The NASCAR Truck Series Chase for the Championship began with a moderate implosion for each of the four top seeded drivers on the seven-race playoff on Thursday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Layne Riggs led the first two stages but then suffered a slow pit stop, the result of struggles on the left rear, and then that tire leading to a vibration that trapped him five laps down. He would run into a crash and finished 32nd.
Kaden Honeycutt finished second in the first two stages and then suffered a right rear vibration due to a pit crew error. He recovered to finish eighth.
Chandler Smith finished third in the first two stages and sped on pit road. By the end of the race, he also suffered a vibration, resulting from damage to his right front wheel stud.
Christian Eckes had a miscommunication with his spotter and cleared himself across the nose of the truck driven by fellow chase driver Grant Enfinger.
At the same time, a non-playoff driver in Jake Garcia won the race, so no one chasing the championship scored the 20 extra points for doing so leaving the entire field tight with six races left.
Layne Riggs
Kaden Honeycutt -3
Chandler Smith -30
Ty Majeski -35
Gio Ruggiero -39
Grant Enfinger -53
Daniel Hemric -56
Christian Eckes -58
Ben Rhodes -61
Tyler Ankrum -71
Despite the misfortune, it could have been way worse for Honeycutt as he caught a caution just laps after reporting the vibration. On the other hand, he could have built a commanding championship lead had he finished close to where he won, much less even won.
“Thank goodness we had the caution and I was able to come down and fix it,” Honeycutt said. “Just man, so unfortunate.”
Smith had a chance to hang onto a spot inside the top-10 in the final laps when his stud worked itself off but taking a visual inspection of the wheel after the race, he was playing with figurative fire.
“I was trying to hang on,” Smith said. “At first I though my right front was going flat. Then, I was like, ‘no, this isn't a right front flat,’ because I’ve had a few loose wheels and those are a really bad vibration.
“It progressively got worse, worse and worse. It stopped turning and stopped turning. And then finally I was like, ‘I'm about to wreck someone.’ They're going to go around me on the top and it's going to go straight into their door.
“So I finally had to come to pit road. Glad I did because I've seen the picture. It had one more lap until it was probably just going to completely break in half. And then it wouldn't have been a clean truck then.”
His Front Row Motorsports teammate, Riggs, never even had a chance to recover. There was a slightly slow stop on the right rear pull but he had driven up to third when the vibration reported itself.
He lost five laps on pit road and there was never a chance to get a free pass or a wave around.
“At that point, you’re just riding around and just staying in front of the people that were two [laps] down,” Riggs said. “At that point, there’s really nothing you can do. You just gotta beat the guys that are on your lap, so not doing much racing right there.”
At the end of the race, Riggs then ran into the back of a crash in front of him, cementing his inability to pick up any spots.
“Mired in the back and you’re two laps down and you’re just riding around with guys in the back,” Riggs said. “I guess the 1 [Nick Leitz] just lost talent and wrecked. I don’t really know what happened there. Probably top three hardest hits in my life. I cannot believe the truck was still rolling after that.”
Earlier in the race, fourth seeded Eckes was cleared up over Enfinger. Eckes said it was a miscommunication with his spotter but ultimately took responsibility because he was driving the car.
Enfinger recovered to finish 10th and got an apology from Eckes too.
“We’ve always raced really good together and I told him we were great teammates in the past,” he said.
Enfinger was actually impressed that he still rallied to a top-10 given the state of his equipment at Bristol since joining CR7 Motorsports. He actually gained two points on the championship lead through it all.
What now?
The Truck Series Chase for the Championship is a lot shorter than its Cup Series counterpart.
Thus, one race down and six races to go, meaning that the margins of error are smaller, and the tighter deficits through the field means anyone could still conceivably go on a run and easily take the championship lead.
For the three favorites -- Riggs, Honeycutt and Smith -- this was just a wash.
“Could have been a lot worse of a day, but we gotta clean that up if we’re gonna win a championship,” Riggs said.
His teammate agreed.
“Overall, take the mechanical issues out, driver making error on pit road and the truck was really good, had good speed,” Smith said. “Pit crew did a good job. Just need to go diagnose, clean up a few things internally and then rock on to Kansas.”
Ty Majeski, the 2004 champion, recovered from spinning in laid down oil scored stage points and finished ninth to close the gap.
“I think realistically probably at the most left maybe four or five points on the table,” Majeski said. “We were realistically a fifth-place truck, so that’s four points if we finished there.
“So, in the grand scheme of things, obviously we want to win, but I don't know that that was really in the cards for us tonight anyways. So leaving four points on the table with that spin and could have destroyed our truck, I really can't be too upset about it.”
Like Majeski, Gio Ruggiero needs to win, but believes he’s a championship threat.
“I think definitely got to win, of course,” Ruggiero said. “I've thought that all year, but consistency is what matters. We saw a lot of guys have problems tonight, so can't throw it away trying to win a race. Just got to be there at the end and keep it clean.”
