Entry List : Homestead Miami Speedway

• Thursday, October 24th, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Holly Cain

CRAFTSMAN Truck Series to kickoff Saturday doubleheader of racing at Homestead-Miami

After a week off, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series returns to Playoff competition this weekend as the opening race of a Saturday doubleheader in South Florida, the Baptist Health 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway (Noon ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Veteran Grant Enfinger became the first driver to earn a position in the Nov. 8 Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway – capturing the win at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway two weeks ago.

This weekend’s race on the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami track will go a long way to deciding who will be joining the driver of the No. 9 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet to race for the big trophy. The season’s winningest driver, TRICON Garage’s Corey Heim holds a healthy 30-point advantage over the Championship 4 Round cutline heading into the green flag, with McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Christian Eckes 29 points to the good and ThorSport Racing’s Ty Majeski five points up in that final transfer position over Spire Motorsports’ Rajah Caruth.

Tricon Garage’s Taylor Gray is 13 points out of the top-four, followed by REV Racing’s Nick Sanchez (-20) and McAnally-Hilgemann’s Tyler Ankrum in eighth place, 23 points down.

It’s actually the tightest Playoff battle among NASCAR’s three premier series- both how close – a five-point margin – it is from that pivotal fourth place position to being out of the title chase in fifth and also the relatively tight gap (-23 points) from eighth place to fourth.

Last year was a “Playoff Day” in the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race at Homestead-Miami with Carson Hocevar leading a quartet of championship-eligible drivers that swept the top-four finishing positions. The only former winner in the field this weekend is Majeski, who claimed the trophy in 2022.

The Wisconsin-native and two-time winner this season is three-for-three in top-10s at Homestead-Miami and led a race best 67 laps en route to his win there two years ago.

Heim is another driver to watch, scoring top-five finishes in both his Homestead-Miami starts, including a best of third last year and fifth place in 2022. Enfinger has the most starts (seven) at the track among the Playoff eight with a best showing of runner-up in 2018.

Practice for the race is Friday afternoon at 2:35 p.m. ET, followed by qualifying at 3:05 p.m. ET.

• Baptist Health 200
• Pole Winner: Corey Heim
• Age: 22
• Team : No 11 - Safelite Toyota
• Owner: Johnny Gray
• Crew Chief: Scott Zipadelli
• Corey Heim won the Pole Award for the Baptist Health 200 with a lap of 32715 seconds, 165062 mph
• This is his seventh pole in 62 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races
• This is his first pole and 13th top-10 start in 2024
• This is his first pole in three races at Homestead-Miami Speedway
• Taylor Gray (second) posted his ninth top-10 start of 2024 and his first in two races at Homestead-Miami Speedway
• Rajah Caruth (third) posted his first top-10 start at Homestead-Miami Speedway It is his 11th in 21 races this season
• Layne Riggs (13th) was the fastest qualifying rookie

• Saturday, October 26th, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Holly Cain

Grant Enfinger grabs second Truck Playoffs’ Round of 8 win at Homestead-Miami

A strategy call from the pit box coupled with a patient move forward landed veteran Grant Enfinger his second consecutive NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Playoff race win in Saturday’s Baptist Health 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway while his closest competitors ran out of fuel behind him in the closing laps.

Enfinger, who won the opening race in this Playoff round at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway three weeks ago denied the other seven Playoff racers a chance at an automatic bid into championship contention. So now at least two drivers will advance based on points-earned with only next Saturday’s race at Martinsville, Va. to settle which other three drivers move onward into the title fight.

Enfinger’s No. 9 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet suffered damage on an early race restart, and the team opted to move to a different pit strategy – taking tires and fuel on lap 80 while most of the day’s previous race leaders opted to pit later on Lap 100. Ultimately Enfinger was able to both save enough fuel and race off to enough advantage that no one was able to catch him as he raced away to his 12th career victory.

Taking the lead for good with 22 laps remaining, Enfinger claimed a 17.5-second win over ThorSport Racing’s Ty Majeski as other trucks on a similar alternate strategy to Enfinger – the No. 38 driven by Layne Riggs and the No. 2 driven by Nick Sanchez – began running out of fuel in the final two laps.

Enfinger had enough fuel he even did a burnout to celebrate the win.

“At the end of the day, [crew chief] Jeff [Stankiewicz] just had the best truck out here,” said Enfinger, who actually made up a lap on track after contact on a race re-start cut his tire earlier in the day.

“Our car was really fast after about five laps yesterday [in practice] and was the same way today. Jeff did a good job managing me with the tires and then managing me with the fuel. I feel like I saved at least 20 percent more than I did in the first run. Jeff was on me pretty hard obviously and the 38 [Layne Riggs] ran out and the 2 [Nick Sanchez] did too.

“Hard to beat these two weeks,” he added with a grin.

“We’ve had potential all year,” the 38-year-old Alabama native continued. “There’s been sometimes, I haven’t executed and sometimes we’ve just had bad luck. Maybe it’s just time we get our momentum now.”

Connor Mosack finished a career best third-place in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports truck. The day’s most dominant truck, driven by TRICON Garage’s Playoff driver Corey Heim finished fourth after leading a race best 68 of the 134 laps. Heim continues to lead the championship standings and is now 49 points above fifth place with the top-four drivers advancing to the title race.

“Overall, a good day for points, but disappointing,” said Heim, who has a series best six wins on the year. “We were so fast last year and wanted to come back and redeem ourselves and win the race of course. But no complaints as far as points go, makes Martinsville a little bit easier if we put together a decent day.”

McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Playoff driver Tyler Ankrum, finished fifth – his best finish of the Playoff run to date. Veteran Stewart Friesen was sixth, followed by Daniel Dye.

And three Playoff drivers – Spire Motorsports’ Rajah Caruth, McAnally-Hilgemann’s Christian Eckes and Tricon Garage’s Taylor Gray rounded out the top-10.

Heading into the next race, Heim has that 49-point edge above the cutoff line. Eckes is 38 points to the good and Majeski now holds a 22-point advantage. Caruth is ranked fifth, the first driver outside the Playoff bubble, 22 points back. Gray is 24 points back and Ankrum and Sanchez – who finished 13th after running out of fuel – are 41 and 43 points behind, respectively.

Frankie Muniz, the popular actor from the Malcolm in the Middle television series, finished 33rd in his series debut, his truck suffering mechanical problems early in the race.

The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races in the Zip Buy Now, Pay Later 200 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway next Friday evening (6 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) to settle the Championship Four field. Eckes won the race there this April.

• Drivers Entered: 34
• Laps Scheduled: 134
• Margin of Victory: 17.516 Seconds
• Time of Race: 1 Hours 41 Minutes 13 Seconds
• Average Speed: 119.150
• Cautions: 3 for 19 laps
• Lead Changes: 9
• Green Flag Passes: 1,556 (13.5 passes per green flag lap)

• Baptist Health 200
• Race Winner: Grant Enfinger
• Age: 39
• Team : No 9 - Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet
• Owner: Larry Berg
• Crew Chief: Jeff Stankiewicz
• Grant Enfinger won the Baptist Health 200, his 12th victory in 194 CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races
• This is his second victory and 11th top-10 finish in 2024
• This is his first victory and fifth top-10 finish in eight races at Homestead-Miami Speedway
• Ty Majeski (second) posted his fourth top-10 finish in four races at Homestead-Miami Speedway It is his 13th top-10 finish in 2024
• Connor Mosack (third) posted his first top-10 finish in one races at Homestead-Miami Speedway
• Layne Riggs (22nd) was the highest finishing rookie
• Corey Heim leads the point standings by 9 points over Grant Enfinger