It took one overtime and one wild last lap for Tate Fogleman as he collided with John Hunter Nemechek coming to the finish line to capture his first career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory.
“I had never finished a superspeedway race before,” Fogleman said. “Before, we had tried laying back and have a second draft going on behind the main pack that obviously didn’t work out in the past.
“We weren’t really sure what our game plan was going in. We were going to try and stay toward the front, take the positions we were given and just work our way up.
“The biggest thing was avoiding wrecks. Once we got through that first big wreck, we knew we had a shot at it. A few laps after that, we got through another wreck and we finally had a little bit of luck on our side. There at the end, we lined up third on the inside and knew that was our shot (at the victory). My truck had damage from both the wrecks, but I got a good push out back and that’s really what got me to the front. Ended up sliding across the finish line and be able to get the win.”
Talladega Superspeedway served as the second race of the Round of 6 Saturday afternoon, with Ben Rhodes on the pole. Stages of 20/20/94 laps originally made up the event before an overtime finish pushed the lap length to Lap 99.
The first two stages were relatively calm and stayed green, with the exception of one caution on Lap 29 for the No. 28 of Bryan Dauzat who crashed on the backstretch off Turn 2. In Stage 1, the victory went to Ben Rhodes as the Kentucky native dominated the first stage with help from teammate Matt Crafton.
The second stage only had one caution and Sheldon Creed grabbed the stage victory after Nemechek originally made the pass for the lead on Lap 38, but was shuffled out of the top spot as Creed went on by to take the stage win.
Three cautions slowed the final stage with multiple crashes. The first big one occurred on Lap 57 when Gilliland got a big push from the No. 23 of Chase Purdy which then caused Gilliland to turn into Austin Hill and set off a multiple-vehicle crash. Several drivers were involved, most notably, Chandler Smith, Zane Smith and Tanner Gray.
After the first one big one, the field went single file for a brief period until Grant Enfinger went high off Turn 4 and got turned by Creed. Enfinger got hit from behind in an incident that saw Friesen, Hocevar, Deegan and Greenfield taking hard hits.
The final yellow was on Lap 93. Purdy had a big run and tried coming down on Gilliland, but was too close to his bumper and Purdy spun in the tri-oval causing an overtime restart.
As the field came back around for the checkered flag, Nemechek made a move on the leaders to get out in front, but it was Fogleman who made another move, spinning Nemechek and taking the win while wrecking with second-place finisher Tyler Hill.
It was Hill’s career-best finish and his first top-five in 23 Camping World Truck Series starts.
There were 23 lead changes among 18 different leaders and six cautions for 29 laps with one red flag lasting nine minutes and 41 seconds. Fogleman led one lap en route to victory.
Playoff Standings following Round of 2 of 3 in Round of 6:
- John Hunter Nemechek, +34
- Ben Rhodes, +34
- Matt Crafton, +27
- Sheldon Creed, +4
Below the cut line - Stewart Friesen, -4
- Chandler Smith, -33
- Carson Hocevar, -36
- Zane Smith, -39
Official Results following the Chevrolet Silverado 250 at Talladega Superspeedway:
- Tate Fogleman, led one lap
- Tyler Hill
- Todd Gilliland, led 39 laps
- John Hunter Nemechek, led 11 laps
- Ryan Truex
- Cory Roper
- Spencer Boyd
- Danny Bohn
- Chase Purdy, led four laps
- Keith McGee, led one lap
- Jordan Anderson
- Sheldon Creed, won Stage 2, led six laps
- Ben Rhodes, won Stage 1, led 20 laps
- Matt Crafton, led four laps
- Bret Holmes, led 11 laps
- Codie Rohrbaugh, OUT, Accident
- Norm Benning, 1 lap down
- Willie Allen, 5 laps down
- Chandler Smith, 7 laps down
- Derek Kraus, 9 laps down
- Grant Enfinger, OUT, Damage Vehicle Policy
- Stewart Friesen, OUT, Damage Vehicle Policy
- Clay Greenfield, OUT, Accident
- Hailie Deegan, OUT, Accident
- Carson Hocevar, OUT, Accident
- Dylan Lupton, OUT, Accident
- Jason White, OUT, Damage Vehicle Policy
- Tyler Ankrum, OUT, Damage Vehicle Policy
- Austin Wayne Self, OUT, Electrical
- Johnny Sauter, OUT, Accident
- Jennifer Jo Cobb, OUT, Accident
- Austin Hill, OUT, Accident
- Zane Smith, OUT, Accident
- Tanner Gray, OUT, Accident
- Drew Dollar, OUT, Accident
- Kris Wright, OUT, Accident
- Parker Kligerman, OUT, Accident
- Lawless Alan, OUT, Accident
- Bryan Dauzat, OUT, Accident
- Jack Wood, OUT, Engine
Up Next: The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will take a couple of weeks off before heading to Martinsville Speedway on Saturday, October 30 at 1 p.m. ET live on Fox Sports 1 and MRN Radio.
