You could hear the shouts of “Gio!” echoing across the Alabama countryside Friday night — a sound somewhere between disbelief and celebration. Giovanni Ruggiero, the first-year driver for Tricon Garage, capped off a dominant day by scoring his first career NASCAR win, holding off one of the Truck Series’ best in an overtime brawl at Talladega Superspeedway.
Ruggiero led from pole, led the most laps, snagged a stage win, and finished the job — no small feat at a track that usually chews up rookies and spits out sheet metal. The Tricon driver was in control for most of the day, and when the field lined up for overtime, it was his race to lose.
“It feels great,” Ruggiero said. “It’s a great accomplishment. We’ve been working so hard at this all year and to win in my rookie season like this is awesome especially with the last couple weeks with the top-fives and top-threes that we’ve had. I think we can have a good end to our season and have a good chance to win at Martinsville or Phoenix.”
It had been a day full of bent fenders and bruised egos — and the theme, as it turned out, was a simple one: a push gone wrong.
The first came courtesy of Chandler Smith, who managed to make himself wildly unpopular before the first pit cycle. On lap 5, while the front nine were politely playing follow-the-leader, Smith got a bit too friendly with playoff driver Grant Enfinger, sending him spinning across the field coming out of Turn 4. Ty Majeski, another playoff hopeful, caught a piece of the chaos but soldiered on. Enfinger, last year’s Talladega winner, wasn’t so lucky — his championship hopes took a big hit before the tires got warm.
The lap 9 restart didn’t last long either. Because of course, Chandler Smith again. Coming into Turn 1, he managed to turn Layne Riggs into an unwilling pinball, collecting Connor Mosack in the process. Riggs’ Ford rolled away smoking like it had just been told it failed emissions.
By lap 13, things briefly resembled organized racing again. Corey Heim got a proper shove from Ben Rhodes to take the lead — a rare example of pushing done correctly. A few laps later, Rajah Caruth decided to join the fun, muscling his way to the front and staying there to win Stage 1.
JJ Yeley led a small group of gamblers who stayed out during the stage break, including Ruggiero and Riggs. By the time the field completed a single lap of Stage 2, Ruggiero was right back where he started — leading.
Then came lap 31 and another round of Talladega demolition derby. Bret Holmes got sent across the track and into the inside wall after Riggs’ earlier tire rub turned into a full-blown curse. Fenhaus inherited the lead, with Riggs and Holmes limping away.
When the race resumed, Ruggiero and Caruth traded the lead like two kids fighting over the last slice of pizza. Ruggiero ultimately held on to win Stage 2, with Kaden Honeycutt sneaking past Caruth for second.
Tanner Gray and Parker Kligerman rolled the dice to start the final stage on lap 46, but the deck reshuffled quickly. Daniel Hemric’s tire disintegrated after contact with Toni Breidinger, forcing him to pit and eventually head behind the wall.
Pit strategy began to unfold around lap 54, and when the smoke cleared, Ruggiero had cycled back to the lead with Heim in tow.
Then, on lap 65, 73-year-old Norm Benning’s truck erupted in flames entering Turn 1 — a sight that briefly quieted even the rowdiest grandstands. Benning climbed out safely, but the veteran was helped to the infield care center after sitting on the ground for several tense minutes.
After the cleanup, Rhodes inherited the lead with Fenhaus behind him, and for a few laps, it looked like things might actually calm down. But this is Talladega — calm is just the setup for carnage.
With three laps to go, Ruggiero made his move from third, got a solid shove from Heim, and pulled even with Rhodes. Then Fenhaus got a little too ambitious, clipped Rhodes in Turn 2, and sent the leader spinning — yet another push gone wrong, setting up the final overtime showdown.
Ruggiero led the field to the green with Heim right behind him and Corey LaJoie trying to make something happen up top. Coming to the checkered, Ruggiero threw a block on Heim that would’ve made Dale Earnhardt grin — crossing the line just .059 seconds ahead of Heim to seal the deal.
“He (Corey Heim) did a great job all day helping me,” Ruggiero said.” He was the best pusher, and I was really happy when he was behind me for sure. I knew I had a good shot there at the end. I just didn’t want to let our group down. We had such a fast truck, and I know a superspeedway can be a bit of a wild card race sometimes, but I feel like truckwise we dominated this one.”
For his part Heim, who is already a ten-race winner this season, said the decision to start on the inside just behind his teammate wasn’t a sure thing at first.
“It was a debatable choice for sure,” Heim said. “I wasn’t sure which lane would work. I thought the 17 had good speed and he did a good job kind of keeping the gap close and stuff. The 98 said he was going to commit to us as well. I thought we had a good enough line on the bottom to keep the line rolling. Our truck is clean like it unloaded right not so I thought we had enough speed to push him out and stay out there. The outside was just too risky for people leaving us so that was kind of my mindset. Overall, a great day. Gio (Ruggerio) did a great job. He deserved to win that one. I’m proud of those guys in the 17 group and I’m also proud of our 11 crew.”
Ty Majeski, Dawson Sutton, and Riggs rounded out the top five.
For a rookie, it wasn’t just a win — it was survival by precision in a race where most of the field mistook “bump draft” for “wreck your neighbor.”
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour 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, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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