Trucks: Darlington Mid-Race Report

What’s Happening?

We’re two stages into the Buckle Up South Carolina 200 at Darlington Raceway for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Here is where everything stands as the future stars of NASCAR gear up to take on the Track Too Tough to Tame for the final stage.

Mid-Race Report

• Heavy hitters Corey Heim and Christopher Bell wasted little time getting to the front. Heim, driving the No. 5 Tricon Garage Toyota, took the lead early on with Bell behind him. As they approached the mid-way point of the stage, Carson Hocevar overtook Bell for second and set his sights on Heim. Bell started to fade. As the tires aged, Heim fell off, too, reporting that his truck was a little tight coming out of the corner. His old rival, Christian Eckes, however, methodically worked his way up to the lead. He went on to win the stage, leading the final four laps.
• Stage 1 points earners were: Christian Eckes (10), Kaden Honeycutt (9), Layne Riggs (7), Ty Majeski (5), Tanner Gray (2), and Daniel Hemrick (1).
• Kaden Honeycutt led the field to the green to start the second stage. He managed to lead a number of laps before Ross Chastain, after making adjustments under caution, overtook him for the race lead approaching the mid-way point in the stage. In the long run, Honeycutt’s truck came back to life, taking the lead away again 35 laps into the stage. After several laps of back and forth, Honeycutt went on to capture the stage victory over Cup veteran Ross Chastain.
• Stage 2 points earners were as follows: Kaden Honeycutt (10), Ty Majeski (8), Christian Eckes (6), Tyler Ankrum (4), Layne Riggs (3), and Jake Garcia (2).
• There were a couple of notable incidents that prompted early cautions in Stage 1. First was Ben Rhodes, who triggered a caution on Lap 3 when he slapped the outside retaining wall. Another incident occurred eleven laps later when William Sawalich spun in a single-car incident. This resulted in him pitting for fresh Goodyear Eagles, propelling him to a 5th-place finish in Stage 1.

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