(Photo: Bobby Krug | The Podium Finish)
MADISON, Ill. — Ty Majeski and Zane Smith crashed while battling for the lead late and Grant Enfinger survived NASCAR Overtime to win the Toyota 200 in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at WWT Raceway.
Enfinger snagged his ninth career victory and his second of the season — the first came at Kansas Speedway just five races ago.
“Thankful the stars lined up for us. We just had a great outing today,” Enfinger said after the race. “[Friday], we weren’t that great of a truck, I think we were a 10th-place truck. [Jeff] Hensley (crew chief) feels like we were a little better than that, I don’t, but I feel like he made some great adjustments overnight and we were a top-three truck.”
Enfinger, who led the most laps at 65 and won Stage 1, ran third with six laps to go with Majeski and Smith battling out front. Majeski got a run down the backstretch and overcooked it into Turn 3, cleaning himself and Smith into the outside wall.
Majeski’s potential win that would have locked himself into the series playoffs turned into a 30th-place finish and a trip to the infield care center instead.
“Restarts were my struggle all day. Low air pressures and we had the splitter bent, got into Turn 3 obviously trying to get ahead of the No. 38, hit the splitter, had to check up, and went up the racetrack,” Majeski said. “When you go up the racetrack, his side took the air from mine, and I went around and wrecked us both. Inexcusable. I misjudged it. Trying to win the race and obviously wrecked two really good Ford F-150s. I’m disappointed in myself. Got to execute when you have the fastest truck by a mile like that. Just inexcusable. Got to be better.”
Majeski limps back his battered ThorSport Racing truck. (Photo: Travis Haston | The Podium Finish)
Smith limped his Front Row Motorsports truck home 20th, resulting in his fourth consecutive finish outside the top 20.
“It’s just a bummer. I mean, I kind of did it to myself staying in this series,” Smith said. “It is pretty unbelievable how scary some of these guys are. We’ve just had, now, four bad weeks – some self-inflicted, but our day obviously snowballed once we get around some of these guys. It’s just frustrating.”
With two of the fastest trucks out of the mix, Enfinger took advantage. He restarted on the top lane in NASCAR Overtime and inched ahead of Christian Eckes to take the white flag.
Enfinger dove into Turns 1 and 2 but missed a shift, allowing Eckes to make up time on the backstretch and have one last chance at the win.
“In that last restart, I felt like I got a great launch,” Enfinger said. “Felt like I nailed it through [Turns] 1 and 2, got to the white flag and I was like ‘OK, this is ours.’ I went into 1 and 2 and I missed my shift, which I had three or four times for some reason toward the end of the race.
“I gave [Eckes] a shot at me there at the end just for that, but able to hold it off. Overall, I think we were a little bit better than him at the end, but I knew me and Christian race great together.”
Eckes continued his banner season for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing, recording his sixth top 10 with the runner-up result. Stewart Friesen finished third in his No. 52 truck to notch his fourth top five in eight races.
“My guys did a heck of a job creating calls and getting us track position when we did it,” Friesen said. “I was kind of upset with them after the first stop because we pitted early and I said, we should have stayed out and won the stage, but it kept us in the hunt to win the second stage. We got an opportunity to do that, and it kept us with the lead pack all race.”
Carson Hocevar scored another top-five finish. (Photo: Travis Haston | The Podium Finish)
Results
STAGE 1: Grant Enfinger, Ty Majeski, Ben Rhodes, Zane Smith, Matt DiBenedetto, Tanner Gray, Christian Eckes, Chase Purdy, Carson Hocevar, Stewart Friesen
STAGE 2: Stewart Friesen, Ty Majeski, Nick Sanchez, Christian Eckes, Ben Rhodes, Matt Crafton, Grant Enfinger, Tanner Gray, Daniel Dye, Taylor Gray
FINAL: Grant Enfinger, Christian Eckes, Stewart Friesen, Carson Hocevar, Chase Purdy, Matt DiBenedetto, Ben Rhodes, Nick Sanchez, Jesse Love, Jake Garcia
