Trackin’ Trucks: Grant Enfinger Wins at IRP

Credit: Debbie Ross for Skirts and Scuffs

Grant Enfinger was seeded ninth in the 2022 post-season standings coming into the first round of the NASCAR truck playoffs. A victory at Lucas Oil Raceway Park in Brownsburg, Indiana makes him the first driver to advance to Round 2 of the Camping World Truck Series playoffs. 

Enfinger led four times during the TSport 200. He passed Zane Smith on the final lap of overtime to earn his first victory of the season. 

"We've just been off a little bit as an organization,” Enfinger said. “We‘ve been working so hard because we've been sucking. It hurts to say it, but we've had a terrible season to this point. But we had a great Chevrolet all day. It felt like every time we got into the lead, a caution came out, and it put Hensley (the crew chief) in a bad spot. I knew from experience to just trust his gut.”

Ben Rhodes finished second after passing Smith for the position. Smith held on to third, while Stewart Friesen and Corey Heim rounded out the top-five finishers. 

Tyler Ankrum finished sixth, Layne Riggs (the son of former NASCAR driver Scott Riggs) finished seventh in his CWTS debut, while Ty Majeski, Matt Crafton, and John Hunter Nemechek finished eighth through 10th place, respectively. 

Nemechek’s finish came during an eventful race that went from the Kyle Busch Motorsports driver leading the race, being punted into the outside wall, to being the one who initiated the spinning. 

Nemechek had smooth sailing during the race's first half, as he led the first 64 laps to earn the Stage 1 victory. The second half of the race wasn’t quite as the 25-year-old would’ve liked. 

Nemechek was spun by Zane Smith on the final restart of regulation during Lap 206, but then was the reason the race went into overtime after he spun the current leader Taylor Gray. 

Nemechek insisted that the spin was not intentional. 

“Sometimes you‘re the bug and sometimes you‘re the windshield, and tonight we were the bug,” Nemechek said, “I made a mistake early on and spun myself, and we had a restart there at the end on old tires.

“Everybody (else) had fresher tires. I tried driving down in the bottom of (Turn) 3 underneath the 17 (Gray), and I just kept sliding and accidentally got into his left rear. I tried to stay off him. That team has their opinion, I have my opinion, and I‘m sure we‘ll talk at some point.”

A Look Ahead (Into The Playoffs) 

The Camping World Truck Series has two weeks off before they resume with the second race of the series playoffs. 

Crafton and Christian Eckes, who finished 16th at IRP, are below the cutoff after the first playoff race.

Two drivers will be eliminated after Kansas (September 9th), but before that, they’ll head to Richmond. Nemechek is the defending winner at the three-quarter mile track. 

Don’t miss the Camping World Truck Series on Saturday, August 13th at 8 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1.