Grant Enfinger led 65 laps in the Heart of America 200 at Kansas Speedway Saturday night to capture his first CRAFTSMAN Truck Series win of the season. It was his first victory at the 1.5-mile track and the eighth of his Truck Series career.
After the race, Enfinger gave much of the credit to his GMR Racing team and crew chief, Jeff Hensley.
“Kansas has been a good track for us but we haven’t had a dominant truck like this in a long time.” He paused a moment, then said, “But lights out, we had the best Chevy Silverado out here. Thank you to Champion Power Equipment for sticking with me.
“It’s been a dismal year and a half,” he continued. “I know we came up with a win last year but overall the season was a little sluggish, first seven races this year were a little bit sluggish. I was disappointed in our execution
“But Jeff talked to me before the race. He gave me some encouragement. He did a heck of a job tonight. So the biggest thing is these guys just brought me an unbelievable Chevy Silverado.”
Corey Heim finished second followed by Zane Smith, Stewart Friesen, Ross Chastain, Nick Sanchez (highest-finishing rookie), Kyle Busch, Jake Garcia, Taylor Gray and Tyler Ankrum to round out the top 10. Toni Breidinger finished 15th in her series debut.
Heim thought he had a chance at the win until the final caution.
“I think that last caution (for Kris Wright’s second spin) put a hole in our strategy a little bit,” he said. “If we had that last run go green and we had the same tires as the 23 (Enfinger), I thought we could beat him straight up.
“As soon as we got that last caution and we were on uneven tires, I knew it was going to be all track position. I got hung up trying to block the 38 (Smith) and kind of took a step back from there and lost track position.”
Zane Smith and Ty Majeski are currently leading the driver standings with 323 points each with the advantage going to Smith who has two race wins and one stage win. Ben Rhodes (-41) is third followed by Corey Heim (-47) and Grant Enfinger (-56), Christian Eckes -82, Matt Crafton -88, Tanner Gray (-103), Nick Sanchez (-118) and Matt DiBenedetto (-130) rounding out the top 10 in the driver standings.
Next up for the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series is the Buckle Up South Carolina 200, next Friday at Darlington Raceway at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1 with radio coverage by MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
