Ross Chastain redeemed himself on Saturday at World Wide Technology Raceway after being stripped of the win last Sunday at Iowa Speedway due to failing post-race tech. Chastain led 21 of the 160 circuits to score his second Gander Outdoors Truck Series victory of the year.
The win did not come easy for the Florida native as he battled a late race restart inside 10 laps to go. After taking fuel only on a pit stop earlier in the race, Chastain did not have fresh tires on his No. 45 Chevrolet and had to hold off second-place driver Christian Eckes.
Eckes challenged Chastain for the lead inside five laps to go but was spun after taking the white flag. The driver of the No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota, who spun because of contact from third-place finisher Stewart Friesen, finished 14th and led the most laps of 57.
Race winner Ross Chastain leaves World Wide Technology Raceway with four top five and 10 top 10 finishes through 11 completed races.
Todd Gilliland will leave the 1.25-mile St. Louis track as the runner-up finisher. Gilliland, who started the night 11th on the leaderboard, captured his best finish of the year in his No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota Tundra and sat 11th in stage one and seventh in stage two.
Gilliland holds two top five and six top 10 finishes through 11 events.
Stewart Friesen rounded out the top three finishers on Saturday night at Gateway. The driver from Canada started fourth on the board and saw the lead twice throughout the 160-lap event. Friesen leaves with six top five and seven top 10s in 2019.
Chandler Smith and Brett Moffitt rounded out the top five.
Grant Enfinger, Sheldon Creed, Ben Rhodes, Matt Crafton and Myatt Snider rounded out the top 10.
Grant Enfinger led the second most laps of the evening and claimed both stages of the CarShield 200. Enfinger started the night sitting second on the leaderboard.
Two of the five caution flags involved multiple trucks. The first yellow flag came out on lap four for the No. 0 of Gregory Rayl. The next two stoppages involved stage breaks until lap 80 when Natalie Decker and Jesse Little collided in turn one. Decker was done for the night and left with a 27th place finish while Little finished 21st and two laps down.
Harrison Burton and Sheldon Creed brought out the final caution with 13 to go in turn four. Both drivers continued as Burton finished 16th while Creed finished seventh on the scoring monitor.
The series will be back in action on Friday June 28, 2019 at Chicagoland Speedway for the Camping World 225. The event will air live on FS1 and MRN Radio at 9:00 p.m. ET.
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
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