Trackin’ Trucks: Grant Enfinger Wins at Daytona

Credit: Debbie Ross for Skirts and Scuffs

Grant Enfinger earned his third career Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series victory on Friday during the series season opener at Daytona International Speedway.

Enfinger held off Jordan Anderson by .010 seconds in an overtime photo finish, winning for the first time since September 2018 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” Enfinger said. “It’s the 100th win for Ford in the series–unbelievable for them. God’s blessed us with a great opportunity to come out here and pull it off tonight.”

Anderson was ecstatic with his second place finish at the 1.5-mile track. The driver/owner was door-to-door with Enfinger in the final lap, but the two made contact which slowed the No. 3 K-Seal Chevrolet down.

“I came here in 2015 and emptied my bank account to try to come down here and run.” Anderson explained, “To be in a position to even go for a win at Daytona, man, I’m a kid that just wanted to go racing from South Carolina…”

“I thought we set him up good. We tried to follow Ross (Chastain) there and push him. I know he got loose, and I got up on Grant’s bumper there in (Turn) 4 and got a good run. It was like NASCAR Thunder 2003 all over again. I’m like, ‘God, I can do this!’ And I pushed him out of the way, and I thought we had it.”

Codie Rohrbaugh finished third, Derek Kraus fourth, and Natalie Decker rounded out the top five, earning her the honors of best finish by a female in Truck Series history.

A 14-truck pile-up occurred on Lap 98 after contact between Johnny Sauter and Ben Rhodes sent the No. 99 spinning, collecting Stewart Friesen, Austin Hill, and Matt Crafton, among others.

Ty Majeski finished 32nd of a 32-truck field after an accident on Lap 17 brought out the red flag for eight minutes.

Majeski ended up on his roof after a push from Todd Gilliland to Tate Fogleman created a chain-reaction that resulted in the No. 45 Niece Motorsports driver flipping and sliding on his top before coming to a stop.

“It’s just unfortunate,” Majeski said. “It’s just a product of this (superspeedway) racing… It wasn’t a good feeling (hanging upside-down). I’m not hurt, thankfully—just my pride. It’s all good. We’ll live to race another day and go get ‘em next weekend.”

A Look Ahead

The Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series heads to Sin City on Friday, February 21, 2019.

Kyle Busch held off Brett Moffitt by more than a second one year ago at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Can a series regular hold off the defending Cup Series champion in the second race of the season?

Find out on February 21st at 9 p.m./ET on Fox Sports 1.