundra TRD Pro to a strong fifth-place result.
Playoff contenders Tyler Ankrum, Corey Heim, Daniel Dye and Ben Rhodes finished sixth through ninth, respectively, while Matt Crafton came home in 10th place.
Notably, Playoff contender Grant Enfinger ended up in 13th place behind Kaden Honeycutt while Playoff rookie Rajah Caruth capped off his long afternoon in 17th place behind Sammy Smith.
There were five lead changes for four different leaders. The race featured two cautions for 22 laps. In addition, 20 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Layne Riggs, 53 laps led
2. Ty Majeski, 45 laps led
3. Christian Eckes, 71 laps led, Stage 2 winner
4. Nick Sanchez
5. Taylor Gray
6. Tyler Ankrum
7. Corey Heim
8. Daniel Dye
9. Ben Rhodes
10. Matt Crafton
11. Tanner Gray
12. Kaden Honeycutt
13. Grant Enfinger
14. William Sawalich
15. Jack Wood
16. Ty Dillon, six laps led, Stage 1 winner
17. Sammy Smith
18. Rajah Caruth
19. Dean Thompson
20. Stewart Friesen
21. Jake Garcia, one lap down
22. Conner Jones, one lap down
23. Chase Purdy, two laps down
24. Matt Mills, two laps down
25. Timmy Hill, two laps down
26. Bret Holmes, two laps down
27. Mason Maggio, two laps down
28. Spencer Boyd, three laps down
29. Bayley Currey, three laps down
30. Dexter Bean, three laps down
31. Marco Andretti, five laps down
32. Thad Moffitt, six laps down
33. Matthew Gould, six laps down
34. Justin Carroll, eight laps down
35. Lawless Alan – OUT, Suspension
36. Jayson Alexander – OUT, Accident
*Bold indicates Playoff competitors
Playoff standings
1. Christian Eckes +60
2. Ty Majeski +44
3. Corey Heim +41
4. Nick Sanchez +34
5. Taylor Gray +13
6. Tyler Ankrum +13
7. Daniel Dye +9
8. Grant Enfinger +2
9. Ben Rhodes -2
10. Rajah Caruth -4
With the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs underway, the next event on the schedule is Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee, for the UNOH 200, which will serve as the second Round of 10 event. The event is scheduled to occur on September 19 and air at 8 p.m. ET on FS1.
In a season filled with first-time accomplishments, including a historic first victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in February, Rajah Caruth is primed to experience another first to his racing resume: pursuing a championship within NASCAR’s top three national touring series in 2024.
The 22-year-old Caruth from Washington D.C. makes his inaugural presence in the Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs in a season where he joined forces with Spire Motorsports to pilot the No. 71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado RST. By then, he had campaigned in his first full-time Truck campaign a year ago, where he ended up in 16th place in the final standings on the strength of four top-10 results while driving the No. 24 Chevrolet for GMS Racing. Previously, he finished in third place in the 2022 ARCA Menards Series standings on the strengths of eight top-five results and 14 top-10 results through 20 starts with Rev Racing.
Caruth commenced the 2024 Truck season on a controversial note, where he ignited a multi-truck wreck on the final lap despite posting his first top-five career result in third place. Then after finishing eighth at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Caruth’s partnership with HendrickCars.com was announced to expand from 10 to the full 23-race Truck schedule.
Things only got brighter for Caruth as he then achieved a breakthrough moment at Las Vegas by winning both his first series’ pole and race victory, where he beat runner-up Tyler Ankrum by eight-tenths of a second and led 34 of 138 laps. In doing so, the DC native joined his mentor Bubba Wallace and the late NASCAR Hall of Famer Wendell Scott as the only African-American competitors to win in NASCAR’s top three major series. He also became the 124th competitor overall to win in the Truck Series.
Since the Vegas victory, Caruth proceeded to finish in the top 10 five additional times over the remaining 13 regular-season events. Throughout the span, he recorded a strong fourth-place run at Nashville Superspeedway in June, notched his second career pole position at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in July and battled to keep himself in contention for a top-five spot within the regular-season standings. With his latest series’ start at Richmond Raceway, where he finished 17th, Caruth has accumulated 43 starts in the Truck Series.
Despite recording zero stage victories throughout the season, Caruth, who holds the fourth-best average-finishing result of full-time competitors in 2024 at 11.4, will commence the 2024 Truck Series Playoffs in fifth place in the Playoff standings with 2,009 points as he strives to deliver the first championship for himself and Spire Motorsports.
Amid a 17th-place run during the 2024 regular-season finale at Richmond, Caruth has set his sights on the venues in the Playoffs he targets as his strengths while keeping his competition within the Playoff close to mind.
“I think going into the Playoffs, I feel really good about going to Bristol, Kansas, Homestead, some really good tracks for me,” Caruth said at Richmond on FS1. “I know what trucks have speed, so thanks to Mr. [Rick Hendrick], Linda [Hendrick], all the men and women at Spire [Motorsports] and Team Chevy for supporting me. I think we can go make some hay later into the fall.”
Rajah Caruth’s 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs and battle for the championship commences at the Milwaukee Mile for the LiUNA! 175. The event is scheduled to occur this upcoming Sunday, August 25, at 4 p.m. ET on FS1.
For a second consecutive season, Ty Majeski snapped a yearlong winless drought by recording his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory of the season in the TSport 200 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park on Friday, July 19.
The 29-year-old Majeski from Seymour, Wisconsin, led the final 56 of 200-scheduled laps in an event where he started in fourth place, but made his presence at the front known by attempting to grab the lead with a three-wide move through the first two turns. Despite settling in the runner-up spot following the opening lap, Majeski remained upfront in the early portions of the race before he was assessed a drive-through penalty for jumping a restart on Lap 49. Despite serving the penalty, Majeski managed to remain on the lead lap at the first stage’s conclusion and he would charge his way back into third place when the second stage concluded.
Restarting in the top five when the final stage commenced with 71 laps remaining, Majeski would then overtake Christian Eckes to lead for the first time with 55 laps remaining. From there, the Wisconsin native navigated through the short track in Brownsburg, Indiana, smoothly for the final 55 laps before he cycled back to the frontstretch and claim both his first elusive checkered flag of the 2024 Truck Series victory and a berth into the Playoffs.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, Rajah Caruth notched his second Truck pole position of his career and of the 2024 season after posting a pole-winning lap at 108.017 mph in 22.863 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Grant Enfinger, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 107.937 mph in 22.880 seconds.
Prior to the event, the following names that included Ben Rhodes, Johnny Sauter, Matt Mills and Conor Daly dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Rajah Caruth and Grant Enfinger dueled for the lead through the first two turns before Ty Majeski made a three-wide move on both in an attempt to grab the lead entering the backstretch. With all three going three wide through the backstretch, Enfinger managed to prevail from the outside lane as he aggressively muscled his No. 9 Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet Silverado RST into the lead as he also cleared both Caruth and Majeski entering Turn 3. As Majeski was trying to overtake Caruth for the runner-up spot through Turns 3 and 4, Enfinger proceeded to lead the first lap. By then, Majeski acquired the runner-up spot as Caruth fended off Christian Eckes for third place.
Amid the early on-track battles, Majeski then wasted no time challenging Enfinger for the lead as he tried to gain momentum through every turn and corner. With Enfinger retaining the lead over Majeski’s No. 98 Road Ranger Ford F-150 by the fifth lap mark, Caruth also retained third place ahead of Eckes while Tyler Ankrum trailed in fifth place.
Through the first 10-scheduled laps, Enfinger was leading by three-tenths of a second over Majeski followed by Eckes, Ankrum and Caruth while Matt Crafton, Stewart Friesen, Daniel Dye, Corey Heim and Nick Sanchez trailed in the top 10. Behind, Luke Fenhaus occupied 11th place in front of Ross Chastain, Dean Thompson, Sammy Smith and Chase Purdy while rookie Layne Riggs, Tanner Gray, Taylor Gray, Ty Dillon and Jake Garcia were racing in the top 20 ahead of Jack Wood, Timmy Hill, Bayley Currey, William Sawalich and Mason Massey, with Ben Rhodes mired in 26th place.
Ten laps later, Enfinger, who caught the tail end of the field and started to lap those running at the rear of the field, retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Majeski while third-place Ankrum and fourth-place Eckes both trailed by three seconds. Behind, Caruth retained fifth place ahead of Crafton’s No. 88 Menards Ford F-150 while Friesen, Corey Heim, Luke Fenhaus and Daniel Dye followed suit in the top 10.
Another 10 laps later, Enfinger, who was continuing to navigate his way through lapped traffic, was still leading by less than two-tenths of a second over Majeski, who managed to close back in on Enfinger for the top spot. Meanwhile, Ankrum trailed in third place by three seconds as Eckes and Caruth both continued to follow suit in the top five.
With the event reaching the Lap 40 mark, Enfinger stabilized his advantage to half a second over Majeski as third-place Ankrum continued to trail by more than three seconds. While Eckes and Caruth continued to run in the top five, Ben Rhodes was mired back in 22nd place behind Taylor Gray and William Sawalich, Sanchez was in 13th place behind Daniel Dye and Ross Chastain occupied 15th place in front of Tanner Gray. In addition, Johnny Sauter was mired outside the top 25.
Two laps later, the event’s first caution period flew as Ty Dillon spun in Turn 3 while Mason Massey limped to pit road with a flat tire and sparks flying out of his No. 02 BRUNT Chevrolet Silverado RST. During the event’s first caution period, the front-runners led by Enfinger pitted, with the latter retaining the lead after he exited pit road first ahead of Majeski.
When the race restarted under green on Lap 49, Enfinger just managed to fend off Majeski through the first two turns and the backstretch to retain the lead and clear the field in the process. With Enfinger leading Majeski, Eckes and Heim battled for third place while Ankrum and Caruth followed suit along with the rest of the field. Shortly after, Majeski was black-flagged and forced to serve a pass-through penalty through pit road for a restart violation after he jumped the recent start.
With Majeski serving his pass-through penalty, where he managed to remain on the lead lap, Enfinger was trying to fend off Eckes with the lead while Heim, Ankrum and Caruth tried to close in from the top five. Chastain then started to challenge Caruth for fifth place along with Dean Thompson while Nick Sanchez battled Daniel Dye and Sammy Smith for eighth place as Eckes assumed the lead in his No. 19 NAPA Chevrolet Silverado RST from Enfinger on Lap 56.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 60, Eckes captured his sixth Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Enfinger followed suit in second along with Heim, Ankrum and Caruth while Chastain, Sanchez, Thompson, Sammy Smith and Dye were scored in the top 10. By then, Majeski, who was mired in 31st place, remained on the lead lap.
Under the stage break, select names, mainly those running in the mid-pack region, pitted while the rest led by Eckes remained on the track.
The second stage period started on Lap 68 as Eckes and Enfinger occupied the front row. At the start, Enfinger executed a bold power slide move on Eckes to reassume the lead from the inside lane and despite sliding up the track entering Turn 1. With Enfinger retaining the lead for a full lap ahead of Eckes, Ankrum, Chastain and Heim followed suit in the top five while Sanchez led Caruth, Riggs and a bevy of truck competitors as Enfinger retained the lead by Lap 70.
Within Lap 75, Enfinger retained the lead by a tenth of a second over a hard-charging Eckes, who continued to try to gain runs on Enfinger through every turn and corner. Behind, Chastain occupied third place ahead of Ankrum and Sanchez while Majeski was mired in 15th place and trailing a side-by-side battle between Jake Garcia and Taylor Gray.
Just past the Lap 80 mark and with a flurry of on-track battles ensuing around the short track, Enfinger continued to lead by nearly three-tenths of a second over Eckes while third-place Chastain trailed by a second. Top-five competitors Ankrum and Sanchez also followed suit in the top five as they were running ahead of Riggs, Heim, Caruth, Thompson and Fenhaus while Daniel Dye pitted under green to address a flat tire to his No. 43 Bettenhausen Automotive Chevrolet Silverado RST, where he lost a lap to the leaders in the process.
Within the Lap 85 mark, Heim fell off the pace with a flat left-front tire to his No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro that left his truck igniting sparks around the track. Shortly after, Conor Daly drew a caution as he had a right-front tire flat to his No. 44 Power Plus Chevrolet Silverado RST as he too drew sparks out of his truck following an incident in Turn 1. During the caution period, Heim, who zipped through pit road with the flat tire, ran into the side of Eckes to express his displeasure over an earlier contact between the two that resulted with the cut tire.
The start of the next restart period on Lap 92 featured Eckes fending off Enfinger with the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch while Enfinger was trying to fend off Chastain for the runner-up spot. With the field behind jostling and scrambling for spots during the proceeding laps, Chastain acquired second place from Enfinger, who was left to fend of Ankrum and Riggs for third place. Enfinger, however, would be overtaken by both by the Lap 95 mark as he had more challenges coming from Dean Thompson, Sanchez and Majeski for more spots while Heim, who remained on the lead lap, charged his way back towards the front as he was up within the top 15 in the leaderboard.
At the halfway mark on Lap 100, Eckes was leading by six-tenths of a second over Chastain as Ankrum, Riggs, Thompson, Majeski, Sanchez, Caruth, Fenhaus and Enfinger were running in the top 10 on the track. As Enfinger continued to backslide and drop out of the top 10 a lap later, Heim bullied his way back into the top 10 as he immediately challenged Fenhaus for more while Majeski, who cycled his way back into the top five, was challenging Riggs for the fourth spot.
By Lap 110, Eckes extended his advantage to two seconds over Chastain as Ankrum, Majeski and Riggs continued to follow suit in the top five. Meanwhile, Heim carved his way up to sixth place after he overtook Caruth, Crafton, Sanchez and Thompson on the track while Enfinger continued to fall back as he was down in 15th place.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 120, Eckes notched his seventh Truck stage victory of the 2024 season and his second of the night as he led by two seconds over Heim. Both Heim and Majeski rallied from their separate instances of on-track issues during the first two stages to finish second and third, respectively, while Crafton, Ankrum, Chastain, Riggs, Thompson, Caruth and Sanchez were scored in the top 10.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Eckes pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Eckes retained the lead after he exited pit road first as he was followed by Heim, Majeski, Thompson, Sanchez, Caruth, Ankrum, Crafton, Sammy Smith and Riggs.
With 71 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Eckes and Heim occupied the front row. At the start, Eckes muscled ahead of Heim to retain the lead while Heim retained second ahead of Majeski, Thompson and a jumble of competitors jostling for late spots. Amid the on-track battles that generated three-wide actions through the corners, Majeski started to challenge Heim for the runner-up spot and Enfinger bolted his way up to sixth place while he started to pressure Thompson and Ankrum for more. In the process, Eckes stretched his advantage to more than a second.
With 60 laps remaining, Eckes stabilized his advantage to four-tenths of a second over Majeski while Ankrum, Enfinger and Sanchez were scored in the top five. While Enfinger bolted his way back towards the front, Heim drifted back to seventh as he trailed Sanchez and Riggs on the track while Caruth, Sammy Smith and Chastain were racing in the top 10 ahead of Thompson, Fenhaus, Currey, Tannery Gray and Crafton.
Shortly after, a side-by-side action for the lead between Eckes and Majeski ignited, with the latter trying to use the inside lane to gain a run on the former through every turn and corner. Despite Eckes’ effort in using the outside lane to retain the lead amid strong launches off the turns, Majeski managed to move his No. 98 Road Ranger Ford F-150 in front of Eckes in Turn 1 while avoiding the lapped competitor of Thad Moffit to lead with 55 laps remaining. Majeski would proceed to stretch his advantage to eight-tenths of a second over Eckes with 50 laps remaining.
Down to the final 40 laps of the event, Majeski continued to extend his advantage as he was now leading by a second over Eckes while third-place Enfinger trailed by four seconds. Ankrum and Riggs followed suit in the top five while Sanchez, Caruth, Sammy Smith, Heim and Chastain trailed in the top 10 ahead of Fenhaus, Thompson, Currey, Tanner Gray and Chase Purdy followed suit in the top 15.
Ten laps later, Majeski stretched his advantage to lead by more than two seconds over Eckes while Enfinger, Ankrum and Riggs continued to follow suit in the top five. Meanwhile, teammates Caruth and Sammy Smith were battling for sixth place as Sanchez, Fenhaus and Chastain were running in the top 10. Heim, however, was mired back in 12th place behind teammate Thompson and his other teammate, Tanner Gray, was running 15th behind Purdy and Currey. Tanner’s brother, Taylor Gray, was mired in 18th place, two spots ahead of Ben Rhodes, Crafton was down in 22nd and Daniel Dye, who was not scored on the lead lap, was mired in 27th.
With 20 laps remaining, Majeski stabilized his advantage to two-and-a-half seconds over Eckes while third-place Enfinger trailed by more than three seconds. Amid lapped traffic, Majeski kept leading by two-and-a-half seconds over Eckes, with Enfinger, Ankrum and Riggs remaining in the top five on the track.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Majeski continued to lead by more than two seconds over Eckes. With Majeski proceeding to lap Heim, who was mired in 14th place, he would also stretch his lead to three seconds over Eckes with five laps remaining.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Majeski remained as the leader by a comfortable margin over Eckes. Having no challenges closing in from behind, Majeski cruised his Ford around Lucas Oil IRP for a final time before he returned to the frontstretch and claim his first elusive checkered flag of the 2024 season as he won the race by four seconds over Eckes.
With the victory, Majeski secured his fourth Craftsman Truck Series career win in his 81st series start and his first since winning at Lucas Oil IRP at year ago, which marks his second consecutive victory at the track and the first to accomplish the feat since Ron Hornaday Jr. made the last accomplishment from 2009-10. The victory was also the first of the season for ThorSport Racing and the Ford nameplate.
Above all, Majeski, who came into Indiana 125 points above the top-10 cutline to make the 2024 Truck Series Playoffs and had clinched his spot based on points earlier in Friday’s event, officially secured his spot into the postseason battle for the title with his victory as he became the fourth series’ regular to win in this year’s regular-season stretch.
Photo by Adam Lovelace for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“[The win]’s huge,” Majeski said on FS1. “Obviously, I made a little bit of a mistake. It was probably a little bit of a close call on that restart [I jumped]. I had to pony up and get it back. Obviously when you make a mistake as a driver, you drive a little bit harder to try and make up for it, but these [No. 98] guys have my back. Awesome pit stops. It’s been an up-and-down year. We’ve had the speed to win. Just haven’t been able to put it together. I’ve had some bad luck around the way. Some of it’s self-inflicted, but man, so proud of this Road Ranger group. So happy to bring the trophy home.”
Christian Eckes, who led a race-high 73 laps and had a post-race conversation with Corey Heim following their earlier run-in, settled in second place for his sixth top-three result of the 2024 season while Grant Enfinger backed up his strong result at Pocono by finishing in third place after he led 71 laps. The third-place result, which left him with a 72-point advantage above the top-10 cutline, was enough for Enfinger to secure his berth into the Playoffs with a single regular-season event remaining on the calendar.
Tyler Ankrum came home in fourth place, which keeps him 78 points above the cutline, as he too secured a Playoff berth. Rookie Layne Riggs finished in fifth place for his second top-five result of the season.
Sammy Smith, Luke Fenhaus, pole-sitter Rajah Caruth, Dean Thompson and Nick Sanchez completed the top 10 in the final running order.
With a 20th-place finish, Tanner Gray occupies the 10th and final transfer spot into the Playoffs by five points over Daniel Dye, who ended up in 28th place. As Taylor Gray and Ben Rhodes remain above the cutline, the following names that include Stewart Friesen, Matt Crafton, Chase Purdy, Dean Thompson, Layne Riggs, Jake Garcia, Bayley Currey, Ty Dillon and Bret Holmes are among several who trail the cutline approaching next month’s regular-season finale at Richmond Raceway.
There were five lead changes for three different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 27 laps. In addition, 13 of 35 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the 15th event of the 2024 Craftsman Truck Series season, Christian Eckes continues to lead the regular-season standings by 50 points over Corey Heim.
Results.
1. Ty Majeski, 56 laps led
2. Christian Eckes, 73 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner
3. Grant Enfinger, 71 laps led
4. Tyler Ankrum
5. Layne Riggs
6. Sammy Smith
7. Luke Fenhaus
8. Rajah Caruth
9. Dean Thompson
10. Nick Sanchez
11. Ross Chastain
12. William Sawalich
13. Chase Purdy
14. Bayley Currey
15. Jack Wood
16. Taylor Gray
17. Corey Heim
18. Ty Dillon
19. Timmy Hill
20. Tanner Gray
21. Ben Rhodes
22. Matt Mills
23. Johnny Sauter
24. Matt Crafton
25. Marco Andretti, one lap down
26. Bret Holmes, one lap down
27. Daniel Dye, two laps down
28. Lawless Alan, two laps down
29. Conor Daly, three laps down
30. Jake Garcia, three laps down
31. Tyler Tomassi, three laps down
32. Thad Moffitt, five laps down
33. Stewart Friesen, six laps down
34. Spencer Boyd, 36 laps down
35. Mason Massey – OUT
Next on the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule is Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Virginia, for the lean Harbors 250, which will also serve as this year’s regular-season finale and determine this year’s 10-truck Playoff field. The event is scheduled to occur on August 10 and air at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
Rajah Caruth zipped his way to the second NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series pole of his career and of the 2024 season for the TSport 200 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP) on Friday, July 19.
The 22-year-old Caruth from Washington D.C. posted his best qualifying lap at 108.017 mph in 22.863 seconds, which was enough to claim the top starting spot by 0.017 seconds over Grant Enfinger in his No. 71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado RST for Spire Motorsports.
With his accomplishment, Caruth, who finished in seventh place in his first Truck event at Lucas Oil IRP in 2023, earned his second career pole position in the Truck Series and his first since Las Vegas Motor Speedway in early March, where he would proceed to claim his first career victory. Despite being currently ranked in fifth place in this year’s Truck Series regular-season standings and trailing points leader Christian Eckes by 188 points, he is guaranteed one of 10 spots in this year’s Playoffs with his Vegas victory.
The pole position left Caruth surprised after he posted the 23rd-fastest time during Friday’s practice session, but looking ahead for momentum as this year’s regular-season season reaches its conclusion.
“I was honestly surprised [with our qualifying run],” Caruth said on FS1. “I was enthused with our HendrickCars.com Silverado. Kind of after a long run in practice, I’m honestly really surprised by the qualifying speed. Gotta thank the men and women at Spire Motorsports…We’ll hopefully have a good night this evening and something good for my team to think about for the Olympic break.”
Enfinger, winner of the 2022 Truck Series event at Lucas Oil IRP, will start alongside Caruth after he posted his best qualifying lap at 107.937 mph in 22.880 seconds. He is coming off a strong runner-up result from Pocono Raceway, which currently places in seventh place in this year’s regular-season standings. Above all, he is 46 points above the top-10 cutline to make this year’s Playoffs.
Tyler Ankrum, who is ranked in sixth place in the standings and 49 points above the cutline, will start in third place and share the second row with Ty Majeski, winner of last year’s Truck event at Lucas Oil IRP and who was the fastest during Friday’s practice session. Matt Crafton, three-time champion of the series, will line up in fifth place alongside Christian Eckes, this year’s leader in the regular-season standings.
Daniel Dye, Stewart Friesen, Corey Heim and Chase Purdy will start in the top 10 while Nick Sanchez and Sammy Smith will follow suit in 11th and 12th, respectively.
Notably, Taylor Gray and Ben Rhodes, both of whom are currently above the cutline, will start 13th and 15th, respectively, while names including rookie Layne Riggs, Jake Garcia, Dean Thompson, Ty Dillon, Tanner Gray and Bayley Currey, all of whom are below the cutline, will line up 17th to 22nd, respectively. In addition, Ross Chastain, who is pulling double-duty between Lucas Oil IRP and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, will start 16th, William Sawalich will start 26th and Johnny Sauter will start 28th in the No. 16 Hattori Racing Enterprises Toyota entry.
In addition, the following names that include Spencer Boyd, rookie Thad Moffitt, Matt Mills and Conor Daly will round out the 35-truck field after all lined up based on owner points.
Qualifying position, best speed, best time:
1. Rajah Caruth, 108.017 mph, 22.863 seconds
2. Grant Enfinger, 107.937 mph, 22.880 seconds
3. Tyler Ankrum, 107.786 mph, 22.912 seconds
4. Ty Majeski, 107.730 mph, 22.924 seconds
5. Matt Crafton, 107.313 mph, 23.013 seconds
6. Christian Eckes, 107.299 mph, 23.016 seconds
7. Daniel Dye, 107.174 mph, 23.043 seconds
8. Stewart Friesen, 107.122 mph, 23.054 seconds
9. Corey Heim, 107.053 mph, 23.069 seconds
10. Chase Purdy, 107.011 mph, 23.078 seconds
11. Nick Sanchez, 106.928 mph, 23.096 seconds
12. Sammy Smith, 106.821 mph, 23.119 seconds
13. Taylor Gray, 106.766 mph, 23.131 seconds
14. Luke Fenhaus, 106.591 mph, 23.169 seconds
15. Ben Rhodes, 106.568 mph, 23.174 seconds
16. Ross Chastain, 106.536 mph, 23.181 seconds
17. Layne Riggs, 106.471 mph, 23.195 seconds
18. Jake Garcia, 106.183 mph, 23.258 seconds
19. Dean Thompson, 106.169 mph, 23.261 seconds
20. Ty Dillon, 106.146 mph, 23.266 seconds
21. Tanner Gray, 106.069 mph, 23.283 seconds
22. Bayley Currey, 106.028 mph, 23.292 seconds
23. Jack Wood, 105.728 mph, 23.358 seconds
24. Lawless Alan, 105.651 mph, 23.375 seconds
25. Timmy Hill, 105.260 mph, 23.462 seconds
26. William Sawalich, 105.148 mph, 23.487 seconds
27. Mason Massey, 105.844 mph, 23.555 seconds
28. Johnny Sauter, 104.826 mph, 23.559 seconds
29. Marco Andretti, 104.675 mph, 23.593 seconds
30. Bret Holmes, 104.335 mph, 23.593 seconds
31. Tyler Tomassi, 103.896 mph, 23.770 seconds
32. Spencer Boyd, owner points
33. Thad Moffitt, owner points
34. Matt Mills, owner points
35. Conor Daly, owner points
The 2024 TSport 200 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park is set to occur on Friday, July 19, and air at 8:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
