‘A lot of soul searching’ led Grant Enfinger to Truck Series win at Kansas Speedway
The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series is billed as a proving ground, where tomorrow’s Cup Series hopefuls can cut their teeth and learn the finer points of their craft. Learning curves, growing pains — both were on display in Saturday night’s caution-filled Heart of America 200 at Kansas Speedway.
In a field full of rookies and other young drivers, Truck Series veteran Grant Enfinger took control down the stretch and cruised to victory.
“We haven’t had a dominant truck like this in a long time,” Enfinger said. “We were lights out. We had the best truck out here. It’s been a dismal year and a half. I know we came up with a win last year, but overall, we were sluggish. The first seven races this year we were a little sluggish. I was disappointed in our execution. The biggest thing is these guys just brought me an unbelievable truck.”
It was his eighth career Truck series checkered flag (with all eight coming at different tracks) and first this season.
“A lot of soul searching went into this truck, and when you show up with a truck like that, it makes everybody look a lot better,” Enfinger said. “The biggest thing is having that kind of speed.”
Prior to Saturday, Enfinger only led a handful of laps this season. On Saturday, his truck proved to be too much for the field, especially after a large wreck on lap 78 claimed several would-be contenders.
Enfinger charged to the lead with 31 laps to go, passing 2022 Kansas spring race winner Zane Smith and Corey Heim. Enfinger never looked back after that. He finished leading 65 laps. He didn’t mince words when discussing the decisive move to the front.
“Zane helped me out. We side drafted each other a little bit there. But at the end of the day what made that pass possible is we had the best truck out here,” Enfinger said. “I think this team is capable of doing this each and every week, and I’m glad we sealed the deal today.”
Heim came up short of celebrating his second victory of the season.
“I think that last caution really played a role in the finish there. (Enfinger) was clearly the best truck, and a couple of them got wiped out in that big wreck earlier,” Heim said. “If we didn’t get that last caution I think we were going to be in good shape. This is a big step in the right direction for us.”
Points leader Ty Majeski finished a season-worst 25th. He was involved in an incident with rookie Rajah Caruth with 62 laps to go. It ended Caruth’s evening and took Majeski out of contention for the win.
“We had a long ways to go. I was trying to cover the top, and he just kind of hooked me there. I didn’t double-move or anything. I picked the top there, and he just took me,” Caruth said when viewing the crash for the first time.
The two had a calm discussion after the race, where each explained their point of view.
“He did a slide job on me coming off of (turn) four, which was fine. He comes to the bottom and blocked the bottom. I went up and had a pretty big run, and obviously blocked us all the way into the fence,” Majeski said. “I wanted to hear his thoughts. … We agreed to disagree.”
Smith, Stewart Friesen, and Ross Chastain rounded out the top five.