The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series returned to action on Saturday for the Toyota 200 at Gateway Motorsports Park. Ty Majeski, posting a lap of 32.569s / 138.168 mph on Friday, started on the pole for the event with Ben Rhodes beside him.
Grant Enfinger survived an overtime finish with Christian Eckes beside him to win the event on Saturday. The veteran racer picked up his second victory of the season and leaves with five top five and seven top 10 finishes.
“You really don’t know what’s gonna happen until the end,” said Enfinger after the race in the media center. “That’s truck racing at Gateway. It’s so hard to stay off of someone when you’re really going for it.”
Eckes in the No. 19 entry picked up his third top five and fifth top 10 through this year after starting third. The driver from Middletown, NY, sat 0.256 seconds behind the winner.
Enfinger led 65 of the 162 laps en route to victory lane. Late, Enfinger battled a transmission issue with his No. 23 Chevrolet.
“I got to the white flag and I went ‘okay this is ours’, and I went into one and two and missed my shift, which I had three or four times for some reason towards the end of the race.” Enfinger added. “The transmission was getting sick going into third and in neutral.”
Finishing third after leading the field for 10 circuits was Stewart Friesen. Friesen entered the day looking to score his fourth career Camping World Truck Series victory. Rounding out the top five were Carson Hocevar and Chase Purdy.
Hocevar’s weekend isn’t over at Gateway. The driver will make his NASCAR Cup Series debut in the No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet as a result of Chase Elliott’s suspension. Hocevar said post race that he’s ready to go and very excited for the opportunity.
“Yeah! A little bit! Nothing I won’t share because I just learned it,” Hocevar joked post-race. “Learning the race track and hydrating a little bit more and maybe more padding on my feet.”
Taking home top 10s were Matt DiBenedetto, Ben Rhodes, Nick Sanchez, Jesse Love and Jake Garcia.
The overtime event had four leaders for 11 total lead changes with an average speed of 132.158 mph.
There were 11 total yellows throughout the 200-mile event.
The most notable yellow drew on lap 156 with four to go in turn two that sent the event into overtime. Zane Smith, leader of 32 circuits, tangled with pole winner and leader of 55 laps, Ty Majeski in turn two. Majeski finished 30th while Smith scored 20th.
The series heads to Nashville Superspeedway next on June 23rd, 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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