It’s week 2 in the NASCAR season. That means we’ve gone down to the Peach State to take on the superspeedway in Hotlanta! Starting off Saturday’s double-header were the truckers in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. That’s right, the stars of the future aimed to wheel their heavy F-150s, Silverados, and Tundras around this tight, compacted Atlanta Motor Speedway for the FR8 208! How did the truckers fare on this mini-Daytona? Let’s break it down! Here’s everything that went down in the NASCAR Craftsmen Truck Series race at Atlanta!
Per Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports, today’s stage layout was as follows:
The teams were granted 4 sets of tires with an expected fuel window being between 50 and 53 laps. No trucks had to go to the rear.
The race started with the four McAnally-Hilgemann trucks in the lead. Pole-sitter Connor Mosack led a train around the top with the top-7 positions all being made up of Chevrolets. From there, the Fords took over. Layne Riggs led the Blue Oval manufacturer in the 8th position, with the ThorSport cars filling out the field to the 12th position. The highest-running Toyota early on was Stewart Friesen in 13th. Corey Heim was behind him.
The opening stage of the race ran relatively uncontested. Connor Mosack led all 29 of the 30 laps in Stage 1. He was passed on the backstretch coming to the green and white checkered flag, being sandwiched by his teammate Jack Wood and Layne Riggs. The trio rocketed into turns 3 and 4, running neck and neck and neck. However, it was Wood who ended up prevailing on the outside. Wood drove his number 91 MHR Chevy truck to the stage victory. For this win, Wood earned 10 points and 1 Playoff point. Grant Enfinger followed him to a 2nd place finish to end the stage. Layne Riggs crossed the line in 3rd.
Following the conclusion of the opening stage, Layne Riggs quickly came down pit road, relinquishing his stage points. He radioed into his team, saying that there was an issue with the starter. On pit road, he missed his pit stall and once out on track, lost power. He ended up going several laps down.
The entire field came down pit road for service during the stage break. The first driver off pit road was Grant Enfinger who led the field to the green to kick off the second stage. After the drop of the green flag, Kyle Busch wasted little time taking control of the race. He formed a train on the outside leading the likes of Ty Majeski, Corey Heim, Jack Wood, and Michael McDowell.
The stage, much like the first one, went on without incident. After taking two laps to go, Corey Heim started to drop through the pack like a rock, citing a loss of fuel pressure. As all of that was going down, Kyle Busch led the pack around the final time, scoring the stage 2 win. Defending champion Ty Majeski crossed the line in 2nd, scoring 9 stage points. Michael McDowell in the Spire 07 finished the stage in 3rd.
During this stage break, a number of drivers had problems. Corey Heim was still on pit road, having issues getting his truck refired. He ended up going four laps down. Also having problems was Ty Majeski, who ran out of fuel under caution. He ultimately went 1 lap down. Meanwhile, leader Kyle Busch got blocked in by Heim and was slow to leave his pit stall. This meant that he relinquished the lead.
Once the green flag dropped to kick off the final stage of the race, there was a heightened sense of urgency in the air. Connor Mosack led the field to the green along with teammate Daniel Hemric. Coming back through the field and fast was Kyle Busch with his sight set once again on the lead. During the first few laps of this cycle, a few drivers had problems. Michael McDowell checked up and lost a lot of ground on the outside. He radioed into his crew stating that he might have a loose wheel. Nathan Byrd also got into the wall in Turn-3 but we stayed green for the time being. The first caution for incident did not come out until a few laps later on Lap-74.
Lap-74 saw a bizarre incident involving the number 71 truck of Rajah Caruth. After pushing his teammate Kyle Busch to the lead, Caruth’s number 71 just snapped around coming out of turn 4. The out of control 71 just narrowly avoided collecting Zilisch but others weren’t so lucky. While Caruth certainly got the worst of it, totaling his truck in the dogleg, William Sawalich also received significant damage. Daniel Hemric also suffered damage in the incident but could continue. Check out this wreck in the clip below.
Following the incident, the red flag was displayed for cleanup.
During the red flag, the truckers, including Enfinger and Busch, got a bunch of free kitty litter. Too bad they don’t own cats…
The race restarted with Kyle Busch talking the outside and Grant Enfinger on the bottom. With all the speedy dry on the bottom lane, it took several laps for the lane to get going. Kyle Busch on the outside prevailed with Mosack behind him before being shuffled back by Ben Rhodes.
The second caution for incident of the day came as the field approached 30 laps to go. The pack was racing hard, the intensity building. Connor Mosack, who had fallen back to mid-pack, went high, making a move on Frankie Muniz for position. Muniz, unaware that he was there, closed the door, making contact with the number 81. This turned Muniz into the wall. At first, no caution came out. However, as Muniz fell through the pack and got separated, Muniz spun down onto the apron, something broken in his number 33 truck. The caution then came out and Muniz’s day was done.
This is Muniz’s first DNF of the season. He finished 10th at Daytona last week. Check out this incident below:
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Once the race restarted, Kyle Busch started to see some challenges for the race lead. Grant Enfinger briefly took the lead before Busch wrestled it back. Then Chandler Smith, in his Front Row Motorsports Ford, briefly took the lead. Busch still ultimately prevailed. After a few laps of once again leading the pack, Daniel Hemric, with his battered truck, took the lead away for half a lap, only for Busch to power back on the inside.
Back in the lead with three to go, Busch saw both lanes challenging him out front. Yet, he blocked both lanes masterfully. He led the field to take two laps to go. Coming to the white flag, Stewart Friesen powered back on the bottom. This allowed Busch to switch to the bottom with a run on the inside. The run wasn’t what Busch had earlier in the race but still, he was able to power back. Busch just barely beat Friesen to the line, claiming his 8th Truck Series win at Atlanta.
He won this race last year and ran it back here today.
Race number 1 in this Saturday double header is officially in the books! One more to go today! What did you think of this truck race, race fans? Did you expect Kyle Busch to repeat? How’d your favorite driver do? Let us know! And keep it back here at DailyDownforce.com for our coverage of the Xfinity race a little later this afternoon.
