Darrell Wallace survives Eldora for third career win

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In: NASCAR Truck Series News

Darrell Wallace, Jr. encountered an eventful night of racing for his third career Camping World Truck Series win Wednesday night.  Wallace had to hold off a hungry Kyle Larson in the closing laps for the victory in the Mudsummer Classic at the half-mile Eldora Speedway.

Larson hit the wall several times a lap for the last 20 laps until the No. 32 truck hit it for the final time and ending his shot at winning the Mudsummer Classic.  The 21-year-old finished runner-up to Austin Dillon last year and once again had the win in his grasp.

Wallace’s win was the fourth straight for Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM)  in the series, dating back to his win at Gateway in June.

The same good luck couldn’t be said for his KBM teammate Erik Jones.  The 18-year-old won the pole from winning his heat race and led in the early going.

Jones started to fall back until the tire went down on his No. 51 truck.  The bad luck continued as Jones would cut down two more tires and finished 29th on the night, six laps down.

With the finish, the No. 51 team holds a slim point lead over the No. 29 Brad Keselowski Racing (BKR) team with Ryan Blaney.

Blaney took over the drivers points lead with his third-place finish and now leads for the first time in his Truck Series career.  The BKR driver heads to the series’ next race at Pocono Raceway, where he won last year.

Although mainly Truck Series regulars didn’t make a lot of noise with the exception of Wallace, Ty Dillon also made his return to the series for the first time since Homestead last season.

The stakes were different for Dillon this year because he didn’t have to race for points.  The NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) rookie didn’t spend any time out front, but proved to have one of the best trucks along with Larson.

Dillon worked his way up to third, before making contact with Larson and suffering a flat tire before the final 40-lap segment.  At first, the No. 3 team changed four tires, but NASCAR officials made a mistake by allowing the team to change all four.  So NASCAR brought back the 3 down pit road to put the old tires back (except for the flat one) and send him back out there.\

The younger Dillon charged from 27th to fifth in the final 40 laps.  His brother and defending race winner Austin didn’t make much noise, but still salvaged a 10th place finish.  Eldora was the first truck race for Richard Childress Racing (RCR) since last year’s finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.  RCR will also field a truck for Austin next weekend at Pocono with sponsorship from Yuengling Light.

Ron Hornaday came home in the runner-up spot, as new points leader Blaney was third and Ken Schrader and Ty Dillon rounded out the top-five.

The series will head next to the 2.5 mile Pocono Raceway next Saturday for the Pocono Mountains 150.  The distance will be increased to 60 laps from 50 in years past.  The green-flag will be scheduled to drop at 1 p.m. ET and televised on FOX Sports 1.

 

Mudsummer Classic Top 10

  1. #54 Darrell Wallace, Jr.
  2. #30 Ron Hornaday, Jr.
  3. #29 Ryan Blaney
  4. #52 Ken Schrader
  5. #3 Ty Dillon
  6. #8 John Hunter Nemechek
  7. #13 Jeb Burton
  8. #98 Johnny Sauter
  9. #88 Matt Crafton
  10. #2 Austin Dillon
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