There is chaos, then there is the chaos that was the NASCAR Truck series race at Phoenix Raceway Friday night. After 4 overtimes, with three different leaders, Christian Eckes took the race win as Ben Rhodes secured the Truck Series title.
Rhodes beat out Grant Enfinger, Corey Heim, and Carson Hocevar for his second series title in the last three years.
At the fourth overtime restart Eckes took the lead with Rhodes trying to hold on in a truck damaged on an earlier overtime restart. Coming to the white flag, Tyler Ankrum deep in the field ran into the outside wall coming out of turn 4 but continued. NASCAR held the caution back and allowed the final lap to play out.
Rhodes held fifth but Enfinger, who had just pitted for fresh tires, made one last charge getting to the bumper of Rhodes coming out of turn 4. Rhodes, however, was able to hold on for the title as Christian Eckes secured the win.
For much of the race it was Heim’s race, and championship to lose. Heim led the second most laps on the night, 47 finishing second in Stage 1, and winning Stage 2.
But on lap 148, while racing Hocevar, Hocevar got under Heim sending Heim spinning. He was able to continue, but the anger in his voice on the team radio was evident.
With 15 laps to go it looked as though the final battle for the championship would come down to Enfinger and Rhodes as a charge from Heim back through the field seemed to stall.
With three to go and Enfinger comfortably holding off Rhodes, Hocevar on fresher tires was charging forward. When he got to Heim running in 10th, Heim moved up and put Hocevar into the outside wall bringing out a caution with two laps to go and setting up overtime. Heim was able to continue but Hocevar’s race and his title hopes were over. The caution also erased the advantage for Enfinger over Rhodes for the title and race leader Zane Smith.
The race featured a total of 12 cautions including one that needed a red flag period of just over 11 minutes for fluid on the track. Enfinger’s truck also suffered damage on the third overtime attempt as he got into the middle of a three wide battle with Rhodes and Jessie Love.
The fourth overtime decided it all and despite his last lap charge, Enfinger lost his shot at a title.
“I don’t know,” Enfinger said when asked if he could have done more. “It was just the original green-white-checkered there where we went four wide, Ben gassed it up there on the bottom, drove us in the 19 and tore up our truck and then we had to restart from 22nd there. That’s kind of what ended our run. Obviously, we got close there at the end.”
Rhodes meanwhile had his own issues to deal with when his truck got damaged on the second overtime restart.
“I was so angry,” Rhodes said. “I didn’t even know I’d be happy if I won at that point because I was so mad about it. I just couldn’t believe that every single time there was a caution. What the heck? The restart that I wadded the front end up from the missed shift in front of me, who could have planned that out.”
For his part Hocevar took the blame for the first incident with Heim.
“I just tried to do what I did in three and four and stay at his back bumper and, and do everything I could to just stay there,” Hocevar said. “I was just, I was all in the, my only goal was to try and slow him down, so he didn’t get too many cars ahead of us, and I was just trying to hold him up. I didn’t expect him to be low.
“I thought he was going to kind of miss the corner the way he entered. And I thought we were both going to try and slide job the corner and, I mean, I haven’t seen the replay or anything. I just messed up.”
Heim was having none of it. And he made no apologies for his later move on Hocevar.
“Ask him if he stands by the first one,” he said. “I mean, I got my right rear — he wrecked me, then I got my right rear destroyed. From there I had no sideforce, and he put it on my door, and I lost control.”
Heim insisted he had made no plan for a payback.
“It wasn’t retaliation,” Heim said. “I had no sideforce, he put it on my door, and I wrecked.”
Meanwhile Christian Eckes celebrated his fifth career win, ending the season with four wins total. He was however missed the cutoff for the final 4 with a 20th place finish at Homestead.
Yeah, that one is going to sting. It still stings,” Eckes said. “It’s awesome to win. It’s always awesome to win, especially with our great partners. But to come short of the goal of winning a championship and being able to come and win the final race find of stinks for sure.
“It is what it is now, and we can always look back and Monday morning quarterback it and say that we could be champions, but at the end of the day we aren’t, and at the end of the day I’m also really proud of the whole 99 group. That was my team last year at ThorSport for the most part with a few different pieces…Super proud of them, and yeah, it is what it is.”
Truck Race Results
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.
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