The official 2024 Kubota Tractor 200 NASCAR TRUCK Series entry list features top NASCAR drivers set to compete at Kansas Speedway, highlighting the full lineup of race participants and teams.
Friday, September 27th, 2024
Kansas Speedway, Kansas City, KS
Three drivers occupy comfortable positions, and two are in peril as the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series visits Kansas Speedway for Friday’s Kubota Tractor 200 (8:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Based on their respective performances in the first two events of the series Playoffs, Christian Eckes, Corey Heim and Nick Sanchez already have clinched berths in the Round of 8.
On the other hand, both defending series champion Ben Rhodes and Playoff newbie Daniel Dye face elimination if they can’t erase 12- and seven-point deficits, respectively, to the current cut line for the next round.
Heim, Eckes and eighth-place Grant Enfinger are the three most recent Kansas winners. Heim dominated the 2024 spring race, winning the first stage, finishing second in Stage 2 and beating Zane Smith to the finish line by 1.088 seconds.
The remarkable aspect of the Playoffs so far doesn’t involve a Playoff driver. Rookie Layne Riggs, driving the No. 38 Ford for Front Row Motorsports, won his first two NCTS races in the Playoff events at the Milwaukee Mile and Bristol Motor Speedway.
The 22-year-old from Bahama, N.C., goes for a sweep of the round on Friday.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling of what this team and I have accomplished these past two races,” said Riggs, son of former NASCAR driver Scott Riggs. “It stings a little that we’re not in the Playoffs, but that pushes us even more.
“I’m a rookie driver with a rookie crew chief (Dylan Cappello). It wasn’t going to be easy, but things are starting to click, and I’m proud of the progression we’ve made as a group.”
Corey Heim won Friday night’s Kubota Tractor 200 in the fastest truck, but he needed help from fellow Playoff driver Ty Majeski to secure the victory in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Round of 10 elimination race at Kansas Speedway.
Majeski ran out of fuel approaching the white flag while leading, allowing Heim to surge past in his No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota and claim his sixth victory of the season in a race that saw reigning series champion Ben Rhodes and Playoff rookie Daniel Dye eliminated from title contention.
Under the third and final caution on Lap 78 of the 134-lap race, Majeski came to pit road for tires and fuel, along with ThorSport Racing teammate Rhodes and eventual fourth-place finisher Kaden Honeycutt.
Heim, runner-up Layne Riggs and third-place finisher Christian Eckes stayed on track during the caution and made green-flag pit stops within the final 30 laps. Heim, who started the race from the rear of the field after hitting the outside wall and cutting a tire in practice earlier in the day, was chasing Majeski when the latter ran out of fuel.
Majeski, who had clinched a berth in the Round of 8 with his win in Stage 1, rolled home in 15th, the last driver on the lead lap.
“We were the best truck all night—it’s my favorite track, I love coming here,” said Heim, who won at the 1.5-mile speedway in the spring. “I look forward to this. I had a smile on my face all week coming to this place.
“I just thought we could sweep the year here. It’s an awesome place to come. I certainly thought we had it lost there to the 98 (Majeski), almost making it on fuel, but it just shows my team made the right call.”
The victory was Heim’s second at Kansas and the 11th of his career. He led a race-high 64 laps in an event that featured 10 lead changes among three drivers.
Heim, Eckes and Nick Sanchez had clinched spots in the Round of 8 in the second race of the Round of 10 at Bristol. Majeski, seventh-place finisher Rajah Caruth, ninth-place Grant Enfinger, 14th-place Tyler Ankrum and 18th-place Taylor Gray advanced on points Friday night.
In the closing laps, there was real suspense regarding the fortunes of two-time series champion Rhodes and Enfinger. Rhodes was on the same strategy as Majeski and ran as high as third as the race neared its conclusion.
But Enfinger gained positions as Rhodes lost them in the late going, and the die was cast when Rhodes ran out of fuel.
“We qualified fourth, and at the start of the race—massive changes with the truck,” said Rhodes, who won titles in 2021 and 2023. “We could not get it tightened up… Still kind of unacceptable. If we’d have gotten our stage points, it would have taken care of itself.”
Rhodes came home 22nd after running out of fuel and fell 25 points short of Enfinger for the final spot in the Round of 8.
“It was definitely a little bit stressful, definitely too close for comfort there,” Enfinger said. “This is a round we want to forget. We snuck through here, and now we’re looking forward to going to Talladega next week (for the first race in the Round of 8).”
Dye scraped the outside wall twice during the first stage and made multiple pit stops, falling three laps down. He finished 27th and, like Enfinger, was 25 points away from advancing to the next round.
Riggs, who didn’t qualify for the Playoffs in his rookie season, added the runner-up finish to his two victories in the previous two races.
Dawson Sutton ran fifth, followed by Tanner Gray, Caruth, Bayley Currey, Enfinger and Connor Mosack.
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 | Flex Seal/Menards | ThorSport Racing | Jeriod Prince |
3 | 56 | Timmy Hill | Port Tobacco, MD | Feb 25, 1993 | 31 | Toyota | Coble Enterprises/UNITS | Hill Motorsports | Terry Elmore |
4 | 41 | Bayley Currey | Driftwood, TX | Oct 29, 1996 | 27 | Chevrolet | Masked Owl Technologies | Niece Motorsports | Wally Rogers |
5 | 76 | Spencer Boyd | Creve Coeur, MO | Jun 26, 1995 | 29 | Chevrolet | Sesh Nicotine Pouches | Freedom Racing Enterprises | Mike Hillman Jr. |
6 | 42 | Matt Mills | Lynchburg, VA | Nov 14, 1996 | 27 | Chevrolet | J.F. Electric/Utilitra | Niece Motorsports | Jon Leonard |
7 | 52 | Stewart Friesen | Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario | Jul 25, 1983 | 41 | Toyota | Halmar International | Halmar Friesen Racing | Jimmy Villeneuve |
8 | 99 | Ben Rhodes | Louisville, KY | Feb 21, 1997 | 27 | Ford | Kubota | ThorSport Racing | Doug Randolph |
9 | 10 | Jennifer Jo Cobb | Kansas City, Kansas | Jun 12, 1973 | 51 | Chevrolet | TBA | Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing | Bambi Wade |
10 | 18 | Tyler Ankrum | San Bernardino, CA | Mar 6, 2001 | 23 | Chevrolet | LiUNA! | McAnally Hilgemann Racing | Mark Hillman |
11 | 19 | Christian Eckes | MIddletown, NY | Nov 10, 2000 | 23 | Chevrolet | Gates Hydraulics | McAnally Hilgemann Racing | Charles Denike |
12 | 77 | Chase Purdy | Meridian, MS | Nov 11, 1999 | 24 | Chevrolet | Bama Buggies | Spire Motorsports | Jason Trinchere |
13 | 98 | Ty Majeski | Seymour, WI | Aug 18, 1994 | 30 | Ford | Soda Sense/Curb Records | ThorSport Racing | Joe Shear Jr |
14 | 15 | Tanner Gray | Artesia, NM | Apr 15, 1999 | 25 | Toyota | Operation 300 | TRICON Garage | Jason Burdett |
15 | 44 | Conor Daly | Noblesville, IN | Dec 15, 1991 | 32 | Chevrolet | Polkadot | Niece Motorsports | Cody Efaw |
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 | TBA | 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 | Beshears Tractor & Equipment | Bret Holmes Racing | Mike Shiplett |
20 | 17 | Taylor Gray | Denver, NC | Mar 25, 2005 | 19 | Toyota | Place of Hope | TRICON Garage | Jeff Hensley |
21 | 2 | Nicholas Sanchez | Miami, FL | Jun 10, 2001 | 23 | Chevrolet | Gainbridge | Rev Racing | Kevin Manion |
22 | 71 | Rajah Caruth | Atlanta, GA | Jun 11, 2002 | 22 | Chevrolet | HendrickCars.com | Spire Motorsports | Chad Walter |
23 | 13 | Jake Garcia | Monroe, GA | Mar 3, 2005 | 19 | Ford | Quanta Services | ThorSport Racing | Rich Lushes |
24 | 45 | Kaden Honeycutt | Willow Park, TX | Jun 23, 2003 | 21 | Chevrolet | AutoVentive/Precision | Niece Motorsports | Phil Gould |
25 | 7 | Connor Mosack | Charlotte, NC | Jan 20, 1999 | 25 | Chevrolet | MKS Pipe and Valve | Spire Motorsports | Brian Pattie |
26 | 38 | Layne Riggs | Bahama, NC | Jun 11, 2002 | 22 | Ford | Infinity Communications Group | Front Row Motorsports | Dylan Cappello |
27 | 04 | Marco Andretti | Nazareth, PA | Mar 13, 1987 | 37 | Chevrolet | Group 1001 / CarQuest | Roper Racing | Bruce Cook |
28 | 43 | Daniel Dye | DeLand, Florida | Dec 4, 2003 | 20 | Chevrolet | NAPA Nightvision | McAnally Hilgemann Racing | Blake Bainbridge |
29 | 22 | Frankie Muniz | Wood-Ridge, NJ | Dec 5, 1985 | 38 | Ford | Levrack | Reaume Brothers Racing | Pedro Lopez |
30 | 1 | Brenden Queen | Chesapeake, VA | Nov 21, 1997 | 26 | Toyota | Best Repair Company | TRICON Garage | Seth Smith |
31 | 25 | Dawson Sutton | Lebanon, TN | May 16, 2006 | 18 | Chevrolet | Rackley Roofing | Rackley W.A.R | Shane Wilson |
32 | 02 | Nathan Byrd | Litchfield Park, AZ | Jan 6, 2000 | 24 | Chevrolet | CleanCore Solutions | Young's Motorsports | Tyler Young |
33 | 46 | Justin Mondeik | Gleason, WI | Sep 6, 1996 | 28 | Chevrolet | El Bandido Yankee Tequila | Young's Motorsports | Trip Bruce III |
34 | 91 | Corey Day | Clovis, CA | Nov 28, 2005 | 18 | Chevrolet | HendrickCars.com | McAnally Hilgemann Racing | Kevin Bellicourt |