TRUCKS: Grant Enfinger Earns Championship 4 Spot with Talladega Victory
Eight years ago, while driving part-time for the now defunct GMS Racing, Grant Enfinger picked up his first victory in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, winning at his hometrack of Talladega Superspeedway.
Now, with a brand-new organization, but the same crew chief in Jeff Stankewicz, Enfinger is back in Victory Lane at the historic racetrack, winning Friday's Love's RV Stops 225, the first race in the NASCAR Truck Series Playoffs 'Round of 8'.
It's a major victory for Enfinger in a number of different ways; the first being the presence of his family this weekend in his homestate of Alabama. Plus, while it's not as heartwarming the victory is also the first in the Truck Series for CR7 Motorsports, and advances the 39-year-old driver to the Championship 4 at Phoenix.
"We know stuff was going to get dicey, the biggest thing, we didn't make all of the perfect decisions today, but we had a Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet that was fast enough to get it done today," said Enfinger. "Knew Taylor [Gray] was coming with a run, Tim [Fedewa] told me to go up, then he told me to come down."
The victory marks the 11th in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for Enfinger, and his second at the 2.66-mile superspeedway. It's also the first for Codie Rohrbaugh's CR7 Motorsports, which has competed in the series since 2018.
As the majority of the lead pack crashed coming to the start-finish line, Taylor Gray managed to squeak out a runner-up finish after a difficult afternoon, which saw him have to make an unscheduled pit stop and then get caught up in an accident in his No. 17 Toyota.
RESULTS: Love's RV Stops 225 at Talladega
Daniel Dye brought home a third-place finish while also being sandwiched into the outside wall by a spinning truck at start-finish. The driver of the No. 43 Chevrolet was eliminated from the post-season last weekend at Kansas. Rajah Caruth managed to secure a solid fourth-place run, recovering from a speeding penalty on the final set of green-flag stops.
Lawless Alan, driving the No. 33 Ford F-150 for Reaume Brothers Racing, appeared to have a shot to win leaving the fourth corner but got shot down the middle and dropped to fifth-place, a career-best, by the checkered flag.
McAnally-Hilgemann Racing teammates Christian Eckes and Ryan Reed finished sixth and seventh, with fellow Chevrolets Stefan Parsons, Bret Holmes, and Spencer Boyd rounding out the top-10.
NASCAR Truck Series Playoffs drivers Corey Heim and Ty Majeski finished 11th and 12th, with Tyler Ankrum 14th, and Nick Sanchez in 22nd.
The event featured four caution flags, tied for the fewest in a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event at Talladega Superspeedway ever.
Now, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series takes a three-week break before heading to Homestead-Miami Speedway for the middle race in the Round of 8, where another driver will have the opportunity to punch their ticket into the Championship 4.
