The Thorsport Racing team has two of its three drivers in the 2017 playoff run to the championship. Even though only two are in the hunt for the championship, that doesn’t mean Grant Enfinger can’t challenge for a win either.
For Enfinger, he started out the UNOH 175 strong as he started in the eighth position. He finished top 10 in both stages with the highest finish coming in Stage 2, where he finished third. By the time, the 175-lap event was complete, Enfinger ended the day with a top-five finish. Enfinger gave his thoughts about the finish.
“Overall we were good- a lot of fun- first time running at Loudon,” Enfinger said. “Everybody on this RIDE TV Tundra did really good. We unloaded yesterday with good speed, we really had good speed all day. If we could have ever restarted in front of those guys, I don’t think they could have got back around us, but we weren’t quite good enough to get to them and pass them.”
Two of the playoffs drivers, Matt Crafton and Ben Rhodes also had great outings at New Hampshire.
Ben Rhodes ran up front all day. After starting fourth, he remained there in Stage 1 and moved up to second after the stage was over. In Stage 2, Rhodes finished seventh, thus gaining playoff points. After running well and leading 17 laps, he ultimately finished seventh after the day was over.
“Our day started off really strong, and we kind of faded as the day went on,” Rhodes said. “We, unfortunately, were in the wrong lane on the restarts all day – got stuck on the bottom. It’s ok, we took a risk with that two-tire stop, to get our Safelite Tundra up front. Unfortunately, it just didn’t pay off. As the day went on, we just got more loose and ultimately couldn’t make up those spots.”
The second and final playoff driver, Matt Crafton, earned a top 10 finish but wasn’t pleased with NASCAR’s decision-making.
The Thorsport Racing driver finished in the top 10 in both stages but wound up sixth on the results chart. However, the 41-year-old was ok with a top 10 finish.
“Track position was everything,” Crafton said. ” We were a little bit off without a doubt, but we really got screwed by NASCAR on the last call with the 98 (Grant Enfinger), our teammate. We were running in front of him and he was literally three-tenths behind us on track, the yellow comes out and they put him in front of me and he starts, whatever eighth, and I’m ninth on the bottom, and we lost spots. Overall, not a terrible effort. Good points day if you want to call it that.”
