• Thursday, October 3rd, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Holly Cain

CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Playoffs’ Round of 8 starts now

The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series begins the final three-race Playoff round to set the Championship Four with Friday’s Love’s RV Stop 225 at Talladega Superspeedway (4:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Last weekend’s Kansas winner Corey Heim arrives at the 2.66-mile superspeedway now boasting six wins on the season – double that of any other competitor, The 22-year-old TRICON Garage driver scored the win in the final race of the opening round last week when race leader, ThorSport’s Ty Majeski ran out of gas on the final lap. Heim finished just ahead of Front Row Motorsports’ Layne Riggs, who had won the previous two races but is not among the Playoff drivers.

Regular Season Champion , McAnally-Hilgemann’s Christian Eckes, Majeski and REV Racing’s Nick Sanchez sit safely atop the cutoff mark entering the first race of this all-important round. Rajah Caruth trails Sanchez by eight points just outside the Playoff bubble with Tyler Ankrum and Grant Enfinger both -11 points and Taylor Gray -15 points back.

Enfinger is the only current Playoff driver with a previous Talladega win, earning his trophy in 2016. Former series champion Johnny Sauter – the 2013 Talladega trophy winner – will be competing this weekend for Hattori Racing Enterprises. Brett Moffitt is the defending race winner.

There have been eight different winners in the last eight Talladega races. Heim, Eckes and Enfinger (2) are the only Playoff drivers to have scored top-five finishes at the big track.

Among those entered this week, William Sawalich (No. 1 TRICON Garage Toyota) and 18-year-old Connor Zilisch (No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet) are hoping to make their first career superspeedway start. And crowd favorite, veteran Norm Benning is hoping to qualify for his first race of the season. 

Cometic Gasket Qualifying is set for 1 p.m. ET Friday (FS2). Chase Purdy is the defending polesitter.

• Love's RV Stop 225
• Pole Winner: William Sawalich
• Age: 18
• Team : No 1 - Starkey/Soundgear Toyota
• Owner: Kevin Ray
• Crew Chief: Seth Smith
• William Sawalich won the Pole Award for the Love?s RV Stop 225 with a lap of 54482 seconds, 175764 mph
• This is his first pole in 13 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races
• This is his first pole and fourth top-10 start in 2024
• This is his first pole in one races at Talladega Superspeedway
• Ben Rhodes (second) posted his sixth top-10 start of 2024 and his fourth in nine races at Talladega Superspeedway
• Ty Majeski (third) posted his third top-10 start at Talladega Superspeedway It is his 17th in 20 races this season
• Layne Riggs (33rd) was the fastest qualifying rookie

• Drivers Entered: 38 (2 drivers will not make the race)
• Laps Scheduled: 85
• Margin of Victory: 0.041 Seconds
• Time of Race: 1 Hours 45 Minutes 24 Seconds
• Average Speed: 125.148
• Cautions: 4 for 25 laps
• Lead Changes: 27
• Green Flag Passes: N/A

• Love's RV Stop 225
• Race Winner: Grant Enfinger
• Age: 39
• Team : No 9 - Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet
• Owner: Larry Berg
• Crew Chief: Jeff Stankiewicz
• Grant Enfinger won the Love?s RV Stop 225, his 11th victory in 193 CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races Enfinger becomes the first driver to clinch a spot in the Championship 4
• This is his first victory and 10th top-10 finish in 2024
• This is his second victory and fourth top-10 finish in 11 races at Talladega Superspeedway
• Taylor Gray (second) posted his first top-10 finish in two races at Talladega Superspeedway It is his 11th top-10 finish in 2024
• Daniel Dye (third) posted his second top-10 finish in two races at Talladega Superspeedway
• Layne Riggs (28th) was the highest finishing rookie
• Corey Heim leads the point standings by 1 points over Christian Eckes