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  • Eckes fends off Busch to capture his first Truck Series victory at Bristol

    Eckes fends off Busch to capture his first Truck Series victory at Bristol

    Six months after having a victory at Bristol Motor Speedway slip from within his grasp after a dominant performance, Christian Eckes settled his score with the Last Great Coliseum with a redemptive victoryWeather Guard Truck Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, March 16, following a late battle against former team owner Kyle Busch. 

    It was his first win of the season, his first at Bristol, and his sixth career victory.

    “Oh, man, it’s so sweet,” Eckes said. “There’s just so much behind this win from last year, missing out on the Championship 4 and losing the race with (six) to go.

    “To come back and redeem ourselves was our number one goal, and not only that, but the first three races (of this season), how terribly they’ve gone. We had a lot of issues, and to come back and run really good just shows the resilience of the team.”

    The 23-year-old Eckes from Middletown, New York, led twice for a race-high 144 of 250-scheduled laps in his No. 19 McAnally Hilgemann Racing Silverado after starting on the pole and leading the first 52 laps before Busch overtook him. After spending most of the event trailing Busch, Eckes seized an opportunity during a restart period with 98 laps remaining to make contact with Busch. A heated battle for the lead ensued and two laps later Eckes overtook Busch to reclaim the lead.

    Then during a late caution period with 32 laps remaining, Eckes, who retained the lead over Busch and Matt Crafton amid lapped traffic, capitalized on the final restart period. With 24 laps remaining, he drove away from the field and beat Busch to the finish line by a tenth of a second to claim his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory of the 2024 season. 

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup on Saturday, Eckes captured his first Truck pole position of the 2024 season after posting a pole-winning lap at 126.888 mph in 15.122 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Nick Sanchez, who posted the second-fastest qualifying lap at 126.212 mph in 15.203 seconds. 

    Prior to the event, Mason Maggio dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments on his entry. 

    When the green flag waved and the race started, Eckes rocketed ahead of Sanchez and Kyle Busch for the lead through the first two turns. With Sanchez getting loose in Turn 3 and nearly stacking up the field, Eckes led the first lap over Busch. Eckes would retain the lead over Sanchez and Busch through the first five scheduled laps. l

    On the sixth lap, the event’s first caution period occurred after Matt Mills spun on the frontstretch, though he proceeded without sustaining any significant damage to his Niece Motorsports entry. 

    When the event restarted under green on Lap 12, Eckes used the outside lane to his advantage for a second time as he muscled away from Sanchez through the first two turns while Taylor Gray tried to follow suit. Gray overtook Sanchez for the runner-up spot during the following lap as Busch, Rajah Caruth and Ty Majeski followed suit. Amid the early battles, Eckes stretched his advantage to six-tenths of a second by the Lap 15 mark and to a second by the Lap 20 mark, over Gray. 

    Through the first 30 scheduled laps, Eckes led by nearly a second over Gray with Sanchez, Busch and Majeski completing the top five. Zane Smith was in sixth place followed by Tyler Ankrum, Kaden Honeycutt, Rajah Caruth and Ben Rhodes while Grant Enfinger, Chase Purdy, Corey Heim, Daniel Dye and Connor Jones were running in the top 15 ahead of Jake Garcia, Tanner Gray, Matt Crafton, Bayley Currey and William Sawalich. 

    Fourteen laps later, the caution flew after Stefan Parsons made contact with Keith McGee entering the backstretch resulting in McGee making contact with runner-up Taylor Gray before he spun toward the bottom of the track. The incident occurred as both McGee and Parsons were lapped by Eckes. During the caution period, some of the drivers pitted, including Jake Garcia, Tanner Gray, Bayley Currey, Layne Riggs, Sawalich and Ty Dillon while the rest of the field, led by Eckes remained on the track. 

    During the following restart period on Lap 52, Kyle Busch used the inside lane to his advantage as he managed to overtake Eckes through the backstretch to assume the lead. Then, Eckes was challenged by Sanchez for second place. Busch retained the lead during the Lap 55 mark and the Lap 60 mark. 

    When the first stage period concluded on Lap 65, Busch captured his second stage victory of the 2024 Truck season. Eckes settled in second followed by Sanchez, Majeski and Zane Smith while Taylor Gray, Ankrum, Rhodes, Honeycutt and Enfinger were scored in the top 10. 

    Under the stage break, some including Taylor Gray, Caruth, Corey Heim, Connor Jones and Ty Dillon pitted while the rest led by Busch remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Caruth, who slid through his pit box, was issued an improper driver assist. 

    The second stage period started on Lap 76 as Busch and Eckes occupied the front row. Busch retained the lead as Eckes was being pressured from behind by Sanchez and Majeski. As teammates Ankrum and Zane Smith battled for fifth place in front of Ben Rhodes, Busch slowly started to stretch his advantage just past the Lap 80 mark. 

    Just past the Lap 100 mark, Busch was leading by two-tenths of a second over Eckes followed by Sanchez, Majeski, Ankrum, Zane Smith, Rhodes, Stewart Friesen, Crafton and Riggs as Honeycutt, Enfinger, Purdy, Daniel Dye and Sawalich pursued in the top 15. 

    Ten laps later, Busch retained the lead by four-tenths of a second over Eckes while Sanchez, Majeski and Zane Smith were running in the top five. Busch would continue to lead by four-tenths of a second over Eckes by the Lap 120 mark. 

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 130, Busch, who was mired in lapped traffic, captured his second stage victory of the night and the third of his part-time Truck campaign. Sanchez prevailed in a late battle over Eckes for second while Majeski, Zane Smith, Ankrum, Friesen, Crafton, Rhodes and Riggs were scored in the top 10. 

    During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Busch pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Busch retained the lead over the field after he exited pit road first. Amid the pit stops, Sawalich was penalized for speeding on pit road while Caruth was deemed to have pitted outside of his pit box. In addition, Sanchez would pit his Rev Racing entry for a second time as he was mired towards the rear of the field. 

    With 108 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Busch and Eckes occupied the front row. At the start, Busch moved in front of Eckes as he transitioned from the outside to the inside lane to retain the lead. Eckes fended off teammate Ankrum as he pursued Busch for the lead. Another lap later, however, the caution returned. Majeski, who was battling Ankrum for third place, got loose and spun entering the backstretch before he was hit by teammate Ben Rhodes, with both ThorSport Racing competitors making contact with the inside wall while the rest of the field scattered and slammed on the brakes to avoid the chaos. 

    The next restart period came with 98 laps remaining and featured Busch and Eckes briefly battling for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch until Busch cleared Eckes entering the frontstretch. Eckes, however, fought back on the inside lane and attempted to overtake Busch through Turns 3 and 4. Then, Eckes slipped sideways and made contact with Busch, sending Busch nearly sideways entering the frontstretch. Busch, however, recovered and kept the lead.  

    With 92 laps remaining, however, Eckes drove his No. 19 NAPA Chevrolet Silverado RST past Busch’s No. 7 Group 1001 Chevrolet Silverado RST entering the backstretch, to regain the lead. Shortly after, Matt Crafton would draw his No. 88 Menards Ford F-150 close to Busch’s entry in a battle for the runner-up spot, all while Eckes stretched his advantage to eight-tenths of a second with 85 laps remaining.  

    With 75 laps remaining, Eckes was leading by seven-tenths of a second over Busch as Crafton, Zane Smith and Ankrum were running within less than five seconds of one another in the top five. Behind, Enfinger was in sixth place while Heim, Riggs, Friesen and Taylor Gray were in the top 10. 

    Fifteen laps later, Eckes stretched his advantage to more than a second over Busch while Crafton trailed in third place by less than two seconds. Eckes’ advantage, however, shrank to half a second over Busch with less than 45 laps remaining.  

    Then with 32 laps remaining, the caution flew after Sanchez and Friesen, who were running in the top 10, made contact entering the frontstretch amid pressure by Busch and Crafton for the lead.    

    With 24 laps remaining, the race restarted under green as Eckes drove away from Busch on the outside lane to retain the lead. Amid the late battles ensuing behind, Eckes would maintain his advantage with 20 laps remaining and with 10 laps remaining.  

    Down to the final five laps of the event, Eckes continued to lead by less than seven-tenths of a second over Busch, who was trying to narrow the gap. 

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Eckes, who was mired in lapped traffic, remained as the leader by three-tenths of a second over Busch. Despite Busch cutting the deficit to a tenth of a second for a final circuit around Bristol, the late momentum was not enough as Eckes was able to fend off Busch at the finish line to claim the checkered flag. 

    With the victory, Eckes, who conquered his first victory at Bristol, achieved his sixth career victory in the Craftsman Truck Series and his first since winning the 2023 finale at Phoenix Raceway as he became the fourth winner through the series’ first four events of the 2024 schedule. He also recorded the first victory of the season for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing. 

    “It’s so sweet,” Eckes said on FS1. “There’s just so much behind this win, from last year, missing out on the Championship 4 and losing the race with five [laps] to go. To come back and redeem ourselves is our number one goal. Not only that, but the first three races, how terribly they’ve gone. We’ve had a lot of issues and to come back and run really good, it shows the resilience of this team. Just super pumped. Ready for the next 19 races.” 

    Busch, who led 105 laps, settled in second place in his third Truck event of the 2024 season. His next series’ start of the season will occur at Texas Motor Speedway on April 12 followed by Darlington Raceway on May 10. 

    “We tightened [the truck] all day and obviously, I don’t think we were as tight as [Eckes] at the end, but, you know, just track position,” Busch said. “I let [Eckes] go early in that run to just go burn his stuff off and track position at the end, just aero effects. [I] Didn’t have enough rubber on the road to outduel him.” 

    Zane Smith came home in third place in his second Truck start of the 2024 season as Matt Crafton and Tyler Ankrum finished in the top five. Corey Heim, Taylor Gray, Rajah Caruth, Grant Enfinger and rookie Layne Riggs settled in the top 10 in the final running order. 

    There were four lead changes for three different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 50 laps. In addition, 17 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap. 

    Following the fourth event of the 2024 Craftsman Truck Series season, Tyler Ankrum continues to lead the regular-season standings by 17 points over Corey Heim, 22 over Rajah Caruth, 29 over Ty Majeski and 32 over Christian Eckes. 

    Results. 

    1. Christian Eckes, 144 laps led 

    2. Kyle Busch, 105 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner 

    3. Zane Smith, one lap led 

    4. Matt Crafton  

    5. Tyler Ankrum 

    6. Corey Heim 

    7. Taylor Gray 

    8. Rajah Caruth 

    9. Grant Enfinger 

    10. Layne Riggs 

    11. Bayley Currey 

    12. Kaden Honeycutt 

    13. Daniel Dye 

    14. Jake Garcia 

    15. Tanner Gray 

    16. Ben Rhodes 

    17. Nick Sanchez 

    18. Stefan Parsons, one lap down 

    19. Connor Jones, one lap down 

    20. Ty Dillon, one lap down 

    21. William Sawalich, two laps down 

    22. Stewart Friesen, two laps down 

    23. Dean Thompson, three laps down 

    24. Timmy Hill, three laps down 

    25. Matt Mills, three laps down 

    26. Thad Moffitt, four laps down 

    27. Lawless Alan, four laps down 

    28. Mason Massey, five laps down 

    29. Mason Maggio, six laps down 

    30. Spencer Boyd, eight laps down 

    31. Bret Holmes, eight laps down  

    32. Keith McGee, 12 laps down 

    33. Chase Purdy, 22 laps down 

    34. Ty Majeski – OUT, Engine 

    35. Trey Hutchens – OUT, Suspension 

    36. Justin Carroll – OUT, Brakes 

    Next on the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule is the fourth annual running of the XPEL 225 at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, March 23, and air at 1:30 p.m. ET on FS1. 

  • Rajah Caruth earns first Truck Series career victory from pole position at Las Vegas

    Rajah Caruth earns first Truck Series career victory from pole position at Las Vegas

    In a race weekend that commenced on a high note by achieving his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career pole position, Rajah Caruth concluded the weekend by achieving another first: his first Truck Series career victory as he raced his way to victory in the Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Friday, March 1. 

    The 21-year-old Caruth from Washington D.C. led twice for 38 of 134 scheduled laps in an event where he commenced on a high note by achieving his first career pole position and leading the field to the green flag. Despite losing the lead early, Caruth, who led for the first time on Lap 34 after exiting pit road with the lead, kept in touch with the front-runners throughout the entire event as he achieved top-three results during both stage periods. Then amid a cycle of green flag pit stops with 34 laps remaining, Caruth, who outlasted a late battle against Taylor Gray, cycled into the lead with 21 laps remaining and managed to withstand lapped traffic and a late charge from points leader Tyler Ankrum to claim his first career victory in his 30th series’ start.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, Rajah Caruth notched his first Truck Series career pole position after posting a pole-winning lap at 177.043 mph in 30.501 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Christian Eckes, who clocked in the second-fast qualifying lap at 177.038 mph in 30.502 seconds. 

    Prior to the event, rookie Layne Riggs dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to his Front Row Motorsports entry. 

    When the green flag waved and the race started, Caruth and Eckes dueled for the lead entering the first two turns and through the backstretch in front of two stacked lanes until Eckes muscled ahead on the inside lane and led the first lap ahead of Caruth. As the field fanned out to three lanes, Eckes maintained the lead over Kyle Busch, who overtook teammate Caruth for the runner-up spot as Ty Majeski and Tyler Ankrum followed suit in the top five.

    On the third lap, the event’s first caution flew when Bayley Currey slipped underneath Chase Purdy while battling for a top-12 spot amid a three-wide battle that also involved Matt Crafton as Currey backed his No. 41 Niece Motorsports entry into the backstretch’s outside wall before he slid back down across the track and towards the inside wall with significant rear end damage. 

    When the race restarted under green on the seventh lap, Eckes briefly fended off Busch for the lead entering the first turn until Busch used the outside lane along with a push from teammate Caruth to assume the lead through the backstretch, with Eckes slipping back to second as he was being challenged by Majeski. Amid the early battles ensuing behind, Busch maintained the lead ahead of Majeski, Eckes and Caruth while Stewart Friesen and Tyler Ankrum battled for fifth in front of Grant Enfinger.

    Through the Lap 10 mark, Busch was leading by more than two-tenths of a second over Majeski followed by Caruth, Friesen and Eckes while Ankrum, Enfinger, Zane Smith, Nick Sanchez and Christopher Bell were running in the top 10. Behind, Corey Heim was in 11th ahead of Matt Crafton, Chase Purdy, Ben Rhodes and Dean Thompson while Taylor Gray, Jake Garcia, Daniel Dye, Ty Dillon and Bret Holmes occupied the top 20 on the track. 

    Four laps later, Majeski engaged in a side-by-side battle with Busch for the lead through the frontstretch as Caruth joined the battle. After dueling against Busch through the backstretch, Majeski muscled ahead through Turns 3 and 4 as he was out in front through the frontstretch before Busch reassumed the top spot through the first two turns just past the Lap 15.  Amid another side-by-side battle with Majeski, Busch muscled back ahead just past the Lap 16 mark as teammate Caruth started to battle Majeski for the runner-up spot. Majeski, however, would reassume the lead on Lap 19. He would be followed by Caruth while Busch, who started to battle tight conditions, was battling Friesen for third place. 

    At the Lap 25 mark, Majeski was leading by eight-tenths of a second over Caruth while Friesen, Ankrum and Bell were in the top five. Meanwhile, Busch had fallen to seventh behind Heim while Taylor Gray, Enfinger and Zane Smith were running in the top 10. In addition, Eckes, who led early, was mired back in 13th behind Crafton and Sanchez while Rhodes was mired 15th in between Dean Thompson and Tanner Gray. 

    When the first stage period concluded on Lap 30, Majeski captured his first Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Caruth settled in second followed by Friesen, Ankrum and Heim while Bell, Taylor Gray, Busch, Enfinger and Crafton were scored in the top 10. 

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Majeski steered to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Caruth emerged with the lead after exiting pit road first followed by teammate Busch, Heim, Majeski, Enfinger and Crafton. Amid the pit stops, Bell was penalized for equipment interference while rookie Thad Moffitt was also penalized for his pit crew being over the wall too soon. 

    The second stage period started on Lap 36 as teammates Caruth and Busch occupied the front row. At the start, Caruth received a push from Majeski to retain the lead from the inside lane while Busch battled and prevailed over a brief battle with Majeski for the runner-up spot through the backstretch. During the following lap, however, Busch drew himself into a side-by-side battle with Caruth for the lead. With Heim and Majeski following suit in close-quarters racing, Caruth would muscle back ahead of Busch by Lap 40. He would retain the lead by a narrow margin during the proceeding laps while Busch, Heim and Majeski ran second through fourth, respectively, as they were separated within half a second.

    By Lap 45, Caruth was leading by a tenth of a second over a hard-charging Majeski while teammate Busch trailed in third place by eight-tenths of a second. Behind, Heim and Taylor Gray were in the top five while Sanchez, Crafton, Enfinger, Ankrum and Zane Smith occupied the top 10 in front of Friesen, Eckes, Thompson, Tanner Gray and Dye. 

    Five laps later, Caruth continued to lead by less than two-tenths of a second over Majeski. Majeski, however, would navigate his way back into the lead over Caruth entering the frontstretch during the following lap. Heim would then battle Caruth for the runner-up spot while Busch, Taylor Gray and Sanchez trailed in the top six. Meanwhile, Bell was up in 16th place following his early pit road penalty. 

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 60, Majeski captured his second consecutive Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Heim prevailed in a late battle against Caruth for the runner-up spot followed by Taylor Gray and Busch while Sanchez, Enfinger, Zane Smith, Friesen and Crafton were scored in the top 10. 

    During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Majeski returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Busch emerged with the lead after exiting pit road first followed by Taylor Gray, Majeski, Heim, Sanchez, Enfinger, Crafton and Caruth followed suit. 

    With 68 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Taylor Gray and Busch occupied the front row. At the start, Busch fended off Gray to emerge with the lead as the field fanned out through the first two turns. Busch would lead ahead of Gray and Majeski for nearly a lap just before the caution returned after Thompson, who was running 11th, smacked the outside wall entering the frontstretch.  

    When the race restarted with 62 laps remaining, Busch maintained a narrow advantage over both Majeski and Taylor Gray through the first two turns before he was overtaken by Majeski, who was being drafted by Sanchez as Enfinger fanned out and made a three-wide move in an attempt to gain ground on Busch towards the front, though Busch maintained third place in front of Enfinger, Heim and Caruth. With the field still fanning out and jostling for late spots, Majeski retained the lead by a tenth of a second over Sanchez followed by Heim while Caruth, Taylor Gray and Busch followed closely in the top six with 60 to go. 

    A few laps later, Sanchez battled and overtook Majeski for the lead through the frontstretch. With Sanchez out in front, Caruth would challenge Majeski for the runner-up spot followed by Heim and Taylor Gray while Busch and Ankrum battled for sixth place. Heim would then take the lead from Sanchez with 53 laps remaining while Majeski, Caruth and Taylor Gray fiercely battled for third place. As Ankrum and Busch joined the tight battle towards the front, Heim would retain the lead by two-tenths of a second over Majeski with 50 laps remaining before the latter assumed the top spot a lap later. 

    With 40 laps remaining, Heim, who reassumed the lead five laps earlier, was leading by two-tenths of a second over teammate Taylor Gray while Majeski, Caruth and Ankrum trailed in the top five ahead of Sanchez, Busch, Bell, Rhodes and Eckes. Meanwhile, Friesen, who hit the backstretch wall and pitted under green with a flat right-front tire, was mired back in 27th and two laps down, while Crafton, Enfinger, Tanner Gray, Riggs and Zane Smith were running in the top 15. 

    Six laps later, green flag pit stops commenced as Daniel Dye pitted followed by Eckes, Enfinger, Caruth, Busch and Majeski before the leader Heim pitted with 30 laps remaining. Ankrum would also pit while Taylor Gray would pit during the proceeding lap. As the green flag pit stops continued, Majeski and Sanchez were assessed a drive-through penalty for speeding on pit road while Busch would be penalized for a safety violation. With more names that included Tanner Gray, Jake Garcia, Bret Holmes, Bell and Purdy also pitting under green, Gray would be penalized for a commitment line violation. By then, Mason Massey, who has yet to pit, was leading while Taylor Gray and Caruth battled for the runner-up spot. 

    Then with 21 laps remaining, Massey, who led the previous six laps, pitted under green. This moved Caruth into the lead as he was ahead by nearly a second over Taylor Gray while Heim, Ankrum and Bell were scored in the top five ahead of Eckes, Crafton, Dye, Enfinger and Rhodes. 

    Down to the final 15 laps of the event, Caruth extended his advantage to more than a second over Taylor Gray while third-place Ankrum trailed in third place by two seconds ahead of Heim and Bell. A lap later, however, Ankrum would overtake Taylor Gray for the runner-up spot and set his sights on Caruth while Gray proceeded to fend off Heim for third place. 

    Five laps later and with the leader navigating through lapped traffic, Caruth continued to lead by more than a second over a hard-charging Ankrum while Heim, Taylor Gray and Bell were running in the top five ahead of Eckes, Crafton, Enfinger, Zane Smith and Rhodes were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Majeski was back in 11th ahead of Garcia, Holmes, Connor Jones and Busch while Sanchez was back in 17th ahead of Purdy. 

    With five laps remaining, Caruth stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Ankrum and by more than two seconds over third-place Heim while Taylor Gray and Heim remained in the top five. 

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Caruth remained as the leader by more than a second over Ankrum. With Ankrum trying to mount a final lap charge, Caruth was able to stabilize his steady advantage and navigate his No. 71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado RST around the Vegas circuit smoothly for a final time as he returned to the frontstretch and claimed his first checkered flag in the series by eight-tenths of a second over Ankrum. 

    With the victory, Caruth, whose first career victory came in his 30th series start, became the 124th competitor to achieve a victory in the Truck Series and the second first-time winner of the season after Nick Sanchez achieved his first career victory at Daytona International Speedway two weeks earlier. He also became the third African-American competitor to win across NASCAR’s top three national touring series and the second to do so in the Truck Series since Bubba Wallace made the first accomplishment in October 2013 while also delivering the fourth career victory for Spire Motorsports. Caruth also delivered the first victory for crew chief Chad Walter.

    “It’s surreal,” Caruth said on FS1. “Thank you so much to HendrickCars.com, Mr. [Hendrick] for putting me in this [Spire Motorsports truck] all year along with the men and women at Spire. They’ve had a lot of work this winter and the decal shop’s been working very hard too. Glad to get the win for Team Chevy. Can’t thank my family enough. So many people have helped me get to this point. I can’t believe it. I just stayed cool. We lost track position a little portion of the race. We just stayed in the game and it was just one step. One punch, one round at a time. My [pit] guys had me a great stop and we just executed. There’s more [wins] to come, for sure.”

    Tyler Ankrum, the series’ points leader, settled in the runner-up spot while Corey Heim, Taylor Gray and Christopher Bell finished in the top five. Christian Eckes rallied to finish sixth while Matt Crafton, Zane Smith, Grant Enfinger and Ty Majeski ended up in the top 10.

    Notably, Kyle Busch ended up in 15th place ahead of Chase Purdy while Nick Sanchez finished 17th.

    There were 19 lead changes for 10 different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 19 laps. In total, all but one of 32 starters finished the event while 13 finished on the lead lap.

    Following the third event of the 2024 Craftsman Truck Series season, Tyler Ankrum continues to lead the regular-season standings by five points over Ty Majeski, seven over Corey Heim and 10 over Rajah Caruth.

    Results. 

    1. Rajah Caruth, 38 laps led

    2. Tyler Ankrum 

    3. Corey Heim, 18 laps led

    4. Taylor Gray, four laps led

    5. Christopher Bell, two laps led

    6. Christian Eckes, seven laps led

    7. Matt Crafton 

    8. Zane Smith 

    9. Grant Enfinger 

    10. Ty Majeski, 40 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner 

    11. Jake Garcia 

    12. Bret Holmes 

    13. Ben Rhodes 

    14. Connor Jones, one lap down

    15. Kyle Busch, one lap down, 13 laps led

    16. Chase Purdy, one lap down, one lap led

    17. Nick Sanchez, one lap down, five laps led 

    18. Stewart Friesen, one lap down 

    19. Connor Mosack, one lap down 

    20. Tanner Gray, one lap down 

    21. Mason Massey, one lap down, six laps led

    22. Layne Riggs, one lap down 

    23. Lawless Alan, one lap down 

    24. Daniel Dye, two laps down 

    25. Thad Moffitt, two laps down 

    26. Ty Dillon, two laps down 

    27. Keith McGee, three laps down 

    28. Bayley Currey, five laps down 

    29. Spencer Boyd, six laps down 

    30. Dean Thompson, nine laps down 

    31. Matt Mills, nine laps down 

    32. Timmy Hill – OUT, Electrical

    Next on the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule is the Weather Guard Truck Race at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee. The event is scheduled to occur on March 16 at 8 p.m. ET on FS1. 

  • Nick Sanchez scores first Truck career victory at Daytona amid dramatic overtime shootout

    Nick Sanchez scores first Truck career victory at Daytona amid dramatic overtime shootout

    From being involved in an early multi-truck wreck to escaping a final lap multi-truck wreck, Nick Sanchez capped off his roller-coaster evening mired with on-track chaos to claim his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career victory in the Fresh From Florida 250 at Daytona International Speedway on Friday, February 16.

    The 22-year-old Sanchez from Miami, Florida, led three times for a race-high 26 of 101 over-scheduled laps in an event where he was involved in a multi-truck wreck on the fifth lap. Despite sustaining cosmetic damage to his No. 2 Gainbridge Chevrolet Silverado RST, Sanchez managed to continue as he methodically remained within distance of the front-runners through the draft. Amid more carnages ensuing, he assumed the lead for the first time with nearly 40 laps remaining and managed to remain upfront amid four additional late-race restarts amid four on-track carnages.

    Then during an overtime shootout, Sanchez, who briefly lost the lead to Rajah Caruth, reassumed the top spot with drafting help from Taylor Gray before the final lap. During the final lap, Caruth ignited a multi-truck wreck entering the backstretch that sent a multitude of competitors piling into one another and Gray flipping in the air and on top of two competitors before rolling back on all four wheels. With Sanchez managing to drive away from the field prior to the incident, he was able to cruise back to the frontstretch under a cautious pace and claim his first checkered flag in his 24th series start.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, Ty Majeski started on pole position after posting a pole-winning lap at 178.767 mph in 50.345 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Johnny Sauter, who clocked in the second-best qualifying lap at 178.703 mph in 50.363 seconds.

    Prior to the event, the following names that included Spencer Boyd, Ben Rhodes and Jason White dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.

    When the green flag waved and the 2024 Craftsman Truck Series season commenced, Majeski and Sauter battled dead even for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch amid two tight-packed lanes. With the front-runners continuing to battle amid two tight-packed lanes through Turns 3 and 4 and through the frontstretch, Sauter managed to lead the first lap by a hair over Majeski while receiving drafting help from teammate Matt Mills.

    Through the next four laps and as the field started to fan out to three lanes amid the draft, Sauter and Majeski duked back and forth for the lead until Sauter managed to muscle his No. 45 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado RST ahead of the pack with both lanes in his control. In the process, Majeski settled in second ahead of Corey LaJoie, Tyler Ankrum and Daniel Dye. Meanwhile, Mills, who sustained significant front nose damage to his No. 42 J.F. Electric/Utilitra Chevrolet Silverado RST by drafting Sauter hard in the early laps, was the lead competitor on the outside lane until he was shoved out of the draft amid a tight three-wide battle towards the front.

    Then just past the fifth lap mark, the event’s first caution flew after Crafton, who was boxed in between Tanner Gray and Christian Eckes amid a stacked two-pack lane within the top 15, received a bump from Eckes into Gray that got Crafton’s No. 88 Menards Ford F-150 loose and bumping into the side of rookie Layne Riggs, which then carried forth into Crafton clipping Tanner Gray, who clipped Stewart Friesen, who then clipped Nick Sanchez through the backstretch. The chain reaction incident ended up triggering a multi-truck wreck that also included Ty Dillon, Thad Moffitt, Rajah Caruth, Lawless Alan, Keith McGee, Enfinger, and Jake Garcia. Amid the incident, Sauter was scored the leader ahead of Majeski, LaJoie, Ankrum and Daniel Dye while Bayley Currey, Taylor Gray, Bret Holmes, Toni Breidinger and Dean Thompson were running in the top 10.

    During the caution period, some including Jason White, LaJoie, Grant Enfinger, Timmy Hill, Ben Rhodes, Crafton, Riggs, Mills and Tanner Gray pitted while the rest led by Sauter remained on the track.

    When the race restarted under green on Lap 12, Sauter and Majeski dueled for the lead in front of two tight-packed lanes through the first two turns and the backstretch. They remained dead even for the lead through the frontstretch as Sauter tried to edge ahead before Majeski fought back on the inside lane. Amid the tight battle for the lead, Sauter had teammate Currey and Taylor Gray drafting him while Majeski had drafting help from Ankrum as he then muscled ahead with the lead through Turns 3 and 4 during the following lap. Majeski would continue to have both drafting lanes to himself with the lead and with drafting help from Ankrum by the Lap 15 mark.

    Shortly after, the caution returned after Lawless Alan, who was involved in the event’s early multi-truck wreck, spun by himself below the apron entering Turns 1 and 2 after he blew a right-rear tire and damaged his front nose after his truck dug into the infield grass before he then spun back across the track and was dodged by oncoming traffic. During the caution period, some including Dye, Stefan Parsons, Cory Roper, Sanchez, Caruth, Codie Rohrbaugh and Boyd pitted while the rest led by Sauter remained on the track.

    With a single remaining in the first stage period, the event restarted under green. At the start, Sauter and Majeski again dueled for the top spot through the first two turns until Sauter prevailed on the outside lane with drafting help from teammate Currey to assume the top spot for good through the backstretch. The field then fanned out through the backstretch as both Currey and Majeski tried to mount a late charge for the lead, but their momentum was not enough as Sauter managed to capture the first Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Majeski and Currey duked for the runner-up spot while Ankrum, Taylor Gray, Holmes, Jack Wood, Eckes, Thompson and Heim were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, some led by Sauter pitted while the rest led by Majeski remained on the track.

    The second stage period started on Lap 26 as Majeski and Ankrum occupied the front row. At the start, Majeski and Ankrum dueled for the lead until Ankrum muscled ahead with drafting help from teammate Eckes through Turns 1 and 2. With the field dispersed and the competitors trying to regather into a drafting file, Ankrum retained the lead over teammate Eckes and Rhodes while LaJoie, Crafton, Daniel Dye, Sanchez, Breidinger, Heim and Mills moved up the leaderboard as Majeski dropped out of the top 10.

    At the Lap 30 mark, Ankrum retained the lead ahead of a hard-charging Rhodes, who received drafting help from LaJoie on the outside lane to challenge Ankrum for the lead through Turns 1 and 2 while Eckes continued to draft teammate Ankrum on the inside lane. Amid the stacked two-packed field, Crafton and Sanchez battled for fifth while Heim, Dye, Majeski and Breidinger were running in the top 10 ahead of Enfinger, Mills, Caruth, Sauter, Roper and Holmes.

    A lap later and as both Ankrum and Rhodes continued to battle dead even for the lead, the caution flew due to debris in the form of a tire carcass from Stewart Friesen’s entry being spotted in Turn 3, with Friesen pitting for fresh tires. During the caution period, some including Sauter, Currey, Thompson, Tanner Gray, Breidinger, Mills and Holmes pitted while the rest led by Ankrum remained on the track.

    During the following restart on Lap 37, Ankrum received another strong push from teammate Eckes to muscle ahead with the lead on the inside lane. Crafton and Dye would follow suit while Rhodes fell back into a side-by-side battle with teammate Majeski for fifth place amid the draft and two stacked lanes. With Rhodes picking up LaJoie as a drafting partner through the frontstretch, Ankrum maintained the lead ahead of teammate Eckes, Crafton and Dye through the proceeding lap.

    The caution, however, would return on Lap 38 due to reports of mist around the superspeedway venue. With the field being directed to pit road and placed under a red flag period for more than seven minutes to await the track being dried, Ankrum was awarded the Stage 2 victory scheduled to conclude on Lap 40. Teammate Eckes settled in second while Crafton, Dye, Rhodes, Majeski, LaJoie, Enfinger, Sanchez and Heim were scored in the top 10.

    Once the red flag lifted and the field proceeded under a cautious pace for the second stage break, nearly the entire field led by Ankrum pitted while the rest led by Bret Holmes and Sauter remained on the track. During the pit stops, Ankrum nearly collided with Spencer Boyd, who was trying to enter his pit stall. In addition, Jason White drove through multiple pit stalls while Majeski was penalized due to his pit crew jumping over his pit stall too soon.

    With 56 laps remaining, the final stage commenced under green as Holmes and Sauter occupied the front row. At the start, Holmes marched ahead with the lead from Sauter, where the former moved in front of him to the inside lane before Tanner Gray gained a strong run amid the draft through the backstretch to claim the lead followed by Chase Purdy. Amid Gray’s early efforts, Holmes would maintain the lead amid the draft followed by Sauter for the next two laps before the caution returned as Keith McGee wrecked in Turn 4.

    During the caution period, select names that included Sanchez, LaJoie and Cory Roper pitted while the rest led by Holmes remained on the track.

    With the event restarting with 49 laps remaining, Sauter and Holmes engaged in another side-by-side battle for the lead and in front of two tight-packed lanes. Five laps later, however, the caution flew after Holmes slipped sideways while battling Sauter entering the frontstretch and spun towards the infield along with Currey, who spun off the front nose of Taylor Gray and made light contact with the inside wall towards the pit road entrance. This resulted in a majority of the field led by Sauter returning to pit road for service while the rest led by Enfinger pitted. Enfinger, however, would pit shortly after along with several other names during the caution period, thus handing the lead to Sanchez

    With the event restarting with 39 laps remaining, Sanchez received a strong push from Taylor Gray to muscle away with the lead. As the field fanned out to two and three tight-packed lanes amid the draft, Sanchez had both lanes to his control as he retained the lead followed by Taylor Gray. Three laps later, however, Ben Rhodes received a strong shove from Eckes to march forward into the lead, where he would lead the next five laps before he was challenged by Sauter for the top spot.

    Then with 30 laps remaining, Rhodes made an unscheduled pit stop under green due to a tire issue to his No. 99 Ranch Fuel Energy Drink Ford F-150 as a result of an earlier on-track contact with Ankrum, where Ankrum ran into the right side of Rhodes’ entry. Amid Rhodes’ issue, a three-way battle for the lead ensued between Chase Purdy, Sanchez and Eckes for the lead while LaJoie, Parsons, Taylor Gray, Ankrum and Jack Wood joined the battle amid two tight-packed lanes.

    Two laps later, Rhodes’ event went from bad to worse after he slipped sideways and spun in Turn 4 while also making contact with Tanner Gray and Breidinger due to another tire issue to his entry. The issue occurred as Rhodes was lapped by the leaders entering Turns 3 and 4. With the damage to his entry, the reigning two-time Truck Series champion concluded his event in his pit stall.

    During the proceeding restart with 23 laps remaining, Sanchez received a strong shove from Eckes to assume the lead from LaJoie as Taylor Gray followed suit in third place. Trouble, however, returned during the following lap when Eckes received a bump from LaJoie that sent his No. 19 NAPA Chevrolet Silverado RST sideways and into the side of Parsons while he also got rear-ended by Sauter, whose hood popped up as both he and Eckes spun entering the frontstretch.

    The start of the next restart with 16 laps remaining featured Sanchez muscling away from the field on the inside lane with a strong push from Taylor Gray. They would be followed by Jack Wood while the rest of the field engaged to battling in two tight-packed lanes. The following lap, the caution returned after Dean Thompson ran into the rear of Mason Massey entering Turn 4 and slipped sideways while teammate Breidinger was also involved as she ran into the rear of Thompson, slipped up the track and spun her No. 1 Celsius Toyota Tundra TRD Pro.

    During the following restart with nine laps remaining, Rajah Caruth received drafting help from teammate LaJoie to move into the lead entering the first two turns. Both Spire Motorsports competitors would muscle away from the field through the backstretch until Sanchez gained a massive draft to reassume the top spot with drafting help from Taylor Gray as they were followed by Wood, Ankrum and Purdy while Caruth and LaJoie briefly separated amid the draft.

    Two laps later and as Sanchez and Taylor Gray started to battle dead even for the lead in front of the pack, the caution flew after Ankrum slipped sideways off the front nose of Purdy, with both collecting Eckes before spinning through the backstretch’s grass. The incident was enough to send the event into overtime as Sanchez was scored the leader ahead of Caruth, Taylor Gray, Wood, LaJoie and Crafton.

    At the start of the first overtime attempt, Sanchez and Caruth battled dead even for the lead through the first two turns until Caruth assumed the lead from the outside lane as both he and LaJoie rocketed ahead from the outside lane. They then maintained the lead through the backstretch until Sanchez and Taylor Gray gained a run to the outside lane towards Turns 3 and 4, which was enough for Sanchez to reassume the lead entering the frontstretch.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Sanchez was leading ahead of Taylor Gray, Wood, Caruth and Heim as the field started to fan out to three lanes through the first two turns. Then entering the backstretch, a fiery multi-truck ignited after Caruth drove up the track and turned Wood into Taylor Gray, which sent Gray spinning and wrecking against the backstretch’s outside wall before he was T-boned by Daniel Dye and sent upside-down on top of Eckes and Tanner Gray before his No. 17 JBL Toyota Tundra TRD Pro rolled back on all four wheels. With the caution flag flying to end the event as nearly the entire field wrecked in the backstretch, Sanchez, who drove away from the incident, was scored the leader and declared the winner for his first series’ career victory.

    With the victory, Sanchez, who claimed the 2023 Truck Series Rookie-of-the-Year title and just missed the Championship 4 cutline amid a winless season, became the 123rd competitor overall to achieve a victory in the Craftsman Truck Series and the seventh to do so at Daytona International Speedway. He also recorded the first victory across NASCAR’s top three national touring series for Rev Racing and the 100th points-paying victory in NASCAR at Daytona for the Chevrolet nameplate, with the Chevrolet nameplate also racking up its fourth victory at Daytona.

    Photo by Patrick Sue-Chan for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “[The win]’s Pretty surreal, especially with how the race started,” Sanchez said on FS1. “A big thanks to my team, sticking with me all last year. We were winless. It hurt. We should’ve won, but we redeemed ourselves in the first race possible. [It’s] Definitely gonna be a good year.”

    Amid the carnage, Corey Heim ended uo in second place followed by Rajah Caruth, who navigated his damaged No. 71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado RST to a strong top-three result while Bret Holmes and Spencer Boyd ended up in the top five. Parsons, Crafton, Timmy Hill, Bryan Dauzat and Eckes finished in the top 10.

    Taylor Gray, who ended up 19th following his final-lap upside-down wreck, emerged uninjured, though he, LaJoie, Dye, Roper, Thompson and Rohrbaugh were unable to finish.

    There were 24 lead changes for 12 different leaders. The race featured 12 cautions for 52 laps.

    Following the first event of the 2024 Truck Series season, Tyler Ankrum, who finished 11th at Daytona, leads the regular-season standings by a single point over Sanchez, four over Eckes, five over both Holmes and Crafton, seven over both Heim and Majeski and eight over Caruth.

    Results.

    1. Nick Sanchez, 26 laps led

    2. Corey Heim

    3. Rajah Caruth, one lap led

    4. Bret Holmes, 13 laps led

    5. Spencer Boyd

    6. Stefan Parsons

    7. Matt Crafton

    8. Timmy Hill

    9. Bryan Dauzat

    10. Christian Eckes, one lap led

    11. Tyler Ankrum, 16 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    12. Jason White

    13. Bayley Currey

    14. Stewart Friesen

    15. Ty Majeski, six laps led

    16. Tanner Gray, one lap led

    17. Grant Enfinger, two laps led

    18. Jack Wood

    19. Taylor Gray – OUT, Accident

    20. Corey LaJoie – OUT, Accident, five laps led

    21. Daniel Dye – OUT, Accident

    22. Cory Roper – OUT, Accident

    23. Codie Rohrbaugh – OUT, Accident

    24. Dean Thompson – OUT, Accident

    25. Mason Massey, one lap down

    26. Matt Mills, two laps down

    27. Tony Breidinger, four laps down

    28. Chase Purdy – OUT, Accident, one lap led

    29. Johnny Sauter – OUT, Accident, 24 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    30. Ben Rhodes, – OUT, Accident, five laps led

    31. Keith McGee – OUT, Accident

    32. Lawless Alan – OUT, Overheating

    33. Layne Riggs – OUT, DVP

    34. Jake Garcia – OUT, Accident

    35. Ty Dillon – OUT, Accident

    36. Thad Moffitt – OUT, Accident

    With the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season underway, the next event on the schedule is the Fr8 208 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, February 24, and air at 2 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Joe Gibbs Racing reveals driver-crew chief lineup for 2024 Xfinity Series season

    Joe Gibbs Racing reveals driver-crew chief lineup for 2024 Xfinity Series season

    Joe Gibbs Racing revealed its highly anticipated driver lineup for the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season that will feature two new full-time additions, a notable veteran and a combination of new and familiar part-time faces that will result into a four-car expansion for the organization.

    The organization’s first new addition features Sheldon Creed, who will be piloting the No. 18 Toyota GR Supra on a full-time basis. The 26-year-old Creed from Alpine, California, joins JGR following a two-year campaign at Richard Childress Racing, where he recorded seven runner-up results, 11 top-five finishes and 28 top-10 results during the stint. He also made the 2023 Xfinity Series Playoffs before settling in a career-best seventh place in the final standings.

    The 2024 season is set to mark Creed’s first campaign driving a Toyota within NASCAR’s top three national touring series as he spent his entire career piloting a Chevrolet (2016-23). Having previously won the 2018 ARCA Menards Series and the 2020 Craftsman Truck Series championships, Creed approaches the 2024 season with aims of both achieving his first victory in the Xfinity circuit and returning to the Playoffs.

    Another new full-time addition to JGR’s lineup for next season is Chandler Smith, who will be assuming the reigns of the No. 81 GR Supra. Smith’s move to JGR comes as the 21-year-old native from Talking Rock, Georgia, is coming off his first full-time campaign in the Xfinity circuit with Kaulig Racing, where he notched his first career victory at Richmond Raceway in April. He also claimed three poles, eight top-five results, 13 top-10 results, an average-finishing result of 15.6 and a spot in the 2023 Xfinity Playoffs, where he ended up in ninth place in the final standings. Despite being initially locked into a three-year deal with Kaulig, Smith ended up paying a buyout of his contract to depart the organization early, with the official announcement of his departure from Kaulig being made last October.

    Smith’s move to Joe Gibbs Racing also marks his return to the Toyota Racing family following a one-year absence. He previously achieved 10 ARCA Menards Series victories with Venturini Motorsports (2018-20 & 2022) and five Craftsman Truck Series victories with Kyle Busch Motorsports (2021-22), all while piloting Toyota entries. With the 2024 season within the horizon, Smith, who ended up in the runner-up spot in the 2023 rookie standings, strives to return to the Playoffs and contend for both additional victories and the title in the Xfinity circuit.

    With Creed and Smith locked in as full-time competitors, Joe Gibbs Racing will also be fielding two additional entries that will each be piloted by multiple competitors throughout the 2024 season.

    The first All-Star entry features the No. 20 Toyota GR Supra that will be primarily split between Aric Almirola and John Hunter Nemechek.

    The 39-year-old Almirola from Tampa, Florida, is coming off his 12th full-time campaign in the NASCAR Cup Series and sixth driving for Stewart-Haas Racing, where he settled in 22nd place in the 2023 final driver’s standings on the strength of two poles, two top-five results and five top-10 results. Despite announcing his retirement from full-time NASCAR competition following the 2023 season in late October, Almirola remained interested in pursuing a part-time campaign within the Xfinity circuit for the 2024 season.

    Almirola’s upcoming part-time campaign with JGR reunites both parties as the Floridian commenced his NASCAR career with the organization between 2005 and 2007. Having achieved three victories in 460 career starts in the NASCAR Cup Series, Almirola has also made 104 career starts in the Xfinity circuit. During the span, he recorded a total of four victories, with his latest occurring at Sonoma Raceway in June as he delivered the first victory for RSS Racing. The move to JGR will mark his first campaign in a Toyota since the 2010-11 Truck Series seasons.

    Meanwhile, Nemechek returns for his third Xfinity campaign with at least one start in the series for JGR. He will commence the 2024 campaign by competing in the series’ first two-scheduled events at Daytona International Speedway and at Atlanta Motor Speedway, both in mid-February, before returning to compete at Nashville Superspeedway in late June, all while sponsored by Pye-Barker Fire & Safety. The events at Daytona, Atlanta and Nashville are just three of 10-scheduled starts planned for Nemechek, with the remaining seven venues yet to be revealed. The 26-year-old Nemechek from Mooresville, North Carolina, is coming off a full-time campaign with JGR in the Xfinity Series, where he drove the No. 20 entry to a season-high seven victories, two poles, 17 top-five results, 24 top-10 results, 1,083 laps led and an average-finishing result of 9.5. He would also make the Playoffs and claim a Championship 4 berth, where he would settle in fourth place in the final driver’s standings. In addition to his part-time Xfinity campaign, Nemechek is set to compete in the Cup Series on a full-time basis for Legacy Motor Club.

    For JGR’s second All-Star entry, the following names that include Joe Graf Jr., Taylor Gray, William Sawalich and Ryan Truex will be splitting driving responsibilities of the No. 19 Toyota GR Supra.

    For Truex, the 31-year-old native from Mayetta, New Jersey, is coming off his second consecutive part-time campaign with JGR, where he achieved his first career victory both in the Xfinity circuit and within NASCAR’s top three national touring series at Dover Motor Speedway in April. He also recorded two additional top-five results in six total starts, all occurring in JGR’s No. 19 entry.

    The 2024 season will mark Truex’s fifth part-time Xfinity campaign with JGR (2011-12, 2022-23). In 24 Xfinity starts with JGR, Truex has achieved one victory, six top-five results and 14 top-10 results. In total, he has made 90 career starts in the Xfinity Series, where he has accumulated eight top-five results and 30 top-10 results.

    For Graf, the 25-year-old native from Mahwah, New Jersey, returns for a second part-time campaign with JGR after making his first six starts with the organization this past season. During the stint, he recorded two top-10 results while making the rest of his 27 series starts at RSS Racing as he ended up in 23rd place in the final standings. Currently, he has made 126 career starts in the Xfinity Series and has accumulated a total of five top-10 results.

    For Gray, the 18-year-old native from Artesia, New Mexico, joins both JGR and the Xfinity Series as a newcomer, though his first part-time schedule with the organization has yet to be announced. In addition to the Xfinity Series, Gray is set to compete on a full-time basis in this year’s Craftsman Truck Series season with TRICON Garage after competing in nearly the entire schedule this past season, where he recorded six top-10 results and settled in 15th place in the final standings. He previously recorded nine victories across the ARCA Racing Series divisions, including three in the ARCA Menards Series.

    Lastly, Sawalich, another newcomer to the Xfinity Series, will compete in the closing stretches of the upcoming Xfinity schedule once he turns 18 years of age on October 3. His schedule will involve the final three events at Homestead-Miami Speedway in mid-October followed by Martinsville Speedway and Phoenix Raceway, respectively, in early November.

    The 17-year-old Sawalich from Eden Prairie, Minnestoa, is coming off a 25-race schedule across the ARCA Racing Series for JGR. Throughout his stint, Sawalich secured the 2023 ARCA Menards Series East championship on the strength of four victories and finishing no lower than fourth place throughout the eight-race schedule. He would also record four victories in the ARCA Menards Series and a single victory in the ARCA West finale at Phoenix Raceway in November.

    In addition to his part-time Xfinity schedule, Sawalich will pilot JGR’s No. 18 entry for a majority of the 2024 ARCA Menards Series schedule as he will share the ride with Tanner Gray, who competes in the Truck Series for TRICON Garage.

    The amount of races that will occur between Almirola, Graf, Gray, Nemechek and Truex between the Nos. 19 and 20 entries remain to be determined.

    Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “Over the last couple of months, we’ve been working diligently to put together our 2024 Xfinity program which will include the addition of a fourth team,” Steve DeSouza, EVP NASCAR Xfinity Series/Development at JGR, said. “Our 2024 roster has a great balance of experience, youth, wisdom, and talent. We believe the veteran drivers will continually benchmark our program, compliment, and challenge each other, as well as assist our younger drivers to further develop their skill set. We are also excited about our crew chiefs and the teams they have assembled. We take a lot of pride in not only our program’s on-track success, but also in the opportunity to develop and promote our team members.”

    The crew chief lineup for JGR’s four-car entry will feature a bevy of first-timers alongside a notable name. Veteran Jeff Meendering returns for his sixth season with JGR as he will be paired with Chandler Smith and the No. 81 entry. Meanwhile, Tyler Allen, a former Xfinity and Cup engineer for JGR, will graduate to the role of crew chief for the No. 20 entry that will be split between Almirola and Nemechek while Seth Chavka, a former lead race engineer for JGR, will campaign in his first full-time season as a crew chief for the No. 19 entry that will be split between Graf, Gray, Sawalich and Truex. Lastly, Sam McAulay, who previously served as a lead race engineer for veteran Denny Hamlin in the Cup Series, will assume the role as crew chief for JGR’s No. 18 entry that will be piloted by Creed.

    With the driver and crew chief lineup set, Joe Gibbs Racing’s campaign in the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season is scheduled to commence at Daytona International Speedway for the United Rentals 300. The event’s broadcast time is scheduled to occur on February 17, 2024, at 5 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Jeff Hensley joins TRICON Garage as No. 17 crew chief for 2024 Truck Series season

    Jeff Hensley joins TRICON Garage as No. 17 crew chief for 2024 Truck Series season

    Veteran Jeff Hensley will be joining TRICON Garage to serve as the crew chief of the No. 17 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro team piloted by Taylor Gray for the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season.

    The news comes as the 61-year-old Hensley from Ridgeway, Virginia, is coming off a strong season as the crew chief of the No. 23 GMS Racing Chevrolet Silverado RST team piloted by Grant Enfinger. Throughout the season, the duo notched three victories, a pole, nine top-five results, 13 top-10 results, 232 laps led and an average-finishing result of 9.0. They also made the 2023 Truck Series Playoffs and transferred all the way into the Championship 4 round, where they ended up in the runner-up result in the final standings. Ultimately, the finale would serve as Hensley’s final race working at GMS Racing as GMS ceased operations at this season’s conclusion.

    Hensley, who was a former Xfinity Series competitor for his family-owned team before transitioning to a career as a crew chief in 1987, has called 463 events as a Truck Series crew chief from 2004 to 2023. During this span, he notched 22 victories with six different competitors, including nine with Enfinger, and ended up with two runner-up results in the final standings, the first with Mike Skinner in 2007 and the second with Enfinger in 2023.

    In addition, Hensley has appeared in 427 events as a crew chief in the Xfinity circuit from 1987-2001. During the stretch, he achieved 11 victories and the 1990 series’ championship with Chuck Brown. Following the 2001 season, Hensley, who was working for his family-owned team, worked for Arrington Manufacturers before reassuming his role as a crew chief with a direct focus within the Truck Series.

    The 2024 Truck Series season is set to mark Hensley’s first with a Toyota organization since the 2017 season that occurred with ThorSport Racing and Enfinger. It will also mark his first season paired with Taylor Gray, who notched a career-best runner-up finish at Kansas Speedway in September, three top-five results and eight top 10 results while competing in all but three events this past season before settling in 15th place in the 2023 driver’s standings. Having made 33 career starts in the Truck Series for the past three seasons, the 18-year-old Gray from Artesia, New Mexico, is set to mount for his first series’ victory and Playoff bid in 2024 while also making his series’ debut at Daytona International Speedway in February.

    With his plans for next season set, Hensley is set to make his first appearance as a crew chief for TRICON Garage and Taylor Gray in the 2024 Craftsman Truck Series’ season-opening Fresh From Florida 250 at Daytona. The event is scheduled to occur on February 16 at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Taylor Gray retained by TRICON Garage for 2024 Truck Series season

    Taylor Gray retained by TRICON Garage for 2024 Truck Series season

    Taylor Gray will officially embark in his first full-time season in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series with TRICON Garage in 2024.

    The news comes as the 18-year-old Gray from Artesia, New Mexico, is coming off his rookie season in the Truck Series, where he achieved three top-five results, six top-10 results, two laps led, an average-finishing result of 14.6 through 20 starts and a 15th-place result in the final driver’s standings. He was unable to compete in the series on a full-time basis until he turned 18 years of age in March, which saw him miss the first three events on the schedule.

    “The opportunity to continue to grow with TRICON and Toyota is not one that I take for granted,” Gray said. “I am excited to tackle my first complete Truck season and continue developing into a weekly contender. I am ready to hit the ground running and am prepared to win races in 2024.”

    Gray, who grew up competing in late models and was elevated to the CARS Late Model Stock Tour and the ARCA Menards Series East with DGR-Crosley, has three ARCA Menards Series victories, one ARCA Menards Series East win and five ARCA Menards Series West victories to date, with his best points result being a runner-up finish in 2022 ARCA East division.

    In 2021, Gray made his Truck Series debut at Watkins Glen International with David Gilliland Racing, where he finished 35th. He competed in four additional Truck events throughout the season before returning for eight additional starts in 2022 and then competing for a majority of events this past season with TRICON. His best on-track result to date is a runner-up finish at Kansas Speedway in September. Previously, he achieved a third-place finish at Pocono Raceway in July.

    Gray, who will continue to pilot the No. 17 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, becomes the fourth competitor to be retained by TRICON for the 2024 Truck Series season. His older brother Tanner, Corey Heim and Dean Thompson have been confirmed to return to the organization and pilot the Nos. 15, 11 and 5 entries, respectively, next season.

    With his racing plans for next season set, Taylor Gray’s first full-time campaign in the Craftsman Truck Series commences at Daytona International Speedway. The season opener is scheduled to occur on February 16, 2024, at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Heim clinches Championship 4 berth with late Truck victory at Bristol

    Heim clinches Championship 4 berth with late Truck victory at Bristol

    In an event dominated by Christian Eckes, Corey Heim captured the final spotlight and punched his ticket to this year’s Championship 4 round after emerging late to win the UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Thursday, September 14.

    The 21-year-old Heim from Marietta, Georgia, led the final six of 200-scheduled laps in an event where he was one of eight Playoff competitors vying for both a victory and an early automatic spot to race for this year’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship at Phoenix Raceway in early November. Taking the green flag in 11th place, Heim methodically carved his way to the front and managed to secure stage points during both stage break periods.

    Then after restarting alongside dominant pole-sitter and Playoff rival Christian Eckes at the start of the final stage period with 80 laps remaining, Heim spent the majority of the final 80-lap run to the finish trailing Eckes. He then capitalized on Eckes being marred in lapped traffic to overtake him for the lead with six laps remaining. From there, Heim managed to keep his No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota Tundra TRD Pro in front and claim the checkered flag over a hard-charging Eckes to win for the third time in 2023 and become the first Playoff competitor to be guaranteed a championship-contending spot for this year’s finale due to occur less than two months from now.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Thursday, Playoff contender Christian Eckes, who won last weekend’s event at Kansas Speedway, started on pole position after posting a pole-winning lap at 127.064 mph in 15.101 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender Carson Hocevar, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 126.813 mph in 15.131 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Bayley Currey, Playoff contender Nick Sanchez, Kaden Honeycutt, Stewart Friesen and Parker Kligerman 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, who started on the outside lane, quickly transitioned to the inside lane in front of Carson Hocevar through the first two turns as Ty Majeski challenged Hocevar for the runner-up spot from the outside lane. With the field navigating its way around the Bristol circuit while jostling for early positions, Eckes proceeded to lead the first lap in his No. 19 Gates Hydraulics Chevrolet Silverado RST.

    Through the second to fifth lap, a majority of the front-runners migrated to the inside lane and in a single-file line as Eckes retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Hocevar and Majeski while Chase Purdy, Tanner Gray and rookie Rajah Caruth were in the top six. Behind, Zane Smith overtook rookie Taylor Gray for seventh while Jack Wood was running in ninth ahead of William Sawalich, Corey Heim and Grant Enfinger as Ben Rhodes was mired in 14th in between Jake Drew and Hailie Deegan.

    Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Eckes was leading by more than a second over Majeski followed by Hocevar, Purdy and Caruth while Tanner Gray, Zane Smith, Taylor Gray, Wood and Sawalich were running in the top 10. Behind, Heim was in 11th ahead of Enfinger, Jake Drew, Rhodes and Matt DiBenedetto while rookie Daniel Dye, Deegan, Matt Crafton, Dean Thompson and Tyler Ankrum occupied the top 20. Meanwhile, Nick Sanchez was mired in 31st while battling Greg Van Alst for position and trying to navigate his way to the front without losing a lap.

    Four laps later, the first caution of the event flew when Jack Wood, who was running ninth, spun and wrecked against the Turn 3 outside wall before his No. 51 Rowdy Manufacturing Chevrolet Silverado RST then spun back down to the track and was clipped by Dean Thompson’s No. 5 Thompson Pipe Group Toyota Tundra TRD Pro as both sustained significant damage to their vehicles and were eliminated from contention. During the caution period, some including Kligerman and Sanchez pitted while rest led by Eckes remained on the track.

    When the race restarted under green on Lap 24, Eckes rocketed ahead and retained the lead over Majeski and Hocevar as the field jostled for positions amid two lanes through the first two turns. With Eckes leading and slowly starting to cruise away from the field, Purdy was in fourth ahead of Caruth, Zane Smith, Taylor Gray and Heim while Tanner Gray, Enfinger and Rhodes were mired in the top 11. Amid the battles, Eckes was leading by more than a second over Hocevar and Majeski by the Lap 30 mark.

    At the Lap 40 mark, Eckes continued to lead by more than a second over Hocevar followed by Majeski, Purdy and Zane Smith while Caruth, Taylor Gray, Heim, Tanner Gray, Enfinger and Rhodes trailed in the top 11. Meanwhile, Nick Sanchez was still mired towards the rear of the field in 26th behind Daniel Dye.

    Ten laps later, Eckes, despite being mired within lapped traffic, continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over Hocevar with third-place Majeski trailing by half a second as the latter two tried to keep pace and pressure Eckes for the top spot.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 55, Eckes captured his fifth Truck stage victory of the 2023 season. Hocevar settled in second followed by Majeski, Purdy and Zane Smith while Caruth, Taylor Gray, Heim, Tanner Gray and Rhodes were scored in the top 10. By then, Enfinger and Sanchez were the only two Playoff contenders to not score the first round of stage points as they were mired in 11th and 26th, respectively.

    Under the stage break, a majority of the field led by Eckes pitted for service while the rest led by Playoff contender Zane Smith and including Sanchez, newcomer Carson Kvapil and Bayley Currey remained on the track.

    The second stage started on Lap 66 as Zane Smith and Kvapil occupied the front row. At the start, Zane Smith rocketed his No. 38 Speedco Ford F-150 away with the lead from the outside lane while Kvapil, who was piloting the No. 7 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado RST for Spire Motorsports in his series’ debut, spun the tires and stacked up the inside lane. With Kvapil briefly losing pace, Sanchez navigated his No. 2 Gainbridge Chevrolet Silverado RST into the runner-up spot followed by Eckes, the first competitor on four fresh tires, while Kvapil settled in fourth in front of Majeski. As the field behind jostled for positions, Zane Smith maintained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Sanchez by the Lap 70 mark. The caution, however, returned by Lap 74 when Greg Van Alst, who was running towards the rear of the field, spun in Turn 2.

    During the following restart on Lap 80, Zane Smith retained the lead after gaining another strong launch from the outside lane while Sanchez and Eckes battled dead even for the runner-up spot before Eckes prevailed during the proceeding lap. Behind, Majeski moved up to fourth ahead of Kvapil while Heim, Enfinger, Taylor Gray, Hocevar and Purdy were in the top 10 ahead of Rhodes. Amid the battles, Eckes started to challenge Zane Smith for the lead as he was trailing by a tenth of a second.

    By Lap 90, the top-eight Playoff contenders were running in the top 11 on the track as Zane Smith continued to lead by a tenth of a second over Eckes followed by Sanchez, Majeski and Heim while Kvapil, Enfinger, Taylor Gray, Hocevar, Purdy and Rhodes followed suit, with Kvapil, Gray and Purdy being the top non-Playoff contenders running towards the front.

    At the halfway mark on Lap 100, Zane Smith retained the lead ahead of Eckes while Sanchez, Majeski and Heim remained in the top five. By then, Rhodes was overtaken by Caruth for 11th while Enfinger and Hocevar were in seventh and ninth. By then, Matt DiBenedetto and Matt Crafton, both of whom were coming off being eliminated from the Playoffs, were in 15th and 16th while Sawalich and Jake Garcia were in 13th and 14th, respectively. In addition, Kligerman, Stewart Friesen, Tyler Ankrum, Connor Jones and Deegan were battling within the top 20.

    Five laps later, Eckes overtook Zane Smith, who was mired behind the lapped competitor of Spencer Boyd, for the lead. Shortly after and with more lead lap and Playoff contenders trying to navigate around Boyd, Majeski, who was running fourth, fell off the pace after he made contact with Heim that got Majeski loose and with a flat right-front tire to the No. 98 Road Ranger Ford F-150. Despite plummeting in the leaderboard as the laps in the second stage dwindled, Majeski continued to run on the track and the event remained under green flag conditions.

    When the second stage concluded on Lap 110, Eckes cruised to his sixth Truck stage victory of the 2023 season and second of the night. Zane Smith settled in second while Sanchez, Heim, Enfinger, Taylor Gray, Hocevar, Kvapil, Caruth and Rhodes were scored in the top 10. By then, Majeski was mired in 30th as he was lapped by Eckes, but he would receive the free pass during the stage break period due to being the first competitor mired a lap behind.

    During the stage break, some led by Zane Smith pitted for service while the rest led by Eckes remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Zane Smith was penalized and sent to the rear of the field for pitting outside of his pit box. Taylor Gray also dropped to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road.

    With 80 laps remaining, the final stage started as Eckes and Heim occupied the front row. At the start, Eckes took off with the lead from the outside lane and he quickly steered his truck from the outside to the inside lane in front of Heim’s No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro through the first two turns. Behind, Enfinger made contact with Taylor Gray to move into third place followed by Hocevar as Gray fell back to fifth in front of Caruth and Rhodes. As the field battled deep within two lanes around the circuit, Eckes stretched his advantage to half a second over Heim and more than a second over third-place Enfinger with 75 laps remaining.

    With 60 laps remaining, Eckes continued to lead by more than a second over Heim followed by Enfinger, Hocevar and Taylor Gray while Caruth, Purdy, Rhodes, DiBenedetto and Friesen were running in the top 10. By then, Sanchez, who scrubbed the outside wall at the start of the final stage and was trying to rally his way back to the front after pitting during the stage break, was back in 13th in between Jake Garcia and Crafton while Majeski and Zane Smith were mired in 25th and 27th, respectively.

    Ten laps later, Eckes retained the lead by more than a second over Heim while Enfinger, Hocevar and Taylor Gray remained in the top five. By then, the remaining Playoff contenders that included Rhodes, Sanchez, Majeski and Zane Smith were running eighth, 13th, 25th and 26th, respectively.

    Down to the final 40 laps of the event, Eckes was now leading by a tenth over Heim while Enfinger, Hocevar and Taylor Gray continued to trail from third to fifth, respectively. Meanwhile, Caruth retained sixth ahead of Purdy, Rhodes, DiBenedetto and Friesen while Sawalich, Garcia, Sanchez, Bayley Currey and Matt Crafton occupied the top 15. By then, Zane Smith, who was still mired within the middle of the pack amid his late pit road penalty, was lapped by Eckes.

    With less than 30 laps remaining, Eckes stabilized his advantage by two-tenths of a second over Heim while Enfinger, Hocevar and Taylor Gray remained in the five. By then, Majeski was back in 23rd, but in jeopardy of being lapped by Eckes, while Rhodes and Sanchez were still scored on the lead lap in eighth and 12th. Eckes would proceed to extend the advantage by half a second with less than 20 laps remaining.

    Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Eckes stretched his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Heim while Enfinger, Hocevar and Taylor followed suit in the top five. By then, Rhodes and Sanchez moved up to seventh and 10th while Majeski was mired in 20th. In addition, Zane Smith was back in 24th.

    Then with six laps remaining, Eckes hit a roadblock after getting mired behind lapped competitors, among which included Ty Majeski and Tanner Gray. This enabled Heim to make his move beneath Eckes for the lead through Turn 2. With both Eckes and Heim battling dead even through Turn 3, Heim managed to muscle ahead and assume the lead from the inside lane with five laps remaining. During the proceeding laps, Heim, who was approaching the lapped traffic that stalled Eckes’ momentum, retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Eckes, who kept Heim close within his sights and tried to regain the lost advantage.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Heim remained as the leader by two-tenths of a second over Eckes. Despite Eckes gaining a strong run to Heim’s outside through Turns 2 and 3 as Heim was still mired in lapped traffic, Heim managed to keep Eckes behind him through Turns 3 and 4 as he surged ahead and claimed the checkered flag to win by two-tenths of a second over Eckes.

    With the victory, Heim, who won the 2023 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular-season championship, scored his third Truck victory of the season, the fifth of his career, first at Bristol and first since winning at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in July. Above all, Heim officially claimed one of four vacant spots to this year’s Championship 4 round as he and the No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota team led by former championship-winning crew chief Scott Zipadelli will contend for the series championship at Phoenix Raceway in November.

    “Just huge thank you to TRICON Garage, Toyota Racing, Safelite,” Heim, who celebrated with his team and the fans on the frontstretch, said on FS1. “This is insane. I feel like I’ve given so many [wins] away this year and to win one at the end like that was so special. Unreal. We finally got one back. I was in the zone. I just thought about all the races we’ve given away or I’ve given away. I just focus forward and semi-pass up right where we needed to be. Gosh, it’s so awesome to know we’re in Phoenix and it’s awesome.”

    While Heim was left victorious, Eckes was left dejected on pit road after having a secured spot for himself for the finale evaporate in an event where he led a race-high 150 laps and swept both stages. The runner-up result, though, places Eckes in the runner-up spot in the current Playoff standings and 29 points above the top-four cutline with two upcoming Playoff events for him to rally and receive another opportunity to make the cutline by October.

    “I just think it’s a little ironic that [Tanner Gray] was three laps down and waited,” Eckes said. “Whatever. Good truck. I got really tight there at the end. It is what it is, but just huge thanks to Gates Hydraulics,…everybody involved. That one stings, for sure.”

    Like Eckes, the Bristol night featured strong runs for Enfinger and Hocevar, both of whom finished third and fourth in the final running order. As a result, Hocevar is situated in third place in the Playoff standings and 18 points above the cutline while Enfinger holds possession of the fourth and final spot above the cutline by 14 points.

    “I feel like, overall, we executed almost to the best of our ability,” Enfinger said. “I wished we could’ve contended for the win, but overall, I feel like we got all we could get out of our Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet. Lacking a little bit to contend for a win. We always want to fight for a win. We couldn’t do that [tonight], but I think overall, we executed well on pit road. We executed well. Not happy, but satisfied.”

    “We just needed to have a good smooth night tonight and get the points we could and not over-extend ourselves or make any mistakes,” Hocevar added. “We did just that. Our Worldwide Express Chevy was really fast. It was just about not making mistakes and going to run the top [lane]. I wished we could’ve widened out a little bit, but fourth [in the Playoff standings] and plus 20, 18 or whatever it is [above the cutline] is good going into Talladega and that was our goal. We’ll just keep clicking away.”

    Rookie Taylor Gray, coming off a career-best runner-up result at Kansas Speedway, notched his second top-five finish in recent weeks by finishing fifth and as the highest non-Playoff competitor in the field. Rajah Caruth, Rhodes, Purdy, Sanchez and DiBenedetto completed the top 10 on the track.

    For Sanchez, the ninth-place result marks his 10th top-10 finish of the season and a strong rally from starting at the rear of the field. The result, however, leaves him and his No. 2 Rev Racing Chevrolet team 22 points below the top-four cutline. Rhodes, Majeski and Zane Smith join Sanchez in being scored below the cutline following the first Round of 8 event.

    “It sucks because I did legitimately think we had pace to contend for a win,” Sanchez said. “Just didn’t work out tonight. It is what it is, but we’ll go to Talladega and try to minimize the damage and try to go win Homestead.”

    There were four lead changes for four different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 33 laps. In addition, 20 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Results.

    1. Corey Heim, six laps led

    2. Christian Eckes, 150 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

    3. Grant Enfinger

    4. Carson Hocevar

    5. Taylor Gray

    6. Rajah Caruth

    7. Ben Rhodes

    8. Chase Purdy, one lap led

    9. Nick Sanchez

    10. Matt DiBenedetto

    11. Jake Garcia

    12. Carson Kvapil

    13. Bayley Currey

    14. Stewart Friesen

    15. Connor JOnes

    16. Matt Crafton

    17. Hailie Deegan

    18. Parker Kligerman

    19. Ty Majeski

    20. Jake Drew

    21. Daniel Dye, one lap down

    22. Colby Howard, one lap down

    23. Tyler Ankrum, one lap down

    24. Zane Smith, one lap down, 43 laps led

    25. Kaden Honeycutt, one lap down

    26. Timmy Hill, one lap down

    27. Bret Holmes, one lap down

    28. Lawless Alan, one lap down

    29. Tanner Gray, two laps down

    30. William Sawalich, three laps down

    31. Spencer Boyd, four laps down

    32. Stephen Mallozzi, eight laps down

    33. Memphis Villarreal, nine laps down

    34. Greg Van Alst – OUT, Brakes

    35. Dean Thompson – OUT, Accident

    36. Jack Wood – OUT, Accident

    *Bold indicates Playoff contenders

    Playoff standings

    1. Corey Heim – Advanced

    2. Christian Eckes +29

    3. Carson Hocevar +18

    4. Grant Enfinger +14

    5. Zane Smith -14

    6. Ben Rhodes -19

    7. Nick Sanchez -22

    8. Ty Majeski -22

    The second Round of 8 event in the 2023 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs is set to occur at Talladega Superspeedway on September 30, with the event’s air coverage slated to occur at 1 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Eckes wins Playoff’s Round of 10 finale at Kansas in wild two-lap shootout

    Eckes wins Playoff’s Round of 10 finale at Kansas in wild two-lap shootout

    After spending a majority of the evening trailing the front-runners, Christian Eckes benefitted through a pair of late-race cautions and a two-lap shootout to overtake Playoff rivals Corey Heim and Zane Smith on the final lap to win the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Kansas Lottery 200 at Kansas Speedway on Friday, September 8.

    The 22-year-old Eckes from Greenville, New York, led the final two of 134-scheduled laps in an event where he qualified eighth, notched stage points during the event’s two stage periods and kept pace with the leaders with a locked-up berth to the Round of 8 in the 2023 Truck Series Playoffs already sealed prior to the event.

    Then amid two late-race caution periods, starting with 17 laps remaining and a proceeding one with eight laps remaining that sent the event into a two-lap shootout, Eckes, who was running in the top five amid the late chaos, drew himself into a battle for the lead and win against Heim and Zane Smith prior to the final lap. Despite leading the final lap mark, Eckes briefly lost the lead to both Heim and Zane Smith. With the latter two dueling for the lead through the backstretch, Eckes seized an opportunity and crossed his No. 19 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet beneath Heim and Zane Smith before bolting past both through the backstretch and nearly sliding up the track in Turn 3 before muscling away and claiming his third Truck Series victory of the 2023 season as the Playoff’s Round of 10 came to a thrilling conclusion.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, Chase Purdy notched his first Truck career pole position after posting a pole-winning lap at 176.292 mph in 30.631 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff competitor and rookie Nick Sanchez, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 176.200 mph in 30.647 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Chase Janes, Spencer Davis Timy Hill and Lawless Alan dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their respective trucks. Playoff contender Matt Crafton and Colby Howard also dropped to the rear of the field as they started the main event in backup trucks.

    When the green flag waved and the race started, Purdy and Sanchez dueled for the lead through the frontstretch and entering the first turn until Sanchez muscled his No. 2 Gainbridge Chevrolet Silverado RST ahead of Purdy on the inside lane and into the lead entering the backstretch. As the field fanned out through the backstretch, Sanchez rocketed away from the competition as he proceeded to lead the first lap. With Sanchez leading, Ben Rhodes challenged Purdy for the runner-up spot followed by Christian Eckes while Ty Majeski, who got loose and nearly clipped Purdy through the third turn, was back in fifth ahead of rookie Jake Garcia.

    Through the second lap, Sanchez stretched his advantage to half a second over a side-by-side duel between Rhodes and Purdy while Eckes retained fourth. Behind, Majeski got loose again in Turn 3 as he nearly clipped Garcia while battling for fifth place. The mishap dropped Majeski to seventh as Garcia and Jake Drew moved up to fifth and sixth.

    Through the first five scheduled laps, Sanchez was leading by six-tenths of a second over Rhodes followed by Purdy, Garcia and Eckes while Jake Drew, Majeski, Jack Wood, Grant Enfinger and Zane Smith were in the top 10. Behind, Corey Heim was in 11th ahead of rookie Taylor Gray, Hailie Deegan, Matt DiBenedetto and Tanner Gray while Carson Hocevar, Stewart Friesen, rookie Rajah Caruth, Dean Thompson and Jesse Love occupied the top 20 on the track. Meanwhile, Matt Crafton was the lowest-running Playoff contender on the track as he was in 22nd.

    At the Lap 10 mark, Sanchez continued to lead by nine-tenths of a second over Rhodes while third-place Garcia trailed by more than a second. By then, Purdy fell back to fourth ahead of Eckes and Majeski while Drew, Heim, Zane Smith and Wood were mired in the top 10. Meanwhile, Enfinger, Hocevar, DiBenedetto and Crafton were the four Playoff competitors currently running outside the top 10 on the track.

    Three laps later, the first caution of the event flew when Bayley Currey, who was running 23rd, spun his No. 41 Unishippers Chevrolet Silverado RST entering Turn 2. During the first caution period, some including Enfinger, Ankrum, Colby Howard, Spencer Boyd, Justin Carroll, Lawless Alan, Mason Maggio, Deegan and Chase Janes pitted while the rest led by Sanchez remained on the track.

    When the race restarted under green on Lap 20, Sanchez, who spun the tires at the start, retained the lead as the field fanned out through the first turn. In the midst of Sanchez leading, Rhodes was being challenged by Purdy and Eckes for the runner-up spot as Heim and Zane Smith battled for fifth in front of Hocevar and Garcia, who slipped out of the top five.

    Five laps later, Sanchez retained the lead by seven-tenths of a second over Purdy followed by Rhodes, Heim and Eckes while Zane Smith settled in sixth in front of Hocevar. Shortly after, Enfinger, who restarted outside the top 20, had carved his way back into the top 10 on fresh tires as he was in eighth behind Zane Smith and Jake Drew while Hocevar fell back to ninth.

    Then on Lap 26, the second caution of the event flew when Kaden Honeycutt spun in between Turns 3 and 4 as his truck looped sideways from the top lane to the bottom lane with the leaders approaching and missing Honeycutt. Honeycutt’s incident was enough for the first stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 30 to officially conclude under caution.

    As a result, Sanchez, who came into the event three points above the top-eight cutline to advance to the Playoff’s Round of 8, captured his third Truck stage victory of the 2023 season. Purdy settled in second while Rhodes, Heim, Eckes, Zane Smith, Drew, Enfinger, Hocevar and Majeski were scored in the top 10. By then, DiBenedetto and Crafton were the two Playoff contenders who failed to collect a first round of stage points as they were scored in 11th and 13th on the track while Hocevar managed to clinch his way into the Round of 8 by points for the first time in his career.

    Under the stage break, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Sanchez pitted while Enfinger, who pitted during the first caution period, remained on the track to inherit the lead.

    The second stage started on Lap 35 as Enfinger and Sanchez occupied the front row. At the start, Sanchez managed to rocket ahead of Enfinger to reassume the lead on the inside lane as the field fanned out through the first two turns and entering the backstretch. With Rhodes challenging and overtaking Enfinger for the runner-up spot, he then proceeded to challenge Sanchez for the lead during the proceeding lap. Despite leading Laps 37 and 38 by a hair over Sanchez amid a heated duel, Sanchez would manage to slide in front of Rhodes’ No. 99 Kubota Ford F-150 through Turns 3 and 4 as he retained the lead with a clear racetrack by Lap 39. By then, Purdy made an unscheduled pit stop under green due to reports of a loose wheel to his pole-winning No. 4 Bama Buggies Chevrolet Silverado RST.

    At the Lap 40 mark, Sanchez was leading by three-tenths of a second over a tight seven-truck battle for the lead that involved Hocevar, Rhodes, Eckes, Zane Smith, Enfinger and Heim, all of whom were separated by a second and were contending in the Playoffs, while DiBenedetto and Crafton trailed in the top nine. With nine of 10 Playoff contenders running first through ninth, Majeski, the 10th Playoff contender, was mired back in 20th while Taylor Gray was the highest-running non-playoff competitor running in 10th place on the track.

    By Lap 50, Hocevar, who overtook Sanchez for the lead two laps earlier, was leading in his No. 42 Worldwide Express Chevrolet Silverado RST by nine-tenths of a second over Sanchez while Zane Smith, Heim and Rhodes were in the top five ahead of Eckes, Enfinger and DiBenedetto. By then, Crafton fell back to 12th while teammate Majeski was still mired in 19th in between Jack Wood and Jesse Love.

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 60, Hocevar notched his third Truck stage victory of the 2023 season after muscling away from the field by more than two seconds. Sanchez trailed in second followed by Heim, Zane Smith and Enfinger while Eckes, Rhodes, Rajah Caruth, DiBenedetto and Taylor Gray were scored in the top 10. By then, the remaining Playoff competitors, Crafton and Majeski, were mired back in 12th and 17th, respectively.

    During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Hocevar returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Heim exited pit road first while Sanchez, Zane Smith, Hocevar and Eckes followed suit.

    With 66 laps remaining, the final stage started as Heim and Sanchez occupied the front row. At the start, Heim took off with the lead from the inside lane as Sanchez engaged in a three-wide battle with Hocevar and Zane Smith for the runner-up spot through Turn 1. Smith and Hocevar then went three-wide on Heim for the lead through the backstretch as nearly the entire front-runners also fanned out in three tight-packed lanes. With Hocevar receiving no drafting help through the backstretch, however, Heim, who had Sanchez drafting help, managed to rocket his No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro ahead of Smith through Turns 3 and 4 to clear the field and retain the lead during the following lap.

    Then with 63 laps remaining, Crafton’s Playoff hopes took a hit when he fell off the pace as a result of hitting the backstretch’s outside wall two laps earlier while battling in the top 12. Not long after, trouble struck for his teammate Rhodes, whom Crafton was battling for the final transfer spot to the Playoffs, as he was losing spots on the track amid reports of having a tire going down and making contact with the wall, but he continued to remain on the track as he plummeted to 26th while Crafton pitted his No. 88 Menards Ford F-150 and dropped out of the lead lap category. Amid the issues for both ThorSport Racing Playoff contenders, Heim retained the lead by two-tenths of a second over Hocevar and four-tenths of a second over Zane Smith with 60 laps remaining.

    Then with 52 laps remaining, Hocevar, who spent the last few laps engaged in a fierce battle with Heim for the lead, overtook him to reassume the top spot. With Hocevar retaining the lead over Heim and Eckes with less than 50 laps remaining, the night went from bad to worse for Crafton, who pitted for a second time under green for repairs to his truck amid his late incident with the wall as he lost more laps from the leaders. By then, DiBenedetto, who was running eighth, was within close distance of racing his way into the Round of 8 over Rhodes, who still retained the final transfer spot to the next round but was mired back in 27th on the track.

    As Rhodes, who went a lap down earlier, pitted for four fresh tires with 43 laps remaining, Hocevar found himself being intimidated for the lead by Heim, who trailed by two-tenths of a second, while third-place Zane Smith trailed by more than three seconds. By then, Eckes and Sanchez were in the top five while Taylor Gray, Enfinger, DiBenedetto, Majeski and Garcia were running in the top 10.

    With 39 laps remaining, Heim pitted under green from the runner-up spot. A bevy of names that included the leader Hocevar, Taylor Gray, Stewart Friesen, Jake Drew, rookie Daniel Dye, Rajah Caruth, Hailie Deegan and Majeski pitted during the proceeding laps while Zane Smith, Sanchez, Eckes and Enfinger would pit during the next lap as DiBenedetto, who drew himself back into contention to still transfer to the Round of 8 but is still needing to make a pit stop, assumed the lead. DiBenedetto would then pit with 35 laps remaining as Tanner Gray assumed the lead.

    Once the last wave of lead lap competitors pitted, among which included late leaders Tanner Gray, Jack Wood and Bret Holmes, Heim, who slid through his pit box during his green flag pit stop but managed to run ahead of Hocevar on the track, cycled back into the lead with 27 laps remaining. By then, Heim was leading by more than a second over Hocevar followed by Zane Smith, Eckes and Sanchez while Taylor Gray, DiBenedetto, Friesen, Caruth and Jake Drew were in the top 10. By then, Enfinger, who was penalized for speeding during his green flag pit stop, was back in 17th in front of Majeski while Rhodes and Crafton were mired in 26th and 35th, respectively.

    Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Heim continued to lead by more than a second over Hocevar while Zane Smith, Sanchez and Eckes continued to run in the top five. By then, DiBenedetto, who was running seventh, was still scored eight points below the top-eight cutline behind Rhodes, who was still mired in 26th on the track while teammate Crafton was running 35th on the track and scored 12 points below the cutline.

    Three laps later, the caution flew due to an accident involving Mason Maggio in Turn 3. During the caution period, the front-runners led by Heim remained on the track. With the event reaching its final 10-lap mark with the caution flag still displayed, some running in the middle of the pack, including Enfinger, Majeski and Rhodes, pitted for service while the rest led by Heim remained on the track.

    When the race restarted under green with eight laps remaining, Heim received a strong push from Zane Smith’s No. 38 RTA Ford F-150 to boost ahead of Hocevar and retain the lead. Smith then made his move to Heim’s outside in a bid for the lead through the first two turns and through the backstretch while Hocevar tried to make it a three-way battle for the lead. Shortly after and amid the tight battle for the lead, the caution returned after Caruth and Tanner Gray wrecked across the frontstretch, with Caruth spinning across the frontstretch grass after getting turned by Gray while Gray spun back across the track and pounded the outside wall. At the moment of caution, Heim managed to retain the lead ahead of Zane Smith and Hocevar.

    Down to the final two laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Heim and Zane Smith dueled for the lead through the first two turns and through the backstretch. Then exiting the backstretch, Eckes gained a massive run on the leaders as he bolted his No. 19 PEAK/NAPA Nightvision Chevrolet Silverado RST to the outside of Smith entering Turn 3. Eckes, Zane Smith and Heim then went three wide entering the frontstretch, with Heim nearly getting loose, as they battled for the lead and potential win.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Eckes was out in front by a hair over both Zane Smith and Heim while Taylor Gray, DiBenedetto and Hocevar battled for fourth place behind. Through the first two turns, Heim and Zane Smith muscled ahead of Eckes to make it a tight two-truck battle for the lead between them entering the backstretch. Then through the backstretch, Eckes crossed over to the inside lane and managed to overtake both Zane Smith and Heim for the lead entering Turn 3 before he slid up the track and stalled Smith’s momentum, which caused Smith to get loose. With Smith losing his momentum, Eckes managed to keep his foot on the gas pedal and muscle away from the field to cross the checkered flag with the victory in dramatic fashion and by three-tenths of a second.

    With the victory, Eckes, who had secured a spot for the Round of 8 in the 2023 Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs based on points prior to Friday night’s event at Kansas, scored his fourth career victory in the series, his third of the season and his first since winning at Darlington Raceway in May. Ironically, all three of Eckes’ Truck victories this season have occurred in two-lap shootouts, but tonight was the first where Eckes won under green flag conditions, as the New York native and his No. 19 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet team proceeded toward their quest to win this year’s Truck Series championship.

    “That was wild,” Eckes said on FS1. “I didn’t know if I was gonna win it or not. We had like a sixth-place truck all day, but that caution coming out, I knew we’d have a shot at it. Here we are. We haven’t won in a really long time, so [I] wanted to kind of set the tone and went a hell of a way to the Round of 10. [Finishes of] Second, third and first. Can’t beat that. Proud of all of these guys. Man, it’s awesome to be back in Victory Lane, for sure.”

    Behind Eckes, Taylor Gray notched a career-best runner-up result in his 29th Truck career start followed by Matt DiBenedetto, who made a strong rally to finish third for his second top-five result of the season. The result, however, was not enough for DiBenedetto and the No. 25 Rackley W.A.R. team to advance to the Round of 8 as their Playoff run came to an end.

    “Honestly this team fought so hard, worked their tail off to give me a good-looking truck and a good-handling truck all night,” DiBenedetto, who will be departing Rackley W.A.R. at the conclusion of the 2023 season, said. “Man, we made the most of it, for sure. Just so thankful for these guys, Rackley Roofing…I hate we missed [advancing to the Round of 8], man. It stinks we had an issue at Milwaukee and it took us out of it. We could be in that next round, but this team, they deserve to hold their heads high, for sure.”

    Like DiBenedetto, Matt Crafton’s hopes for a fourth championship came to an end amid his late contact with the wall and series of unscheduled pit stops that resulted in him finishing in 33rd in the final running order and below the top-eight cutline. This season marks the second in a row where Crafton and his No. 88 ThorSport Racing Ford team have failed to transfer past the Round of 10.

    “It is what it is,” Crafton said. “The cards were dealt. It folded really crappy for us, but at the end of the day, we had some speed. When [the truck] jumped sideways off of [Turn] 2, it hadn’t done that all night. Just caught me off guard. I gotta thank [my crew]. They worked their butts off today just from practice, wrecking that truck in practice and then, wrecking during the race. It wasn’t meant to be. We’ll go on and do it again next year.”

    Amid the disappointment for DiBenedetto and Crafton, good fortune came for Ben Rhodes, who ended up 25th and managed to secure the eighth and final transfer spot to the Round of 8 by a mere margin. As a result, he and his No. 99 ThorSport Racing Ford team will continue their quest for a second Truck Series title.

    “We were edgy all day long ever since we unloaded,” Rhodes said. “We kind of were predicting that it was gonna come to us in the race and it kind of went the opposite way. We ended up having a tire going down that caused me to hit the wall, it was just a mistake on myself. Mixed emotions tonight for this Kubota Ford F-150 team. The expectation is to make it to the next round, so just meeting the expectation isn’t necessarily a cause for celebration. We’re happy to advance, but at the same time, we’ve got to smoothen out some rough edges and make sure that bringing less mistakes and faster, more comfortable trucks.”

    Heim, who led 40 laps, finished fourth while Zane Smtih fell back to fifth. Hocevar, Friesen, Sanchez, Tyler Ankrum and Jake Drew completed the top 10 on the track.

    Corey Heim, Christian Eckes, Grant Enfinger, Carson Hocevar, Zane Smith, Ty Majeski, Ben Rhodes and rookie Nick Sanchez have officially transferred to the Round of 8 and will continue their quests to win this year’s Truck Series championship while Matt DiBenedetto and Matt Crafton have been eliminated from the Playoffs.

    There were 18 lead changes for 11 different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 34 laps. In addition, 13 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Results.

    1. Christian Eckes, two laps led

    2. Taylor Gray

    3. Matt DiBenedetto, two laps led

    4. Corey Heim, 40 laps led

    5. Zane Smith, one lap led

    6. Carson Hocevar, 32 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    7. Stewart Friesen

    8. Nick Sanchez, 43 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    9. Tyler Ankrum

    10. Jake Drew

    11. Jake Garcia

    12. Rajah Caruth

    13. Jesse Love

    14. Chase Purdy, one lap down

    15. Dean Thompson, one lap down

    16. Jack Wood, one lap down, two laps led

    17. Grant Enfinger, one lap down, four laps led

    18. Ty Majeski, one lap down

    19. Colby Howard, one lap down

    20. Bret Holmes, one lap down, two laps led

    21. Bayley Currey, two laps down

    22. Lawless Alan, two laps down

    23. Daniel Dye, two laps down

    24. Timmy Hill, two laps down

    25. Ben Rhodes, two laps down, two laps led

    26. Tanner Gray, three laps down, four laps led

    27. Kaden Honeycutt, three laps down

    28. Chase Janes, three laps down

    29. Justin Carroll, four laps down

    30. Hailie Deegan, four laps down

    31. Spencer Boyd, five laps down

    32. Greg Van Alst, five laps down

    33. Matt Crafton, nine laps down

    34. Jennifer Jo Cobb, nine laps down

    35. Mason Maggio – OUT, Accident

    36. Spencer Davis – OUT, Suspension

    *Bold indicates Playoff contenders

    Playoff standings

    1. Corey Heim – Advanced

    2. Christian Eckes – Advanced

    3. Grant Enfinger – Advanced

    4. Carson Hocevar – Advanced

    5. Zane Smith – Advanced

    6. Ty Majeski – Advanced

    7. Ben Rhodes – Advanced

    8. Nick Sanchez – Advanced

    9. Matt DiBenedetto – Eliminated

    10. Matt Crafton – Eliminated

    The Round of 8 in the 2023 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs is set to commence next Thursday, September 14, at Bristol Motor Speedway. Coverage of the event is set to occur at 9 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Enfinger dominates in Truck’s return at Milwaukee Mile, clinches Playoff’s Round of 8 spot

    Enfinger dominates in Truck’s return at Milwaukee Mile, clinches Playoff’s Round of 8 spot

    With his racing plans for next season undetermined amid the announcement of GMS Racing’s closure at this season’s conclusion, Grant Enfinger made a pivotal statement in a pair of quests to fight for this year’s championship and to keep his name on the grid by scoring a dominant victory in the Clean Harbors 175 at the Milwaukee Mile on Sunday, August 27.

    The 37-year-old Enfinger from Fairhope, Alabama, led three times for a race-high 95 of 175-scheduled laps in an event where he qualified on the pole position and dominated the event by sweeping both stage periods. Despite losing a handful of spots on pit road during both stage breaks and pitting for fresh tires along with the majority of the field that dropped him from the top five to 16th, Enfinger benefited through two late-race restarts and the fresh tires to muscle his way back to the front and withstand a battle against Playoff contender Carson Hocevar with 16 laps remaining to drive away and cruise to his third NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory of the 2023 season and advance to the Playoff’s Round of 8.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Sunday, Playoff competitor Grant Enfinger started on the pole position for the first time this season after posting a pole-winning lap at 122.848 mph in 29.744 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff competitor Nick Sanchez, who clocked in the second-best qualifying lap at 122.601 mph in 29.804 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Playoff contender Ty Majeski, who won the previous Truck event at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, dropped to the rear of the field and was assessed a pass-through penalty at the start of the event after NASCAR confiscated a right-rear tire in pre-race inspection, a penalty that resulted with crew chief Joe Shear Jr. being ejected from the event. In addition, Greg Van Alst, Josh Reaume and Playoff competitor Matt DiBenedetto dropped to the rear of the field for missing driver introductions along with Matt Mills, whose No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports entry faced unapproved adjustments.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Enfinger used the outside lane to retain the lead ahead of Sanchez through the first two turns and entering the backstretch. As the field behind jostled for early positions, Enfinger was able to fend off another charge from Sanchez, who was running on the inside lane, to lead the first lap as Taylor Gray trailed closely behind in third.

    Through the second lap, Sanchez tried to draw even against Enfinger’s No. 23 Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet Silverado RST through the first two turns, but Enfinger was able to gain the advantage from the outside lane to retain the top spot through the backstretch. As Majeski served his pass-through penalty, Taylor Gray continued to trail closely behind the two leaders as Enfinger retained a narrow advantage over Sanchez.

    Through the first five scheduled laps, Enfinger was leading by half a second over Sanchez followed by Taylor Gray, Christian Eckes and Carson Hocevar while Corey Heim, Chase Purdy, Ben Rhodes, William Sawalich and rookie Jake Garcia were in the top 10. By then, Tanner Gray was in 11th ahead of Tyler Ankrum, rookie Daniel Dye, rookie Rajah Caruth and Bayley Currey while Zane Smith, Derek Kraus, Matt Crafton, Hailie Deegan and Dean Thompson occupied the top 20. In addition, Majeski was in 36th, dead last, and trailing the lead pack by nearly 21 seconds.

    Then on the 10th lap, the first caution of the event flew when Josh Bilicki blew a tire and collided his No. 02 Insurance King Chevrolet Silverado RST against the outside wall in Turn 2 as he became the first retiree of the event.

    When the race restarted on Lap 17, Enfinger used the outside lane to his advantage as he fended off Sanchez to retain the lead through the backstretch while Taylor Gray mounted a challenge for the runner-up spot on Sanchez through Turns 3 and 4. As Enfinger proceeded to lead by nearly four-tenths of a second, Majeski continued to mount his charge back to the front as he moved his No. 98 Road Ranger Ford F-150 up to 26th while Hocevar, Heim and Eckes occupied the top six on the track.

    At the Lap 25 mark, Enfinger was leading by four-tenths of a second over Sanchez followed by Taylor Gray, Hocevar and Heim while Eckes, Purdy, Sawalich, Rhodes and Garcia battled within the top 10. By then, Playoff competitors Crafton and Zane Smith were in 14th and 15th, Majeski carved his way towards 16th and DiBenedetto was mired back in 26th behind newcomer Sean Hingorani, who was piloting Hattori Racing Enterprises’ No. 61 entry.

    Ten laps later, Enfinger extended his advantage over Sanchez while Taylor Gray, Hocevar and Heim remained in the top five. With Eckes, Purdy, Sawalich, Rhodes and Garcia remaining in the top 10, Kraus was in 11th ahead of Tanner Gray and Zane Smith while Majeski moved up to 14th ahead of Ankrum and Crafton.

    Another 10 laps later, Enfinger continued to extend his advantage as he was more than two seconds ahead of Sanchez while Taylor Gray, Hocevar and Heim retained the top on the track. Eckes, Sawalich, Purdy and Rhodes also retained positions sixth through ninth while Kraus moved up to 10th over Garcia. In addition, Majeski was in 12th, Zane Smith was back in 14th, Crafton fell back to 17th ahead of Matt Mills and DiBenedetto was mired a lap down in 29th.

    When the first stage period concluded on Lap 55, Enfinger notched his second Truck stage victory of the 2023 season. Sanchez settled in second as he trailed Enfinger by nearly two seconds while Taylor Gray, Heim, Eckes, Hocevar, Sawalich, Kraus, Purdy and Rhodes were scored in the top 10. By then, 24 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap while Majeski was up to 11th. Majeski, however, joined teammate Crafton, Zane Smith and DiBenedetto as Playoff competitors to not score stage points during the first stage period.

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Enfinger pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Heim exited first and assumed the lead for the first time in the event followed by Enfinger, who was boxed in behind Purdy during his pit service. Eckes, Hocevar, Matt Mills, Sawalich, Taylor Gray and Sanchez, who lost six spots on pit road, followed suit. Amid the pit stops, Majeski plummeted to 23rd after enduring a slow pit service from his pit crew.

    The second stage started on Lap 64 as Heim and Enfinger occupied the front row. As Heim and Enfinger dueled for the lead through the first two turns, the caution quickly returned after Greg Van Alst, who was running towards the rear of the field, locked up his tires due to an apparent mechanical issue and collided into Brad Perez as both competitors wrecked against the Turn 1 outside wall, with both having their events coming to an end.

    When the event restarted under green on Lap 71, Heim and Enfinger again dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Heim was able to muscle ahead from the outside lane and clear the field through the backstretch. As Heim retained the lead, Enfinger fended off Eckes to remain in the runner-up spot while Sawalich, who won the ARCA Menards Series East event at Milwaukee earlier in the day, battled Eckes for third. With the field fanning out behind, Eckes fended off Sawalich for third place and Sanchez moved up to fifth in front of Hocevar, Taylor Gray and Purdy while Heim started to extend his advantage to eight-tenths of a second over Enfinger nearing the Lap 75 mark.

    At the Lap 85 mark, Heim stabilized his advantage to two-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Enfinger, who had managed to close the gap from trailing half a second a lap earlier. Enfinger then drew himself into a duel against Heim through the frontstretch a lap later, but Heim maintained the advantage as he continued to run on the outside lane while third-place Eckes trailed by nearly three seconds. With Enfinger continuing to trail by within two-tenths of a second, Heim retained the lead just past the Lap 90 mark.

    Then on Lap 95, Enfinger was able to race his way around Heim’s No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro to reassume the lead. Enfinger would proceed to extend his advantage to nine-tenths of a second over Heim at the Lap 100 mark while Eckes, Sawalich and Hocevar were in the top five. Behind, Sanchez, Majeski, Crafton, Zane Smith and Tanner Gray occupied the top 10 while Taylor Gray, Rhodes, Purdy, Kraus and Ankrum followed suit in the top 15. With nine of 10 Playoff competitors running in the top 12 on the track, DiBenedetto was mired back in 27th and not on the lead lap category.

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 110, Enfinger notched his third Truck stage victory of the 2023 season and second of the day after retaining the lead by more than two seconds over Heim, who settled in second. Eckes, Hocevar, Sawalich, Sanchez, Majeski, Crafton, Tanner Gray and Zane Smith were scored in the top 10. By then, 23 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap.

    During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Enfinger pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Eckes emerged as the new leader after exiting first followed by Hocevar and Sanchez while Enfinger fell back to fourth after losing three spots on pit road in front of Rhodes and Heim, who lost four spots on pit road.

    With 57 laps remaining, the final stage started under green as Eckes and Hocevar occupied the front row. At the start, Eckes and Hocevar dueled for the lead until Hocevar rocketed ahead with the lead from the inside lane through the first two turns. As the field fanned out to three lanes through the backstretch, Hocevar retained the lead by two-tenths of a second over Eckes while Sanchez retained third ahead of Enfinger, a hard-charging Rhodes and Tanner Gray as Crafton challenged teammate Majeski for seventh place. A few laps later, Majeski went wide in Turn 1, which allowed Crafton, Kraus, Heim and Sawalich to overtake him.

    Following another caution period with 52 laps remaining when Spencer Boyd spun entering Turn 2, the race restarted under green with 46 laps remaining. At the start, Hocevar and Eckes dueled for the lead for a second time through the first two turns until Hocevar managed to zip ahead in his No. 42 Worldwide Express Chevrolet Silverado RST on the outside lane. As the field fanned out behind, Sanchez overtook Eckes through the frontstretch while Hocevar muscled ahead by three-tenths of a second. In addition, Enfinger retained fourth ahead of Kraus, Heim overtook Tanner Gray for sixth place and Crafton followed suit in seventh during the proceeding laps. By then, Majeski battled Sawalich for 10th while Rhodes was in ninth.

    Then with 41 laps remaining, Sawalich, who was having a stellar race in 10th place, got loose underneath Rhodes in a bid for ninth place, spun backward and crashed against the Turn 1 outside wall as he emerged with significant rear-end damage to his No. 1 Starkey/Soundgear Toyota Tundra TRD Pro. During the caution period, some led by Hocevar and including Kraus, Tanner Gray, Ankrum, Sean Hingorani, Rajah Caruth and Hailie Deegan remained on the track while the rest of the lead lap field pitted.

    During the proceeding restart with 35 laps remaining, where Hocevar and Kraus occupied the front row, Hocevar retained the lead after gaining a strong start from the outside lane while Tanner Gray dueled against Kraus for the runner-up spot. Shortly after, however, the caution quickly returned when Sanchez, who was trying to carve his way back to the front from the top 10, got boxed in behind Deegan and hit by Heim entering Turn 3 as he spun his No. 2 Gainbridge Chevrolet Silverado RST backward and hit the outside wall, which spoiled his strong run towards the front.

    With the race restarting under green with 28 laps remaining, Hocevar muscled ahead of Tanner Gray from the outside lane to retain the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. As the field fanned out to three and four lanes through the backstretch, Hocevar was leading by three-tenths of a second during the following lap while Kraus overtook Tanner Gray for the runner-up spot. In addition, Enfinger bolted his way into third as he used the outside lane to gain momentum and overtake both Tanner Gray and Eckes for spots. With Enfinger moving up the leaderboard, Crafton also boosted his way into the top five as he navigated his No. 88 Menards Ford F-150 in fifth while Heim was mired in seventh in between Tanner Gray and Ankrum with 25 laps remaining.

    Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Hocevar was leading by three-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Enfinger, who was running on fresher tires than Hocevar, while Kraus, Eckes and Crafton engaged in a fierce three-truck battle for third place, with Eckes and Crafton moving up to third and fourth while Kraus fell back to fifth. By then, Heim was in sixth while Majeski was mired in seventh and trailing by more than four seconds.

    Three laps later, Enfinger gained a run on Hocevar through Turns 3 and 4 as both dueled for the lead through the frontstretch. Enfinger then rocketed ahead entering Turns 1 and 2 before he went wide, which allowed Hocevar to pull a crossover move and try to challenge Enfinger again for the lead on the inside lane. Enfinger, though, managed to withstand a side-by-side duel and near bump from Hocevar exiting the backstretch and entering Turns 3 and 4 before muscling ahead with 16 laps remaining. Enfinger would retain the top spot during the proceeding laps, but not by a large margin as Hocevar kept Enfinger’s No. 23 Chevrolet within his sights while mounting repetitive challenges through the turns.

    Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Enfinger was leading by seven-tenths of a second over Hocevar followed by Eckes, Crafton and Heim while Kraus, Majeski, Purdy, Garcia and Tanner Gray were in the top 10. By then, Zane Smith was in 11th, Rhodes was in 16th, Sanchez was mired back in 24th and DiBendetto was down in 27th while two laps behind.

    With five laps remaining, Enfinger managed to extend his advantage to nine-tenths of a second over Hocevar while third-place Eckes trailed by more than a second while also starting to close in on Hocevar for the runner-up spot. By then, Heim moved up to fourth while Crafton fell back to fifth. In addition, Purdy and Majeski pulled a three-wide move on Kraus through the frontstretch to move up to sixth and seventh on the track.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Enfinger remained as the leader by more than a second and a half over Hocevar. With both Hocevar and Eckes unable to gain ground to mount a final lap charge, Enfinger was able to smoothly navigate his way around the Milwaukee circuit for a final time and cross the finish line to claim his third checkered flag of the 2023 Truck season after winning by more than a second and a half over Hocevar.

    With the victory, Grant Enfinger, who won the first Truck event at the Milwaukee Mile since the circuit’s return spanning back to 2009, achieved his 10th career victory in the Craftsman Truck Series, his third of the season and first since winning at Worldwide Technology Raceway in early June. The Alabama native also recorded the 45th Truck career victory for GMS Racing, a two-time Truck championship-winning organization that announced four days earlier that it would cease operations at the conclusion of the 2023 season.

    By virtue of winning the second Truck Playoff event of the 2023 season, Enfinger became the second competitor to clinch a spot for the Playoff’s Round of 8 alongside Ty Majeski as he continues his pursuit for his first Truck championship.

    “I don’t want to hear anybody asking if we’re going to lay down again,” Enfinger said on FS1. “[Crew chief] Jeff Hensley’s been focused the whole year. There’s been distractions going on all year long, so if anything, that’s clarity. None of these guys, including me, have a job next year, but I feel like we proved we deserve one. We had a heck of a Champion Power Equipment Chevy. I don’t know if we had a dominant truck, but we had a winning truck. [I] Got put behind the 8-ball there at the end, but it was fun racing. I hope the fans enjoyed it. This [win] is special for a lot of reasons.”

    “Did we execute perfectly today?” Enfinger added. “No, but we’ve had speed all year long. When we’ve hit it, when the guys hit it, we’ve done this twice now this year. We’ve got three wins, but we’ve had three trucks like this in my opinion. This is a brand-new truck. I can’t say thank you enough for GMS Fabrication, GMS Racing, not just this year and not just lately, but the whole year last year. They were just as much effort put into this stuff. I’m glad some of our fruits are showing.”

    Hocevar managed to fend off Eckes to finish in the runner-up for the first time and for his ninth top-five result of the season. With the result, Hocevar is 56 points above the top-eight cutline entering the upcoming Round of 10 finale at Kansas Speedway.

    “Our No. 42 Chevy was really fast,” Hocevar said. “I was finding lines. I was driving like a dirt car, sliding myself, running the top [lane]. I don’t know how good the fans loved it or how good the racing, but I had a lot of fun being able to move around when I didn’t think we were gonna be able to. Just kind of a bummer to run second. Luckily, we’ve been fortunate to win some races. Just close.”

    Playoff contenders Christian Eckes and Corey Heim finished third and fourth at the Milwaukee Mile, but both were able to secure spots for the Round of 8 based on points as they will proceed forward to the Playoff’s second round along with Enfinger and Majeski.

    Matt Crafton came home in fifth place for his second top-five result of the season and first since finishing fourth at the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Course in April. As a result, he is currently nine points above the top-eight cutline.

    Chase Purdy, Ty Majeski, Derek Kraus, rookie Jake Garcia and Bayley Currey completed the top 10 on the track. In addition, Playoff competitors Zane Smith, Ben Rhodes, rookie Nick Sanchez and Matt DiBenedetto finished 12th, 16th, 24th and 27th, respectively, as Rhodes and DiBenedetto are below the top-eight cutline in the Playoff standings.

    There were five lead changes for four different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 44 laps. In addition, 26 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Results.

    1. Grant Enfinger, 95 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner

    2. Carson Hocevar, 40 laps led

    3. Christian Eckes, five laps led

    4. Corey Heim, 35 laps led

    5. Matt Crafton

    6. Chase Purdy

    7. Ty Majeski

    8. Derek Kraus

    9. Jake Garcia

    10. Bayley Currey

    11. Tanner Gray

    12. Zane Smith

    13. Taylor Gray

    14. Rajah Caruth

    15. Dean Thompson

    16. Ben Rhodes

    17. Colby Howard

    18. Connor Jones

    19. Bret Holmes

    20. Tyler Ankrum

    21. Lawless Alan

    22. Hailie Deegan

    23. Sean Hingorani

    24. Nick Sanchez

    25. Matt Mills

    26. William Sawalich

    27. Matt DiBenedetto, two laps down

    28. Daniel Dye, two laps down

    29. Tyler Hill, two laps down

    30. Stewart Friesen, three laps down

    31. Derek Lemke, three laps down

    32. Spencer Boyd, three laps down

    33. Josh Reaume, four laps down

    34. Greg Van Alst – OUT, Accident

    35. Brad Perez – OUT, Accident

    36. Josh Bilicki – OUT, Accident

    *Bold indicates Playoff contenders

    Playoff standings.

    1. Grant Enfinger – Advanced

    2. Ty Majeski – Advanced

    3. Corey Heim – Advanced

    4. Christian Eckes – Advanced

    5. Carson Hocevar +56

    6. Zane Smith +29

    7. Matt Crafton +9

    8. Nick Sanchez +3

    9. Ben Rhodes -3

    10. Matt DiBenedetto -20

    The Round of 10 in the 2023 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Playoffs is set to conclude at Kansas Speedway on September 8, which will determine the Playoff’s Round of 8 field. The event’s broadcast time is scheduled to commence at 9 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Kyle Busch outduels Heim for final lap victory at Pocono; delivers 100th Truck victory for Kyle Busch Motorsports

    Kyle Busch outduels Heim for final lap victory at Pocono; delivers 100th Truck victory for Kyle Busch Motorsports

    After spending the majority of the late stages being schooled by a former Kyle Busch Motorsports competitor Corey Heim, the bossman Kyle Busch had an extra trick saved up his sleeves to execute a final lap pass on Heim and record a monumental NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory in the CRC Brakleen 150 at Pocono Raceway on Saturday, July 22.

    The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion from Las Vegas, Nevada, led twice for seven of 60 scheduled laps in an event marred with late chaos and battles amongst series regulars battling for the final handful of spots to make the 2023 Truck Series Playoffs. All that was on the mindset for Kyle Busch, though, was recording the 100th Truck Series victory for his organization, Kyle Busch Motorsports.

    To accomplish the feat, Busch had to navigate his way around Heim for the lead. Heim, however, did not relinquish the lead to Busch without a fight as he retained the spot since Lap 33 and through a series of on-track battles. Then amid a five-lap dash to the finish and after appearing to settle in second behind Heim, Busch seized upon an opportunity on the final lap to gain a run on Heim and execute a final lap pass on him with two corners remaining to rocket away and record the elusive 100th victory for Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Truck Series.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, July 21, rookie Nick Sanchez notched his fourth Truck Series pole position of the 2023 season after posting a pole-winning speed at 168.966 mph in 53.265 seconds. Joining him on the front row was rookie Jake Garcia, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 168.306 mph in 53.474 seconds.

    Prior to the event, the following names that included Ben Rhodes, Josh Reaume, Dean Thompson, Ty Majeski and Christian Eckes dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective trucks.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced amid a stacked start that caused some competitors running towards the rear of the field to fan out and sustain damage to their trucks, Sanchez received a push from Carson Hocevar on the outside lane to rocket ahead with the lead entering Turn 1. As Hocevar tried to make a move beneath Sanchez, the latter rocketed ahead through the first turn and entering Long Pond Straight while Hocevar moved in front of Garcia to retain second as Grant Enfinger joined the battle. As the field battled amid two lanes through the Tunnel Curve and entering Turn 3, Sanchez managed to retain the lead when he returned to the frontstretch and lead the first lap while Garcia and Hocevar battled for second.

    Through the second lap, Zane Smith made a three-wide move on Garcia and Hocevar through the frontstretch to move his No. 38 Birch Gold Group Ford F-150 into the runner-up spot. Soon after, Matt DiBenedetto and Enfinger rocketed past Hocevar along with Austin Hill through Long Pond Straight as Chase Purdy and Corey Heim trailed closely behind in eighth and ninth. By then, however, Sanchez stretched his advantage to more than two seconds over Zane Smith.

    On the third lap, the first caution of the event flew when Tanner Gray, who was running 15th, snapped sideways underneath teammate Kaz Grala and was barely clipped by Tyler Ankrum in the front end before he spun below the track and collided head-on into the inside wall in Turn 1. With the damage to his No. 15 Mobil 1 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro deemed terminal and leaking fluid, the wreck also took a significant hit towards Gray’s efforts to make the 2023 Truck Playoffs as he initially came into the event 24 points below the top-10 cutline.

    During the caution period, select names that included Tyler Ankrum, Deegan, Lawless Alan, Cory Roper, Stephen Mallozzi, Josh Reaume and Kaden Honeycutt pitted while the rest led by Sanchez remained on the track. Among those who pitted included Crafton, who pitted for repairs to his No. 88 Menards Ford F-150 following the contact at the start of the race.

    As the race restarted under green on the eighth lap, Zane Smith rocketed into the lead while running on the inside lane after receiving a push from DiBenedetto, who overtook Sanchez for the runner-up spot in the process. Through Turn 1 and across Long Pond Straight, Smith started to place a gap between himself and DiBenedetto as he retained the lead while the field behind jostled for positions.

    Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Zane Smith was leading by nine-tenths of a second over DiBenedetto followed by Sanchez, Austin Hill and Garcia while Enfinger, Kyle Busch, Taylor Gray, Stewart Friesen and Hocevar were in the top 10. Behind, Corey Heim was in 11th ahead of a battle between Purdy, Christopher Bell, rookie Rajah Caruth and Christian Eckes while Dean Thompson, Parker Kligerman, Ross Chastain, Kaz Grala and Ben Rhodes were scored in the top 20.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 15, Zane Smith claimed his third stage victory of the 2023 Truck season. Sanchez settled in second after navigating his way around DiBenedetto the lap prior, with DiBenedetto settled in third as Kyle Busch, Austin Hill, Garcia, Heim, Enfinger, Friesen and Taylor Gray were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, select names that included Rhodes, Chastain, Grala, Kaden Honeycutt, DiBenedetto, Enfinger, Taylor Gray, Colby Howard, Grala, Stefan Parsons, Ankrum, Hocevar, Kligerman and Austin Hill pitted while the rest led by Zane Smith remained on the track.

    The second stage started on Lap 20 as Zane Smith and Kyle Busch occupied the front row. At the start, Busch received a strong push from Heim on the inside lane to rocket ahead of Smith with the lead exiting the frontstretch. Heim then ducked his No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro beneath Busch’s No. 51 Zariz Transport Chevrolet Silverado RST in a bid to take the lead entering Turn 1. Though Heim succeeded through Turn 1 and entering Long Pond Straight, Busch responded back through the Long Pond Straight by rocketing past Heim to assume the lead as Friesen tried to overtake Heim for second, with the latter retaining the spot. As the field behind continued to fan out and jostle for spots, Busch started to stretch his advantage as he was leading by more than six-tenths of a second when he returned to the frontstretch.

    By Lap 22, Busch was leading by more than eight-tenths of a second over Heim followed by Friesen, Zane Smith and Garcia while Eckes, Sanchez, Bell, Purdy and Hocevar were in the top 10.

    Three laps later, Kyle Busch continued to lead by nine-tenths of a second over Heim while Friesen, Zane Smith and Eckes remained in the top five. As Garcia, Sanchez, Bell, Purdy and Hocevar remained in the top 10, Ty Majeski was in 11th followed by Taylor Gray, Dean Thompson, DiBenedetto and Kligerman while Enfinger, Rhodes, Ankrum, Chastain and Austin Hill occupied the top 20 with Crafton running in 21st ahead of Caruth, Grala, Colby Howard and Stefan Parsons trailing behind.

    Then on Lap 27, a bevy of names that included race leader Kyle Busch, Heim, Eckes, Garcia, Hocevar, Purdy, Taylor Gray, Majeski, Thompson, Kligerman, Grala, Chastain, Bell and Austin Hill pitted under green. Amid the pit stops, Zane Smith reassumed the lead while Friesen, who missed the opportunity to pit with the front-runners, and Sanchez were in second and third.

    When the second stage concluded on Lap 30, Zane Smith collected his second stage victory of the season and the fourth of this year’s Truck season. Friesen settled in second while Sanchez, DiBenedetto, Enfinger, Rhodes, Ankrum, Rajah Caruth, Colby Howard and Crafton were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, a majority of lead lap competitors led by Zane Smith and including Rhodes, Friesen, Sanchez, DiBenedetto, Enfinger, Ankrum, rookie Daniel Dye, Stefan Parsons, Tyler Hill, Lawless Alan, Caruth, Cory Roper, Spencer Boyd, Crafton, Kaden Honeycutt, Bret Holmes and Hailie Deegan pitted while the rest led by Heim remained on the track.

    With 25 laps remaining, the final stage started under green as Heim and Kyle Busch occupied the front row. At the start, Heim and Busch dueled for the lead exiting the frontstretch until Heim managed to rocket ahead from the outside lane and with a push from teammate Taylor Gray to lead Busch and the field through the first turn. As the field fanned out through the Long Pond Straight, Heim was out in front of the pack with Busch trailing by two-tenths of a second.

    The following lap, the battle for the lead intensified as Busch tried to gain a run beneath Heim entering Turn 1. Heim, however, was quick to rocket ahead and move back in front of Busch entering Long Pond Straight to retain the lead. As Taylor Gray tried to close in on the two leaders amid the draft in his No. 17 JBL Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, Busch tried to gain another run beneath Heim entering the first turn during the following lap, but history repeated itself as Heim rocketed ahead from the outside lane and with the lead within his grasp. Behind, Chastain briefly lost his momentum after making contact with Eckes that caused him to slip out of the top 10 through Turn 1.

    With less than 20 laps remaining, Heim was leading by more than two-tenths of a second over Kyle Busch, who closed in and started to intimidate Heim for the top spot once again, while third-place Taylor Gray trailed by more than a second. As both continued to battle fiercely for the lead amid the draft, Heim continued to retain the top spot by a narrow margin over Busch, who could not execute his runs to overtake his former Kyle Busch Motorsports driver.

    Then with 15 laps remaining, the caution flew for a two-truck incident involving the front row starters after Sanchez, the pole-sitter, slid underneath Garcia in Turn 1 and sent Garcia into the outside wall and with significant damage to the No. 35 Adaptive One Calipers Chevrolet Silverado RST, thus terminating Garcia’s race, while Sanchez spun sideways below the track and amid a cloud of smoke as he emerged with right-side damage to his No. 2 Gainbridge Chevrolet Silverado RST. At the time of the caution period, Heim was still leading by three-tenths of a second over Kyle Busch.

    During the caution period, some that included Crafton, Deegan, Colby Howard, Ankrum, Lawless Alan, Tyler Hill, Roper, Reaume, Spencer Boyd, Chastain and Honeycutt pitted while the rest led by Heim remained on the track.

    Down to the final nine laps of the event, the race proceeded under green. At the start, Heim received another shove from teammate Taylor Gray on the outside lane to rocket ahead and retain the lead entering the first turn with Kyle Busch following pursuit through the first turn as Bell and Majeski were in the top five. As the field fanned out through the first turn and entering Long Pond Straight, the caution quickly returned when Hocevar slid up the track and made contact with Grala while battling for seventh. The contact caused Grala to slide sideways as he clipped and sent Kligerman’s No. 75 Tide Chevrolet Silverado RST scraping into the outside wall through Long Pond Straight while Friesen collided into Grala before he was T-boned by Austin Hill’s No. 7 ARCO Chevrolet Silverado RST as more competitors that included Stefan Parsons, Chastain, Lawless Alan and Zane Smith, whose truck erupted in flames, were all collected.

    The incident proved costly for Friesen, who was unable to continue with a damaged No. 52 Halmar Toyota Tundra TRD Pro and was scored above the Playoff cutline prior to the incident, while Crafton, who pitted during the previous caution period and was below the cutline, was able to methodically navigate his way through the incident without any damage. The incident was also enough for the event to be placed in a red flag period.

    When the red flag lifted amid a 13-minute delay period, the race restarted under green with five laps remaining as Heim and Kyle Busch retained the front row. At the start, Heim, who received another push from teammate Taylor Gray on the outside lane, retained the lead over Kyle Busch, who was receiving a shove from Christopher Bell, entering Turn 1. As the field returned to the frontstretch with four laps remaining, Heim was leading by three-tenths of a second over Busch while Taylor Gray, Bell and Enfinger followed pursuit in the top five.

    With three laps remaining, Heim continued to lead by three-tenths of a second over Kyle Busch, who nearly executed a move and pass on Heim for the lead before relenting and settling in second. By then, however, Taylor Gray started to close in on the two leaders as he was trailing by only six-tenths of a second. Heim would retain the lead by four-tenths of a second over runner-up Busch and seven-tenths of a second over third-place Taylor Gray with two laps remaining.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Heim remained as the leader by four-tenths of a second over Kyle Busch and seven-tenths of a second over Taylor Gray. Then after trailing Heim through the first turn, Busch executed a final lap charge and got to Heim’s rear bumper through the Long Pond Straight. He then made his move beneath Heim through the Tunnel Turn and rocketed away with the lead without making contact with Heim. With Busch pulling away and Heim unable to return the favor, Busch was able to cycle his way back to the frontstretch and record both his second Truck victory of the 2023 season and the 100th victory for Kyle Busch Motorsports.

    With the victory, Busch, who was making his fifth and final Truck Series start of the 2023 season and whose latest series victory occurred at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March, notched his series-leading 64th Craftsman Truck Series career victory as a driver, his second of the season piloting a Chevrolet Silverado RST and with veteran crew chief Brian Pattie and his third in the series at Pocono.

    Overall, Kyle Busch Motorsports, which first won at Nashville Superspeedway in 2010 with Busch and is the winningest team in the Craftsman Truck Series, has now accumulated 100 Truck victories between 18 different competitors, with Busch achieving 48 for his organization. The Pocono victory also marked KBM’s eighth overall victory in nine seasons at the Tricky Triangle.

    Photo by Kirk Schroll for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “Yeah, I mean [the win]’s pretty cool,” Busch said on FS1. “We’ve been around for a long time. Not as long as others [teams], obviously. They’ve withstood a little bit longer, but it’s been fun. A great ride. This Silverado today was really, really fast. [I was] Just mired in traffic. Couldn’t find a way to make a clean move, so had to make little bit of a dicey one there at the end getting into [Turn] 2. Heim ran a great race. We needed this 100th win to get it over with.”

    “It’s a monumental day,” Busch added. “It’s a century mark of being able to win 100 Truck races. We’re, granted, a small team and just one that performs in the Truck Series. We ventured away once upon a time and didn’t quite work, but we found a home in the Trucks. It’s cool to always score a victory and another nice one here at Pocono.”

    Heim, coming off a victory at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course two weeks ago, was left disappointed on pit road after falling one lap shy of notching his third victory of the season at the Tricky Triangle. Despite the disappointment, Heim, who extended his lead in the regular-season standings to 42 points over Zane Smith, commended the battle and final overtake from Busch, whom Heim competed for, won two Truck races and claimed the Rookie-of-the-Year title a year ago.

    “Just unreal,” Heim said. “I felt like I did everything right. It seemed like we had about five laps in the truck before it started tightening up really bad on me. [I] Didn’t really get the run I wanted out of [Turn] 1 and I knew [Busch]’s straightaway speed was really good. I was a little upset initially, but realistically, I would’ve done the exact same thing. A heat of the moment deal there, but looking back on it, I’ve just got a lot of respect for Kyle. I’ve raced for him for two years. He was really good to me, and he raced me with respect today. Hard racer. He didn’t wreck us to win, and I would’ve probably done the same thing. Just really sucks. I really thought we had it there, especially with seeming that he couldn’t really form up a run good enough to pass me and he sends it in on the last lap. All the blame goes on me for not doing what I should’ve done.”

    Rookie Taylor Gray notched a career-best third-place result after crossing the finish line nine-tenths of a behind Kyle Busch while Christopher Bell and Enfinger finished in the top five.

    Ty Majeski, Eckes, Dean Thompson, Ben Rhodes and DiBenedetto completed the top 10. Notably, Hocevar ended up 11th in front of Ankrum, Crafton came home 14th behind Hailie Deegan, Caruth ended up 16th in front of teammate Daniel Dye and Sanchez ended up 19th behind Chase Purdy.

    There were five lead changes for four different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 20 laps. In addition, 29 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With one regular-season event remaining on the schedule, Corey Heim continues to lead the regular-season standings by 42 points over Zane Smith and 59 over Grant Enfinger, Ben Rhodes and Ty Majeski.

    Currently, Corey Heim, Zane Smith, Grant Enfinger, Ben Rhodes, Christian Eckes and Carson Hocevar are guaranteed spots for the 2023 Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs based on winning at least once throughout the regular-season stretch. In addition, Ty Majeski, who finished sixth at Pocono, has clinched a Playoff spot despite being winless through 15 regular-season events. That leaves Matt DiBenedetto, rookie Nick Sanchez and Matt Crafton holding sole possessions of the final three transfer spots to make the 2023 Truck Series Playoffs entering next weekend’s regular-season finale at Richmond Raceway that will set the 10-truck Playoff field. Crafton holds the 10th and final transfer spot by nine points over Stewart Friesen, 47 over Tanner Gray, 54 over Chase Purdy, 71 over Tyler Ankrum and 94 over rookie Jake Garcia.

    Results.

    1. Kyle Busch, seven laps led

    2. Corey Heim, 27 laps led

    3. Taylor Gray

    4. Christopher Bell

    5. Grant Enfinger

    6. Ty Majeski

    7. Christian Eckes

    8. Dean Thompson

    9. Ben Rhodes

    10. Matt DiBenedetto

    11. Carson Hocevar

    12. Tyler Ankrum

    13. Hailie Deegan

    14. Matt Crafton

    15. Colby Howard

    16. Rajah Caruth

    17. Daniel Dye

    18. Chase Purdy

    19. Nick Sanchez, seven laps led

    20. Kaden Honeycutt

    21. Tyler Hill

    22. Parker Kligerman

    23. Cory Roper

    24. Stephen Mallozzi

    25. Spencer Boyd

    26. Josh Reaume

    27. Lawless Alan

    28. Stefan Parsons

    29. Bret Holmes

    30. Ross Chastain – OUT, Accident

    31. Kaz Grala – OUT, Accident

    32. Stewart Friesen – OUT, Accident

    33. Austin Hill – OUT, Accident

    34. Zane Smith – OUT, Accident, 19 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

    35. Jake Garcia – OUT, Accident

    36. Tanner Gray – OUT, Accident

    The 2023 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular-season stretch is set to conclude next Saturday, July 29, at Richmond Raceway, where the 2023 Truck Series Playoff field will be determined. The event’s coverage is set to commence at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1.