Chase Briscoe wins Eldora Dirt Derby in a slam bang finish

(NASCAR)

The NASCAR Camping World Truck series annual visit to the Eldora dirt track never fails to deliver and Wednesday’s Dirt Derby 150 was no exception.

Chase Briscoe made his return to the trucks and took his ThorSport Ford to victory in an overtime finish bumping and banging his way across the finish line winning by .038 over Grant Enfinger.

It was Briscoe’s second win in the Truck series his last coming at the final race at Homestead in 2017.

“I know (Enfinger) is running for a championship and he’s our teammate,” said Briscoe. “I wasn’t going to wear him out. I wasn’t going to just wreck him for the win. We rubbed, and I definitely let it float on the way to the wall and I’m sorry for that, it’s not how I race.

Briscoe, who is running a part time schedule in the NASCAR Xfinity series this season, won Stage 2 and led a race high 54 laps.  He pitted after winning the stage, leaving him 13th in the running order on the start.   He was fifth by lap 117 and third with 22 to go.

Logano Seavey, in his Truck Series debut, stayed out at the end of Stage 2 and enjoyed a 3.3 second lead at one point and led a total of 53 laps. But he saw his lead erased with a caution with 20 to go. Seavey kept the lead on the restart with 14 to go and held it until another caution came out with 5 laps to go.  On that restart, Briscoe jumped to the lead, but on the same lap the race’s ninth and final caution wave for a three-truck incident on the backstretch that setup the green white checkered flag finish.

Briscoe and Enfinger were door to door the final laps making contact exiting turn 4 with Briscoe ahead by a bumper across the finish line.  Stewart Friesen who spun earlier in the race, fought his way back to finish third.

“I feel like we had a position on him, we were pretty good right there,” said Enfinger. “He used me up and I was going for it, he didn’t do anything dirty, it was just the last lap for a really, really big race.”

Ben Rhodes was an early leader, leading from pole and winning the first stage handily after leading 44 laps.  He hit the wall of lap 45 however and was forced in for repairs.  He would lose two laps down and finish 29.

Last year’s winner Matt Crafton was fourth followed by Brett Moffitt in fifth.

Noah Gragson was sixth followed by John Hunter Nemechek, Seavey, Justin Haley and Nick Hoffman.

Johnny Sauter finished 16th and leads the point standings by 32 points over Gragson.

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series next race is the Gander Outdoors 150 at Pocono on July 28.

Greg Engle
About Greg Engle 7421 Articles
Greg is a published award winning sportswriter who spent 23 years combined active and active reserve military service, much of that in and around the Special Operations community. Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.