TRICON Garage revealed its driver lineup for the organization’s No. 1 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro entry, dubbed the “all-star” entry, that will be fielded for the entire 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule.
The competitors who will split the driving duties of TRICON’s No. 1 entry for the upcoming season are Lawless Alan, Brent Crews, Brandon Jones and William Sawalich.
Sawalich, the reigning two-time ARCA Menards Series East champion from Eden Prairie, Minnesota, will first pilot the entry for the first three-scheduled events that include Daytona International Speedway (February 14), Atlanta Motor Speedway (February 22) and Las Vegas Motor Speedway (March 14). He will then return to compete at Nashville Superspeedway (May 30) before making his fifth and final scheduled start of the year at Watkins Glen International (August 8).
Sawalich, who is also set to campaign in his first full-time Xfinity Series season with Joe Gibbs Racing, is no stranger to TRICON as he has made a total of 16 Truck starts with the organization over the previous two seasons. Throughout his previous 16 Truck starts, he notched his first career pole at Talladega Superspeedway this past October and has finished in the top 10 three times.
Next, Jones, a 27-year-old racing veteran from Atlanta, Georgia, will make his first Truck start of the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway (March 21) before he proceeds to compete at the spring Bristol Motor Speedway event (April 11), Rockingham Speedway (April 18), Texas Motor Speedway (May 2), Kansas Speedway (May 10), Charlotte Motor Speedway (May 23) and at Pocono Raceway (June 20).
While he is new to the TRICON organization, Jones is no stranger to the Truck Series division as he has made a total of 49 career starts over eight part-time seasons (2013-20). Within the span, he scored his first career victory at Pocono while driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2020. He has also registered five runner-up results, 14 top-five results, 24 top-10 results, 85 laps led and an average-finishing result of 13.1 as he strives to add more Truck victories to his resume. Aside from his part-time Truck campaign, Jones is set to reunite with Joe Gibbs Racing for a full-time Xfinity campaign after spending the previous two seasons at JR Motorsports.
Alan, a 24-year-old native from Van Nuys, California, will make his first Truck start of the 2025 season at the spring Martinsville Speedway event (March 28) before he returns to race at Michigan International Speedway (June 7), Darlington Raceway (August 30) and at Talladega Superspeedway (October 17).
Alan’s part-time Truck campaign with TRICON comes hours after he was announced to be scaling back down to the ARCA Menards Series and contending for the 2025 series’ title with Venturini Motorsports. Previously, the Californian, who claimed the 2018 NASCAR Home Tracks championship at Irwindale Speedway, spent the previous three seasons as a full-time Truck competitor for Niece Motorsports (2022-23) and Reaume Brothers Racing. This past season, he recorded his first top-five career finish in the series after finishing fifth at Talladega.
Lastly, Crews, a 16-year-old racing prospect from Hickory, North Carolina, will campaign in his first nine Truck Series career events that commence at North Wilkesboro Speedway (May 17) before he returns for the series’ inaugural event at Lime Rock Park, Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (July 25), Richmond Raceway (August 15), the fall Bristol Motor Speedway event (September 11), New Hampshire Motor Speedway (September 20), the series’ inaugural event at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course (October 3), the fall Martinsville Speedway event (October 24) and the season-finale event at Phoenix Raceway (October 31).
Crews, who is also a Toyota Driver Development competitor, is coming off a productive 2024 season, where he claimed the World Series of Asphalt Super Late Model and CARS Late Model Stock Car Tour Rookie-of-the-Year championships. Over the previous two seasons, he earned his first two ARCA Menards Series career victories while driving for Venturini Motorsports. To date, Crews is the youngest Trans-Am Series champion at age 15 years, seven months and three days, and the youngest Trans-Am winner at age 14 years, three months and six days.
As announced in mid-December, the No. 1 Toyota team will be led by crew chief Jake Hampton, who was atop the pit box for returning full-time TRICON competitor Tanner Gray for a single event in 2021 and for Tanner’s younger brother, Taylor, for 10 events in 2023. Each of TRICON’s “all-star” competitors (Alan, Crews, Jones and Sawalich) will compete alongside the organization’s full-time competitors which include Tanner Gray, Corey Heim and rookies Toni Breidinger and Gio Ruggiero.
With the No. 1 Toyota entry’s driver lineup set, which completes its full driver lineup, TRICON Garage’s 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season is scheduled to commence at Daytona International Speedway on February 14. The event’s broadcast time is scheduled to commence at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
As Riley Herbst sent Stewart-Haas Racing off on a winning note in the organization’s final NASCAR Xfinity Series event by winning the 2024 season-finale event at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday, November 9, Justin Allgaier emerged as the biggest winner of the night by rallying from starting at the rear of the field in a backup car, being nabbed with a pair of midrace penalties that pinned him a lap down and muscling his way back to the front through two overtime attempts to capture his first elusive NASCAR Xfinity Series championship.
The 40-year-old Allgaier from Riverton, Illinois, commenced the finale weekend on a sour note after he was one of several competitors who slid and wrecked against the Turn 1 outside wall during Friday’s practice session after he slipped up into Brennan Poole’s spilled oil, the latter of which suffered a mechanical issue. Despite taking the green flag in 37th place of the 38-car field, Allgaier methodically carved his way up through the leaderboard and emerge in sixth place when the first stage period concluded on Lap 45. Amid two caution periods and ensuing restarts throughout the second stage period, Allgaier, who made multiple on-track contacts with Riley Herbst in the closing laps of the stage period that resulted with the Illinois veteran potentially having a left-rear tire going flat, managed to cap off the stage in 10th place.
Then during the start of the final stage period with 100 laps remaining, Allgaier, who restarted in the top-14 mark, was assessed a restart violation penalty for steering his No. 7 BRANDT/JR Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro below the frontstretch’s apron and pulling out of line from the field prior to reaching the start/finish line. As Allgaier served a pass-through penalty through pit lane, things went from bad to worse when he was penalized a second time, this time for speeding on pit road. Losing a lap to the leaders, Allgaier would spend a majority of the final stage period trying to emerge as the first competitor scored a lap down and place himself in the free pass position.
As a late cycle of green flag pit stops commenced with 55 laps remaining, Allgaier, who opted to remain on the track with a different pit strategy from the leaders and cycled back on the lead lap, thrusted himself back into the championship battle after Anthony Alfredo wrecked with 46 laps remaining. Pitting during the caution period, Allgaier, who restarted within the top-12 mark, used the following restart period and fresh tires with 38 laps remaining to march his way to the front. Thirty-two laps later, Allgaier overtook title contender Cole Custer to assume the lead in the championship battle.
Despite being overtaken by Custer on pit road and dropping to fifth place on the track amid a late-race caution with three laps remaining and sent the finale into overtime, Allgaier reassumed the top spot in the championship battle back from Custer, who was being blocked by title contender Austin Hill, before another late-race incident sent the finale into a second overtime attempt. During the latest attempt, Allgaier rubbed fenders with rookie Jesse Love to assume the lead in the race as he also retained the lead in the championship standings. Despite being overtaken by Herbst on the final lap for the race win, Allgaier managed to nurse his car to a runner-up result, which was enough to claim his long-awaited first championship in his 14th season competing in the Xfinity Series division.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, William Sawalich claimed his first Xfinity career pole position in his third series start after he posted a pole-winning lap at 134.168 mph in 26.832 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Sheldon Creed, who posted his best qualifying lap at 133.432 seconds. The four Championship 4 contenders that include Austin Hill, Cole Custer, AJ Allmendinger and Justin Allgaier are set to start fifth, seventh, ninth and 37th, respectively.
Prior to the event, the following names that include Allgaier, Brandon Jones, Aric Almirola and Parker Kligerman dropped to the rear of the field in backup cars after all wrecked their primary cars during Friday’s practice session. Sammy Smith also dropped to the rear of the field due to an engine change along with Allmendinger, the latter of which due to unapproved adjustments.
When the green flag waved and the finale commenced, the field fanned out through the frontstretch’s dogleg as teammates William Sawalich and Sheldon Creed dueled for the lead entering the first two turns. As Championship 4 contender Austin Hill was trying to battle Chandler Smith for fourth place while also trying to fend off teammate Jesse Love, Sam Mayer and title rival Cole Custer through the backstretch, Creed muscled his No. 18 Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Toyota Supra ahead to lead the first lap.
Over the next four laps, Creed stretched his early advantage to as high as nearly half a second as Riley Herbst made his way into the runner-up spot. Behind, Chandler Smith moved up to third place in front of Sawalich and Hill while Mayer, Love, Custer, Daniel Dye and Connor Zilisch were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Championship 4 contenders AJ Allmendinger and Justin Allgaier were up to 19th and 25th, respectively, as both continued their early march from the rear of the field.
Through the first 10-scheduled laps, Herbst, who overtook Creed for the lead a lap earlier, was leading in his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang by three-tenths of a second over a side-by-side battle between teammates Creed and Chandler smith while Sawalich and Hill were in the top five ahead of Love, Mayer, Custer, Zilisch and Dye. Behind, Allgaier and Allmendinger were in 18th and 19th, respectively, while Parker Retzlaff, Anthony Alfredo, Matt DiBenedetto, Jeffrey Earnhardt and rookie Shane van Gisbergen were racing in the top 15.
Just past the Lap 20 mark, Herbst stretched his advantage to more than two seconds over Chandler Smith while third-place Creed trailed by more than four seconds. Herbst would proceed to stabilize his lead to more than a second by the Lap 30 mark as both Smith and Creed retained second and third, respectively. Meanwhile, Hill continued to race as the highest-running Championship 4 contender on the track in fourth place while his closest-title rival Custer was mired in seventh place behind Sawalich and Mayer. By then, Allgaier cracked the top 10 as he was up to ninth place while Allmendinger was mired in 18th place.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 45, Herbst claimed his third Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Chandler Smith, Creed, Hill and Sam Mayer were scored in the top five while Allgaier, Custer, Sawalich, Aric Almirola and Jesse Love followed suit in the top 10. By then, Allmendinger was still mired in 18th place and as the lowest Championship 4 contender on the track.
Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Herbst pitted for a first round of pit service. Following the pit stops, Herbst retained the lead after he exited pit road first as he was followed by Hill, Custer, Creed, Chandler Smith, Love, Mayer, Almirola, Sawalich and Allgaier. Amid the pit stops, Shane van Gisbergen was penalized for speeding while entering pit road.
The second stage period started on Lap 54 as Herbst and Hill occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out through the frontstretch’s dogleg as both Herbst and Hill dueled for the lead in front of a three-wide battle for third place between Custer, Creed and Chandler Smith entering the first two turns. Then as Hill tried to make a move beneath Herbst for the lead through the turns, Custer used the outside lane to overtake both entering the backstretch. Custer would proceed to navigate his No. 00 Haas/Andy’s Frozen Custard Ford Mustang back to the frontstretch and lead the following lap as he was followed by teammate Herbst, Hill, Mayer, Chandler Smith and Allgaier. With Allmendinger making his way into the top 12, Custer led the next lap and teammate Herbst retained second while Hill was trying to fend off Mayer, Allgaier and Chandler Smith for third place.
At the Lap 60 mark, Herbst, who overtook teammate Custer for the lead a lap earlier, was leading by three-tenths of a second while Mayer, Hill and Allgaier followed suit in the top five. The caution would then return two laps later after Anthony Alfredo, who was battling Stefan Parsons for 20th place, got squeezed into the frontstretch’s outside wall by Parsons, which resulted with Alfredo turning left, clipping and sending Parsons into the outside wall as the latter wrecked while Greg Van Alst spun behind Parsons’ carnage. Following the incident, Alfredo was assessed a two-lap penalty for reckless driving.
The start of the next restart period on Lap 74 featured the leaders and the field fanning out to multiple lanes through the frontstretch’s dogleg as Herbst barely fended off teammate Custer to retain the lead through the first two turns. With Mayer making his way into the runner-up spot behind Herbst entering the backstretch, Allgaier muscled through into third place while Custer was trying to fend off Hill for fourth place. As Herbst led the following lap, Hill was overtaken by Almirola, Creed and Chandler Smith through the frontstretch while Custer battled and overtook Allgaier for third place on the track and the lead in the championship battle. The caution then returned on Lap 76 when Chandler Smith, who was racing in seventh place, made contact and got loose underneath teammate Creed in Turn 1 as he spun his No. 81 QuickTie Toyota Supra from the top to the bottom of the track.
During the caution period, some including Creed, Love, Allmendinger, Jeb Burton, Dylan Lupton, Daniel Dye, Matt DiBenedetto, Brandon Jones, Brennan Poole and van Gisbergen remained on the track while the rest led by Herbst pitted.
As the event restarted under green on Lap 82, Creed and Love dueled for the lead in front of the field through the frontstretch. Creed and Love remained dead even for the lead in front of Allmendinger and Jeb Burton through the backstretch while the rest of the field behind fanned out to four and five lanes as a bevy of competitors who either pitted or did not pit during the previous caution period scrambled for positions. As Creed led the following lap, Allmendinger remained as the highest-running Championship 4 contender in third place while Allgaier and Custer, both of whom were racing on fresh tires, carved their way up to sixth and seventh, respectively. Meanwhile, Hill was trapped outside the top-10 mark and trying to navigate his way back to the front.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 90, Herbst, who made multiple on-track contacts with Allgaier five laps earlier, overtook Creed a lap prior to claim his fourth Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season and second in the finale. Creed settled in second ahead of Almirola, Love and Custer while Zilisch, Allmendinger, Mayer, Sawalich and Allgaier, the latter of whom nursed his No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro to the finish with a potentially flat left-rear tire, settled in the top 10. By then, Custer emerged as the highest-running Championship contender while Hill was the lowest Championship 4 contender on the track in 14th place.
During the stage break, some including Creed, Love, Allmendinger, Allgaier, Jeb Burton, DiBenedetto, Dye, Dylan Lupton, Brandon Jones, van Gisbergen and Poole pitted while the rest led by Herbst and including Custer and Hill remained on the track.
With 100 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Herbst and Almirola occupied the front row. At the start, Herbst rocketed his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang away from Almirola and teammate Custer through the frontstretch’s dogleg. As the field behind fanned out to multiple lanes through the first two turns and the backstretch, Herbst proceeded to lead the following lap while Mayer made his way up to third place behind Custer. By then, Hill and Allmendinger were in the top 10 and Allgaier was in 12th place.
Shortly after, however, Allgaier was penalized for diving his No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro below the frontstretch’s apron prior to reaching the start/finish line to start the final stage period. As Allgaier served his drive-through penalty, Herbst retained the lead over teammate Custer with 95 laps remaining. Not long after serving his drive-through penalty to serve his restart violation penalty, Allgaier was assessed a second drive-through penalty for speeding on pit road while serving his first. Compared to the first penalty, the second one caused Allgaier to drop out of the lead lap category as Herbst retained the race lead with less than 90 laps remaining. By then, Custer, who was in second place, was leading the championship battle as he was five spots ahead of Allmendinger and 13 spots ahead of Hill.
With 80 laps remaining, Herbst was leading by nearly three seconds over teammate Custer while Mayer, Creed and Zilisch were in the top five ahead of Love, Allmendinger, Almirola, Chandler Smith and Sawalich. As Hill was mired in 16th place, Allgaier was scored the second competitor a lap down in 29th place as he was trying to catch Jeremy Clements to be the first competitor scored a lap down.
Fifteen laps later, Herbst continued to lead the race by more than four seconds over teammate Custer, the latter of whom continued to lead the championship battle, while Creed, Mayer and Love were scored in the top five on the track. Meanwhile, Allmendinger, Custer’s closest championship rival, was scored in seventh place on the track and trailing the championship lead by less than six seconds while Zilisch, Chandler Smith, van Gisbergen and Almirola were in the top 10. Behind, Hill was scored in 15th place while Allgaier was scored the second competitor a lap down behind Ryan Sieg and in 27th place.
Another 10 laps later, a late cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as the leader Herbst pitted. Love, Chandler Smith and Brandon Jones would also pit before Sawalich, Hill, Allmendinger, Zilisch, Mayer, Almirola, Josh Williams, Custer and van Gisbergen pitted over the next four laps. As more names including Creed pitted with 50 laps remaining, Dye was leading ahead of Parker Kligerman. By then, both along with Allgaier, the latter of whom cycled back on the lead lap, have yet to pit while Herbst carved his way up to third place.
With 46 laps remaining, however, the caution flew when Alfredo blew a right-front tire and went dead straight into the outside wall in Turn 1 hard. Alfredo’s incident served as a pivotal moment for Allgaier, who was scored on the lead lap despite not having yet pitted while Kligerman, who had pitted shortly before Alfredo wrecked, lost a lap in the process. During the caution period, select names including Allgaier, Hill, Mayer and Brandon Jones pitted while the rest led by Herbst remained on the track.
Down to the final 38 laps of the event, Herbst rocketed away from Love to retain the lead through the frontstretch and the first two turns as the field behind fanned out. As Custer battled Zilisch for third place, his title rivals Allmendinger, Hill and Allgaier were battling within the top 10. A few laps later, Allmendinger, Allgaier and Hill were racing eighth to 10th, respectively, while Custer retained third place on the track and the lead in the championship battle. Meanwhile, teammate Herbst continued to lead the race by seven-tenths of a second over Love with 35 laps remaining.
With 25 laps remaining, Herbst continued to lead the race by more than two seconds over Love as third-place Custer, who retained the lead in the championship battle, started to close in on Love for the runner-up spot. Meanwhile, Allgaier carved his way up to sixth place as he trailed Custer for three spots and Hill was mired in eighth place on the track behind Creed while Allmendinger was racing in 11th place behind Almirola and Brandon Jones.
Two laps later, Custer engaged in a side-by-side battle with Love for the runner-up spot on the track in an effort to generate a gap between himself and Allgaier for the championship battle. Love, however, would not yield the spot to Custer, which allowed Zilisch and Mayer, Allgaier’s teammates at JR Motorsports, to join the battle while Allgaier was slowly narrowing the deficit to Custer. Love would continue to retain second place over Custer as both Zilisch and Mayer would begin to challenge Custer for third place while Allgaier was trying to gain ground on teammate Mayer with 20 laps remaining.
Down to the final 15 laps of the event, Herbst stabilized his race lead to more than three seconds over Love while Custer retained third place ahead of Zilisch and Mayer. Meanwhile, Allgaier, who retained sixth place, trailed Custer by nearly a second while Hill was up to seventh place and trailing Allgaier by a second. By then, Allmendinger was strapped in 11th place.
Two laps later, Allgaier overtook teammate Mayer for fifth place on the track. By then, he still trailed Custer on the track for the championship battle by a second as Custer continued to fend off Zilisch for third place. Hill then started to close in on Mayer for sixth place on the track and he also had Allgaier within his sights while Herbst grew his lead to four seconds with 10 laps remaining.
Then with eight laps remaining, the battle for the championship brewed as Zilisch overtook Custer for third place on the track. As Custer fought back through the backstretch, Zilisch then got loose underneath Custer and made slight contact with the latter, which caused both to briefly fall off the pace entering Turns 3 and 4 as Allgaier zipped by teammate Zilisch for fourth place on the track with seven laps remaining. Allgaier then proceeded to drive up to Custer’s rear bumper through the first two turns and the backstretch before he made his move beneath Custer and overtook him through Turns 3 and 4. By then, Allgaier assumed the lead in the championship standings over Custer with six laps remaining.
Over the next three laps, Allgaier started to generate a reasonable gap between himself and Custer as he also started to battle Love for the runner-up spot on the track while Herbst maintained a healthy advantage on the track.
Then with three laps remaining, the caution flew and the event was sent into overtime due to an incident involving Leland Honeyman in Turn 4. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Herbst pitted. Following the pit stops, Hill, who pitted for only two scuff tires for his No. 21 Bennett Transportation Chevrolet Camaro, exited first as he was followed by Love, Herbst, Custer, Allgaier, Almirola, Chandler Smith, Mayer, Zilisch and Creed. Amid the pit stops, Allgaier endured a slow pit service, which allowed Custer to overtake him on pit road.
The start of the first overtime attempt did not last long as Parker Retzlaff spun and wrecked in Turn 2. Prior to Retzlaff’s incident, Love had assumed the race lead and Allgaier, who restarted in fifth place, bolted his way up to second place on the track and first in the championship battle while Hill, who created a roadblock for Custer while trying to launch on his two scuff tires, had dropped to sixth place. By then, Custer had dropped to seventh place while Allmendinger was mired in 10th place. With Retzlaff’s incident, the event was sent into a second overtime attempt.
The start of the second overtime attempt featured Allgaier and Love dueling for the lead through the frontstretch’s dogleg before Allgaier went up the track and made contact against Love’s No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Camaro, which resulted with both rubbing against one another in smoke and Herbst getting squeezed towards the outside wall entering the first turn. Amid the contact, Allgaier muscled ahead and barely fended off Herbst, Almirola and Hill through the first two turns to muscle ahead entering the backstretch while Love was trying to regain ground. By then, Hill, who got loose after making contact with Almirola, had dropped to seventh place on the track as he was losing ground of Allgaier for the championship battle. Both Custer and Allmendinger were also losing ground of Allgaier on the track.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Allgaier remained in the lead in both the race and the championship battle while runner-up Herbst closed in on him despite developing a left-rear tire rub. Amid the tire smoke, Herbst would then gain a run beneath Allgaier, who had all the markings on his left-rear tire rubbed off, through the backstretch and overtake him for the race lead. As Herbst proceeded to claim the checkered flag to win the finale, Allgaier would have enough muscle to finish in second place and claim the championship over Custer, Allmendinger and Hill.
With the title, Allgaier, a 25-time race winner in the Xfinity Series who is in his 14th season as a full-time Xfinity competitor and who quietly clinched a Championship 4 round berth by points a week ago at Martinsville Speedway, became the 34th competitor overall to win a championship in the Xfinity Series and the first Illinois native to accomplish the feat. He also delivered the fourth driver’s championship and the first owner’s championship in the Xfinity division for JR Motorsports, the latter of which achieved its first Xfinity title since the 2018 season with Tyler Reddick. The 2024 Xfinity championship was also a first for crew chief Jim Pohlman.
Overall, the 2024 season marks the eighth time in nine seasons where the current Playoff-elimination format featured a first-time champion in the Xfinity Series as Allgaier, who made his seventh Championship 4 appearance as a title contender, previously finished a career-best runner up in the final standings during the 2020 and 2023 seasons.
As he celebrated with his pit crew, team owners, including Dale Earnhardt Jr., and family on the frontstretch, Allgaier was asked if he had counted himself out of the championship battle amid his pair of on-track obstacles that pinned him a lap down and way behind his title rivals.
“Yeah, [I counted myself out] like 10 times,” Allgaier, who fought tears of emotions, said on the CW Network. “You fans are awesome. I don’t think I have a voice left because I was yelling. I’ve been doing this a long time and these people that are standing around me. There’s no words. It’s understated what [Hendrick engine shop and Chevrolet] what they’ve done. [My family] have given up so much for me to come do this job and God’s good, man. I said it all weekend, I don’t know what the plan is. I don’t know what that looks like, but He’s got a reason for everything and tonight is truly that. It’s mind-blowing.”
Photo by Ron Olds for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“This team never gave up,” Allgaier, who will return to JR Motorsports and attempt to defend his series title in 2025, added. “[Crew chief] Jim Pohlman, his leadership skills are second and none. He told me all weekend that we were going to have a chance. Man, we tried to give it away every which way we could. I was as fast as Xfinity Internet, but on pit road, not on the racetrack where I needed to be. I just wanted to make it exciting for all you fans, all you fans at home. All the men and women, all five of our race teams [at JR Motorsports], just the effort that we’ve put in. I’m at a loss for words and we’re going to celebrate this one, for sure. It’s unbelievable. I just cannot say thank you enough to everybody that’s ever helped me in my career to get to this point. Seven times in the Championship 4 and we finally got it done.”
As Allgaier proceeded to celebrate his first championship on the championship stage, Cole Custer, the reigning Xfinity Series champion, could only manage a smile on pit road as he settled in eighth place in the final running order of the finale and in the runner-up spot in the final standings. Despite coming up one spot short of defending his series title, Custer is set to move back up to the Cup Series and drive for the newly formed Haas Factory Team in 2025.
“I think any driver can do something a little bit different,” Custer said. “I tried to go high, tried to go to the middle, tried to go everywhere I could. But [Hill] made his car pretty wide, which is his right. We’re all going for a championship. It just sucks that it ended up screwing us over worse than it did [Allgaier] and he was able to slip by. Man, I can’t say congratulations enough to Justin and all those guys. He’s definitely a deserving champion. They were fast all night. I hate it came down to tire strategies and stuff like that, but man, I can’t say enough about our group. Everything they’ve done over the last two years, [crew chief Jonathan Toney], everybody in [the Stewart-Haas Racing] shop works so hard. I wish we could have ended up with a championship for [Stewart-Haas Racing], but it just wasn’t meant to be on those restarts.”
Meanwhile, AJ Allmendinger, who clinched a Championship 4 berth by winning the Playoff’s Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway three weeks ago, managed a ninth-place result in the finale and settled in third place in the final standings. Austin Hill, who made his first Championship 4 appearance as a title contender, fell back to 10th place in the final running order as he was relegated to fourth place in the final standings. While Hill is set to return to Richard Childress Racing for another full-time Xfinity campaign in 2025, Allmendinger is set to move back up to the Cup Series with Kaulig Racing next season.
“We just struggled all night,” Allmendinger said. “First off, congrats to Justin [Allgaier], Dale [Earnhardt Jr.] and the No. 7 crew. Justin’s been working at it for a long time. Really cool that he got [the title]. [I] Wished that we could’ve been, at least, in the fight for [the title]. We were off from the start, loose the whole time. I didn’t know what else to do to try to make [the car] faster. Just disappointing that we never really were in the fight. I thought strategy-wise, we could, kind of, steal it, maybe, or the team championship. Disappointing, but proud to be here at least.”
“We had to try something [strategy-wise],” Hill added. “Lot of hard racing out there. I want to say congrats to the No. 7 team. Justin Allgaier’s being doing this a really long time. To see him finally get it done, I’m very happy for him. He’s a great guy to be around. Hats off to JR Motorsports for getting it done.”
Amid the championship battle, Riley Herbst, who led a race-high 167 of the 213 over-scheduled laps, celebrated a race victory as he notched his third career win in the Xfinity Series, second of the 2024 season and his first since winning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July. The victory was also the last for the Stewart-Haas Racing organization as the team will be rebranded to Haas Factory Team in 2025. It also comes as Herbst’s 2025 racing plans remain to be determined.
Photo by Ron Olds for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“I’ve been telling people since Daytona that if we got to Phoenix, we’d be the champion,” Herbst, who finished seventh in the final standings, said in Victory Lane. “Everybody looked at me like I was crazy. That’s gone now. We didn’t make [the Championship 4 round], but I’m just so proud of all these guys, everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing. It was a really, really tough week last week. We had a lot of emotional people at the shop. [Stewart-Haas Racing] was home for me for four years. It’s built me to what I am now and that’s a winning racecar driver in the Xfinity Series. So proud of [crew chief] Davin [Restivo] and all the guys on the No. 98 team. It’s been a hell of a run the last four years. Thank you so much to every man and woman at Stewart-Haas Racing. I love you guys all so much. We’ll see what next year holds.”
Aric Almirola, who was contending for the owner’s championship for Joe Gibbs Racing’s NO. 20 Toyota team, settled in third place on the track as he fell one spot short to Allgaier in the category. Connor Zilisch and Chandler Smith finished in the top five while Rookie-of-the-Year recipient Jesse Love, Sheldon Creed, Cole Custer, AJ Allmendinger and Austin Hill completed the top 10.
There were 21 lead changes for eight different leaders. The finale featured seven cautions for 53 laps. In addition, 27 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Riley Herbst, 167 laps led
2. Justin Allgaier, four laps led
3. Aric Almirola
4. Connor Zilisch
5. Chandler Smith
6. Jesse Love, six laps led
7. Sheldon Creed, 20 laps led
8. Cole Custer, seven laps led
9. AJ Allmendinger
10. Austin Hill, five laps led
11. Sam Mayer
12. Shane van Gisbergen
13. William Sawalich
14. Parker Kligerman, two laps led
15. Sammy Smith
16. Jeb Burton
17. Daniel Dye, two laps led
18. Brandon Jones
19. Dylan Lupton
20. Jeremy Clements
21. Josh Bilicki
22. Blaine Perkins
23. Ryan Sieg
24. Brennan Poole
25. Ryan Ellis
26. Matt DiBenedetto
27. Joey Gase
28. Patrick Emerling, one lap down
29. Kyle Sieg, one lap down
30. Garrett Smithley, one lap down
31. Leland Honeyman, three laps down
32. Dawson Cram, four laps down
33. Josh Williams, five laps down
34. Parker Retzlaff – OUT, Accident
35. Jeffrey Earnhardt – OUT, Engine
36. Anthony Alfredo – OUT, Accident
37. Greg Van Alst – OUT, Suspension
38. Stefan Parsons – OUT, Accident
*Bold indicates championship finalists
Final standings
1. Justin Allgaier
2. Cole Custer
3. AJ Allmendinger
4. Austin Hill
5. Chandler Smith
6. Sheldon Creed
7. Riley Herbst
8. Jesse Love
9. Sam Mayer
10. Parker Kligerman
11. Sammy Smith
12. Shane van Gisbergen
The NASCAR Xfinity Series teams and competitors enter an off-season period before returning to action at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, on February 15, 2025, for a new season of competition.
William Sawalich notched his first NASCAR Xfinity Series career pole position for the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday, November 9.
The two-time ARCA Menards Series East champion from Eden Prairie, Minnesota, posted his best qualifying lap at 134.168 mph in 26.832 seconds, which was enough to claim the top-starting spot over teammate Sheldon Creed, who clocked in his best qualifying lap at 133.432 mph in 26.980 seconds.
With the pole position, Sawalich, who is set to make his third career start in the Xfinity circuit and in Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 19 “all-star” Toyota Supra entry, will lead the field to the green flag for Saturday’s 2024 finale at Phoenix. He is set to drive for Joe Gibbs Racing on a full-time Xfinity basis in 2025, where he will be piloting the No. 18 Toyota Supra entry.
Speaking of Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 Toyota entry, Sheldon Creed, who is making his final start with the Gibbs organization before he transitions to the Haas Factory Team in 2025, will share the front row with teammate Sawalich. The 2024 Xfinity finale is set to mark Creed’s fifth time starting on the front row this season as he aims to capture his first elusive victory in the series.
Riley Herbst and Chandler Smith will start third and fourth, respectively, while Austin Hill will be the highest-starting Championship- 4 contenders in fifth place as he strives to win his first Xfinity Series championship.
Rounding out the top-10 starting spots are rookie Jesse Love, Championship 4 finalist Cole Custer, Sam Mayer, Championship 4 finalist AJ Allmendinger and Parker Retzlaff.
Notably, Justin Allgaier, the fourth Championship 4 finalist, will start in 37th place of the 38-car field and in a backup car. This is a result of Allgaier wrecking his primary car during Friday’s practice session after he ran over spilled fluid from Brennan Poole’s entry, slid and pounded the outside wall hard against Turns 1 and 2. Aric Almirola, who is contending for the 2024 Xfinity owner’s championship for Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 Toyota team, was also involved in the practice carnage as he will start in 38th place, dead last, in a backup car.
All 38 competitors entered for Saturday’s finale at Phoenix earned a starting spot.
Qualifying position, best speed, best time:
William Sawalich, 134.168 mph, 26.832 seconds
Sheldon Creed, 133.432 mph, 26.980 seconds
Riley Herbst, 132.989 mph, 27.070 seconds
Chandler Smith, 132.915 mph, 27.085 seconds
Austin Hill, 132.523 mph, 27.165 seconds
Jesse Love, 132.343 mph, 27.202 seconds
Cole Custer, 132.270 mph, 27.217 seconds
Sam Mayer, 132.178 mph, 27.236 seconds
AJ Allmendinger, 132.139 mph, 27.244 seconds
Parker Retzlaff, 132.042 mph, 27.264 seconds
Matt DiBenedetto, 131.868 mph, 27.300 seconds
Anthony Alfredo, 131.690 mph, 27.337 seconds
Daniel Dye, 131.651 mph, 27.345 seconds
Stefan Parsons, 131.454 mph, 27.386 seconds
Sammy Smith, 131.372 mph, 27.403 seconds
Jeb Burton, 131.324 mph, 27.413 seconds
Shane van Gisbergen, 131.081 mph, 27.464 seconds
Jeffrey Earnhardt, 130.976 mph, 27.486 seconds
Josh Williams, 130.957 mph, 27.490 seconds
Ryan Ellis, 130.785 mph, 27.526 seconds
Connor Zilisch, 130.766 mph, 27.530 seconds
Jeremy Clements, 130.657 mph, 27.553 seconds
Ryan Sieg, 130.577 mph, 27.570 seconds
Dylan Lupton, 130.572 mph, 27.571 seconds
Blaine Perkins, 130.482 mph, 27.590 seconds
Leland Honeyman, 130.359 mph, 27.616 seconds
Dawson Cram, 130.086 mph, 27.674 seconds
Brennan Poole, 129.767 mph, 27.742 seconds
Kyle Sieg, 129.534 mph, 27.792 seconds
Patrick Emerling, 129.450 mph, 27.810 seconds
Parker Kligerman, 129.231 mph, 27.857 seconds
Josh Bilicki, 128.834 mph, 27.943 seconds
Brandon Jones, 128.599 mph, 27.994 seconds
Joey Gase, Owner Points
Greg Van Alst, Owner Points
Garrett Smithley, Owner Points
Justin Allgaier, Owner Points
Aric Almirola, Owner Points
The 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway is set to occur on Saturday, November 9, and air at 7 p.m. ET on the CW Network.
Ty Majeski stormed to his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship by securing a dominant victory in the 2024 Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway on Friday, November 8.
After starting on the pole, the 30-year-old Majeski from Seymour, Wisconsin, led a race-high 132 of 150-scheduled laps in the season-finale event. He led the first 38 laps before he was overtaken by Championship 4 contender Corey Heim. Majeski finished the first stage in second place at the conclusion of the first stage. He regained the lead during the first stage’s pit stop period and before the start of the second stage, Majeski prevailed after a mid-stage battle with Heim on the track to claim the second stage victory.
Majeski would then lead the field to the start of the final stage period with 52 laps remaining. During three caution periods due to on-track carnages and three restart periods throughout the final stage, Majeski retained the lead through every restart period. He executed the final one with 27 laps remaining to his advantage as he motored away from Heim along with Championship 4 finalists Christian Eckes and Grant Enfinger. Majeski capped off the 2024 season with his third Craftsman Truck Series victory this year and his first championship in his third full-time series campaign.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, Championship 4 finalist Ty Majeski claimed the final pole position of the 2024 season and the sixth of the season with a pole-winning lap at 138.180 mph in 26.053 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Championship 4 finalist Corey Heim, who clocked in his best qualifying lap at 138.021 mph in 26.083 seconds. Christian Eckes and Grant Enfinger, the remaining two Championship 4 finalists, lined up in fourth and fifth, respectively.
Before the event, Lawless Alan dropped to the rear of the field in a backup after he wrecked his primary truck during the finale’s qualifying session.
When the green flag waved and the finale commenced, the field fanned out through the frontstretch’s dogleg as Ty Majeski led the way through the first two turns. Majeski pulled away through the backstretch and led the first lap. His Championship 4 rivals Corey Heim and Christian Eckes followed suit in second and third, respectively.
Over the next four laps, Majeski stretched his early advantage to more than a second over Heim and Eckes while Nick Sanchez and Stewart Friesen followed suit in the top five. Behind, Dean Thompson retained sixth place ahead of Connor Mosack, Championship 4 finalist Grant Enfinger, Kaden Honeycutt and rookie Layne Riggs. Conner Jones, Chase Purdy, Rajah Caruth, Tyler Ankrum and the Gray brothers of Tanner and Taylor were racing in the top 16.
Through the first 10-scheduled laps, Majeski continued to lead by two seconds over Heim while third-place Eckes trailed by three-and-a-half seconds. Behind, Sanchez and Friesen remained in the top five. Enfinger, who lost three spots despite starting in fifth place, was up to seventh place behind Thompson. Majeski stabilized his lead to more than two seconds over Heim and by nearly six seconds over Eckes 10 laps later as Enfinger drove his way back to fifth place behind Sanchez.
At the Lap 30 mark, Majeski’s lead decreased to six-tenths of a second over Heim as the latter started to close in on the former for the top spot. Majeski slightly increased his lead to nine-tenths of a second over Heim at the Lap 35 mark before Heim assumed the lead from Majeski entering the backstretch on Lap 39. By then, Eckes retained third place and trailed the lead by more than four seconds. Enfinger retained fifth place behind Sanchez but trailed the lead by more than 10 seconds.
On Lap 41, the finale’s first caution period flew when Frankie Muniz got bumped by William Sawalich as he slid sideways in Turn 3 as Heim barely avoided McGee’s sideways truck. Muniz’s incident was enough for the first stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 45, to officially conclude under caution as Heim claimed his 10th Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Majeski, Eckes, Sanchez and Enfinger followed suit in the top five while Thompson, Mosack, Riggs, Conner Jones and Friesen were scored in the top 10.
Under the stage break, they pitted for the first round of pit service. Following the pit stops, Majeski reassumed the lead as he exited pit road first. He was followed by Eckes, Heim, Sanchez and Enfinger. Amid the pit stops, Heim endured slow pit service after he was forced to reverse his No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro into his pit stall to ensure his pit crew could change the left-side tires. Enfinger barely clipped his rear tire changer while entering his pit stall.
The second stage period started on Lap 54 as Majeski and Eckes occupied the front row. The field fanned out through the frontstretch’s dogleg as Majeski and Eckes dueled for the lead. Majeski would then use the outside lane to muscle his No. 98 Road Ranger Ford F-150 ahead and gain the lead through the first two turns as Heim muscled through into second place ahead of Eckes and Sanchez. As the field continued to fan out through the backstretch, Majeski led the next lap over Heim while Eckes, Sanchez, Thompson and Enfinger followed suit in the top six.
On Lap 58, the caution returned when Jack Wood, who was racing outside the top 25, got sideways after making contact with Bayley Currey who was racing in a three-wide battle with Matt Crafton. It resulted in Wood spinning and backing his No. 91 Mongoose Chevrolet Silverado RST into the outside wall in Turn 2. The incident and damage to the rear end of Wood’s truck were enough to make Wood the first retiree of the finale. During the caution period, Crafton and Daniel Dye pitted while the rest of the field, led by Majeski, remained on the track.
As the event restarted under green on Lap 64, a four-wide battle for the lead ensued between Majeski, Heim, Sanchez and Thompson through the frontstretch’s dogleg. Heim muscled ahead from the inside lane entering the first two turns and Majeski closed to Heim’s rear bumper entering the backstretch. Majeski tried to make a move beneath him, but Heim transitioned to the outside lane and fended off Majeski to retain the lead. With Heim leading the race, Majeski retained second ahead of Sanchez and Eckes while Riggs moved up into the top five. Riggs then challenged Eckes for fourth place while Mosack, Enfinger and Thompson closed in from sixth to eighth, respectively. By then, Thompson was penalized for a restart violation.
At the halfway mark on Lap 75, Majeski, who overtook Heim for the lead five laps earlier despite making contact with the latter, extended his advantage to more than a second over Heim. Sanchez, in third place, trailed by more than two seconds. Behind, Riggs and Eckes trailed in the top five ahead of Mosack, Friesen, Enfinger, Taylor Gray and Purdy. Ben Rhodes, Rajah Caruth, Tanner Gray, Conner Jones, Kaden Honeycutt, Daniel Dye, William Sawalich, Tyler Ankrum, Matt Crafton and Stefan Parsons followed suit in the top 20.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 90, Majeski had stretched his advantage to more than three seconds and captured his seventh Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Heim followed suit in second while Riggs, Sanchez, Eckes, Mosack, Enfinger, Taylor Gray, Friesen and Rhodes were scored in the top 10.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Majeski returned to pit road for service. After the pit stops, Majeski retained the lead after he exited pit road first while Sanchez, Eckes, Riggs, Heim, Mosack, Taylor Gray, Enfinger, Caruth and Tanner Gray followed suit in the top 10. Amid the pit stops, Crafton was penalized for improper fueling to his No. 88 Menards Ford F-150.
With 52 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Majeski and Sanchez occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out through the frontstretch’s dogleg as both Sanchez and Majeski dueled in front of the field entering the first two turns. Majeski and Sanchez would continue to duel for the lead entering the backstretch in front of Heim and Riggs before Mosack, who was racing in the top six behind Eckes, ran up the track and hit the outside wall.
As the field scattered to avoid hitting Mosack, Tyler Ankrum then got bumped by Sawalich as he spun his No. 18 LiUNA! Chevrolet Silverado RST back across the middle of the backstretch, which triggered a multi-truck wreck that involved Sawalich, Andres Perez de Lara, Stefan Parsons, Friesen, Frankie Muniz, Spencer Boyd and rookie Thad Moffitt. The carnage was enough to place the finale in a red flag period for more than six minutes. By then, Heim, who restarted in fifth place and had moved up to third place before the caution, was penalized for a restart violation, after he steered his No. 11 Safelite Toyota to the left and below the frontstretch’s apron before reaching the start/finish line.
Once the red flag lifted and the field proceeded under a cautious pace, some of the drivers, including Mosack, Friesen and Currey, pitted while the rest of the field, led by Majeski, remained on the track.
The next restart period began with 43 laps remaining and featured Majeski as he fended off Sanchez, Eckes and Riggs through the frontstretch’s dogleg and the first two turns. Majeski proceeded to lead Riggs through the backstretch while Sanchez, Taylor Gray, Enfinger, Caruth and Eckes all followed suit. Meanwhile, Heim, who restarted 19th after serving his penalty, was up to 16th place. As Heim proceeded to climb his way into the top 14, Majeski held a narrow lead over Riggs with 40 laps remaining as Sanchez, Taylor Gray, Enfinger and Eckes followed suit in the top six.
Shortly after, the caution returned when Conner Jones, who was racing in 11th place, spun in Turn 2 after he made contact with teammate Jake Garcia amid close-quarters racing and was nearly hit by teammate Ben Rhodes while sliding towards the outside wall. The incident occurred in front of Heim, who made his way into 11th place. During the caution period, some of the drivers, including Enfinger and Eckes, pitted while the rest, led by Majeski, remained on the track.
During the next restart period with 33 laps remaining, Majeski and Riggs led the field to the start as Majeski muscled ahead from the outside lane through the frontstretch’s dogleg. Heim went to the apron to gain spots towards the top-five mark entering the first two turns, as Majeski muscled away from the field entering the backstretch. But the caution quickly returned as Riggs made contact with Sanchez in a battle for the runner-up spot and spun his No. 38 Love’s Travel Stops Ford F-150 in Turn 2. Nathan Byrd also spun as he jammed on the brakes to avoid Riggs.
The following restart period with 27 laps remaining featured Majeski muscling ahead of a three-wide battle for the runner-up spot. Heim, Sanchez and Daniel Dye battled through the frontstretch’s dogleg and the first two turns before Heim muscled his way into the runner-up spot entering the backstretch. As the field fanned out, Majeski led the following lap ahead of a hard-charging Heim while Sanchez, Eckes and Dye were in the top five.
Meanwhile, Enfinger was mired in ninth place as Majeski stretched his advantage to a second over Heim. Eckes would then charge his No. 19 NAPA Chevrolet Silverado RST into third place on the track. With his fresh tires and only 24 laps remaining, it placed three Championship 4 finalists in the top three on the track while Dye was assessed a restart violation penalty.
Down to the final 20 laps of the finale, Majeski was leading both the race and the championship battle by more than a second over Heim while third-place Eckes trailed by more than two seconds. Meanwhile, Enfinger was in sixth place behind Sanchez and Taylor Gray while Honeycutt, Mosack, Tanner Gray and Rhodes were in the top 10.
Five laps later, Majeski added another second to his advantage as he led by more than two seconds over Heim while Eckes trailed in third place by three-and-a-half seconds. By then, Enfinger moved his No. 9 Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet Silverado RST up to fifth place despite trailing the lead by more than seven seconds. Majeski, who was posting the fastest lap times on the track, continued to extend his advantage to more than three seconds over Heim with 10 laps remaining.
With five laps remaining, Majeski stabilized his advantage to more than four seconds over Heim while Eckes continued to trail in third place by five seconds. Meanwhile, Enfinger trailed in fifth place on the track by nine seconds while Sanchez was mired in fourth place.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Majeski remained in the lead both in the race and the championship battle by more than four seconds over Heim. Heim was unable to narrow the gap between himself and Majeski for a final lap charge. Majeski smoothly navigated his No. 98 Road Ranger Ford F-150 around the Phoenix circuit for a final time before he returned to the frontstretch to claim the checkered flag and win both the race and his first Truck Series championship.
With his first title, Majeski also claimed his sixth career race victory and became the 21st competitor overall to win a championship in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series division. He was also the third consecutive Ford competitor to win a Truck championship in recent seasons and the seventh to achieve a first title under the series’ current inception of the Playoff-elimination format.
Majeski also delivered both the sixth Truck driver’s championship and the third owner’s championship for ThorSport Racing while veteran crew chief Joe Shear Jr. notched his second title in the series.
The 2024 season marks the fourth time over the previous seven seasons that the championship-winning competitor won the season-finale event on a schedule and the third time over the last five seasons that it occurred at Phoenix Raceway. Majeski’s 2024 championship comes in his third full-time Truck season driving for ThorSport Racing, a team whom Majeski drove for in select events in 2021 before he was elevated to a full-time ride in 2022.
Photo by Ron Olds for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“God, I can’t believe it,” Majeski said on the frontstretch on FS1. “Just huge thank you to [team owners] Duke and Rhonda Thorson. Joe Shear Jr., he’s one bad dude. This is so much fun racing with this group. So proud to have the opportunity to drive these great race trucks. There’s a lot of time in my career where this [championship] looks like a far dream and Duke and Ronda really gave me my third opportunity after I had two opportunities that failed. Man, I can’t thank them enough. We have had a lot of ups and downs and just so proud of these guys.”
During his championship interview, Majeski, a five-time ARCA Midwest Tour champion who grew up competing in late models and short-track events, evoked an inspiring message to short-track racers striving to emerge as a future NASCAR champion.
“[Winning]’s possible,” Majeski said. “You just need to find a way to set yourself apart from everybody else. I did that by working in the shop. [I] Started as an engineer at ThorSport [Racing] in 2021 with three or four races, didn’t know what it was going to turn into and now, we’re champions. Man, this is special. We’re going to celebrate this one.”
As Majeski celebrated both the race victory and his first championship on the stage with his team, the remaining three Championship 4 finalists including Corey Heim, Christian Eckes and Grant Enfinger were left disappointed on pit road as the trio fell short of winning their first title in the series.
Heim, the driver of the No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota entry, ended up in the runner-up spot both on the track and in the final standings and was left surprised by the late restart violation penalty. He admitted though that he could not keep pace with Majeski to battle for the title amid his late-race rally. Heim, who capped off the season with a series-leading six victories, will return to the Truck Series with TRICON Garage for the 2025 season as he strives to make another run for his first championship.
“It’s hard to even be upset,” Heim said. “I did almost everything right except for that restart violation, but we were able to get our track position back pretty quick and make the most of it. I just had nothing for [Majeski] all day. He was so fast. I’m just proud of myself for not driving through the fastest truck like I drove through last year by [Carson] Hocevar and we’re going to go with our heads up high. A six-win season, career highs for myself, my team, organization, everybody. Just one sport short of the championship.”
Meanwhile, the late pit stops for both Eckes and Enfinger did not pay dividends for either driver as Eckes settled in third place on the track and in the final standings while Enfinger came home in fifth place on the track and fourth place in the final standings.
“[I] Just didn’t have enough today,” Eckes, who achieved four race victories, a season-high 11 stage victories and is set to graduate to the Xfinity Series with Kaulig Racing in 2025, said. “[Majeski] and [Heim] were just stronger than us. We threw a Hail Mary with the tires and I thought for a second I would be able to catch them and just didn’t have enough. I wish we could have finished [the season] off with a championship, but just came up a little short. So proud of my guys and we’ll move on to 2025.”
“Honestly, [I needed] just more speed,” said Enfinger, who notched back-to-back victories during the Round of 8 and will be remaining with CR7 Motorsports for the 2025 Truck Series season.
“Really proud of the CR7 Motorsports group. All we’ve overcome all year. I feel like we came here with the right mindset, the right game plan and honestly, pretty much the right execution for the stuff in our control. We just flat out didn’t have the speed tonight…It is a special year. Definitely disappointing performance for us tonight, but overall, proud of everything we did. We just flat out didn’t have the short-run speed. I think after 15 laps, we were respectable, but just couldn’t go on the short run.”
Nick Sanchez finished in fourth place, which was enough to settle in fifth place in the final standings and his final campaign in the Truck Series with Rev Racing as he is set to move up to the Xfinity Series with Big Machine Racing in 2025. Taylor Gray, Kaden Honeycutt, Connor Mosack, Ben Rhodes and Layne Riggs, the latter of whom claimed the 2024 Truck Series Rookie-of-the-Year title, completed the top 10 in the final running order.
There were seven lead changes for three different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 43 laps. In addition, 22 of 35 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Ty Majeski, 132 laps led, Stage 2 winner
2. Corey Heim, 16 laps led, Stage 1 winner
3. Christian Eckes
4. Nick Sanchez
5. Grant Enfinger, two laps led
6. Taylor Gray
7. Kaden Honeycutt
8. Connor Mosack
9. Ben Rhodes
10. Layne Riggs
11. Tanner Gray
12. Chase Purdy
13. Rajah Caruth
14. Jake Garcia
15. Dean Thompson
16. Brett Moffitt
17. Conner Jones
18. Stewart Friesen
19. Matt Crafton
20. Dawson Sutton
21. Bayley Currey
22. Timmy Hill
23. Stefan Parson, one lap down
24. Daniel Dye, one lap down
25. Matt Mills, two laps down
26. Nathan Byrd, three laps down
27. Thad Moffitt, three laps down
28. Spencer Boyd, four laps down
29. Keith McGee, four laps down
30. Lawless Alan, four laps down
31. Andres Perez de Lara – OUT, Accident
32. William Sawalich – OUT, Accident
33. Tyler Ankrum – OUT, Accident
34. Frankie Muniz – OUT, Accident
35. Jack Wood – OUT, Accident
*Bold indicates championship finalists
Final standings
1. Ty Majeski
2. Corey Heim
3. Christian Eckes
4. Grant Enfinger
5. Nick Sanchez
6. Taylor Gray
7. Rajah Caruth
8. Tyler Ankrum
9. Ben Rhodes
10. Daniel Dye
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series teams and competitors enter an off-season period before returning to action at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, on February 14, 2025, for a new season of competition.
With two vacant spots to this year’s Championship 4 round on the line amongst eight NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff contenders, Aric Almirola motored his way to a dominant victory for his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team in the National Debt Relief 250 at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday, November 2.
The 40-year-old Almirola from Tampa, Florida, led five times for a race-high 150 of 250-scheduled laps in an event where he started in ninth place and muscled through four early caution periods to claim the first stage victory in a photo finish over Playoff contender Cole Custer. Then after racing his way to win the second stage period, Almirola survived a bevy of caution periods and ensuing restart periods, including the final one with 16 laps remaining where he was leading, to fend off Playoff contenders Sammy Smith and Chandler Smith to capture his third Xfinity victory of the 2024 season and clinch a spot to this year’s Xfinity owner’s championship battle for Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 team for next weekend’s finale at Phoenix Raceway.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, November 1, Parker Retzlaff notched his second Xfinity pole position of the 2024 season and his career with a pole-winning lap at 95.151 mph in 19.901 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Anthony Alfredo, who clocked in his best qualifying lap at 95.094 mph in 19.913 seconds.
Prior to the event, the following names that include Parker Kligerman, William Sawalich and Kyle Sieg dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Parker Retzlaff and Anthony Alfredo briefly dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Retzlaff muscled his No. 31 The Visual Pak Companies Chevrolet Camaro ahead with both lanes under his control through the backstretch. As the field slowly began to fan out to three lanes, Retzlaff led the first lap as Playoff contender Chandler Smith overtook Alfredo for the runner-up spot. Behind, Aric Almirola made a bold three-wide move beneath Playoff contenders Sammy Smith and Austin Hill as he made his way up to sixth place.
Over the next four laps, Retzlaff would proceed to stabilize his early advantage to four-tenths of a second over Chandler Smith as Playoff contender Justin Allgaier, Alfredo and Playoff rookie Jesse Love followed suit in the top five. Behind, Almirola retained sixth place ahead of Playoff contender Austin Hill and Sheldon Creed while Playoff contenders AJ Allmendinger and Sammy Smith pursued in the top 10.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps and amid a series of early jostling for spots within the field, Retzlaff retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Chandler Smith while Allgaier and Alfredo followed suit. Behind, Almirola made his way into fifth place over Love and Hill while Creed, Allmendinger and Playoff contender Cole Custer were in the top 10. As both Custer and Allmendinger bumped one another while battling for 10th place, Riley Herbst, Playoff contender Sam Mayer, Sammy Smith, Brandon Jones and Bubba Pollard were in the top 15.
On Lap 12, the event’s first caution flew after Allmendinger, who had fiercely bumped and rubbed with Custer for a top-10 spot over the last few laps, blew a right-front tire amid another round of contact with Custer entering the backstretch and went dead straight into the outside wall in Turn 3. The incident was enough to end Allmendinger’s event early, but it did not affect his secured spot to this year’s Championship 4 round after he had won the Playoff’s Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway two weeks earlier.
When the race restarted under green on Lap 18, Chandler Smith dueled with Retzlaff for the lead through the first two turns before he muscled ahead and cleared Retzlaff through the backstretch. Smith would proceed to lead the following lap as Allgaier followed suit in third place. Behind, Almirola muscled his way up to fourth place while Alfredo was pinned in a tight three-wide battle for a top-10 spot that involved Herbst and Creed as both Custer and Sammy Smith joined the battle. With Love and Hill moving up to fifth and sixth on the track, Chandler Smith retained the lead just past the Lap 20 mark.
At the Lap 25 mark, Chandler Smith was leading by six-tenths of a second over Retzlaff while Allgaier, Almirola and Love followed suit in the top five ahead of Hill, Herbst, Custer, Alfredo, and Creed. Over the next five laps, Allgaier and Almirola dueled fiercely for third place while Stewart-Haas Racing’s Herbst and Custer battled for seventh place in front of Sam Mayer. In the process, Almirola stabilized his lead to nearly eight-tenths of a second.
On Lap 36, the event’s second caution flew after Myatt Snider, who was racing in 18th place, was bumped and sent for a spin by Ryan Sieg entering Turns 3 and 4. During the caution period, some led by Chandler Smith and including Allgaier, Hill, Love and Sammy Smith pitted while the rest led by Retzlaff and including Custer and Sam Mayer remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Ryan Ellis was penalized for vehicle interference while Hill endured a slow pit service after he had to reverse to avoid hitting Dawson Cram while exiting his pit stall.
As the event restarted under green on Lap 43, Retzlaff and Custer dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Custer used the outside lane to assume the lead through the backstretch. Behind, Retzlaff fended off rookie Shane van Gisbergen through Turns 3 and 4 to retain second place before the latter crossed over and reignited his challenge for the spot. Behind, a series of jostles for spots between competitors with fresh tires versus those with worn tires ensued as Custer continued to lead. The caution, however, would return on Lap 47 after Leland Honeyman spun in Turn 2 from the top 20 after getting hit by Blaine Perkins.
The start of the next restart period on Lap 53 did not last long as Retzlaff, who restarted on the front row with Custer, was shoved dead straight into the outside wall in Turn 1 by Mayer as Retzlaff emerged with significant front-end damage to his pole-winning car. The incident was enough to knock Retzlaff out of contention while Mayer continued.
With the event restarting under green with a single lap remaining to the first stage period, Custer and Almirola dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. They continued to battle dead even against one another through Turns 3 and 4 as they crossed the start/finish line in a photo finish to complete the first stage. At the line, Almirola emerged with the stage victory by a nose for the fifth time in the 2024 Xfinity Series season. Custer settled in second followed by Allgaier, Chandler Smith, Love, Herbst, Josh Williams, Sammy Smith, Creed and Jeb Burton. By then, five of seven remaining Playoff contenders on the track recorded the event’s first round of stage points as the list did not include Mayer or Hill.
Under the stage break, some led by Custer and including Williams, Jeremy Clements, Patrick Emerling, Mason Maggio and Logan Bearden pitted while the rest led by Almirola remained on the track.
The second stage period started on Lap 70 as teammates Almirola and Chandler Smith started on the front row. At the start, Almirola gained the advantage from the inside lane as he muscled away with the lead entering the backstretch. Almirola proceeded to lead the following lap while Chandler Smith fended off Allgaier for the runner-up spot. Allgaier would then be challenged by Love and Herbst for third place as Smith started to close in on Almirola for the lead.
Towards the Lap 80 mark, Almirola retained a steady advantage over teammate Chandler Smith, with the latter bumping and intimidating his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota teammate through every corner and straightaway. Smith would then make his way beneath Almirola’s No. 20 He Gets Us Toyota Supra through the first two turns and muscle his No. 81 QuickTie Toyota Supra into the lead through the backstretch on Lap 81. With Smith leading, Allgaier trailed in third place by six-tenths of a second while Love, Sammy Smith and Herbst trailed by more than two seconds.
On Lap 85, Herbst bumped and nearly turned Love’s No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Camaro in a fierce battle for fifth place in Turn 3. The contact dropped Love to ninth place as Herbst proceeded to fend off Sheldon Creed for fifth place. In the process, Chandler Smith continued to lead by within a tenth of a second over teammate Almirola. Almirola, however, would gain a run beneath Smith through the first two turns and reassume the lead on Lap 94.
At the Lap 100 mark, Almirola stretched his advantage to a second over teammate Chandler Smith as Sammy Smith would proceed to overtake Chandler Smith for the runner-up spot during the following lap. Behind, Allgaier trailed in fourth place by two seconds while Herbst, Creed, Sawalich, Ryan Sieg, Alfredo and Jeb Burton followed suit in the top 10.
Following a caution period on Lap 102 as Mason Maggio spun in Turn 1 just in front of the leaders, some led by Ryan Sieg and including Myatt Snider, Brennan Poole and Garrett Smithley remained on the track while the rest led by Almirola pitted. Amid the pit stops, Chandler Smtih endured a slow pit service.
When the race restarted under green on Lap 110, Ryan Sieg and Poole dueled for the lead in front of a stacked field as Sieg proceeded to muscle ahead through the backstretch. By the following lap, Almirola, who was racing on fresh tires, had carved his way up to third place. Almirola would proceed to duel and overtake Poole for the runner-up spot during the next lap as teammate Sheldon Creed was also muscling his way towards the top five.
Then with three laps remaining in the second stage period, Almirola caught and made his move beneath Ryan Sieg for the lead entering the first two turns. Almirola and Sieg would then duel for the lead through the backstretch as Sieg refused to surrender the spot. With both continuing to battle dead even for the lead during the following lap, Almirola would muscle ahead of Sieg through Turns 3 and 4 on Lap 118.
During the final lap of the second stage period, Ryan Sieg tried to execute a crossover move beneath Almirola through the frontstretch, but Almirola muscled away with his fresh tires and teammate Creed began to challenge Sieg for the runner-up spot. Amid the battles within the field, Almirola proceeded to capture his sixth Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season and second of the day. Sieg fended off Creed for the runner-up spot while Sammy Smith, Allgaier, Chandler Smith, Custer, Herbst, Sawalich and Poole were scored in the top 10. With four of seven Playoff contenders on the track racking up the event’s second round of stage points, the remaining Playoff contenders including Mayer and Hill did not achieve points.
During the stage break, Logan Bearden was the only competitor who pitted as the rest led by Almirola remained on the track.
With 120 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as teammates Almirola and Creed occupied the front row. At the start, Almirola rocketed away with the lead through the first two turns and he would retain the lead for the following lap. Behind, a series of on-track battles ensued as Allgaier made his way to fourth place behind Ryan Sieg while Custer fended off Sammy Smith and Chandler Smith for fifth place. The caution would return with 117 laps remaining as William Sawalich spun and slapped into the outside wall in Turn 1 amid contact with Alfredo.
During the start of the next restart period with 110 laps remaining, Almirola dueled with teammate Creed for the lead for a full lap as Creed managed to lead the first lap by a hair from the outside lane. Creed would then clear Almirola to have both lanes under his control entering the first two turns while Allgaier was trying to fend off Custer and Ryan Sieg for third place. Shortly after, Custer moved his No. 00 Haas Ford Mustang into third place over Allgaier and Chandler Smith followed in close pursuit in fifth place.
Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Creed continued to lead by a tenth of a second over teammate Almirola, who spent the last several laps dueling and challenging Creed for the top spot through every corner. Almirola would then prevail in the heated battle with teammate Creed with 96 laps remaining as he bumped and muscled ahead of the latter with the top spot. Meanwhile, third-place Custer trailed by a second. Creed then went wide entering Turn 1 during the following lap, which allowed Custer to battle him for the runner-up spot as Almirola stretched his advantage to more than a second.
With 85 laps remaining, Almirola retained the lead over both Custer and Creed as Logan Bearden pitted with his right-front hub on fire. Amid Bearden’s incident, the event remained under green flag conditions. The caution would then fly with 77 laps remaining due to Preston Pardus spinning in Turn 3. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Almirola pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Almirola retained the lead after he exited pit road first as he was followed by Creed, Custer, Allgaier, Herbst, Chandler Smith, Mayer, Burton, Alfredo and Sammy Smith. Amid the pit stops, Creed was penalized for speeding on pit road.
The start of the next restart period with 68 laps remaining featured Almirola fending off Custer through the first two turns to lead the field through the backstretch. Just before Almirola could reach the start/finish line to lead the following lap, the caution returned when Dawson Cram, who was racing outside the top 20, received a bump from Love that sent him spinning and backing into the outside wall in Turn 3.
As the race restarted under green with 60 laps remaining, Almirola used the inside lane to fend off Custer through the first two turns as he retained a steady lead through the backstretch, Despite getting bumped in the rear by Custer through Turns 3 and 4, Almirola led the following lap ahead of Custer as he had Allgaier, Herbst, Chandler Smith and Jeb Burton all following in close pursuit. With the latter four bumping and dueling against one another for position, Allgaier would retain third place ahead of Chandler Smith and Burton over the next four laps while Mayer and Sammy Smith made their way past Herbst for sixth and seventh, respectively. The caution would then return with 54 laps remaining as Creed bumped Blaine Perkins into Josh Williams, all of whom were battling for a top-15 spot, which sent the latter for a spin towards the outside wall in Turn 2.
The start of the next restart period with 48 laps remaining featured Almirola muscling ahead with a slight advantage over Custer as he proceeded to motor past him through the first two turns and retain the top spot through the backstretch. With Almirola leading the following lap, Custer retained second as Allgaier and Chandler Smith dueled for third place in front of Burton. Behind, teammates Mayer and Sammy Smith dueled for sixth place in front of Herbst, Alfredo and Kligerman as Almirola proceeded to lead with 45 laps remaining.
With less than 40 laps remaining, Almirola stretched his advantage to more than a second over Custer, who had Chandler Smith and Allgaier pressuring him for the runner-up spot through every corner and straightaway. Custer would retain the runner-up spot from both Smith and Allgaier over the next five laps as Almirola’s advantage also stabilized to more than a second.
Not long after, the caution returned with 31 laps remaining when Brandon Jones slid and wrecked his No. 9 Menards Chevrolet Camaro against the Turn 1 outside wall from 13th place after he got bumped by Creed entering the turn. The incident occurred shortly after Chandler Smith had bumped Custer out of the racing groove for the runner-up spot in Turn 1.
Just as the event was restarting under green with 24 laps remaining, a stack-up ensued from the front of the field that left Mayer, who restarted in seventh place, with a dented hood and Burton attempting to fan out beneath Mayer. Then entering Turns 1 and 2, Custer returned the favor to Chandler Smith by bumping the latter into the turn as both went up the racetrack through the first two turns. Despite Smith managing to remain in front of Custer, both dropped to fifth and seventh, respectively, through the backstretch. In the process, Mayer, who had a tire rub, continued in sixth place with a dented hood while Almirola pulled away with the lead ahead of Allgaier, Sammy Smith and Herbst.
On the following lap, the caution returned as both Ryan Sieg and van Gisbergen wrecked in Turn 4. During the caution period, Mayer, who pitted to have the damage addressed, had his No. 1 10X Health Chevrolet Camaro pushed behind the wall as his event came to a late end. Mayer’s retirement also ended his hopes of returning to the Championship 4 round for a second consecutive season.
Down to the final 16 laps remaining, the race restarted under green as Almirola and Sammy Smith occupied the front row. At the start, Almirola muscled away from Smith’s No. 8 Pilot Flying J Chevrolet Camaro and the field to lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. As Almirola led the following lap, Smith followed suit in second while Allgaier was trying to fend off Herbst, Chandler Smith, Custer and Jeb Burton for third place. During the following lap, Chandler Smith got Herbst loose entering Turn 3, which allowed Smith to draw himself alongside Allgaier for third place as Custer tried to follow suit. Custer would then grab fifth place from teammate Herbst while Almirola continued to lead over Sammy Smith with 14 laps remaining.
With 10 laps remaining, Almirola retained the lead by four-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Sammy Smith while Chandler Smith trailed the lead by more than a second. By then, both of the Smith competitors were placed in “must-win” situations to maintain their Playoff hopes. Behind, Custer, who currently occupied the fourth and transfer spot to the Championship 4 round, made his way up to fourth place over Allgaier, who held the other vacant spot to the final Playoff round, while Creed was up to sixth place.
Down to the final five laps of the event, Almirola continued to lead by four-tenths of a second over Sammy Smith as third-place Chandler Smith followed suit by a second. Over the next four laps, Almirola would stabilize his advantage over both Sammy Smith and Chandler Smith, with the latter two unable to close in despite charging their respective cars through every corner and straightaway.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Almirola remained in the lead by half a second over Sammy Smith and by more than a second over Chandler Smith. With the two Smiths unable to narrow the deficit for a final lap charge, Almirola coasted his No. 20 Toyota smoothly around the Martinsville circuit for a final time before he cycled back to the frontstretch and for his third Xfinity checkered flag of the 2024 season.
With the victory, Almirola, who won at Martinsville in April, notched his seventh career win in his 117th start in the Xfinity circuit and 13th of the 2024 season. The victory was the 11th of the season for both the Toyota nameplate and Joe Gibbs Racing, with the organization’s No. 20 team winning for the ninth time overall.
As a result of the victory, Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 Toyota team will contend for the 2024 Xfinity Series owner’s championship as Almirola will compete against Austin Hill, AJ Allmendinger and Justin Allgaier for the title during next weekend’s season-finale event at Phoenix Raceway.
Photo by Patrick Sue-Chan for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“Wow, what an amazing race car,” Almirola said on the CW Network. “So proud of [crew chief] Tyler [Allen] and all the guys on this team. We had an amazing car here in the spring. We made a few tweaks to it because I wasn’t totally happy with it, honestly, in the spring. We showed up yesterday and we were awful. I was like, ‘Oh no. What did we do?’ [The team] went to work last night and came up with a lot of changes to make to the car. It was so hooked up today. It would just do everything I wanted it to. Man, this is such a special place, This is, by far, my favorite racetrack and I’m just so thankful to Coach [Gibbs], everybody at Toyota. There’s so much more to it than just me and this race team. I’m just so lucky and blessed to have this opportunity with so many great partners. What an amazing race car. Just so proud, so, so proud and we’re going to go race for an owner’s championship in Phoenix.”
As Almirola celebrated the Martinsville race victory, teammate Chandler Smith, who settled in third place on the track was left heated over Custer, who finished fourth, following their pair of bumps and on-track contact that took them both out of contention for the race victory as Smith also failed to make the Championship 4 field by 28 points. Once Smith parked his car on pit road at the event’s conclusion, he confronted Custer and both exchanged words before Smith attempted to throw a punch across Custer’s face before both were separated by NASCAR officials and their respective crew members.
Ironically, this marks the second run-in and post-race confrontation between Custer and Chandler Smith after the former had confronted the latter during the Playoff opener at Kansas Speedway in late September, where he criticized Smith for costing both the victory from Almirola following a late duel on the track.
“I was planning to do a lot more than [throwing a punch], to be completely frank with you,” Smith, whose racing status for 2025 remains unknown, said. “I was extremely pissed off. I gave him five laps before that caution came out and beat his bumper off and never shipped him or anything like that. Then finally, it’s like all right, the laps are winding down, I’m in a must-win [situation]. [Almirola]’s starting to drive away. He was really good all day. I can’t waste any more time with [Custer], so I finally had a good enough run and pushed him up the racetrack and went on our way, but I gave him a chance for five laps before that…He didn’t even give me a chance to make the corner when we got to Turn 1. It is what it is. He can think we’re even and all, but he’s the one that’s got more stakes than I do next weekend.”
Meanwhile, Custer, who was initially left frustrated with Smith, was also left pleased on pit road as he claimed a Championship 4 berth to next weekend’s finale at Phoenix as he will attempt to defend his title before moving back up to the Cup Series with the rebranded Haas Factory Team in 2025.
“[Chandler Smith]’s not happy, but at the end of the day, he’s put us in the wall a few times this year and his mistakes caught up with him,” Custer said. “He used the bumper on me, I used the bumper on him. What comes around goes around in this deal. I’m so proud of this team. We brought out everything we had today. [The team] Kept us in the fight, but [crew chief Jonathan Toney] and the guys did a great job all year maximizing everything we had. [I] Can’t wait to go to Phoenix now and see what we can do.”
Overall, Custer joins AJ Allmendinger, Austin Hill and Justin Allgaier, the latter of whom finished fifth at Martinsville, as the four Playoff contenders who will contend for the 2024 Xfinity Series championship next weekend at Phoenix. Meanwhile, Chandler Smith joins Martinsville runner-up finisher Sammy Smith, rookie Jesse Love and Sam Mayer as the bottom four Playoff contenders in the standings who did not make the Championship 4 round.
There were 12 lead changes for seven different leaders. The race featured 13 cautions for 84 laps. In addition, 26 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
The 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season is set to conclude at Phoenix Raceway, where a champion will be crowned. The finale is set to occur next Saturday, November 9, and air at 7:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network.
Austin Hill spent the previous four of five seasons falling one Playoff round short of reaching the Championship 4 round between two of NASCAR’s top three national touring series. But he is now bound for the Xfinity Series championship battle in 2024 after capping off a dominant run with a victory in the Credit One NASCAR AMEX Credit 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday, October 26.
The 30-year-old Hill from Winston, Georgia, led three times for a race-high 82 of 200-scheduled laps in an event where he started 16th but quickly carved his way through the field. After assuming the lead for the first time on Lap 41, Hill captured the first stage victory on Lap 45. He retained the lead for the entire second stage period and racked up an additional 10 crucial stage points towards his quest to remain above the top-four cutline in the Playoff standings by claiming another stage victory of the day.
Then after flirting between challenging Playoff contender Cole Custer for the lead to trying to remain within sight of the lead for the majority of the final stage period, Hill executed his race-winning pass on Custer with 12 laps remaining following a late cycle of green flag pit stops that started with 43 laps remaining. With the clean air to his advantage, Hill proceeded to muscle away from Custer and lead the rest of the way before he emerged triumphant for his fourth Xfinity Series victory of the 2024 season to earn a one-way ticket to his first opportunity to contend for his first Xfinity title in this year’s finale.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, October 25, Playoff contender Chandler Smith notched his third Xfinity pole position of the 2024 season with a pole-winning lap at 163.305 mph in 33.067 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate Sheldon Creed, who clocked in his best qualifying lap at 162.822 mph in 33.165 seconds.
Prior to the event, the following names that include Anthony Alfredo, Jeremy Clements, Matt DiBenedetto and rookie Shane van Gisbergen dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries. In addition, DiBenedetto was assessed a pass-through penalty through pit road on the first lap due to his RSS Racing encountering multiple inspection failures.
When the green flag waved and the race started, the field slowly fanned out through the frontstretch as teammates Chandler Smith and Sheldon Creed dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. With the outside lane to his advantage, Smith would muscle his No. 81 QuickTie Toyota Supra ahead with the lead entering Turn 3 and he would proceed to lead the first lap while Playoff contender Cole Custer and Aric Almirola challenged Creed for the runner-up spot.
Over the next four laps and amid a series of early on-track battles, Chandler Smith extended his advantage to one second over teammate Almirola, who prevailed in his early three-car battle for the runner-up spot, while Custer prevailed in his early battle with Creed to move his No. 00 NXT Ford Mustang into third place. Behind, Playoff contender AJ Allmendinger was in fifth place ahead of Riley Herbst while Playoff contenders Sam Mayer, rookie Jesse Love and Justin Allgaier followed suit in the top nine. Behind, Parker Kligerman occupied 10th place as he was ahead of Playoff contenders Austin Hill and Sammy Smith while newcomer, William Sawalich, Ryan Sieg and Connor Zilisch were in the top 15.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Chandler Smith retained his early advantage to more than a second over Custer and Almirola as Allmendinger and Herbst were in the top five. Behind, Mayer, Love, Hill and Allgaier followed suit while Creed had dropped to 10th place and was prepared to lose the spot to Kligerman for the following lap. Meanwhile, Sammy Smith was the lowest-running Playoff contender in 13th place.
Ten laps later, Chandler Smith stabilized his advantage to a second over Custer while Allmendinger, who carved his way up to third place, trailed by two seconds. Behind, Almirola settled in fourth place ahead of Mayer, Herbst and Hill while Love, Allgaier and Creed followed suit in the top 10 ahead of Kligerman, Ryan Sieg, Sawalich, Zilisch and Sammy Smith.
Another 10 laps later, Chandler Smith’s advantage decreased to a tenth of a second over Custer, with the latter intimidating the former through every turn and straightaway. This left Smith to navigate through various lanes around Homestead to try to defend the top spot and as he was navigating through lapped traffic.
A lap later, however, Custer used the outside lane to duel with Smith as he led a lap for himself by 0.001 seconds. He then muscled ahead through the first two turns and the backstretch from the outside lane to clear Smith and pull away from the latter, where he would proceed to lead the next lap. As Allmendinger started to close in on Smith for the runner-up spot, Custer retained the lead by eight-tenths of a second at the Lap 35 mark. Custer’s advantage then slightly decreased to two-tenths of a second over the new runner-up competitor Allmendinger as both were navigating through lapped traffic. Behind, Almirola would make his way into third place while Chandler Smith dropped to fourth place.
Shortly after, Playoff contender Sammy Smith pitted his No. 8 Pilot Flying J Chevrolet Camaro after he made contact with the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2, where he then sustained a flat tire. Back on the track and as the leaders were mired in heavy lapped traffic, Almirola charged his No. 20 Samaritan’s Purse Toyota Supra into the lead on Lap 41. A three-wide battle for the lead then ensued between Custer, Almirola and Hill through the frontstretch for the following lap until Almirola briefly muscled back ahead through the first two turns. Hill then overtook and slid his No. 21 Bennett Chevrolet Camaro in front of Almirola’s Toyota entering the frontstretch to assume the lead on Lap 43 while Custer tried to challenge Almirola for the runner-up spot.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 45, Hill, who came into Homestead eight points below the top-four cutline to make the Championship 4 field, captured his fifth Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Almirola settled in second ahead of Creed, Allgaier and Custer while Mayer, Allmendinger, Herbst, Chandler Smith and Ryan Sieg were scored in the top 10. With six of eight Playoff contenders racking up the event’s first round of stage points by finishing in the top 10, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Love and Sammy Smith were mired in 11th and 36th, respectively.
Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Hill pitted for a first round of pit service. Following the pit stops, Hill retained the lead as he exited pit road first ahead of Almirola, Custer, Creed and Herbst while Allmendinger, Mayer, Allgaier, Love, Ryan Sieg and Chandler Smith followed suit. Amid the pit stops, Parker Retzlaff was penalized for speeding while exiting pit road.
The second stage period started on Lap 52 as Hill and Almirola occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out through the frontstretch as Almirola and Hill dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch in front of Custer. Hill would then use the inside lane to muscle ahead of Almirola through Turns 3 and 4, where he would lead the following lap. Hill would maintain a reasonable lead over Almirola just past the Lap 55 mark while Custer, Allmendinger and Ryan Sieg followed suit in the top five.
At the Lap 60 mark, Hill was leading by four-tenths of a second over Custer while Almirola, Allmendinger and Ryan Sieg continued to race in the top five. Behind, Love was in sixth place ahead of Chandler Smith, Creed, Allgaier and Kligerman as Herbst, Zilisch, Mayer, Brandon Jones and Sawalich were in the top 15. As Josh Williams, Ryan Truex, Kyle Weatherman, Jeb Burton and Kyle Sieg were mired in the top 20, Sammy Smith was scored in 27th place and on the lead lap.
Six laps later, Herbst pitted his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang from 10th place after he scrubbed the outside wall and sustained right-side damage to his car. By then, Hill had fended off Custer to retain the lead. Hill’s advantage over Custer would stand to be at seven-tenths of a second at the Lap 70 mark while third-place Allmendinger trailed by a second. Meanwhile, as Almirola and Ryan Sieg were in the top five, teammates Chandler Smith and Creed battled for sixth place while Allgaier, who scrubbed the outside wall through Turns 3 and 4, was being pressured by Love for eighth place.
By Lap 80, Hill extended his advantage to nearly two seconds over Custer while third-place Allmendinger trailed by two seconds and by three-tenths of a second to Custer. As Ryan Sieg and Almirola were in the top five, Creed retained sixth ahead of Allgaier, Chandler Smith, Love and Sawalich.
Six laps later, the caution flew as Nick Leitz, who was racing within the top-25 mark, spun his No. 92 DGM Racing Chevrolet Camaro in Turn 2. The incident occurred not long after Leland Honeyman pitted due to hitting the wall. Leitz’s incident was enough for the second stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 90 to officially conclude under caution as Hill captured his sixth Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season and second of the day. Allmendinger muscled his way into second place ahead of Custer, Ryan Sieg and Almirola while Creed, Allgaier, Chandler Smith, Love and Sawalich were scored in the top 10. With six of eight Playoff contenders racking up the event’s second round of stage points, the remaining Playoff contenders that included Mayer and Sammy Smith were mired in 14th and 26th, respectively.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Hill returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Hill retained the lead after he exited pit road first as he was followed by Custer, Almirola, Allmendinger, Love, Ryan Sieg, Creed, Chandler Smith, Sawalich and Allgaier. Amid the pit stops, Kyle Weatherman was penalized for speeding on pit road while Dylan Lupton was also penalized for pitting outside of his pit box.
With 105 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced under green as Hill and Custer occupied the front row. At the start, Hill and Custer dueled for the lead in front of Almirola and Allmendinger as Hill assumed a brief lead entering the first turn. Custer then used the outside lane to regain the ground and draw even with Hill through the backstretch and the frontstretch, with Hill leading the next lap. Custer then tried to muscle ahead through the first two turns and the backstretch, but Hill pulled ahead of Custer. Custer then pulled a crossover move on Hill during the next lap and he moved his No. 00 NXT Ford into the lead while Hill was being challenged by Almirola for the runner-up spot. With Allmendinger, Ryan Sieg, Love and Chandler Smtih all closing ground towards the battle for the lead, Custer retained the lead with 102 laps remaining. Custer would proceed to lead the halfway mark with 100 laps remaining as Almirola, Hill, Sieg and Allmendinger followed suit.
With 90 laps remaining, the battle for the lead between Custer and Hill that occurred a few laps earlier continued as the former maintained the preferred outside lane towards the outside wall to retain the top spot over the latter, who was trying to use the inside lane to gain a run through all corners. As Custer maintained a reasonable lead of two-tenths of a second over Hill, Almirola trailed in third place while Allmendinger was battling Love for fourth place. As Ryan Sieg, Allgaier, Chandler Smith, Mayer and Kligerman followed suit in the top 10, Sammy Smith was mired in 28th place and scored a lap down.
Two laps later, Hill used the inside lane to execute another move beneath Custer and he managed to muscle ahead and reassume the lead. Hill proceeded to pull away with the lead by more than two seconds over Custer with 80 laps remaining while Almirola, Allmendinger and Love were scored in the top five.
Then with 79 laps remaining, the caution flew when Josh Williams, who was racing in the top 15, blew a right-front tire entering Turn 1 and ran dead straight into Ryan Truex as Truex spun the No. 26 Toyota Genuine Parts Supra below the track. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Hill returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Hill retained the lead after he exited pit road first and was followed by teammate Love, who gained three spots following a quick pit service from the No. 2 team. Custer, Almirola, Ryan Sieg, Creed, Chandler Smith, Allgaier, Mayer and Sawalich followed suit in the top 10. In the midst of the caution period, Sammy Smith received the free pass due to being the first competitor scored a lap down.
The start of the next restart period with 73 laps remaining featured Hill muscling away from the field to retain the lead while Custer challenged Love for the runner-up spot through the backstretch. As the field behind fanned out to multiple lanes, Custer then proceeded to make a move beneath Hill through Turns 3 and 4 as he returned atop the leaderboard for the following lap. As the event reached its final 70-lap stretch, Custer retained the lead by four-tenths of a second over Hill before teammate Love overtook him for the spot a lap later. Ryan Sieg would overtake Hill for third place during the next lap as Love started to slowly close in on Custer for the lead.
With 55 laps remaining, Custer stretched his advantage to two-and-a-half seconds over Love while third-place Ryan Sieg trailed by three-and-a-half seconds. Meanwhile, Hill retained fourth place ahead of Almirola and Allmendinger while Creed, Chandler Smith, Allgaier and Mayer were in the top 10 ahead of Herbst, Kligerman, Brandon Jones, Sawalich, Zilisch and Shane van Gisbergen. In the process, Sammy Smith was mired in 23rd place. A few laps later, Sawalich pitted under green with a flat tire after he slapped the outside wall.
Ten laps later, Custer added another second to his lead as he was leading by three seconds over Love and he would grow his lead to four seconds for the following lap. Meanwhile, Hill trailed by more than four seconds in third place as Creed and Almirola were in the top five ahead of Allmendinger, Ryan Sieg, Allgaier, Mayer and Herbst.
With 43 laps remaining, a cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as Almirola pitted from the top five. The leader Custer along with Hill, Love, Ryan Sieg, Zilisch, Ryan Truex and Jeb Burton pitted during the following lap before Sammy Smith pitted with 40 laps remaining. Shortly after and with more names pitting, Chandler Smith endured a slow pit service due to a jack issue during his green flag pit stop as teammate Creed, who was among several who had yet to pit, was leading.
Down to the final 30 laps of the event, Creed continued to lead by two seconds over Allmendinger as Mayer, Kligerman, Jones and van Gisbergen, all of whom had yet to pit, were racing in the top six. Meanwhile, Custer, the first competitor who pitted, trailed the lead by 17 seconds in seventh place as Hill, Almirola and Love were in the top 10. Creed and Mayer, the latter of whom scraped the outside wall in Turns 1 and 2, then pitted during the following lap as Allmendinger cycled into the lead. With Kligerman then pitting not long after, Custer cycled his way up to third place as Allmendinger retained the lead.
Five laps later, Custer overtook Jones for the runner-up spot as he trailed Allmendinger for the lead by nine seconds. Soon after, Hill would make his way up to third place as he trailed Custer for two seconds on the track while Allmendinger remained in the lead by seven seconds.
Then with 21 laps remaining, Allmendinger pitted his No. 16 Modern Day Garage Chevrolet Camaro from the lead. This allowed Custer to cycle back into the lead, where he was ahead of Hill by more than a second while Almirola, Love and Jones were in the top five. Over the next six laps, Hill would steadily decrease Custer’s advantage as he was trailing Custer by seven-tenths of a second with 15 laps remaining.
With 12 laps remaining and the leaders mired in lapped traffic, Hill, who gained a big run on Custer through the frontstretch and had been gaining ground using the inside lane, went to the outside lane entering Turns 1 and 2 as he battled dead even with Custer through the backstretch. Hill then used the outside lane to shoot his No. 21 Bennett Chevrolet into the lead through Turns 3 and 4, where he led the following lap. Hill would proceed to extend his advantage to a second over Custer with 10 laps remaining while third-place Almirola trailed by four seconds.
Down to the final five laps of the event, Hill continued to extend his late advantage as he was leading by two-and-a-half seconds over Custer. Meanwhile, third-place Almirola trailed by four seconds while Love and Herbst were mired in the top five ahead of Ryan Sieg, Creed, Allgaier, Mayer and Zilisch.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Hill remained as the leader by more than three seconds over Custer. Navigating his way through a pair of lapped competitors, Hill was able to smoothly navigate his No. 21 Chevrolet around the Homestead circuit for a final time before he cycled back to the frontstretch victorious and for his fourth Xfinity checkered flag of the 2024 season.
With the victory, Hill, who is in his third consecutive season as a full-time competitor of the No. 21 Chevrolet Camaro entry for Richard Childress Racing, achieved his 10th career win in his 112th career start in the Xfinity Series, his first in the series at Homestead-Miami Speedway and his first since winning at Atlanta Motor Speedway in early September. Hill also recorded his first NASCAR national touring series victory at Homestead since winning the Craftsman Truck Series finale in 2019 as he delivered the 18th Xfinity victory of the 2024 season for the Chevrolet nameplate and the fifth for Richard Childress Racing.
Above all, Hill, who spent four of the last five seasons having his Playoff berth end following the Round of 8 between the Truck and Xfinity divisions, clinched a berth into the Championship 4 round for the first time in his career. As a result, he joins AJ Allmendinger as the second competitor who will officially contend for the 2024 Xfinity Series championship at Phoenix Raceway two weeks from now.
“I worked so hard at this,” Hill, who was emotional, said on the frontstretch on the CW Network. “A lot of people doubted me, but I wake up every day to prove everyone wrong, that I deserve to be here. I deserve to race for a championship. This No. 21 team deserves it just as much as I do. They work their asses off each and every day just like I do. I got to give up to those guys. They just gave me a hell of a car. I didn’t have to go run the wall. I could run, really, wherever I wanted to. I can honestly say I’ve never cried coming to the start/finish line. I couldn’t even get my emotions together going into Turn 1 after the checkered.”
“I just had to be on it,” Hill added. “I made some mistakes today, but we rebounded. Pit crew was badass like they always are. I knew once we got off pit road and we were in touch with [Custer], I just had to go to work and not burn my right front or right rear [tires] up and just save it for the long run. As soon as I saw him start backing up to me, it was game on. This is amazing. To be able to go to the Final Four, I’ve worked so hard for this. My dreams came true.”
Cole Custer, who led 67 laps, settled in second place as he ended up one spot short of clinching his early spot into the Championship 4 round. Nonetheless, Custer, who earned a total of 14 stage points at Homestead, currently occupies the fourth and final transfer spot to the Championship 4 by 28 points over Chandler Smith entering next weekend’s Round of 8 finale at Martinsville Speedway as he continues his pursuit to defend his series title.
“Man, I thought that second-to-last run, we had it,” Custer said. “That last run, for whatever reason, we got pretty free and [Hill] seemed like they got way better than what they were the second-to-last run. Sold points day. We’ll move into Martinsville. We’ve had good runs there before. Just got to bring everything we got there because you never know who’s going to win.”
Aric Almirola settled in third place while rookie Jesse Love and Sheldon Creed finished in the top five. Riley Herbst, Ryan Sieg, Justin Allgaier, Sam Mayer and AJ Allmendinger completed the top-10 final running order.
With six of eight Playoff contenders finishing in the top 10, the remaining two Playoff contenders that include pole-sitter Chandler Smith and Sammy Smith ended up 13th and 22nd, respectively. As a result, Allgaier is above the top-four cutline by 35 points while Chandler Smith, Love, Mayer and Sammy Smith are below the cutline.
There were 10 lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured three cautions for 19 laps. In addition, 16 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Austin Hill, 82 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner
2. Cole Custer, 67 laps led
3. Aric Almirola, one lap led
4. Jesse Love
5. Sheldon Creed, 12 laps led
6. Riley Herbst
7. Ryan Sieg
8. Justin Allgaier
9. Sam Mayer
10. AJ Allmendinger, nine laps led
11. Parker Kligerman
12. Connor Zilisch
13. Chandler Smith, 29 laps led
14. Kyle Weatherman
15. Anthony Alfredo
16. Jeremy Clements
17. Shane van Gisbergen, one lap down
18. Brennan Poole, one lap down
19. Brandon Jones, one lap down
20. Jeb Burton, one lap down
21. Ryan Truex, one lap down
22. Sammy Smith, one lap down
23. Parker Retzlaff, one lap down
24. William Sawalich, one lap down
25. Ryan Ellis, one lap down
26. Kyle Sieg, one lap down
27. Josh Williams, three laps down
28. Brad Perez, three laps down
29. Austin Green, three laps down
30. Leland Honeyman, three laps down
31. Mason Maggio, three laps down
32. Dylan Lupton, four laps down
33. Dawson Cram, four laps down
34. Blaine Perkins, five laps down
35. Armani Williams, seven laps down
36. Thomas Annunziata – OUT, Ignition
37. Nick Leitz – OUT, Suspension
38. Matt DiBenedetto – OUT, Overheating
*Bold indicates Playoff competitors
Playoff standings
1. AJ Allmendinger – Advanced
2. Austin Hill – Advanced
3. Justin Allgaier +35
4. Cole Custer +28
5. Chandler Smith -28
6. Jesse Love -35
7. Sam Mayer -47
8. Sammy Smith -95
The Round of 8 in the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs is set to conclude at Martinsville Speedway for the National Debt Relief 250, which will determine this year’s Championship 4 field. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, November 2, and air at 4 p.m. ET on the CW Network.
William Sawalich will be a full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series competitor for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) in 2025.
Sawalich will pilot the No. 18 Toyota Supra at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2025. The 18-year-old racer from Eden Prairie, Minnesota will have sponsorship support from Starkey and SoundGear.
The news comes a month after Sawalich achieved his second consecutive ARCA Menards Series East championship. He won three of the series eight-scheduled events, including the season-finale event at Bristol Motor Speedway. His win at Bristol enabled him to lock up the title by 12 points over Connor Zilisch. Sawalich will also make his Xfinity Series debut this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, driving JGR’s No. 19 “all-star” Toyota entry.
”I am honored to be driving the No. 18 full-time in the Xfinity Series next year,” Sawalich said. ”It has been really cool to drive for Joe Gibbs Racing, and I feel like I have developed so much as a driver over the past two years. I still have a lot to learn, especially with moving to a new series, so I am looking forward to taking this next step in racing.”
Sawalich grew up competing in midget cars before transcending from legends cars to late models and the CARS Tour. He is the 2023 All-American 400 winner and won the 2022 SCCA Trans-Am TA2 ProAm Series championship and rookie titles.
In 2023, Sawalich joined Joe Gibbs Racing on a full-time basis in the ARCA Menards Series East. He will also compete in select events between the ARCA Menards Series and ARCA West division. After winning the season-opening event at Five Flags Speedway, he won half of the season’s eight scheduled events. He wrapped up his first ARCA East title by 58 points over Luke Fenhaus. Sawalich has 13 victories in the ARCA Menards Series between two part-time seasons in 2023 and 2024. Sawalich recorded three victories in the ARCA West division to coincide with his seven victories in the ARCA East division.
In 2023 Sawalich made his debut in the Craftsman Truck Series at Martinsville Speedway in the No. 1 Toyota TRICON Garage. Sawalich started 22nd and finished an impressive ninth place during his debut. He recorded an additional two top-10 results, including a career-best sixth-place result at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in August, during his next five starts of the season. Returning for a 10-race Truck schedule in 2024. Sawalich made seven starts in the 2024 season. His best result was 11th place at Bristol in September. During his most recent series start at Talladega Superspeedway, he notched his first career pole. Sawalich will also compete in the final three Truck events of the 2024 season with TRICON, beginning this upcoming Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Following his Xfinity debut at Homestead, Sawalich will drive JGR’s No. 19 Toyota entry for two events at Martinsville Speedway and Phoenix Raceway. He will become the 10th competitor overall to drive the No. 19 JGR and record three top-five results and six top-10 results through 30 scheduled starts this season.
Sawalich will contend for both the series rookie and the driver’s title during the 2025 season. He will compete alongside Joe Gibbs Racing’s two other full-time competitors which include Taylor Gray and Brandon Jones. JGR announced Gray as a full-time Xfinity competitor five days ago. Brandon Jones will return to JGR following a two-year absence.
“We are thrilled to announce William’s promotion to the next stage of his racing career with us, Steve de Souza, Executive Vice President of Xfinity Series and Development at JGR, said. “His outstanding record of victories and development over the past two years shows he’s ready for the Xfinity Series. We’re confident he’ll remain a strong contender for wins as he takes on this new challenge in 2025.”
Additional partners and the crew chief for Sawalich’s No. 18 team in 2025 will be announced at a later date.
Sawalich will make his 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series debut Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway for the Credit One NASCAR Amex Credit 300.
The feeling of winning at home never felt sweeter for Grant Enfinger, who guaranteed himself an early shot to contend for this year’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship after capping off a dominant performance with a victory in the Love’s RV Stop 225 at Talladega Superspeedway on Friday, October 4.
The 39-year-old Enfinger from Fairhope, Alabama, led nine times for a race-high 34 of 85-scheduled laps in an event where he started in fourth place and spent a majority of the event racing upfront amid the draft and up against both his fellow Playoff and non-Playoff contenders. After finishing second in the first stage before winning the second stage, Enfinger, who would endure three restarts throughout the final stage period, retained the lead at the start of the final one with nine laps remaining. He then fended off late challenges from Playoff contenders Christian Eckes and Taylor Gray through the frontstretch on the final lap and amid a multi-truck wreck approaching the finish line to record his first elusive victory of the season and automatically transfer his way into this year’s Championship 4 round.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, William Sawalich, the 2024 ARCA Menards Series East champion, notched his first Truck Series career pole position after he posted a pole-winning lap at 175.764 mph in 54.482 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Ben Rhodes, who posted his best qualifying lap at 175.648 mph in 54.518 seconds.
Prior to the event, Keith McGee dropped to the rear of the field as a result of replacing Bryan Dauzat in the FDNY Racing entry. Bayley Currey also dropped to the rear of the field due to an engine change to his Niece Motorsports entry.
When the green flag waved and the race started, William Sawalich muscled his No. 1 Starkey/Soundgear Toyota Tundra TRD Pro ahead with the lead from the inside lane as he was followed by Ben Rhodes and Playoff contenders Ty Majeski and Taylor Gray through the first two turns. Sawalich proceeded to lead through the backstretch as a bevy of competitors behind dueled early for positions in two drafting lanes. When the field returned to the frontstretch, Playoff contender Grant Enfinger received a draft from Chase Purdy from the outside lane to rocket his No. 9 Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet Silverado RST ahead and lead the first lap ahead of Sawalich.
Through the second to fifth lap, the field fanned out to three drafting lanes as Purdy, Enfinger and Matt Mills all took turns leading at the front while Jake Garcia, Sawalich, Connor Zilisch, Dean Thompson, Majeski, Playoff contender Tyler Ankrum, Dean Thompson and Lawless Alan all followed pursuit. By then, Ben Rhodes, who started on the front row alongside Sawalich, was penalized for jumping the start, as he launched ahead of Sawalich when he was not in control of bringing the field up to race pace before the event’s start. After serving a drive-through penalty for the penalty, however, Rhodes was penalized a second time, this time for a blend violation as he moved up the racing surface early through the backstretch. The pair of penalties would result in Rhodes losing a lap to the field while Mills and Enfinger dueled for the lead in front of the field.
Through the first 10-scheduled laps, Enfinger was leading ahead of Purdy, Sawalich, Mills and Majeski while Garcia, Playoff contender Taylor Gray, Zilisch, Ankrum and Dean Thomson were racing in the top 10. Behind, Playoff contender Corey Heim occupied 11th place ahead of, Lawless Alan, Playoff contender Christian Eckes, Playoff contender Rajah Caruth and Ryan Reed while Bret Holmes, Nick Sanchez, Stefan Parsons, Stewart Friesen and Tanner Gray were mired in the top 20.
Five laps later, Enfinger, who led three of the previous five laps, was leading by a hair amid a side-by-side battle with Mills while the rest of the field racing in two-packed lanes followed suit. By then, Garcia, Sawalich and Zilisch were running in the top five as Playoff contenders Majeski, Taylor Gray and Ankrum were racing in the top-10 mark. In addition, Heim and Caruth were battling within the top-15 mark while Eckes and Sanchez were mired within the top-20 mark. Meanwhile, Johnny Sauter, who was making his second Truck start of the season with Hattori Racing Enterprises, had pitted to have a broken spoiler brace fixed.
With two laps remaining in the first stage period, Sanchez and Currey pitted their respective entries, primarily for fuel, as Enfinger retained the lead.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 20, Matt Mills received a draft from Garcia to overtake Enfinger from the outside lane through the backstretch and claim his first Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Enfinger settled in second ahead of Garcia, Zilisch and Sawalich while Thompson, Majeski, Alan, Taylor Gray and Tanner Gray were scored in the top 10 on the track. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders that included Ankrum, Heim, Eckes and Caruth were mired within the top 16 while Sanchez was down in 32nd place.
Under the stage break, a majority of the field led by Mills pits while the rest including Stewart Friesen, Matt Crafton, Spencer Boyd and Sanchez remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Enfinger exited pit road first ahead of Majeski, Garcia, Alan, Zilisch, Eckes, Thompson, Taylor Gray, Caruth and Tyler Ankrum. Friesen, Crafton and Boyd would eventually pit prior to the second stage’s start while Sanchez, who pitted before the first stage’s conclusion, remained on the track and inherited the lead.
The second stage period started on Lap 27 as Sanchez and Enfinger occupied the front row. At the start, Sanchez and Enfinger dueled for the lead for a full lap and in front of two stacked lanes. Enfinger was being pushed by Garcia while Sanchez was being pushed by Majeski and Zilisch. By then, Taylor Gray pitted to have a punctured tire on his No. 17 Place of Hope Toyota Tundra TRD Pro removed as both Sanchez and Enfinger continued to duel for the lead by the Lap 30 mark.
Then with three laps remaining in the second stage period, the caution flew after Sanchez, who had both lanes to his control before Enfinger came storming back to challenge him for the lead, got loose by Zilisch through the frontstretch. Sanchez then slid sideways into the path of Zilisch, where Zilisch kept pushing Sanchez’s spinning No. 2 Gainbridge Chevrolet Silverado RST while Sauter, Rhodes and Purdy all wrecked against the outside wall while trying to avoid the wreck. The incident occurred as Mills and Parsons made contact, but avoided igniting a wreck entering the frontstretch while being mired behind Playoff contenders Heim, Ankrum and Taylor Gray, the latter of whom had lost a lap to the field.
The multi-truck incident on Lap 37 was enough for the second stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 40 to officially conclude under caution as Enfinger was awarded his second Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Garcia, Eckes, Alan, Caruth, Thompson, Heim, Tanner Gray, Ankrum and Stefan Parsons were scored in the top 10.
Under the stage break, some, led by Crafton and including Boyd while the rest led by Enfinger pitted. During the pit stops, Mason Maggio, who made contact with Ankrum on pit road, was penalized for having too many men over his pit wall. Soon after and amid the caution period, a bevy of names including Playoff contender Taylor Gray, Sanchez all returned to pit road for additional services.
With 39 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced under green as Dye and Caruth occupied the front row. At the start, Daniel Dye, who received drafting help from a bevy of Chevrolet teammates, including teammate Eckes, muscled his No. 43 NAPA Nightvision Chevrolet Silverado RST ahead of Caruth before he then moved in front of Caruth entering the backstretch. Eckes would also follow suit and he also transitioned his No. 19 NAPA Chevrolet Silverado RST in front of Caruth on the inside lane. By the following lap, Dye was leading ahead of a five-truck breakaway from the field along with teammate Eckes, Ankrum, Caruth and Dean Thompson while Enfinger and Corey Heim dueled for sixth place in front of two lines of stacked competitors.
With 35 laps remaining, teammates Eckes and Dye dueled for the lead in front of two stacked lanes of competitors. Five laps later, the top-10 competitors on the track were separated under a second as Eckes was leading ahead of Enfinger, teammate Dye, Caruth and Parsons while Mills, Garcia, Alan, Kaden Honeycutt and Sanchez were in the top 10.
Then with 28 laps remaining, a majority of field led by Eckes and Enfinger pitted under green. During the pit stops, Caruth blew a tire while he was slamming on the brakes and locking up his front tires of his No. 71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado RST while trying to enter pit road. Caruth, however, would be penalized for being too fast while trying to enter pit road as he eventually lost a lap. In addition, Dye missed pit road and could not pit with the front-runners while Norm Benning spun on pit road after making contact with Stefan Parsons. Soon after, Purdy was seen limping his slowed truck below the apron on the backstretch, but he continued without drawing a caution.
Back on the track with 25 laps remaining, Jason White was leading ahead of Dawson Sutton, Mason Maggio, Honeycutt and Sanchez while Enfinger, Eckes, Garcia, Riggs and Friesen were scored in the top 10.
Shortly after, the caution flew when Garcia got turned off the front nose of Parsons that resulted in Garcia colliding with rookie Layne Riggs and clipping Riggs again that sent Riggs back across the track and into Tanner Gray and Matt Mills up against the outside wall. Connor Zilisch and Dean Thompson would also get involved in the carnage while Playoff contenders Tyler Ankrum and Taylor Gray slid through the infield grass and kicked up dirt to avoid the carnage.
During the caution period, some led by the leader Jason White and including Sutton, Mason Maggio, Clay Greenfield, Cory Roper, Spencer Boyd and Ankrum pitted while the rest led by the new leader Honeycutt remained on the track.
Down to the final 17 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Honeycutt received a draft from Eckes on the inside lane to rocket ahead with the lead through the first two turns. As the field started to fan out to three lanes through the backstretch, Eckes made his move to the outside lane as he overtook Honeycutt while he was followed by Sanchez. Sanchez then made a move beneath Eckes in Turn 4 as he assumed the lead and led the following lap ahead of Honeycutt and Eckes. Sanchez would then be placed on defense to block Eckes and Honeycutt as Enfinger and Taylor Gray started to muscle up into the top five by the following lap.
The caution would then return with 15 laps remaining after Sanchez received a push from Eckes that got him sliding sideways below the apron entering Turn 3. While trying to save his truck from spinning, Sanchez slid up the track backward in between Turns 3 and 4 and barely clipped Dye, which sent Dye for a spin below the turn’s grass. With nearly the entire field dodging Sanchez’s truck, Keith McGee and Mason Maggio wrecked along with Dawson Sutton while avoiding Sanchez.
The start of the following restart period with nine laps remaining featured Enfinger rocketing ahead with the lead with drafting help from Eckes and Alan while Taylor Gray, who restarted outside the front row, blended in line in fourth place ahead of Ryan Reed and Ankrum. With a majority of the front-runners running in a long single-file line towards the inside lane, Enfinger retained the lead for the following lap and ahead of Eckes, Alan, Ankrum and Reed.
Down to the final five laps of the event, the top 12 competitors were racing under a second while the top 16 were separated within a second. In the process, Enfinger was leading ahead of Eckes, Alan, Taylor Gray and Reed while Ankrum, Friesen, Heim, Caruth and Majeski were mired in the top 10 ahead of Bret Holmes and Spencer Boyd.
During the following lap, the field behind Enfinger slowly started to fan out to multiple drafting lanes as Heim, racing in eighth place, was leading a charge from the outside lane with drafting help from Caruth. Heim and Caruth then made contact entering the backstretch, which stalled their momentum and forced both to blend back in the long drafting lane towards the double yellow lines and behind Enfinger, who continued to lead in front of Eckes.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Enfinger remained as the leader ahead of Eckes, Alan, Taylor Gray and Reed while Daniel Dye was trying to ignite a final drafting charge from the outside lane along with Caruth, Parsons and Heim. Enfinger would continue to lead through the backstretch along with Turns 3 and 4 as both Taylor Gray and Ankrum transitioned to the outside lane to receive the drafting momentum Dye was receiving.
Then through the frontstretch and with the finish line in sight, Lawless Alan would then transition to the outside lane, but Taylor Gray and Eckes pinned him in three-wide formation. As Enfinger retained the lead, trouble ignited as Ankrum was bumped and sent spinning through the frontstretch before he was hit in the driver’s side by Friesen. Eckes then slid sideways off the front nose of teammate Reed and shot back across the track, where he collected a majority of the front-runners. Meanwhile, Enfinger managed to fend off a charge from Taylor Gray to claim the checkered flag and grab the victory.
With the victory, Enfinger, who scored his first series victory at Talladega in 2016, became the first Playoff competitor to win the Truck Series Playoff event at Talladega and he became the fifth competitor to achieve multiple Truck victories at Talladega. He also notched his 11th career win in the Craftsman Truck Series and his first since winning at the Milwaukee Mile in August 2023.
Above all, Enfinger, who came into Talladega strapped in seventh place in the Playoff standings, became the first competitor to clinch a spot into this year’s Championship 4 round, where he will contend for the 2024 Craftsman Truck Series championship at Phoenix Raceway on November 8.
“[My team] knew stuff was going to get dicey,” Enfinger, who credited spotter Tim Fedewa with the victory, said on FS1. “We didn’t make all the perfect decisions today, but we had a Champion Power Equipment Chevy [that] was fast enough to get it done today. That was hairy coming right [to the finish]. I knew Taylor [Gray] was coming with a run. Tim told me to go up, then he told me to come down. It’s just Talladega right there. Hopefully, all the fans enjoyed it. It’s nothing like winning at your hometown, home track. On top of that, we get to race for a championship at Phoenix.”
Enfinger’s Talladega victory was also the first ever for CR7 Motorsports, a team that debuted in 2018 and had hired Enfinger as a part-time competitor in 2021 before signing him to a full-time, multi-year deal at the start of this season. Now after recording five top-five results and barely transferring into the Playoff’s Round of 8 throughout the previous 19 events on this year’s schedule, the organization will receive its first opportunity to contend for a NASCAR championship with the veteran Enfinger also setting his sights on claiming the title one year after being one position shy of claiming it.
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“There are just so many people that make this team,” Enfinger added. “It’s a little bit of the little team that could, but we have great resources with our friends over there at [McAnally-Hilgemann Racing]. Obviously, great resources from everybody at Team Chevy. We’ve been knocking on the door. I know it’s speedway race, but we’ve been knocking on the door at all the tracks. I feel like we stumbled that first round of the Playoffs, but it really doesn’t matter now. [I was] able to win our way to Phoenix. Now, we can just focus on that. Looking forward to having some fun the next couple races, but a championship’s on the line now.
Behind Enfinger, Taylor Gray tied his career-best result of second place as he just missed his first victory and an early ticket to the Championship 4 round by 0.041 seconds. Daniel Dye managed to cross the finish line in third place with a destroyed race truck while Rajah Caruth and Lawless Alan finished in the top five. Christian Eckes, Ryan Reed, Stefan Parsons, Bret Holmes and Spencer Boyd finished in the top 10 on the track.
With Playoff contenders Enfinger, Taylor Gray, Caruth and Eckes finishing in the top 10 on the track, the remaining Playoff contenders that included Corey Heim, Ty Majeski, Tyler Ankrum and Nick Sanchez ended up 11th, 12th, 14th and 22nd, respectively. As a result, Eckes, Heim and Majeski leave Talladega above the top-four cutline to the Championship 4 round while Caruth, Gray, Sanchez and Ankrum trail the cutline.
There were 27 lead changes for 12 different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 25 laps. In addition, 23 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Grant Enfinger, 34 laps led, Stage 2 winner
2. Taylor Gray
3. Daniel Dye, three laps led
4. Rajah Caruth, two laps led
5. Lawless Alan
6. Christian Eckes, eight laps led
7. Ryan Reed
8. Stefan Parsons
9. Bret Holmes
10. Spencer Boyd
11. Corey Heim
12. Ty Majeski
13. Stewart Friesen, one lap led
14. Tyler Ankrum
15. Clay Greenfield
16. Cory Roper
17. Danny Bohn
18. Mason Maggio
19. Kaden Honeycutt, three laps led
20. Jason White, seven laps led
21. Norm Benning
22. Nick Sanchez, 10 laps led
23. Matt Crafton, one lap led
24. Dawson Sutton, four laps down, one lap led
25. Chase Purdy, 14 laps down, one lap led
26. Keith McGee – OUT, Accident
27. William Sawalich, 21 laps down
28. Layne Riggs – OUT, Accident
29. Jake Garcia – OUT, Accident
30. Tanner Gray – OUT, Accident
31. Matt Mills – OUT, Accident, 14 laps led, Stage 1 winner
32. Dean Thompson – OUT, Accident
33. Connor Zilisch – OUT, Accident
34. Johnny Sauter – OUT, DVP
35. Ben Rhodes – OUT, Accident
36. Bayley Currey – OUT, Rear Gear
*Bold indicates Playoff competitors
Playoff standings
1. Grant Enfinger – Advanced
2. Corey Heim +30
3. Christian Eckes +29
4. Ty Majeski +5
5. Rajah Caruth -5
6. Taylor Gray -13
7. Nick Sanchez -20
8. Tyler Ankrum- 23
The second Round of 8 event in the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs is set to occur at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida, and is scheduled to occur on October 26 and air at noon ET on FS1.
Three weeks after breaking through with his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory of the 2024 season at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, Ty Majeski capped off the regular-season stretch by doubling down with a second consecutive victory in recent weeks in the Clean Harbors 250 at Richmond Raceway on Saturday, August 10.
The 29-year-old Majeski from Seymour, Wisconsin, led three times for 70 of 250-scheduled laps in an event where he started alongside pole-sitter Christian Eckes on the front row and rallied from having brief issues launching at the start to assume the lead for the first time on Lap 13. Then after opting to remain on track on old tires during the event’s first caution period on Lap 51, Majeski endured a handful of challenges that hindered his performance that began as he struggled to keep pace on his worn tires during the following restart on Lap 63 and lost a bevy of spots. Just as he pitted for fresh tires during the first stage break period, he was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation.
Restarting at the tail end of the field for the start of the second stage period, Majeski would spend a majority of the event methodically charging his way back to the front as the event endured a series of caution periods and pit strategies amongst the field. Having marched his way back into the top 10 within the closing stages, Majeski used fresh tires and capitalized on a late-race skirmish involving Grant Enfinger and William Sawalich to return atop the leaderboard during a late-race restart with 20 laps remaining. Amid an additional caution period and late-race restart with eight laps remaining, Majeski fended off Enfinger amid contact to remain out in front of the field and cruise to his second consecutive Truck Series victory of the 2024 season while also entering the Playoffs with early momentum.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Christian Eckes secured the pole position with a pole-winning lap at 118.655 mph in 22.755 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Ty Majeski as he clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 118.033 mph in 22.875 seconds.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Christian Eckes rocketed his No. 19 Instacoat Premium Products Chevrolet Silverado RST ahead with the lead from the inside lane. In the process, Grant Enfinger followed suit in second while Ty Majeski, who struggled to launch from the outside lane, was trying to retain third place from William Sawalich. Amid the early jostles of spots around the track, where a three-wide action occurred between Sawalich, Layne Riggs and Taylor Gray for fourth place through the backstretch, Eckes proceeded to lead the first lap from Enfinger as Majeski, Taylor Gray, Riggs and Sawalich followed suit in the top six.
During the second lap, Majeski, who regained pace amid his rocky start, navigated his way past Enfinger for the runner-up spot as Taylor Gray was trying to fend off Layne Riggs, William Sawalich, Nick Sanchez and Ben Rhodes for fourth place. While Gray continued to occupy his spot as both Majeski and Enfinger railed in second and third, respectively, Eckes retained the lead by eight-tenths of a second by the fifth lap mark.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Eckes was leading by three-tenths of a second over Majeski followed by Enfinger, Taylor Gray and Riggs while Rhodes, Sawalich, Corey Heim, Nick Sanchez and Daniel Dye were scored in the top 10 on the track. Behind, Kaden Honeycutt occupied 11th place ahead of teammate Bayley Currey, Tyler Ankrum, Jake Garcia and Stewart Friesen while Rajah Caruth, Ty Dillon, Matt Crafton, newcomer Connor Hall and Connor Zilisch trailed in the top 20 ahead of Matt Mills, Timmy Hill, Dean Thompson, Lawless Alan, Tanner Gray and Chase Purdy.
A few laps later, Majeski dueled with Eckes in a side-by-side battle for the lead and the former would continue to battle Eckes before he pulled his No. 98 Soda Sense Ford F-150 ahead from the outside lane on Lap 13. By Lap 17, Majeski stretched his advantage to a second over Eckes and he would stabilize his advantage to a second while third-place Enfinger trailed Eckes by four-tenths of a second. Behind, Taylor Gray and Riggs remained in the top five.
At the Lap 25 mark, Majeski retained the lead by more than a second over Eckes while Enfinger, Taylor Gray and Riggs continued to trail in the top five on the track. Rhodes, Heim, Sawalich, Dye and Sanchez followed suit in the top 10 as Honeycutt, Currey, Ankrum, Friesen and Crafton followed suit in the top 15.
Ten laps later, Majeski, who was starting to lap the competitors running towards the bottom of the leaderboard, stretched his advantage to more than three seconds over Eckes as Enfinger, Taylor Gray and Riggs remained in the top five. Meanwhile, Taylor Gray, Rhodes and Dye, all three of whom were currently scored inside the top-10 cutline in their efforts to make the 2024 Playoffs, were running in the top nine on the track while Friesen and Crafton, both of whom came into Richmond trailing the cutline by 16 and 43 points, respectively, were mired within the top 15. In addition, Tanner Gray, who came into the event five points above the cutline with the final transfer spot, was scored nine points below the cutline as he was mired in 23rd place in front of teammate Dean Thompson.
By Lap 50, Majeski lost a second to his advantage, but he was still leading by more than two seconds over Eckes as top-five competitors Taylor Gray, Enfinger and Riggs trailed the lead by four seconds. Five laps later, Taylor Gray would overtake Eckes for the runner-up spot. By then, Taylor’s older brother, Tanner, was lapped by Majeski as he was mired in 22nd place.
Six laps later, the event’s first caution period flew when Matt Mills lost a right-front tire and went dead straight into the Turn 4 outside wall from 15th place. During the caution period, a majority of the field led by runner-up Taylor Gray pitted for four fresh tires and fuel while the rest led by the leader Majeski and including Ankrum and Connor Zilisch remained on the track.
When the event restarted under green on Lap 63, the field fanned out to multiple lanes through the frontstretch as Eckes used the outside lane and four fresh tires to blast by Ankrum through the first two turns before he then quickly dispatched Majeski for the lead through the backstretch. By the following lap and amid a series of on-track shuffles, Eckes was leading ahead of Taylor Gray and Enfinger while Majeski plummeted to seventh place on his old tires as Rhodes, Riggs and Dye all overtook him. Majeski would then drop to 18th place just past the Lap 65 mark as Ankrum and Zilisch also plummeted in the leaderboard on their old tires while Eckes retained the lead by less than half a second over Taylor Gray.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 70, Eckes captured his eighth Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Taylor Gray settled in second ahead of Enfinger, Rhodes and Riggs while Dye, Matt Crafton, Heim, Sanchez and Rajah Caruth were scored in the top 10.
Amid the battles towards the front, Tanner Gray, who restarted in 22nd place and was trying to emerge as the first competitor a lap down at the first stage’s conclusion, had dropped to 28th place and was the seventh competitor scored a lap down as 22nd-place competitor Bret Holmes received the free pass. As a result, he was left with a 22-point disadvantage to Dye in the battle for the cutline. Meanwhile, Eckes’ first stage victory was enough for him to clinch the regular-season championship while runner-up Taylor Gray garnered enough stage points to clinch his spot into the Playoffs based on points.
Under the first stage break, some led by Majeski and including Zilisch and Ankrum pitted while the rest led by Eckes remained on the track. During the pit stops, Majeski was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation and was sent to the rear of the field before the second stage’s start.
The second stage period started on Lap 79 as Eckes and Taylor Gray occupied the front row. At the start, Eckes muscled away from the field and the inside lane to retain the lead while Gray and Enfinger battled for the runner-up spot in front of Riggs, Rhodes, Dye and Heim. Amid a series of battles around the track, Heim overtook Dye for sixth place and Crafton trailed in eighth place. In the process, Eckes’ advantage stabilized to more than half a second over Enfinger while third-place Taylor Gray trailed by a second as he was ahead of Riggs and Rhodes. With Friesen mired in 13th place, Purdy and Tanner Gray were back in 26th and 27th, respectively.
By Lap 90, Eckes was leading by nine-tenths of a second over Enfinger as Taylor Gray, Riggs and Rhodes trailed by four seconds in the top five. Heim, Dye, Crafton, Ty Dillon and Sanchez would follow suit in the top 10 as Conner Jones, Zilisch, Ankrum, Caruth and Honeycutt were mired in the top 15. Meanwhile, Majeski was trying to rally his way into the top 20 amid his tire violation while Friesen and Tanner Gray were running 16th and 24th, respectively.
At the Lap 100 mark, Eckes’ advantage decreased to three-tenths of a second over Enfinger while Taylor Gray, Riggs and Rhodes continued to run in the top five ahead of Heim, Dye, Ty Dillon, Crafton and Conner Jones. Over the next five laps, Eckes, who was slowly catching lapped traffic, kept leading by above half a second over Enfinger as Taylor Gray kept the two leaders close within his front windshield.
Then on Lap 115, Enfinger overtook Eckes and moved his No. 9 Grant County Mulch Chevrolet Silverado RST into the lead through the frontstretch. Enfinger continued to lead by three-tenths of a second by the following lap as Taylor Gray, who tracked the two leaders, passed Eckes for the runner-up spot during the ensuing lap. As Enfinger retained the lead by three-tenths of a second towards the Lap 120 mark, Riggs and Rhodes followed suit in the top five while Ankrum was up to sixth place ahead of Heim, Dye, Ty Dillon and Zilisch.
At the halfway mark on Lap 125, Enfinger continued to lead by a narrow margin over Taylor Gray before Gray used a bold move beneath Enfinger, who was trapped behind Jake Garcia, entering Turn 1 to grab the lead. Gray stretched his advantage to half a second on the following lap as Eckes trailed by a second in third place while Riggs and Ankrum were in the top five.
Then on Lap 127, the caution flew when Matt Crafton, who was running in the top 15, spun in Turn 4 after he slipped underneath Kaden Honeycutt, where Crafton’s No. 88 Menards Ford F-150 spun from the middle to the bottom of the track and made light contact with the inside wall as Crafton continued. During the caution period, a majority of the lead lap field led by Taylor Gray pitted for service while the rest led by Ty Dillon, who pitted during the first stage’s break period, remained on the track. Friesen and Currey would also remain on the track while Enfinger beat Taylor Gray off of pit road first as he lined up in fourth place on the track.
The start of the following restart period on Lap 135 featured the field getting jumbled up and fanning out through the frontstretch as Friesen jumped ahead with a brief advantage over Dillon on the inside lane. With the field fanning out to four lanes, Enfinger used the four fresh tires to bolt his way to the front from the outside lane as he carved his way back into the lead just past the first two turns.
Eckes followed suit along with Dye, Riggs, Heim and others while Friesen, Dillon and Currey plummeted down the leaderboard on their old tires. Amid the scrambling for spots, Enfinger stretched his advantage to more than half a second with the second stage’s conclusion approaching.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 140, Enfinger, who clinched his spot into the Playoffs based on points, claimed his first Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Eckes followed suit in second along with teammate Dye, Riggs and Heim while Rhodes, Caruth, Ankrum, Taylor Gray and Conner Jones were scored in the top 10. By then, Dye had a 28-point advantage over 23rd-place Tanner Gray for the final transfer spot into the Playoffs, though Gray was awarded the free pass for being the first competitor scored a lap down, while Friesen, Crafton, Riggs, Purdy, Dean Thompson and Jake Garcia all trailed the cutline by 39+ points.
During the stage break, some including Friesen, Currey, Jake Garcia, Kaden Honeycutt, Nick Sanchez, Tanner Gray, Ty Dillon, Crafton and Stefan Parsons pitted while the rest led by Enfinger remained on the track.
With 101 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Enfinger and Eckes occupied the front row. At the start and with the field fanning out, Enfinger and Eckes dueled for the lead in front of Riggs while Heim made contact with Dye while trying to force his way beneath him and have a shot at a top five. Shortly after, the caution quickly returned for a multi-truck wreck that erupted between Turns 3 and 4 when Purdy bumped and sent Ty Dillon running into the rear of Dean Thompson, which resulted in Thompson spinning up the track and in front of oncoming traffic as Sawalich, Stefan Parsons, Keith McGee, rookie Thad Moffitt, Bayley Currey, Mason Massey and Crafton all sustained damage to their respective entries.
As the event restarted under green with 85 laps remaining, Enfinger rocketed away with the lead as the field fanned out approaching the first two turns. Through the backstretch, Enfinger led Rhodes, who navigated past Eckes for the spot, as Ankurm and Riggs battled for fourth place in front of Heim and Caruth. The caution, however, returned for the following lap after Lawless Alan spun in Turn 3 amid contact with Crafton and Bayley Currey.
Following an extensive caution period, the race restarted under green with 73 laps remaining. At the start, Enfinger and Rhodes dueled for the lead as Ankrum, Heim and Caruth all made three-wide moves of their own approaching the first turn. Enfinger would then clear Rhodes and muscle ahead to retain the lead as Eckes would navigate his way into the runner-up spot over Rhodes during the following lap. Amid the late-race battles, Enfinger retained the lead by half a second over Eckes, Rhodes, Riggs and Ankrum while Majeski was up to seventh place behind Heim. The caution, however, would return with 69 laps remaining due to Conner Jones falling off the pace and nearly coming to a stop just past the frontstretch as the Virginia native missed the pit road entrance. During the caution period, some including Heim, Caruth, Sawalich, Purdy, Sanchez and Tanner Gray pitted for fresh tires while the rest led by Enfinger remained on the track.
With the event restarting under green with 63 laps remaining, Enfinger fended off Rhodes to retain the lead from the outside lane as Heim used the four fresh tires to storm his way back to the front while running on the outside lane. With Tanner Gray also using his fresh tires to try to move up the leaderboard despite being mired in 16th place, Enfinger retained the lead by nearly a second over Rhodes with 60 laps remaining as Heim was making his way into the top five. Heim would then overtake Ankrum for fourth place and he would gain ground on Eckes while Majeski, Riggs, Friesen, Ty Dillon and Dye were mired in the top 10.
Down to the final 50 laps of the event, Enfinger was leading by less than two seconds over a hard-charging Heim while Rhodes, Eckes, Majeski, Ankrum, Riggs, Friesen, Dillon and Crafton were scored in the top 10. Meanwhile, Dye, who slipped to 12th place, was 12 points above the cutline with the final transfer spot over Tanner Gray, who was still mired in 16th place and trying to overtake Friesen for the spot. In the process, Taylor Gray was back in 17th place while Sanchez was mired in 22nd place behind Purdy, Garcia and Stefan Parsons.
Ten laps later, Enfinger stabilized his advantage to eight-tenths of a second over runner-up Heim while Majeski trailed the lead by four seconds as he navigated his way up to third place. With teammate Rhodes and Eckes trailing in the top five, Riggs was down in sixth place while Sawalich, Ankrum, Crafton and Caruth were in the top 10. By then, Dye was down in 13th place behind Dillon and Zilisch while Tanner Gray was in 15th place behind Friesen.
Another eight laps later, Heim drew his truck alongside Enfinger as both dueled for the lead before Enfinger muscled ahead to retain the lead and pull away from Heim by two-tenths of a second during the following lap. Heim would then challenge Enfinger a second time for the lead with 30 laps remaining before he prevailed and had the top spot to his control for the following lap. With Heim leading Enfinger, Majeski trailed in third place by two seconds while Riggs and Sawalich were in the top five.
Then following another caution with 26 laps remaining due to Kaden Honeycutt spinning in Turn 4 after he got hit by Stefan Parsons, the entire lead lap field led by Heim pitted for service, with most pitting for a final set of fresh tires. Following the pit stops, Sawalich exited pit road first with only two fresh tires while Enfinger, Heim, Majeski and Eckes, all of whom opted for four fresh tires, exited in the top five. Amid the pit stops, Dye, who pitted from the top 10, exited pit road outside the top 20, which left him with only a one-point advantage over Tanner Gray as Gray was scored in 12th place.
During the following restart with 20 laps remaining, Enfinger tried to bolt away from Sawalich as the field fanned out approaching the first turn. Sawalich, however, slipped up the track and made contact with Enfinger through the first two turns. This allowed Majeski to overtake both for the lead as Enfinger was left to battle Riggs for the runner-up spot in front of Eckes and Heim. As Sawalich began to drop in the leaderboard, Enfinger and Riggs continued to battle hard for the runner-up spot during the proceeding laps. Eckes would join the battle between Enfinger and Riggs while Heim was being overtaken by Ankrum, Taylor Gray, and Dillon. Behind, Dye was up to 11th place on fresh tires while Tanner Gray down to 21st place on older tires to Dye.
With 15 laps remaining, Majeski was leading by more than a second over Enfinger and Riggs. The following lap, however, the caution returned after Holmes hit and send Zilisch into the outside wall in Turn 2, with Zilisch backing his No. 7 Silver Hare Racing Chevrolet Silverado RST into the wall and retiring due to the damage. During caution, few including Tanner Gray, pitted while the rest led by Majeski remained on the track.
Down to the final eight laps of the event, the race restarted under green as Enfinger jumped ahead from Majeski. Then while trying to clear and block Majeski, Majeski kept his foot in the gas and nearly turned Enfinger, which got Enfinger loose and stalled his momentum as Majeski, who then got hit and nearly turned by Enfinger entering Turn 3, powered back into the lead. The contact allowed Eckes to challenge Enfinger for the runner-up spot as Riggs and Taylor Gray tried to join the battle. Over the next two laps, a four-wide battle for the runner-up spot ensued between Enfinger, Eckes, Riggs and Taylor Gray, with neither giving an inch. Meanwhile, Majeski managed to pull away and he would retain the lead by half a second over Enfinger with five laps remaining as Eckes, Taylor Gray and Riggs remained in close pursuit within the top five.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Majeski remained the leader by nine-tenths of a second over Eckes as Enfinger, Riggs and Taylor Gray trailed closely behind. Having no competition lurking close enough to his rear bumper, Majeski cycled his Ford around Richmond smoothly for a final time before he returned to the frontstretch victorious for his second checkered flag of the 2024 Truck Series season.
With the victory, Majeski notched his fifth career win in the Craftsman Truck Series division and his first at Richmond Raceway. The victory was also the second of the 2024 season for both ThorSport Racing and the Ford nameplate as Majeski, who qualified for his third consecutive Playoffs, will commence his pursuit for his first Truck Series championship over a seven-race Playoff stretch that begins at the Milwaukee Mile two weeks from now.
“[The win] feels good,” Majeski said on FS1. “We’ve had great ThorSport trucks here at Richmond the last two years. Found different ways to lose’em. We tried to do it again tonight. Another mistake, we really need to clean that stuff up before Playoff time, but so proud of these guys sticking behind me. [I] Wouldn’t be able to it without [owners] Duke and Ronda Thorson. They gave me a huge opportunity a few years ago and I’m having the time of my life racing for this team. Proud of these ThorSport Racing guys. We work so hard at the shop. We’re proud to do this from Sandusky, Ohio and we’re gonna try and bring another trophy back home.”
Behind Majeski, Christian Eckes, the 2024 Truck Series Regular Season Champion, settled in second place followed by Taylor Gray and Grant Enfinger, all of whom are among 10 competitors who have made the Playoffs. Meanwhile, rookie Layne Riggs finished in fifth place but was among several who did not make the Playoffs.
Tyler Ankrum and Ben Rhodes finished sixth and seventh as both are in the Playoffs along with Daniel Dye, who rallied from an up-and-down season to clinch the 10th and final berth to the Playoffs by 12 points over 12th-place finisher Tanner Gray. Ty Dillon and Connor Hall finished in the top 10 on the track.
Notably, Corey Heim, Rajah Caruth and Nick Sanchez, all of whom ended up 16th, 17th and 30th on the track, will compete in the Playoffs for this year’s championship while top names including Stewart Friesen, Chase Purdy, Ty Dillon and Matt Crafton did not make the Playoffs, with the latter having his streak of making the Playoffs for eight consecutive seasons and since the Playoff’s inception 2016 came to an end.
There were 12 lead changes for seven different leaders. The race featured nine cautions for 69 laps. In addition, 21 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Ty Majeski, 70 laps led
2. Christian Eckes, 64 laps led, Stage 1 winner
3. Taylor Gray, five laps led
4. Grant Enfinger, 98 laps led, Stage 2 winner
5. Layne Riggs
6. Tyler Ankrum
7. Ben Rhodes
8. Daniel Dye
9. Ty Dillon, four laps led
10. Connor Hall
11. Stefan Parsons
12. Tanner Gray
13. Jake Garcia
14. Kaden Honeycutt
15. Matt Crafton
16. Corey Heim, six laps led
17. Rajah Caruth
18. Lawless Alan
19. Timmy Hill
20. Chase Purdy
21. Bret Holmes
22. William Sawalich, one lap down, three laps led
23. Bayley Currey, one lap down
24. Spencer Boyd, one lap down
25. Stewart Friesen, two laps down
26. Mason Massey, three laps down
27. Justin Carroll, three laps down
28. Mason Maggio, four laps down
29. Connor Zilisch – OUT, Accident
30. Nick Sanchez – OUT, Clutch
31. Conner Jones – OUT, Electrical
32. Dean Thompson – OUT, Accident
33. Thad Moffitt – OUT, Accident
34. Keith McGee – OUT, Accident
35. Matt Mills – OUT, Accident
36. Jerry Bohlman – OUT, Too Slow
The 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs is set to commence at the Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wisconsin, for the LiUNA! 175. The event is scheduled to occur on August 25 and air at 4 p.m. ET on FS1.
Connor Zilisch executed the final two restarts to his advantage to grab a thrilling ARCA Menards Series victory in the Circle City 200 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park on Friday, July 19.
The 17-year-old Zilisch from Charlotte, North Carolina, led twice for a race-high 89 of 205 over-scheduled laps in an event where he started in fourth place and ran upfront in the early stages before he assumed the lead for the first time on Lap 44. Despite leading through the halfway mark on Lap 100, Zilisch lost the lead to William Sawalich amid a restart with 92 laps remaining.
After spending a majority of the mid-race portion trialing Sawalich, Zilisch then executed a restart with 21 laps remaining to force his way past Sawalich as he nearly slid up into Sawalich entering the first turn. After fending off another attack from Sawalich, Zilisch appeared to have the race within his grasp until an incident involving Amber Balcaen sent the field into an overtime attempt. Despite having Sawalich lined up alongside him for the overtime attempt, Zilisch was not to be denied as he motored away from the field amid a strong launch and cruised to both his fourth ARCA Menards Series East victory and his third consecutive ARCA Menards Series victory overall.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, William Sawalich secured the pole position with his best lap occurring at 110.715 mph in 22.306 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Lavar Scott, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 109.921 mph in 22.467 seconds.
When the green flag waved and the race commenced, William Sawalich and Lavar Scott battled dead even against one another for the lead through the first two turns. Then just past the backstretch, Scott tried to muscle ahead of Sawalich entering Turn 3 from the inside lane, but Sawalich pulled a crossover move on Scott entering the frontstretch and he managed to lead the first lap by a hair.
Sawalich and Scott would duel and cross over one another for the top spot for the following lap before Scott managed to motor ahead of Sawalich and have both lanes to his control by the third lap. He would proceed to lead just past the fifth lap mark while Sawalich, Connor Zilisch, Andres Perez, Lawless Alan and Giovanni Ruggiero trailed in the top six.
Following the event’s first caution period on the ninth lap due to Jackson McLerran spinning his No. 96 Firemark Property Mgrnt/Arylco Toyota in Turn 2, the race restarted under green on Lap 14. At the start, Scott and Sawalich dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch before Scott used the outside lane to muscle ahead and retain the lead for the following lap.
As Scott proceeded to lead just past the Lap 15 mark, Alan prevailed in an early side-by-side battle with Ruggiero for fifth place as they trailed another side-by-side battle for third place between Zilisch and Perez. Amid the early battles around the circuit, Scott would then be challenged by Sawalich for the lead on Lap 18. Despite Sawalich’s attempt to gain a run underneath Scott through the turns, Scott would manage to muscle ahead as he retained the lead by Lap 20.
At the Lap 30 mark, Scott, who was being mired in lapped traffic, continued to lead by nearly half a second over Sawalich, who was being intimidated by Zilisch for the spot, while Perez and Ruggiero trailed by as far as six seconds in the top five. Meanwhile, Alan, Greg van Alst, Toni Breidinger, Kris Wright and Christian Rose were running in the top 10 ahead of Dean Thompson, Marco Andretti, Amber Balcaen, Isaac Johnson and Zachary Tinkle while Andrew Patterson, Presley Sorah, D.L. Wilson, Michael Maples and Cody Dennison were mired in the top 20 ahead of Tyler Tomassi, Becca Monopoli, Jayson Alexander, Alex Clubb and Braynton Laster.
Ten laps later, Scott, who was continuing to weave his way through lapped traffic, stabilized his advantage to two-tenths of a second over Zilisch, who nearly pulled a slide job on Scott for the lead amid lapped traffic, while Sawalich trailed in third place by half a second. Behind, Perez and Rugiero remained in the top five while Alan, Van Alst, Breidinger, Kris Wright and Christian Rose occupied the top 10 on the track.
With the event reaching a second caution period on Lap 50 mark due to Presley Sorah wrecking against the outside wall in Turn 3 and just past the backstretch, the start of the next restart period on Lap 57 featured Zilisch, who assumed the lead for the first time on Lap 42, muscling ahead and retaining the lead from the outside lane. Behind, Perez charged his way up to second place while Scott, Alan and Sawalich battled amongst one another for third place. Sawalich would prevail in the three-car battle for third place over Scott and Alan as Zilisch continued to lead on Lap 60.
By Lap 75, Zilisch stretched his advantage to two seconds over Sawalich while third-place Perez trailed by more than five seconds. Behind, Scott and Ruggiero trailed by as far as nearly eight seconds in the top five while Alan, Breidinger, Van Alst, Thompson and Marco Andretti were in the top 10.
Ten laps later, Zilisch stabilized his advantage to two seconds over Sawalich while third-place Scott trailed by nine seconds. Perez and Ruggiero continued to run in the top five as Alan followed suit in sixth place ahead of Breidinger, Andretti, Thompson and Wright, with the leaders navigating their way through lapped traffic.
At the halfway mark on Lap 100, a designed caution flew for a mid-race break. At the time of caution, Zilisch was leading by more than a second over Sawalich, who chopped half of his deficit in trailing Zilisch for the top spot, as third-place Scott trailed the lead by 12 seconds. Perez, Ruggiero, Alan, Breidinger, Andretti, Thompson and Wright were scored in the top 10.
During the mid-race break period, which included the race being red-flagged, the entire field led by Zilisch pitted for a non-competitive service, which kept Zilisch in the lead when the field returned to the track under a cautious pace.
With 93 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Zilisch and Sawalich dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch until Sawalich used the inside lane to muscle ahead of Zilisch. Zilisch then tried to pull a crossover move underneath Sawalich, but the latter would clear the former and retain the lead for the following lap. With Sawalich leading Zilisch with 90 laps remaining, Perez and Scott battled for third place while Alan was up into fifth place ahead of Ruggiero and Breidinger.
Down to the final 75 laps of the event, the caution returned due to Becca Monopoli, who was lapped by the leaders, slipping sideways before she snapped back across the track and hit the backstretch’s outside wall head-on while being dodged by Jackson McLerran. Amid the hard accident, she emerged uninjured. By then, Sawalich had slightly stretched his advantage to eight-tenths of a second over Zilisch.
The start of the next restart period with 67 laps remaining featured Sawalich rocketing away from the lead through the frontstretch and the first two turns while Perez also rocketed his way into the runner-up spot. As Zilisch retained third place in front of Perez and Ruggiero, Alan and Breidinger battled for sixth place while both were also trying to pressure Ruggiero for a top-five spot while Andretti and Wright tried to close in from eighth and ninth, respectively. Amid the late on-track battles, Sawalich had extended his lead to more than a second as he continued to lead with 60 laps remaining.
With 50 laps remaining, Sawalich stabilized his advantage to more than a over Zilisch while third-place Scott trailed by four seconds. Behind, Perez retained fourth place ahead of Ruggiero as Breidinger, who was up to sixth place, was trying to pressure teammate Ruggiero for more.
Ten laps later, Sawalich retained his advantage of more than a second over Zilisch, with both competitors logging in fast lapped times. Behind, Scott trailed by more than seven seconds in third place while Perez and Ruggiero remained in the top five ahead of Breidinger, Andretti, Wright, Alan and Thompson.
Another four laps later, the caution flew due to Jackson McLerran spinning in Turn 2 for a second time. In the process of McLerran’s spin, Breidinger, who was trying to navigate her way past teammate Ruggiero for a top-five spot, had slammed on the brakes, smoked her front tires and made light contact with the outside wall to avoid hitting McLerran. Despite hitting the wall, Breidinger remained on the track and retained sixth place.
With the event restarting under green with 29 laps remaining, Sawalich and Zilisch dueled for the lead for nearly a lap until Zilisch nearly slid up the track in Turn 3, which allowed Sawalich to rocket ahead and retain the lead for the following lap. The caution, however, quickly returned as both Alan and Breidinger wrecked up against the outside wall in Turn 2, where the latter was then hit by McLerran as her strong run within the top six came to an end. The incident was enough for the event to be placed in a red flag period as the on-track safety crew cleared the carnage scene.
When the red flag lifted and the race resumed under green with 21 laps remaining, Zilisch wasted no time forcing his way into the lead from the inside lane over Sawalich. Despite running wide through the first two turns, which allowed Sawalich to cross over and duel with Zilisch through the backstretch and prior to hitting Turns 3 and 4, Zilisch managed to muscle ahead from the outside lane and hold the lead with 20 laps remaining. Zilisch then started to place a reasonable gap between himself and Sawalich over the proceeding laps while Perez, Scott and Ruggiero followed suit in the top five.
Down to the final 15 laps of the event, Zilisch extended his advantage to a second over Sawalich. Zilisch would stretch his advantage to nearly two seconds over Sawalich with 10 laps remaining while Perez, Scott and Ruggiero trailed by as far as five seconds.
With five laps remaining, Zilisch retained his lead to more than a second over Sawalich as he also navigated his way through lapped traffic. In the process, Perez trailed in third place by nearly five seconds as Scott, Ruggerio and Wright followed suit in the top six.
Then just as Zilisch was approaching the frontstretch to take the white flag and start the final lap of the event, the caution flew due to Amber Balcaen spinning as she was battling Zachary Tinkle while entering the frontstretch. Balcaen’s incident sent the event into overtime and spoiled Zilisch’s advantage of nearly two seconds over Sawalich.
The start of the first and only overtime attempt featured Zilisch gaining a strong start from the inside lane as he rocketed his No. 28 Silver Hare Development Chevrolet away with the lead as Perez overtook Sawalich’s No. 18 Starkey/Sound Gear Toyota for the runner-up spot. As the rest of the field, including Perez and Sawalich, battled, Zilisch muscled away from the field.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Zilisch remained as the leader by four-tenths of a second over Perez, who was trying to fend off Sawalich for the runner-up spot. Having a comfortable advantage for a final circuit, Zilisch navigated his way back to the frontstretch victorious as he claimed the checkered flag by nine-tenths of a second over Perez.
With the victory, Zilisch, a development competitor for Trackhouse Racing, is three-for-three in the ARCA Menards Series as he is coming off wins between Flat Rock Speedway and Iowa Speedway. To go along with his first victory at Lucas Oil IRP along with the fourth ARCA East victory of his career and of the 2024 season, Zilisch also racked up his third ARCA Menards Series career victory in the process as this event marked a combined event between the ARCA and ARCA East divisions.
With two ARCA Menards Series East races remaining on this year’s schedule, Zilisch continues to lead the series standings by 23 points over Sawalich.
Photo by Adam Lovelace for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“This Silver Hare Racing, Pinnacle Racing Group Chevrolet was so fast,” Zilisch said on FS1. “I kind of messed up two restarts in a row. Luckily, I got a third shot at it and I could just hear Josh Wise and Scott Speed in the back of my head, telling me what to do. We’ve prepped for this race for weeks now. It just feels good to have that prep pay off and get my team a win in this critical situation. We’re racing for a championship. These wins matter a lot.”
“I just wanted leverage,” Zilisch, who stood by his decision to restart on the inside lane that led him to victory, added. “When I’m on the bottom [lane], I have more control than when I’m on the top. As long as I beat [Sawalich] to the start/finish line and got a good run, I could kind of slide myself and get clear off of [Turn] 2. It’s all about leverage in these games and obviously, me and [Sawalich] had a little bit of history. I just didn’t want to take a chance on it. I’m glad it paid off.”
Andres Perez, the current points leader in the ARCA Menards Series division and who is still searching for his first ARCA career victory, managed to fend off William Sawalich to claim the runner-up spot as Lavar Scott and Giovanni Ruggiero finished in the top five. The runner-up result, which marks Perez’s best result in the series, allowed him to retain the lead in the ARCA standings by 46 points over Greg Van Alst and 45 over Lavar Scott.
Kris Wright, Marco Andretti, Greg Van Alst, Dean Thompson and Isaac Johnson completed the top 10 in the final running order.
There were four lead changes for three leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 44 laps. In addition, nine of 31 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Connor Zilisch, 89 laps led
2. Andres Perez
3. William Sawalich, 72 laps led
4. Lavar Scott, 44 laps led
5. Giovanni Ruggiero
6. Kris Wright
7. Marco Andretti
8. Greg Van Alst
9. Dean Thompson
10. Isaac Johnson, one lap down
11. Zachary Tinkle, three laps down
12. Andrew Patterson, three laps down
13. Amber Balcaen, four laps down
14. Cody Dennison, five laps down
15. Michael Maples, six laps down
16. D.L. Wilson, six laps down
17. Tyler Tomassi, seven laps down
18. Jayson Alexander, eight laps down
19. Braynton Laster, 11 laps down
20. Rita Goulet, 13 laps down
21. Alex Clubb, 16 laps down
22. Christian Rose – OUT, Accident
23. Lawless Alan – OUT, Accident
24. Toni Breidinger – OUT, Accident
25. Jackson McLerran – OUT, Accident
26. Casey Carden – OUT, Mechanical
27. Becca Monopoli – OUT, Accident
28. Nate Moeller – OUT, Mechanical
29. Presley Sorah – OUT, Accident
30. Dale Shearer – OUT, Mechanical
31. Brad Smith – OUT, Mechanical
Next on the 2024 ARCA Menards Series schedule is the Salem ARCA 200 at Salem Speedway in Salem, Indiana. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, July 27, with a start time at 8 p.m. ET on FS1.
