TRUCKS: Heim Wins as Majeski's Tank Runs Dry; Rhodes, Dye Eliminated
Corey Heim took the win in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Kubota Tractor 200 at Kansas Speedway, but it took a little bit of divine intervention for the clock to strike Heim Time on Friday night.
Ty Majeski, who won the pole and secured his advancement to the Round of 8 of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs with a Stage 1 win earlier in the night, had a near-four second lead over Heim with two laps remaining in the 134-lap event. However, Majeski's truck would sputter coming to the white flag and would run out of fuel, which handed the lead, and win to the 22-year-old Heim.
After an intense victory burnout celebration, Heim admitted to the FS1 broadcast team in his victory interview that he felt Majeski had stolen the win from him with his fuel gamble.
As Majeski slowed in front of him, Majeski said it was, "Just a deep sigh of relief. I mean, we were just the best truck all night. Huge thank you to my TRICON Garage guys. This is my favorite track, I love coming here. I look forward to this, I had a smile on my face all week coming to this place. Just glad I could sweep the year here."
With his latest triumph, Heim now has six wins in the NASCAR Truck Series this season, and he has amassed 11 victories in just 60 starts in the series over the course of his career. The TRICON Garage driver had to rally from the 33rd starting spot after contact with the outside wall in practice sidelined him from making a qualifying attempt on Friday afternoon.
Heim's starting spot is the deepest in the field that a NASCAR Truck Series race winner has started since Bobby Hamilton won from the 36th starting spot at Daytona in 2005, and the second furthest back a race winner has ever started in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
Heim, who already locked his position in the NASCAR Truck Series Round of 8 last week at Bristol Motor Speedway, added an additional six Playoff Points to his bucket on Friday night as he won Stage 2 (1 Playoff Point) and took home the overall race win (5 Playoff Points).
As Majeski sputtered to a 15th-place finish, Front Row Motorsports Rookie of the Year contender Layne Riggs followed Heim to the finish line as he came home in the runner-up spot. Riggs came into the race on a two-race winning streak, and was just one position shy of extending to a three-race winning streak.
Christian Eckes finished third, while Kaden Honeycutt and Dawson Sutton finished fourth and fifth.
Tanner Gray, who won the ARCA Menards Series event earlier in the afternoon, notched a sixth-place results ahead of Rajah Caruth, Bayley Currey, Grant Enfinger, and Connor Mosack, who rounded out the top-10 finishers in the race.
The eight drivers, who will advance to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Round of 8 are Heim, Majeski, Christian Eckes, Nick Sanchez, Rajah Caruth, Taylor Gray, Tyler Ankrum, and Grant Enfinger.
The two drivers eliminated from Playoff contention on Friday night were Daniel Dye and defending, and two-time series champion Ben Rhodes.
Both Dye and Rhodes had high hopes of advancing, but problems for Dye early in the race, and issues for Rhodes late in the race effectively dashed their hopes of moving on to the Round of 8. After starting from the 10th position, Dye caught the outside wall in the opening laps of the race, and his No. 43 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet wasn't able to contend for the remainder of the evening as he finished 27th, three laps off the pace.
Rhodes made Enfinger sweat it out in the closing laps as the two drivers, who fought for the championship in the closing laps at Phoenix last season, were locked in a tight point battle in the final few laps of the race. However, Rhodes -- like his ThorSport Racing teammate Majeski -- would run out of fuel coming to the white flag, which secured Enfinger's advancement in the Playoffs.
For Rhodes, he was just proud to be in the conversation in the closing laps after his truck suffered from an ill-handling situation from the drop of the green flag.
"We could have been a lot better to fire off, to tell you that. For whatever reason, we were able to qualify fourth and to start the race and I mean, massive changes. Something was wrong with the truck," Rhodes explained. "We could not get it tightened up. There's one change that did fix it. Leads me to kind of believe we know what happened, but still kind of unacceptable that that happened, right? If we had gotten our Stage Points, it would have taken care of itself."
As Rhodes' team got their truck right, and the driver of the No. 99 worked his way through the field, he applied pressure to Enfinger. It was pressure that Enfinger felt from behind the wheel for sure.
"Definitely a little bit stressful," Enfinger said after the race. "Definitely too close for comfort here. Jeff Stankiewicz and all these guys at CR7 Motorsports have done a great job all year, but this is a round we want to forget. We snuck through here, and now we're looking forward to Talladega next week."
The final tally would show Enfinger besting Dye and Rhodes each by 25-points for the final Playoff Round of 8 slot.
Here is the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs Round of 8 Playoff Grid heading into Talladega Superspeedway next weekend:
Rank | Driver | +/- cutline |
|---|---|---|
1 | Corey Heim | +38 |
2 | Christian Eckes | +29 |
3 | Ty Majeski | +14 |
4 | Nick Sanchez | +8 |
*CUTLINE* | ||
5 | Rajah Caruth | -8 |
6 | Grant Enfinger | -11 |
7 | Tyler Ankrum | -11 |
8 | Taylor Gray | -15 |
Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.