Grant Enfinger Takes to Craftsman Truck Series win at Kansas
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series gets back on track Saturday at Kansas after a few weeks off.
Stage:1
Christian Eckes and Kyle Busch leads the filed to the green.
Eckes gets a good jump on the start and moves out to the lead over Kyle Busch.
On lap 7 Ben Rhodes passes Christian Eckes for the lead.
The first yellow flag came out on Lap 21 Nick Leitz gets loose off turn 2 and spins on the backstretch.
Pit row was open and on Lap 24 and all driver pitted but Zane Smith, Chase Purdy, Christian Eckes, Ty Majeski, Jake Garcia, Corey Heim, Brennan Poole stay out.
On the restart at Lap 29 Zane Smith leads the feald back to green.
Corey Heim wins rain-shortened Truck Series race at Martinsville
MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Corey Heim prevailed at Martinsville Speedway late Friday night to earn his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory of the season after persevering through both rain and dry conditions, two red flag periods for weather and multiple charges by
the highly-motivated
veteran Kyle Busch.
The 20-year-old
Georgia native, Heim,
led his first laps of the 2023
seasonat exactly the right
time – holding the point for an impressive 82 of the
124 laps of the Long John Silver’s 200. Including the most important lap.
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An accident with 85 lap
s remaining brought
out the yellow flag andafter several circuits under caution, NASCAR
brought the trucks to pit road where the red flag flew for rain and the race was declared official on lap 124 of the scheduled 200 laps.
“Rain, rain, come on,” Heim told his TRICON Garage crew on the radio, just before climbing out of his No. 11 Toyota truck during that final red flag period.
“This race was cut short and that’s definitely unfortunate, but this truck was fast all night,” Heim said. “I couldn’t ask for a better group of guys.”
Heim had to work for this, holding off Busch – who was racing for Kyle Busch Motorsports’ 100th win – and reigning series champion Zane Smith on four different re-starts to claim the famed one-of-a-kind grandfather clock Martinsville trophy only minutes before that clock would strike midnight.
“We just didn’t have a good enough short-run truck,” said Busch, who finished second. “Being a little bit loose and free that we were, we were hoping that would pay off in the long run but never had a long run. The longest run of the race was on rain tires.
“It did not go our way today, unfortunately.”
Heim swept both stage wins – his first of the season as well.
“I bring a 100% effort to every race every week so to be able to sit here and have it pay off is phenomenal,” Heim said.
Smith finished third in the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford with ThorSport Racing’s Ty Majeski and Heim’s Tricon teammate Tanner Gray rounding out the top five.
Ben Rhodes, Matt DiBenedetto, Taylor Gray, William Sawalich and Chase Purdy completed the top 10. It was the 16-year-old Sawalich’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut – helping the Tricon team to four top-10 finishes.
Majeski maintains the points lead after Martinsville by 26 points over Smith and 49 over Rhodes.
