Pit Stops : Pocono Raceway

• Friday, July 12th, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Holly Cain

Just three races left in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series regular season

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series returns to competition after a week break with only three races remaining to set the 2024 10-driver Playoff field.

McAnally-Hilgemann Racing driver Christian Eckes shows up at Pocono Raceway for Friday’s CRC Brakleen 175 (5:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) fresh off one of the most dominating performances of the season. The three-race winner led every lap in winning the most recent Truck Series race, two weeks ago at Nashville.

There are four drivers with guaranteed Playoff positions – four-race winner Corey Heim, three-race winner Christian Eckes, two-race winner Nick Sanchez and a first-time series’ winner, Rajah Caruth. Ty Majeski is fifth in the Playoff standings with a healthy 144-point edge on the cutoff line. Tyler Ankrum, Taylor Gray, reigning series champ Ben Rhodes, Grant Enfinger and Tanner Gray are currently above the Playoff cut line.

Tanner Gray holds only a slim 14-point advantage on Daniel Dye and a 17-point advantage on veteran Stewart Friesen in that final position. Three-time series champion Matt Crafton is 54 points behind Gray.

NASCAR Cup Series’ champion Kyle Busch earned his third Pocono Truck Series win last year. There are no former winners entered this week. Heim, who has won three races just since May, finished runner-up to Busch last summer and was fourth in his debut at the Tricky Triangle in 2022.

A pair of NASCAR Cup Series drivers are on the Pocono entry list. Ross Chastain will run the No. 45 Neice Motorsports Chevrolet and former Truck Series champion Zane Smith will drive the No. 91 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet.

Heim, Taylor Gray and Dye will all pull double-duty competing in both the trucks and Xfinity Series races at Pocono.

• CRC Brakleen 175
• Pole Winner: Christian Eckes
• Age: 23
• Team : No 19 - NAPA Auto Care Chevrolet
• Owner: Bill McAnally
• Crew Chief: Charles Denike
• Christian Eckes won the Pole Award for the CRC Brakleen 175 with a lap of 0 seconds, 0000 mph
• This is his eighth pole in 105 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races
• This is his second pole and 12th top-10 start in 2024
• This is his first pole in six races at Pocono Raceway
• Corey Heim (second) posted his seventh top-10 start of 2024 and his second in three races at Pocono Raceway
• Rajah Caruth (third) posted his second top-10 start at Pocono Raceway It is his seventh in 14 races this season
• Layne Riggs (17th) was the fastest qualifying rookie

• Friday, July 12th, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Holly Cain

Corey Heim earns his fifth win this season at Pocono Raceway

Corey Heim earned his series’ best fifth victory of the season in Friday evening’s rain-interrupted CRC Brakleen 175 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. The 21-year old swept both stages and led 55 of the 70 laps to add to his trophy total.

But, he had to battle competitors and climate for this win.

The Georgian’s No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota led Grant Enfinger’s Chevrolet across the finish line by .867-second to take his 10th career victory – quickly re-establishing himself as the race leader – again – on the final re-start with three laps remaining.

“It started from the very beginning, we’ve had such a close bond,’’ Heim said of his strong working relationship with crew chief Scott Zippidelli and the career-best single season win mark.

“Week in and week out, so proud of these guys, can’t say enough about them,’’ Heim said.

Rain drops covered the windshields of the trucks – particularly in Turn 2 of the 2.5-mile Pocono track – and eventually brought out a caution flag for weather with only nine laps remaining in the race. But after parking on pit road for just over 10 minutes of red-flag stoppage, the field returned to the track for a lap only to come back down pit road again as the rain got heavier with seven laps remaining.

Not surprisingly Heim immediately told his crew the rain was substantial. Enfinger, who was 2.2-seconds behind Heim at the time of the initial red flag, was optimistic it was going to be a brief shower. NASCAR had already determined before the green flag that the race would be official no matter the circumstance at 8:20 p.m. ET – approximately one hour and 10 minutes after the first red flag waved Friday evening.

But the sun shone on the re-start allowing enough laps to complete the race – a light rain beginning again during driver’s post-race interviews.

Enfinger’s second-place finish equals his best mark of the year – also at North Wilkesboro, N.C. – and certainly helped solidify the CR7 Motorsports driver’s position in the Playoff standings. He is seventh place with only two races remaining before the 2024 Playoffs begin Aug. 25 at the Milwaukee Mile Speedway.

McAnally Hilgemann’s Christian Eckes finished third, followed by TRICON Garage’s Taylor Gray and NASCAR Cup Series regular Ross Chastain, driving for Niece Motorsports.

The closing laps featured close racing up front with many among the lead pack having to be conscious about saving fuel – a variable then made moot with the rain stoppage. Heim was trying to hold off the hard-charging, highly-motivated veteran Enfinger, who was racing for his first win of the season while Eckes had to hold off Chastain for third place.

The pole-winner Eckes led the race’s opening 11 laps in the No. 19 McAnally Hilgemann Chevy and finished second to race-winner Heim in both stages. But a slow pit stop during the secong stage break forced Eckes to play catch-up. He restarted 10^th but was up to fourth place within five laps and continued to move forward.

He rallied to that ultimate third-place showing giving him a series best 12-race streak of Top-10 finishes and he still holds a 32-point edge on Heim for the regular season championship.

The first caution flag for a race incident came out with 26 laps remaining when Rajah Caruth spun on track. At the time Heim led Chastain by almost 3-seconds. As the trucks drove under caution, drivers were alerted that rain was imminent, so the front-runners did not pit.

Chase Purdy, Stewart Friesen, Matt Crafton, Dean Thompson and Caruth rounded out the Top-10.

With only two races remaining to set the 10-driver Playoff field, Daniel Dye holds a single-point edge on Tanner Gray in that 10^th position and a slight four-point advantage over Friesen.

Only four fulltime series drivers have won this season to claim automatic Playoff berths including Heim, Eckes, Friday’s 13^thplace finisher Nick Sanchez and Caruth.

• Drivers Entered: 36
• Laps Scheduled: 60
• Laps Actual: 70 - NASCAR OVERTIME!
• Margin of Victory: 0.867 Seconds
• Time of Race: 1 Hours 32 Minutes 42 Seconds
• Average Speed: 113.269
• Cautions: 4 for 17 laps
• Lead Changes: 3
• Green Flag Passes: 1,103 (20.8 passes per green flag lap)

• CRC Brakleen 175
• Race Winner: Corey Heim
• Age: 22
• Team : No 11 - Safelite Toyota
• Owner: Johnny Gray
• Crew Chief: Scott Zipadelli
• Corey Heim won the CRC Brakleen 175, his 10th victory in 55 CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races
• This is his fifth victory and 12th top-10 finish in 2024
• This is his first victory and third top-10 finish in three races at Pocono Raceway
• Grant Enfinger (second) posted his fourth top-10 finish in eight races at Pocono Raceway It is his sixth top-10 finish in 2024
• Christian Eckes (third) posted his fourth top-10 finish in six races at Pocono Raceway
• Thad Moffitt (29th) was the highest finishing rookie
• Christian Eckes leads the point standings by 32 points over Corey Heim