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Loop Data Box Score

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

Craftsman150

Phoenix Raceway

November 3rd, 2023

Race #23 of the 2023 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Season

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Craftsman150
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Laps Scheduled: 150
- Extended to 179 laps
Miles Raced : 182.9
Time of Race : 02 Hours 27 minutes 32 seconds
Average Speed: 72.797 mph
Margin of Victory : 00.421 seconds
Cautions: 12
Caution Laps: 77
Lead Changes: 10

Ben Rhodes is congratulated by NASCAR President Steve Phelps — Avondale, Arizona - November 5th, 2021: Ben Rhodes, driver of the #99 Bombardier LearJet 75 Toyota, is congratulated by NASCAR President Steve Phelps after winning the 2021 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Championship at Phoenix Raceway. Photo by Jared C Tilton | Getty Images

Driver	ST	50%	10%	FIN	HI	LW	AVG	PC D	Pass	Passed	PS D	Q PASS	Fast	%T15	TOT Led	Laps	Rating	TOT PTS
Christian Eckes	8	4	4	1	1	14	4.7	+7	27	21	+6	26	10	100.0%	36	179	118.7	51
Jake Garcia	14	9	5	2	2	17	8.0	+12	47	29	+18	42	2	99.4%	0	179	94.1	37
Chase Purdy	5	7	3	3	1	18	6.3	+2	33	27	+6	27	1	97.8%	8	179	99.9	43
Jesse Love	10	12	8	4	4	26	11.2	+6	54	69	-15	33	0	86.0%	0	179	84.5	33
Ben Rhodes	6	6	2	5	1	19	6.9	+1	53	42	+11	40	1	96.1%	0	179	101.5	32
Grant Enfinger	17	8	22	6	3	22	9.5	+11	66	36	+30	44	0	86.0%	0	179	95.2	31
Dean Thompson	15	22	10	7	1	25	14.3	+8	53	77	-24	32	0	60.9%	0	179	74.8	30
Kaden Honeycutt	27	28	15	8	4	31	22.2	+19	69	74	-5	13	0	17.3%	0	179	63.7	29
Tanner Gray	25	15	12	9	1	25	15.6	+16	77	71	+6	27	0	50.3%	0	179	71.3	28
Nicholas Sanchez	3	11	11	10	1	26	9.7	-7	57	42	+15	31	1	79.3%	5	179	92.4	33
Matt Crafton	28	16	9	11	6	28	14.3	+17	95	92	+3	35	0	54.2%	0	179	77.7	26
Rajah Caruth	9	23	17	12	8	27	16.5	-3	74	78	-4	24	0	43.6%	0	179	74.7	25
Lawless Alan	31	29	21	13	11	31	25.3	+18	45	61	-16	4	0	5.6%	0	179	52.7	24
Ty Majeski	2	3	6	14	1	24	6.9	-12	60	36	+24	33	20	84.4%	48	179	116.6	41
Hailie Deegan	23	24	14	15	12	36	24.3	+8	40	56	-16	2	0	11.2%	0	179	50.5	22
Christian Rose	32	31	16	16	13	36	27.6	+16	35	56	-21	2	0	8.4%	0	179	40.3	21
Spencer Davis	34	32	20	17	15	36	28.9	+17	23	29	-6	0	0	1.1%	0	179	37.0	20
Corey Heim	1	1	24	18	1	27	7.6	-17	53	30	+23	34	21	79.3%	47	179	108.9	19
Nick Leitz	35	30	23	19	17	36	29.6	+16	29	32	-3	0	0	0.0%	0	179	39.2	18
Tyler Hill	36	33	19	20	8	36	29.6	+16	20	26	-6	0	0	0.6%	0	179	37.0	17
Colby Howard	26	25	18	21	3	35	20.4	+5	64	87	-23	9	0	17.3%	0	179	53.3	16
Tyler Ankrum	19	26	13	22	9	35	22.9	-3	56	65	-9	3	0	11.2%	0	178	48.2	15
Taylor Gray	12	5	26	23	3	27	12.2	-11	48	48	+0	36	0	71.5%	0	177	77.8	21
Stewart Friesen	20	14	27	24	4	35	19.8	-4	63	39	+24	29	0	34.1%	0	175	63.0	13
Zane Smith	4	2	1	25	1	23	5.7	-21	48	23	+25	39	31	87.7%	35	172	109.1	29
Sean Hingorani	21	34	25	26	21	36	29.4	-5	11	18	-7	0	0	0.0%	0	167	44.2	11
Jack Wood	7	18	7	27	3	27	16.7	-20	79	81	-2	11	0	41.3%	0	162	64.5	10
Derek Kraus	16	13	28	28	6	27	18.3	-12	65	68	-3	26	1	44.7%	0	156	56.5	9
Carson Hocevar	13	10	29	29	2	29	12.5	-16	48	46	+2	28	0	73.7%	0	146	73.2	8
Stefan Parsons	24	27	30	30	6	34	25.3	-6	44	52	-8	0	0	3.4%	0	128	57.2	7
Bayley Currey	11	19	31	31	11	27	23.9	-20	46	59	-13	5	0	7.3%	0	128	59.8	6
Daniel Dye	22	17	32	32	10	26	21.5	-10	44	58	-14	9	0	12.9%	0	128	66.5	5
Jake Drew	18	20	33	33	12	34	24.1	-15	47	45	+2	16	0	23.5%	0	100	72.5	4
Conner Jones	29	21	34	34	11	33	26.5	-5	53	47	+6	8	0	10.1%	0	100	60.0	3
Marco Andretti	33	35	35	35	27	35	33.6	-2	18	18	+0	0	0	0.0%	0	54	28.8	2
Chris Hacker	30	36	36	36	25	36	34.2	-6	13	22	-9	0	0	0.0%	0	53	29.0	1

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Race Fast Facts

Phoenix Raceway
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship
Race Winner: Christian Eckes
Age: 22
Team : No. 19 - NAPA Auto Care Chevrolet
Owner: McAnally Hilgemann
Crew Chief: Charles Denike
Christian Eckes won the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Championship, his fifth victory in 91 CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races.
This is his fourth victory and 13th top-10 finish in 2023.
This is his first victory and fourth top-10 finish in five races at Phoenix Raceway.
Jake Garcia (second) posted his first top-10 finish in two races at Phoenix Raceway. It is his ninth top-10 finish in 2023.
Chase Purdy (third) posted his first top-10 finish in four races at Phoenix Raceway.
Jake Garcia (second) was the highest finishing rookie.
Ben Rhodes has won the 2023 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Championship.
Nick Sanchez wins the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors.
Chevrolet has won the 2023 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Manufacturer's Championship.
CHAMPIONSHIP FAST FACTS
Driver Champion: Ben Rhodes
Team: No. 99 ThorSport Racing Ford
Ben Rhodes has won his second NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship becoming the fifth driver in series history to win multiple titles; joining NASCAR Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday Jr. (2009, '07, '98, ‘96), Jack Sprague (2001, '99, '97), Todd Bodine (2010, '06) and his ThorSport Racing teammate Matt Crafton (2013, 2014, 2019).
Rhodes is one of 20 different drivers to win the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series championship all-time.
Rhodes finished fifth the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck season finale at Phoenix Raceway to win the title.
Rhodes finished the 2023 season with 23 starts, one win, seven top fives and 14 top 10s.
During the Playoffs this season, Rhodes has posted three top fives and four top 10s in seven starts.
Rhodes, from Louisville, Kentucky, is the first and only NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series champion from the state of Kentucky.
Owner Champion: Duke and Rhonda Thorson, ThorSport Racing
This is ThorSport Racing's fifth all-time NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series driver championship (Matt Crafton, 2013, 2014, 2019; Ben Rhodes, 2021, 2023) – the most driver titles by an organization in the series all-time.
This is ThorSport Racing's second NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series owner championship (2021, 2023).
ThorSport Racing is one of 16 different organizations to win NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series owner championship.
ThorSport Racing has posted 28 wins in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series among seven different drivers – Terry Cook, Matt Crafton, Johnny Sauter, Ben Rhodes, Chase Briscoe, Joey Logano and Ty Majeski.
Owners Duke and Rhonda Thorson fielded their first truck in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series with driver Terry Cook at the Milwaukee Mile Speedway on July 6, 1996.
Crew Chief Champion: Rich Lushes
This is Rich Lushes' second career NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series championship (2012, 2023) – both with driver Ben Rhodes.
Lushes is one of 23 different crew chiefs to win a NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series championship, and the sixth different crew chief to win multiple titles; joining Carl Joiner (2013, 2014, 2019), Dennis Connor (1997, 1999, 2001), Mike Hillman Jr. (2006, 2010), Rick Ren (2007, 2009) and Ryan ‘Rudy' Fugle (2015, 2017).
Lushes has three career NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series victories – all with driver Ben Rhodes.

Race Recap

Eckes wins thrilling CRAFTSMAN Truck race at Phoenix, Rhodes banks second career championship

November 3rd, 2023

By Holly Cain - NASCAR Wire Service

Cautions, re-starts, retribution, extra laps and high-action marked Friday night’s NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway. And that was just the final 50 laps.

In the end, ThorSport Racing’s Ben Rhodes claimed his second series championship in the last three years with a hard-earned fifth-place finish in the No. 99 Ford while McAnally Hilgemann Racing’s Christian Eckes raced to his fourth win of the season by a slight .421-seconds over rookie teammate Jake Garcia in four dramatic overtime periods.

That’s the conclusion to an evening that featured 12 caution periods, 29 laps of overtime competition and plenty of high-stakes racing – especially among the four championship contenders that earned a chance to settle the season title.

Perhaps indicative of the night, Rhodes’ finish and ultimate trophy haul wasn’t secure until the checkered flag with championship runner-up Grant Enfinger giving it his all in the No. 23 GMS Racing Chevrolet coming off Turn 4 in an all-out pursuit to the very end.

Both Rhodes and Enfinger had survived close calls in the overtime laps. Rhodes collided with Zane Smith racing for the lead – hitting Smith’s truck when it appeared Smith missed a shift out front in the second overtime restart. Enfinger had close calls in two of the four extra-lap periods and still was able to pull off that final push forward; ultimately finishing one position behind Rhodes in the standings.

The Regular Season Champion and race polesitter Corey Heim finished 18th after contact from fellow Championship 4 driver Carson Hocevar with 30 laps of regulation remaining in the scheduled 150-lap race.

“I can’t even believe it," the 26-year-old Kentucky native Rhodes said of his dramatic title win. “It’s just so awesome, man. To go 25 laps into overtime, do you know what that feels like? It’s crazy. I didn’t think we were going to make it. I thought we were going to pop a tire, that anything that could have gone wrong was going to go wrong.

“Grant [Enfinger] almost got me. But hats off to him, he ran a great race. I wouldn’t’ want to race against anybody else for the championship. He raced me clean and I respect the heck out of him for it."

“I saw him," Rhodes said of Enfinger’s final push forward in the last corner. “He went for everything, but he ran me clean and I thank him for that. That’s what these championships are all about."

Enfinger, whose GMS Racing team is closing shop at the end of the season, was especially gutted to come so very close to his first championship.

“I don’t know," Enfinger said of doing anything differently on that last lap.

“Obviously we got loose there at the end," he continued. “Maybe if he didn’t have such a good run down the backstretch, we’d be able to make that pass. It’s a shame the championship came down to a race like that with 15 green-white-checkers or whatever it was. I feel like we did everything we could to win this and just got used up."

The other two championship contenders, Heim and Hocevar had a more contentious situation on-track. Heim, whose 47 laps out front in the No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota were second most laps led on the night, was actually leading the championship-eligible drivers when Hocevar hit him going into Turn 2 with 30 laps remaining. The contact sent Heim’s Toyota into Stewart Friesen’s Toyota which hit the wall and brought out a caution. Hocevar continued on and Heim had to pit for repairs and went down a lap.

Heim viewed the hit as intentional and later in the race, collided with Hocevar bringing out another caution period. Heim insisted his car just wasn’t steering properly at the time, while Hocevar said he had fully expected the payback. It was enough to sideline Hocevar’s No. 42 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet which was credited with a 29th-place finish from the garage.

“My only goal was to try slow him down," Hocevar said. “I didn’t want to do that at all. With my track record, I can’t sit here and say I didn’t mean to. I just messed up. I was trying really hard to slow him up and just messed it up.

“I feel bad I robbed him of that and feel sorry for that," an apologetic Hocevar added of Heim’s championship chances. “I just messed up."

The 21-year-old Heim had a streak of 15 consecutive top-10 finishes coming into the race and was considered the favorite by many. He had three wins on the season in only his first fulltime year of competition.

“It was a great year, a phenomenal year for us and our worst finish in like six months," a disappointed Heim said. “Really put together a good race and really hoped the guys would race clean, I have a lot of respect for everybody in the field. But clearly, I don’t anymore. It is what it is, it’s part of racing.

As for the later contact with Hocevar, Heim said it was purely coincidental, “It wasn’t retaliation. I had no side force, he put it on my door and I wrecked [into him]."

“I’ve been racing Carson for a long time, racing since I was eight or nine years-old," Heim said later. “That’s kind of just what he does. He’ll wreck you and apologize and do it again the next week. So that’s not going to be the last time he does it and certainly the first time he’d done it. I’ve known him for a long time. … it is what it is. I completely expected it."

As for his victory, the 22-year-old Eckes tried to reconcile the championship race win with having just been eliminated from Playoff contention. He had a win (at Kansas) and a pair of runner-up finishes (Indianapolis Raceway Park and Bristol, Tenn.) during the Playoff stretch but was eliminated after finished of 19th and 20th in the two races leading into the championship finale.

“Those two races that killed the whole Playoffs pretty much and that’s just kind of the nature of it," Eckes said. “I didn’t do my job last week and really the week before either.

“That gets us out and that puts us in this situation, but it’s motivating for next year and it was motivating for this race too.

“This one kind of stings, I know it’s a win, but the stupid mistakes the last two weeks of a near perfect Playoffs cost us a championship," Eckes added.

“It’s kind of hard to be happy right now, but overall, just super proud of everybody for the year that we’ve had and just ready for 2024.

Chase Purdy, Jesse Love and Rhodes rounded out the top five. Enfinger, Dean Thompson, Kaden Honeycutt, Tanner Gray and Nick Sanchez completed the top 10. It was a career best finish for the runner-up Garcia as well as Love and Honeycutt.