Thursday, September 19th, 2024
Bristol Motor Speedway, Bristol, TN
Little was decided in the Aug. 25 first race of the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Playoffs at the Milwaukee Mile, but the race for the title should take on more definition after Thursday night’s UNOH 200 Presented by Ohio Logistics at Bristol Motor Speedway (8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Non-Playoff driver Layne Riggs won at Milwaukee, denying all 10 title contenders the prospect of advancing to the Round of 8 with a victory.
In addition, the two drivers who enter Friday’s race below the current cut line—defending series champion Ben Rhodes and Rajah Caruth—are well within sight of the positive side of the Playoff bubble.
With the field set to be cut from 10 to eight drivers on Sept. 27 at Kansas, Rhodes and Caruth trail eighth-place Grant Enfinger by two points and four points, respectively.
In three Truck Series starts at Bristol, Caruth has two top 10s to his credit.
“The key to success at Bristol is precision,” Caruth said. “You have to be plugged in and remain aware of everything going on around you. It’s a super-fun race track, but you are going fast, there’s a lot of banking, it is tough to see, and things happen very quickly.
“I’ve raced pretty much everything there, from ARCA to Trucks to Xfinity. Hopefully, we can build off our past runs and punch our ticket to the next round of the Playoffs.”
Series leader Christian Eckes (60 points above the current cutoff) won the spring race at Bristol. Fellow Playoff driver Corey Heim is the defending winner of the UNOH 200.
Note: Connor Zilisch, who won his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut from the pole last Saturday at Watkins Glen, will make his third Truck start of the season in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.
Layne Riggs relished his role as spoiler so much that he returned for an encore Thursday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Riggs isn’t competing for the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series championship, but that didn’t prevent him from winning the Playoff opener Aug. 25 at the Milwaukee Mile.
On Thursday, Riggs passed runner-up Corey Heim for the lead on Lap 121 of 200 in the UNOH 200 Presented by Ohio Logistics and held it the rest of the way to score his second career victory and his fourth straight top five.
“Oh, my gosh, we’ve just learned so much with the trucks,” said the driver of the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford. “My team, Dylan (Cappello), he’s bad-ass…
“To be running fifth, 10th and all of a sudden to go back-to-back in the Playoffs—man, I wish I was in the Playoffs so bad. I think we’d be a real threat to win the championship.”
Heim had to settle for second place, but there was a silver lining for the driver of the No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota. Heim scored enough points on Thursday to advance to Round of 8, as did fourth-place finisher Christian Eckes and fifth-place Nick Sanchez.
“Every time we got a heat cycle on the tires, it seemed like we got tighter and tighter,” said Heim, who fell one spot short in his defense of last year’s victory at Thunder Valley. “Just didn’t quite have it, but solid points day in the Playoffs—that’s what you need, so I will keep moving forward…
“I’m looking forward to my favorite place (Kansas Speedway) next week.”
Heim won a drag race for the runner-up spot over Rajah Caruth, who elevated his standing in the Playoffs with a win in the first stage and a solid run the rest of the way.
Caruth vaulted from 10th to fifth in the standings with the third-place run and now stands 35 points above the current cut line with next Friday’s elimination race at Kansas left to determine which eight drivers advance to the next round.
“We executed the race—just two spots short,” said Caruth, who glanced toward Riggs’ truck doing celebratory burnouts on the frontstretch. “Man, I wish that was us,” Caruth added wistfully.
Reigning series champion Ben Rhodes fought an ill-handling truck and finished 27th, two laps down, and fell to 10th in the standings, 12 points behind Grant Enfinger in eighth.
Daniel Dye tangled with Kaden Honeycutt on the frontstretch on Lap 157 and finished 37th, six laps down. Dye heads for Kansas seven points behind Enfinger.
Eighteen-year-old Sprint Car star Corey Day finished 18th in his Truck Series debut. After winning his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut last Saturday at Watkins Glen, polesitter Connor Zilisch spun in Turn 4 on Lap 109 and came home 19th.
Matt Crafton ran sixth, followed by Chase Purdy and Playoff driver Ty Majeski, who started from the rear after his team made unapproved adjustments to the No. 98 Ford. Stewart Friesen and Playoff driver Tyler Ankrum completed the top 10.
ENTRY | # | DRIVER | HOMETOWN | DOB | AGE | MAKE | SPONSOR | TEAM | CREW CHIEF |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 9 | Grant Enfinger | Fairhope, AL | Jan 22, 1985 | 39 | Chevrolet | Champion Power Equipment | CR7 Motorsports | Jeff Stankiewicz |
2 | 88 | Matt Crafton | Tulare, CA | Jun 11, 1976 | 48 | Ford | Planters/Menards | ThorSport Racing | Jeriod Prince |
3 | 56 | Timmy Hill | Port Tobacco, MD | Feb 25, 1993 | 31 | Toyota | Shophillmotorsports.com | Hill Motorsports | Terry Elmore |
4 | 25 | Ty Dillon | Lewisville, NC | Feb 27, 1992 | 32 | Chevrolet | Rackley Roofing | Rackley W.A.R | Shane Wilson |
5 | 44 | Bayley Currey | Driftwood, TX | Oct 29, 1996 | 27 | Chevrolet | DQS | Niece Motorsports | Wally Rogers |
6 | 76 | Spencer Boyd | Creve Coeur, MO | Jun 26, 1995 | 29 | Chevrolet | Michael Waltrip Brewing Co. | Freedom Racing Enterprises | Mike Hillman Jr. |
7 | 42 | Matt Mills | Lynchburg, VA | Nov 14, 1996 | 27 | Chevrolet | J.F. Electric/Utilitra | Niece Motorsports | Jon Leonard |
8 | 75 | Stefan Parsons | Cornelius, NC | Jun 15, 1998 | 26 | Chevrolet | popsells.com | Henderson Motorsports | Chris Carrier |
9 | 52 | Stewart Friesen | Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario | Jul 25, 1983 | 41 | Toyota | Halmar International | Halmar Friesen Racing | Jimmy Villeneuve |
10 | 99 | Ben Rhodes | Louisville, KY | Feb 21, 1997 | 27 | Ford | Bommarito Automotive Group | ThorSport Racing | Doug Randolph |
11 | 18 | Tyler Ankrum | San Bernardino, CA | Mar 6, 2001 | 23 | Chevrolet | LiUNA! | McAnally Hilgemann Racing | Mark Hillman |
12 | 19 | Christian Eckes | MIddletown, NY | Nov 10, 2000 | 23 | Chevrolet | Adaptive One Calipers | McAnally Hilgemann Racing | Charles Denike |
13 | 77 | Chase Purdy | Meridian, MS | Nov 11, 1999 | 24 | Chevrolet | Bama Buggies | Spire Motorsports | Jason Trinchere |
14 | 98 | Ty Majeski | Seymour, WI | Aug 18, 1994 | 30 | Ford | TBA | ThorSport Racing | Joe Shear Jr |
15 | 15 | Tanner Gray | Artesia, NM | Apr 15, 1999 | 25 | Toyota | Dead On Tools | TRICON Garage | Jason Burdett |
16 | 11 | Corey Heim | Marietta, GA | Jul 5, 2002 | 22 | Toyota | Safelite | TRICON Garage | Scott Zipadelli |
17 | 33 | Lawless Alan | Los Angeles, CA | Feb 2, 2000 | 24 | Ford | AUTOChargit | Reaume Brothers Racing | Doug George |
18 | 5 | Dean Thompson | Anaheim, CA | Aug 30, 2001 | 23 | Toyota | Thompson Pipe Group | TRICON Garage | Derek Smith |
19 | 32 | Bret Holmes | Munford, AL | May 5, 1997 | 27 | Chevrolet | Precision Garage Door | Bret Holmes Racing | Mike Shiplett |
20 | 22 | Keith McGee | Eagle River, AK | May 7, 1981 | 43 | Ford | Nugget Trap | Reaume Brothers Racing | Pedro Lopez |
21 | 91 | Jack Wood | Loomis, CA | Aug 7, 2000 | 24 | Chevrolet | Mongoose | McAnally Hilgemann Racing | Kevin Bellicourt |
22 | 17 | Taylor Gray | Denver, NC | Mar 25, 2005 | 19 | Toyota | Place of Hope | TRICON Garage | Jeff Hensley |
23 | 2 | Nicholas Sanchez | Miami, FL | Jun 10, 2001 | 23 | Chevrolet | Gainbridge | Rev Racing | Kevin Manion |
24 | 71 | Rajah Caruth | Atlanta, GA | Jun 11, 2002 | 22 | Chevrolet | HendrickCars.com | Spire Motorsports | Chad Walter |
25 | 13 | Jake Garcia | Monroe, GA | Mar 3, 2005 | 19 | Ford | Quanta Services | ThorSport Racing | Rich Lushes |
26 | 90 | Justin Carroll | Williamsburg, VA | Dec 8, 1995 | 28 | Toyota | Carroll's Automotive/Duratain | Terry Carroll Motorsports | Terry Carroll |
27 | 45 | Kaden Honeycutt | Willow Park, TX | Jun 23, 2003 | 21 | Chevrolet | Moore's Venture Foods | Niece Motorsports | Phil Gould |
28 | 41 | Connor Mosack | Charlotte, NC | Jan 20, 1999 | 25 | Chevrolet | Crazy Al's Wine and Spirits | Niece Motorsports | Cody Efaw |
29 | 21 | Mason Maggio | Palm Beach Gardens, FL | Jul 7, 2004 | 20 | Ford | Rock Hill ACE Hardware | Floridian Motorsports | Carl Long |
30 | 38 | Layne Riggs | Bahama, NC | Jun 11, 2002 | 22 | Ford | Love's Travel Stops | Front Row Motorsports | Dylan Cappello |
31 | 04 | Marco Andretti | Nazareth, PA | Mar 13, 1987 | 37 | Chevrolet | Group 1001 / CarQuest | Roper Racing | Bruce Cook |
32 | 43 | Daniel Dye | DeLand, Florida | Dec 4, 2003 | 20 | Chevrolet | Champion Container | McAnally Hilgemann Racing | Blake Bainbridge |
33 | 1 | William Sawalich | Eden Prairie, MN | Oct 3, 2006 | 18 | Toyota | Starkey/Soundgear | TRICON Garage | Seth Smith |
34 | 66 | Conner Jones | Fredericksburg, VA | Feb 22, 2006 | 18 | Ford | TSPORT | ThorSport Racing | Josh Hankish |
35 | 7 | Connor Zilisch | Charlotte, NC | Jul 21, 2006 | 18 | Chevrolet | Silver Hare Racing | Spire Motorsports | Brian Pattie |
36 | 46 | Tyler Tomassi | West Greenwich, RI | Jul 16, 2003 | 21 | Chevrolet | RANDCO Industries | Young's Motorsports | Tyler Young |
37 | 02 | Justin Mondeik | Gleason, WI | Sep 6, 1996 | 28 | Chevrolet | El Bandido Yankee Tequila | Young's Motorsports | Trip Bruce III |
38 | 81 | Corey Day | Clovis, CA | Nov 28, 2005 | 18 | Chevrolet | HendrickCars.com | McAnally Hilgemann Racing | Chad Norris |