Grant Enfinger had already locked himself into the Championship 4 via a win in the Round of 8, but he decided to go out and do it again for good measure. Two weeks after his Talladega win, he captured the checkered flag at Homestead as well after a masterful fuel-save.
"I felt I saved at least 20% more than I did in the first run, but Jeff (Stankiewicz, crew chief) was on me pretty hard obviously ... Hard to beat these two weeks," said Enfinger, who drives the No. 9 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet.
It's Enfinger's second consecutive win in this round alone (and his total for the season), heading to Phoenix in two weeks with all of the momentum. He's getting hot at the right time as he tries to rectify last year's tough championship loss.
"It's definitely good (to be me right now)," smiled Enfinger. "We've had potential all year and there's been some times I didn't execute and there's been some times we just had bad luck. But maybe this is the time we got our momentum."
Fuel-save mastery and misery
This is Enfinger's 12th career NASCAR Truck Series win. His status as a veteran driver was on full display as he maintained his advantage while taking every opportunity he could lift out of the throttle and draft with other trucks, saving fuel.
While several trucks ran out in the final moments of the race, the veteran Enfinger was not among them. Running second with two laps to go, Layne Riggs dropped to the apron as he was out of fuel. Playoff driver Nick Sanchez then moved into second, only to run out as well on the final lap. Riggs finished 22nd and Sanchez 13th.
Enfinger actually crossed the line over 17 seconds clear of the closest competition and still had enough fuel to do burnouts! It was a statement victory that ended with Ty Majeski a distant second, Connor Mosack third, Corey Heim fourth, and Tyler Ankrum fifth. Stewart Friesen, Daniel Dye, Rajah Caruth, Christian Eckes, and Taylor Gray rounded out the top-ten.
Enfinger's comeback and the final run to the finish
It was not all smooth sailing for Enfinger, though. Contact on a mid-race restart with Christian Eckes forced him to make an unscheduled pit stop and put him behind for a bit. When the final restart occurred with 83 laps to go, he was back in 20th but was also one of a handful of drivers who had taken their final set of tires.
They all sliced through the field and luckily for them, the caution flag never flew again. With about 35 laps to go, most of the leaders not on Enfinger's strategy came in under green for their final set of tires.
With 25 laps to go, a charging Enfinger moved into the second position. At that point, Heim was around 30 seconds back. It didn't take Enfinger long to run down Riggs, passing him for the lead with an outside with 22 laps remaining.
Dawson Sutton and Tanner Gray ran long, saving their final set of tires while hoping for a lucky caution. It never cam and both had to pit under green. With ten laps left, Heim had stalled out and was no longer gaining large chunks of time on the race leaders.
It was game over as Enfinger managed to save enough fuel while his closest rivals fell to the wayside.
Update on playoff standings and Mills' condition
Looking at the points standings ahead of the elimination race at Martinsville, Heim is looking very secure at +49 points above the cut-line. Christian Eckes sits at +38 and Ty Majeski is at +22. Sitting within the elimination zone are Rajah Caruth (-22 points), Taylor Gray (-24 points), Tyler Ankrum (-41 points), and Sanchez (-43 points).
During the middle of the race, there was a scary incident where Connor Jones lost his cool and punted Matt Mills into the outside wall. He quickly climbed from the truck as fire erupted while NASCAR penalized Jones two laps for reckless driving. Mills has since been transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.
Scary moment in the @NASCAR_Trucks race … Connor Jones has been penalized two laps for reckless driver after punting Matt Mills into the wall, ending in a fiery crash. 😬
— Motorsport.com (@Motorsport) October 26, 2024
🎥 @NASCARONFOX pic.twitter.com/79RyIdNLcI
| Cla | Driver | # | Manufacturer | Laps | Time | Interval | Pits | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | G. EnfingerCR7 Motorsports | 9 | Chevrolet | 134 |
1:41'13.037 |
6 | |||
| 2 | T. MajeskiThorSport Racing | 98 | Ford | 134 |
+17.516 1:41'30.553 |
17.516 | 6 | ||
| 3 |
C. MosackSpire Motorsports
|
7 | Chevrolet | 134 |
+17.715 1:41'30.752 |
0.199 | 6 | ||
| 4 |
C. HeimTRICON Garage
|
11 | Toyota | 134 |
+18.664 1:41'31.701 |
0.949 | 6 | ||
| 5 | T. AnkrumMcAnally Hilgemann Racing | 18 | Chevrolet | 134 |
+20.810 1:41'33.847 |
2.146 | 6 | ||
| 6 | S. FriesenHalmar Friesen Racing | 52 | Toyota | 134 |
+21.213 1:41'34.250 |
0.403 | 7 | ||
| 7 |
D. DyeMcAnally Hilgemann Racing
|
43 | Chevrolet | 134 |
+30.263 1:41'43.300 |
9.050 | 6 | ||
| 8 |
R. CaruthSpire Motorsports
|
71 | Chevrolet | 134 |
+31.752 1:41'44.789 |
1.489 | 6 | ||
| 9 | C. EckesMcAnally Hilgemann Racing | 19 | Chevrolet | 134 |
+32.191 1:41'45.228 |
0.439 | 6 | ||
| 10 |
T. GrayTRICON Garage
|
17 | Toyota | 134 |
+33.784 1:41'46.821 |
1.593 | 6 | ||
| 11 | M. CraftonThorSport Racing | 88 | Ford | 134 |
+34.608 1:41'47.645 |
0.824 | 6 | ||
| 12 | B. RhodesThorSport Racing | 99 | Ford | 134 |
+41.617 1:41'54.654 |
7.009 | 7 | ||
| 13 |
N. SanchezRev Racing
|
2 | Chevrolet | 134 |
+59.383 1:42'12.420 |
17.766 | 8 | ||
| 14 |
K. HoneycuttNiece Motorsports
|
45 | Chevrolet | 133 |
+1 Lap 1:41'14.173 |
1 Lap | 6 | ||
| 15 |
D. ThompsonTRICON Garage
|
5 | Toyota | 133 |
+1 Lap 1:41'14.672 |
0.499 | 6 | ||
| 16 |
C. DayMcAnally Hilgemann Racing
|
91 | Chevrolet | 133 |
+1 Lap 1:41'17.877 |
3.205 | 8 | ||
| 17 |
W. SawalichTRICON Garage
|
1 | Toyota | 133 |
+1 Lap 1:41'18.975 |
1.098 | 6 | ||
| 18 |
C. ZilischHenderson Motorsports
|
75 | Chevrolet | 133 |
+1 Lap 1:41'21.516 |
2.541 | 7 | ||
| 19 |
D. SuttonRackley W.A.R.
|
25 | Chevrolet | 133 |
+1 Lap 1:41'31.985 |
10.469 | 6 | ||
| 20 | T. GrayTRICON Garage | 15 | Toyota | 133 |
+1 Lap 1:41'32.517 |
0.532 | 6 | ||
| 21 |
A. LawlessReaume Brothers Racing
|
33 | Ford | 133 |
+1 Lap 1:41'36.093 |
3.576 | 6 | ||
| 22 |
L. RiggsFront Row Motorsports
|
38 | Ford | 133 |
+1 Lap 1:41'43.931 |
7.838 | 6 | ||
| 23 | T. HillHill Motorsports | 56 | Toyota | 132 |
+2 Laps 1:41'13.685 |
1 Lap | 6 | ||
| 24 |
J. GarciaThorSport Racing
|
13 | Ford | 132 |
+2 Laps 1:41'15.753 |
2.068 | 6 | ||
| 25 |
C. JonesThorSport Racing
|
66 | Ford | 132 |
+2 Laps 1:41'43.480 |
27.727 | 7 | ||
| 26 | C. PurdySpire Motorsports | 77 | Chevrolet | 131 |
+3 Laps 1:39'55.642 |
1 Lap | 6 | ||
| 27 | S. BoydFreedom Racing Enterprises | 76 | Chevrolet | 131 |
+3 Laps 1:41'17.994 |
1'22.352 | 7 | ||
| 28 | C. DalyNiece Motorsports | 44 | Chevrolet | 131 |
+3 Laps 1:41'29.623 |
11.629 | 7 | ||
| 29 |
N. ByrdYoung's Motorsports
|
02 | Chevrolet | 130 |
+4 Laps 1:41'36.570 |
1 Lap | 7 | ||
| 30 | M. AndrettiRoper Racing | 04 | Chevrolet | 127 |
+7 Laps 1:39'16.863 |
3 Laps | 7 | ||
| 31 | B. CurreyNiece Motorsports | 41 | Chevrolet | 125 |
+9 Laps 1:41'21.935 |
2 Laps | 11 | ||
| 32 |
J. MondeikYoung's Motorsports
|
46 | Chevrolet | 114 |
+20 Laps 1:31'47.462 |
11 Laps | 6 | ||
| 33 |
F. MunizReaume Brothers Racing
|
22 | Ford | 105 |
+29 Laps 1:41'34.447 |
9 Laps | 11 | ||
| 34 | M. MillsNiece Motorsports | 42 | Chevrolet | 74 |
+60 Laps 57'16.779 |
31 Laps | 7 |
