May 11, 2024 | By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service

Opportunistic Ross Chastain claims emotional NASCAR Truck Series win at Darlington

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Taking advantage of a late caution, Ross Chastain surged ahead during an overtime restart and held off charging Nick Sanchez to win Friday night’s Buckle Up South Carolina 200 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race at Darlington Raceway.

Moonlighting from the NASCAR Cup Series in a race delayed more than two hours by rain, Chastain, driving for Niece Motorsports, led only the last three laps after seizing the top spot from Ty Majeski on the overtime restart on Lap 149.

Sanchez finished second, 0.315 seconds behind Chastain. Defending series champion Ben Rhodes was third, followed by Christian Eckes. Majeski, who chose the top lane for the final restart, faded to fifth.

“We have been trying to win at Darlington,” said Chastain, who picked up his fifth Truck Series victory and his first of the year in his second start. “This is where my career changed, my life changed forever.

“It’s so cool—we won Darlington.”

It was at the Lady in Black in 2018 that Chastain first turned heads in the NASCAR world. Driving a handful of NASCAR Xfinity Series races for owner Chip Ganassi, he won the pole at Darlington and swept the first two stages before an accident relegated him to a 25th-place finish.

But at that point, he had made his mark, and on Friday night, Chastain completed the circle.

Sanchez won the pole for Friday’s race but had to start from the rear after his team replaced a right rear hub on his No. 2 Chevrolet. On the final restart, he surged from the inside of the third row into second place but couldn’t catch Chastain before the finish.

Majeski lamented his lane choice after the fact.

“I should have taken the inside,” said Majeski, who held a lead of more than five seconds before Jack Wood hit the outside wall with five laps left to cause the seventh caution and force overtime.

“It sucks when you’re in position to win with a truck like that. We were so good on the long run and not so good on the short run. It would take 10-15 laps for this thing to get going, and then the thing was just lights-out.

“But it came down to a short run, and I didn’t execute like we needed to.”

Corey Heim, the series leader entering the race, swept the first two stages with 77 laps led, but after a Lap 98 restart, the No. 5 Toyota of Dean Thompson broke
loose beneath Heim’s No. 11 Tundra at the exit from Turn 2 and ignited a wreck that severely damaged the trucks of Heim, Rajah Caruth, Layne Riggs and Matt Crafton.

Caruth, who was eliminated along with Heim, Thompson and Crafton, had started from the rear after scraping the wall during qualifying earlier in the day but had worked his way up to second by pitting for fresh tires midway through Stage 2.

“It’s real tight there off of (Turn) 2, and the 5 just kind of lost it there,” Caruth said after exiting the infield care center. “We had a really fast truck. We’ll get ‘em next time.”

Heim surrendered the series lead to Eckes and trails by 14 points.

Racing for the first time in a truck at Darlington, Kyle Busch was challenging Heim for the lead on Lap 2 when his No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet snapped loose on the backstretch and nosed into the inside wall.

Busch lost seven laps on pit road as his crew tried to make repairs. After he returned to the action, Busch pounded the Turn 1 wall and exited the race in 32nd place.

That result marked a dubious distinction for the all-time Truck Series winner with 66 victories to his credit. Before Friday night, Busch had never finished last in a Truck Series race.

“The truck was wrecked—there’s no reason it should have been back on the race track,” Busch told FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass after the second accident.



NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Race Number 9
Race Results for the Buckle Up South Carolina 200 - Friday, May 10, 2024
Darlington Raceway - Darlington, SC - 1.366 - Mile Paved

Total Race Length - 150 Laps - 204.9 Miles

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Saturday, 5/11/2024 @ 12:21 AM Eastern

Fin Str Trk Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 6 45 Ross Chastain(i) Buckle Up South Carolina Chevrolet 150 6 8 0 Running 1 3
2 1 2 Nick Sanchez Drive for Diversity 20 Anniv Chevrolet 150   35 Running  
3 12 99 Ben Rhodes Campers Inn RV Ford 150 8  37 Running  
4 7 19 Christian Eckes Gates Hydraulics Chevrolet 150 2 3 50 Running 1 15
5 16 98 Ty Majeski Soda Sense/Curb Records Ford 150 3 4 47 Running 2 36
6 19 77 Chase Purdy Bama Buggies Chevrolet 150   31 Running  
7 18 1 Colby Howard Coastal Sports Cards Toyota 150   30 Running  
8 3 17 Taylor Gray ShopTRICON.com Toyota 150 4 9 38 Running 3 16
9 15 25 Ty Dillon Rackley Roofing Chevrolet 150   28 Running  
10 5 15 Tanner Gray Dead On Tools Toyota 150   27 Running  
11 25 42 Matt Mills J.F. Electric/Utilitra Chevrolet 150   26 Running  
12 22 33 Lawless Alan AUTOParkit Ford 150   25 Running  
13 27 56 Timmy Hill Units Storage Toyota 150   24 Running  
14 11 52 Stewart Friesen Halmar International Toyota 150 9  25 Running  
15 29 02 Mason Massey RANDCO Chevrolet 150   22 Running  
16 9 9 Grant Enfinger Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet 150 10 5 28 Running 1 3
17 28 32 Bret Holmes Golden Eagle Chevrolet 150   20 Running  
18 32 46 Thad Moffitt # Petty 75th Chevrolet 150   19 Running  
19 30 76 Spencer Boyd Freedom Warranty Chevrolet 150   18 Running  
20 14 13 Jake Garcia Quanta Services Ford 150  10 18 Running  
21 8 38 Layne Riggs # Infinity Communications Group Ford 148 5 7 26 Running  
22 17 41 Bayley Currey AutoVentive/Precision Chevrolet 148   15 Running  
23 10 43 Daniel Dye Peak Chevrolet 148   14 Running  
24 21 66 Conner Jones # TSPORT Ford 145   13 Running  
25 23 91 Jack Wood RTIC Outdoors Chevrolet 139   12 Accident  
26 24 18 Tyler Ankrum LiUNA! Chevrolet 136   11 Running  
27 31 22 Mason Maggio Crawford Garage Doors Ford 121   10 Brakes  
28 2 11 Corey Heim Safelite Toyota 105 1 1 29 Accident 4 77 2
29 13 5 Dean Thompson Thompson Pipe Group Toyota 97 7  12 Accident  
30 26 71 Rajah Caruth HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 97  2 16 Accident  
31 20 88 Matt Crafton Chi Chis/Menards Ford 97  6 11 Accident  
32 4 7 Kyle Busch(i) BAMF Enterprises Chevrolet 6   0 Accident  

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 0 Mins, 33 Secs. Average Speed: 101.983 MPH Margin of Victory: 0.315 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 11, 19, 98, 17, 38, 45, 5, 99, 52, 9
Stage 2 Top 10: 11, 71, 19, 98, 9, 88, 38, 45, 17, 13

Caution Flags: 7 for 37 laps; Laps: 3-5 (#7 Incident Backstretch [None]); 13-16 (#7 Incident Turn 1 [None]); 47-53 (Stage 1 Conclusion [None]); 67-70 (76 Spin Turn 4 [43]); 92-97 (Stage 2 Conclusion [43]); 99-105 (#5, 11, 71, 91, 38, 88 Incident Turn 2 [43]); 143-148 (#91 Incident Turn 1 [02]).

Lead Changes: 12 among 6 drivers; N. Sanchez 0; C. Heim 1-49; T. Gray 50-52; C. Heim 53; T. Gray 54-57; C. Heim 58; T. Gray 59-67; C. Heim 68-93; G. Enfinger 94-96; T. Majeski 97-105; C. Eckes 106-120; T. Majeski 121-147; R. Chastain(i) 148-150.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Next Race: May 18, 2024 - North Wilkesboro Speedway

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