October 26, 2024 | By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service

Grant Enfinger grabs second Truck Playoffs’ Round of 8 win at Homestead-Miami

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — A strategy call from the pit box coupled with a patient move forward landed veteran Grant Enfinger his second consecutive NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Playoff race win in Saturday’s Baptist Health 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway while his closest competitors ran out of fuel behind him in the closing laps.

Enfinger, who won the opening race in this Playoff round at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway three weeks ago denied the other seven Playoff racers a chance at an automatic bid into championship contention. So now at least two drivers will advance based on points-earned with only next Saturday’s race at Martinsville, Va. to settle which other three drivers move onward into the title fight.

Enfinger’s No. 9 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet suffered damage on an early race restart, and the team opted to move to a different pit strategy – taking tires and fuel on lap 80 while most of the day’s previous race leaders opted to pit later on Lap 100. Ultimately Enfinger was able to both save enough fuel and race off to enough advantage that no one was able to catch him as he raced away to his 12th career victory.

Taking the lead for good with 22 laps remaining, Enfinger claimed a 17.5-second win over ThorSport Racing’s Ty Majeski as other trucks on a similar alternate strategy to Enfinger – the No. 38 driven by Layne Riggs and the No. 2 driven by Nick Sanchez – began running out of fuel in the final two laps.

Enfinger had enough fuel he even did a burnout to celebrate the win.

“At the end of the day, [crew chief] Jeff [Stankiewicz] just had the best truck out here,” said Enfinger, who actually made up a lap on track after contact on a race re-start cut his tire earlier in the day.

“Our car was really fast after about five laps yesterday [in practice] and was the same way today. Jeff did a good job managing me with the tires and then managing me with the fuel. I feel like I saved at least 20 percent more than I did in the first run. Jeff was on me pretty hard obviously and the 38 [Layne Riggs] ran out and the 2 [Nick Sanchez] did too.

“Hard to beat these two weeks,” he added with a grin.

“We’ve had potential all year,” the 38-year-old Alabama native continued. “There’s been sometimes, I haven’t executed and sometimes we’ve just had bad luck. Maybe it’s just time we get our momentum now.”

Connor Mosack finished a career best third-place in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports truck. The day’s most dominant truck, driven by TRICON Garage’s Playoff driver Corey Heim finished fourth after leading a race best 68 of the 134 laps. Heim continues to lead the championship standings and is now 49 points above fifth place with the top-four drivers advancing to the title race.

“Overall, a good day for points, but disappointing,” said Heim, who has a series best six wins on the year. “We were so fast last year and wanted to come back and redeem ourselves and win the race of course. But no complaints as far as points go, makes Martinsville a little bit easier if we put together a decent day.”

McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Playoff driver Tyler Ankrum, finished fifth – his best finish of the Playoff run to date. Veteran Stewart Friesen was sixth, followed by Daniel Dye.

And three Playoff drivers – Spire Motorsports’ Rajah Caruth, McAnally-Hilgemann’s Christian Eckes and Tricon Garage’s Taylor Gray rounded out the top-10.

Heading into the next race, Heim has that 49-point edge above the cutoff line. Eckes is 38 points to the good and Majeski now holds a 22-point advantage. Caruth is ranked fifth, the first driver outside the Playoff bubble, 22 points back. Gray is 24 points back and Ankrum and Sanchez – who finished 13th after running out of fuel – are 41 and 43 points behind, respectively.

Frankie Muniz, the popular actor from the Malcolm in the Middle television series, finished 33rd in his series debut, his truck suffering mechanical problems early in the race.

The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races in the Zip Buy Now, Pay Later 200 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway next Friday evening (6 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) to settle the Championship Four field. Eckes won the race there this April.



NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Race Number 21
Race Results for the Baptist Health 200 - Saturday, October 26, 2024
Homestead-Miami Speedway - Homestead, FL - 1.5 - Mile Paved

Total Race Length - 134 Laps - 201. Miles

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Saturday, 10/26/2024 @ 02:27 PM Eastern

Fin Str Trk Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 9 9 Grant Enfinger (P) Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet 134 6 1 55 Running 2 32 6
2 5 98 Ty Majeski (P) Road Ranger/Poppi Ford 134 3 4 50 Running  
3 10 7 Connor Mosack Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Chevrolet 134 7 8 41 Running  
4 1 11 Corey Heim (P) Safelite Toyota 134 1 2 52 Running 3 68 1
5 15 18 Tyler Ankrum (P) LiUNA! Chevrolet 134   32 Running  
6 12 52 Stewart Friesen Halmar International Toyota 134   31 Running  
7 7 43 Daniel Dye Giuseppe's Pizza Chevrolet 134  7 34 Running  
8 3 71 Rajah Caruth (P) HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 134 9 9 33 Running  
9 8 19 Christian Eckes (P) NAPA Auto Care Chevrolet 134 5 3 42 Running 2 3
10 2 17 Taylor Gray (P) Place of Hope Toyota 134 4 6 39 Running 2 4
11 22 88 Matt Crafton Denali Aire/Menards Ford 134  10 27 Running  
12 19 99 Ben Rhodes Campers Inn RV Ford 134   25 Running  
13 4 2 Nick Sanchez (P) Gainbridge Chevrolet 134 8  27 Running  
14 6 45 Kaden Honeycutt Moore's Venture Foods Chevrolet 133 2 5 38 Running  
15 18 5 Dean Thompson Thompson Pipe Group Toyota 133 10  23 Running  
16 21 91 Corey Day HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 133   21 Running  
17 20 1 William Sawalich Starkey/Soundgear Toyota 133   0 Running  
18 16 75 Connor Zilisch(i) Team Silver Hare Chevrolet 133   0 Running  
19 14 25 Dawson Sutton Rackley Roofing Chevrolet 133   18 Running  
20 33 15 Tanner Gray Dead On Tools Toyota 133   17 Running  
21 27 33 Lawless Alan AUTOChargit Ford 133   16 Running  
22 13 38 Layne Riggs # Love's RV Stops Ford 133   15 Running 1 27
23 25 56 Timmy Hill Coble Enterprises Toyota 132   14 Running  
24 26 13 Jake Garcia Quanta Services Ford 132   13 Running  
25 23 66 Conner Jones # TSPORT/Breast Cancer Awareness Ford 132   12 Running  
26 17 77 Chase Purdy Bama Buggies Chevrolet 131   11 Running  
27 34 76 Spencer Boyd Tenikle Chevrolet 131   10 Running  
28 28 44 Conor Daly(i) Polkadot Chevrolet 131   0 Running  
29 29 02 Nathan Byrd(i) FARA Chevrolet 130   0 Running  
30 30 04 Marco Andretti Group 1001/CarQuest Chevrolet 127   7 Running  
31 11 41 Bayley Currey Masked Owl Technologies Chevrolet 125   6 Running  
32 32 46 Justin Mondeik El Bandido Yankee Tequila Chevrolet 114   5 Running  
33 31 22 Frankie Muniz More Core Ford 105   4 Running  
34 24 42 Matt Mills Utilitra/J.F. Electric Chevrolet 74   3 Accident  

Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 41 Mins, 13 Secs. Average Speed: 119.15 MPH Margin of Victory: 17.516 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 11, 45, 98, 17, 19, 9, 7, 2, 71, 5
Stage 2 Top 10: 9, 11, 19, 98, 45, 17, 43, 7, 71, 88

Failed to Qualify: None.

Caution Flags: 3 for 19 laps; Laps: 32-38 (Stage 1 Conclusion [56]); 62-67 (Stage 2 Conclusion [13]); 77-82 (#42, 66 Incident Turn 4 [9]).

Lead Changes: 9 among 5 drivers; C. Heim (P) 1-38; T. Gray (P) 39-40; C. Eckes (P) 41; C. Heim (P) 42-57; G. Enfinger (P) 58-67; T. Gray (P) 68-69; C. Eckes
(P) 70-71; C. Heim (P) 72-85; L. Riggs # 86-112; G. Enfinger (P) 113-134.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Next Race: November 1, 2024 - Martinsville Speedway

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CURRENT NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES STANDINGS

POS NO. DRIVER MFR +/-

1 9 Grant Enfinger Chevrolet  WINNER
2 11 Corey Heim Toyota +49
3 19 Christian Eckes Chevrolet +38
4 98 Ty Majeski Ford +22


On The Bubble

5 71 Rajah Caruth Chevrolet -22
6 17 Taylor Gray Toyota -24
7 18 Tyler Ankrum Chevrolet -41
8 2 Nicholas Sanchez Chevrolet -43