Gio Ruggerio, driver of the No. 17 Tricon Garage Toyota, won his first career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race in the Love’s RV Stop 225 at Talladega Superspeedway. Along with TRICON Garage teammate Corey Heim, the drivers worked together in the closing laps and captured a 1-2 finish.
Ruggerio started from the pole position, led six times, and captured his first Craftsman Truck Series win in his 23rd career start in the series.
“Yeah, it was great. He (Corey Heim) did a great job all day helping me. 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,” Ruggerio said.
“It feels great. 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,” Ruggerio added.
Heim finished second and is already locked into the NCTS Championship 4.
“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.”
He continued, “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.” Heim said.
Ty Majeski finished third.
“We had all kinds of damage from the lap five incident with the 9 truck, and we were mostly playing catch-up all day,” he said. He continued, “The Fords executed really well on that green flag pit stop, and I was able to get some track position after that exchange and was thankfully able to keep it for the rest of the day. That’s really what flipped our day right-side up, and we weathered the storm there for that third-place finish.” Majeski said.
Dawson Sutton finished fourth, and Layne Riggs rounded out the top 5 finishers.
“We had the speed to run in front all day. That early incident with the No. 38 was just a bad push. He was trying to help me all he could,” Riggs said. “And I really thought we could get some good points in stage two until the left front tire went down, but thankfully, the caution came out right after that. He continued, “I feel like we had the speed to grab stage points for sure, but in the end, a fifth-place finish, so we’re not in a great spot but also not in a bad spot.”
Tyler Ankrum, Matt Crafton, Corey LaJoie, Rajah Caruth and Kaden Honeycutt completed the top 10.
The race featured seven caution flags for 29 laps with 17 lead changes among 11 drivers.
Standings
After Talladega, Corey Heim leads the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series points by 71 over Rajah Caruth, 77 points over Tyler Ankrum, 80 points over Kaden Honeycutt, 85 points over Ty Majeski, 86 points over Layne Riggs, 112 points over Daniel Hemric, and 120 points over Grant Enfinger.
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series point standings after the Love’s RV Stop 225 at Talladega Superspeedway
| Pos | Driver | No | Points | Behind | Next | Wins | Stage Wins | Playoff Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Corey Heim (P) | 11 | 3167 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 19 | 79 |
| 2 | Rajah Caruth (P) | 71 | 3096 | -71 | 71 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| 3 | Tyler Ankrum (P) | 18 | 3090 | -77 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 10 |
| 4 | Kaden Honeycutt (P) | 52 | 3087 | -80 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| 5 | Ty Majeski (P) | 98 | 3082 | -85 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 10 |
| 6 | Layne Riggs (P) | 34 | 3081 | -86 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 32 |
| 7 | Daniel Hemric (P) | 19 | 3055 | -112 | 26 | 1 | 0 | 11 |
| 8 | Grant Enfinger (P) | 9 | 3047 | -120 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 7 |
Race Results
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Race Number 23
Race Results for the Love’s RV Stop 225 – Friday, October 17, 2025
Talladega Superspeedway – Talladega, AL – 2.66 – Mile Paved
| Pos | St | No | Driver | Team | Laps | S1 | S2 | S3 | Points | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 17 | Giovanni Ruggiero | First Auto Group Toyota | 90 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 52 | Running |
| 2 | 3 | 11 | Corey Heim (P) | Safelite Toyota | 90 | 3 | 9 | 0 | 35 | Running |
| 3 | 2 | 98 | Ty Majeski (P) | Soda Sense/Curb Records Ford | 90 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 34 | Running |
| 4 | 12 | 26 | Dawson Sutton | Rackley Roofing Chevrolet | 90 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 36 | Running |
| 5 | 35 | 34 | Layne Riggs (P) | Love’s RV STOP Ford | 90 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 32 | Running |
| 6 | 8 | 18 | Tyler Ankrum (P) | LiUNA! Chevrolet | 90 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 31 | Running |
| 7 | 4 | 88 | Matt Crafton | Jack Links/Menards Ford | 90 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 31 | Running |
| 8 | 18 | 77 | Corey LaJoie | Gainbridge Chevrolet | 90 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 43 | Running |
| 9 | 11 | 71 | Rajah Caruth (P) | HendrickCars.com Chevrolet | 90 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 28 | Running |
| 10 | 5 | 52 | Kaden Honeycutt (P) | Halmar International Toyota | 90 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 27 | Running |
| 11 | 13 | 16 | Kris Wright(i) | F.N.B. Corporation Chevrolet | 90 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Running |
| 12 | 10 | 15 | Tanner Gray | Place of Hope Toyota | 90 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 25 | Running |
| 13 | 16 | 7 | JJ Yeley(i) | Delaware Life Chevrolet | 90 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | Running |
| 14 | 14 | 81 | Connor Mosack | Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Chevrolet | 90 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 26 | Running |
| 15 | 19 | 76 | Spencer Boyd | Tibbetts Lumber Chevrolet | 90 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 22 | Running |
| 16 | 7 | 99 | Ben Rhodes | TYM Ford | 90 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 28 | Running |
| 17 | 22 | 44 | Andres Perez De Lara | Telcel Chevrolet | 90 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 | Running |
| 18 | 31 | 2 | Nathan Byrd | GMS Chevrolet | 90 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | Running |
| 19 | 23 | 42 | Matt Mills | J.F. Electric Chevrolet | 90 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | Running |
| 20 | 28 | 33 | Frankie Muniz | More Core Ford | 90 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17 | Running |
| 21 | 24 | 91 | Jack Wood | Adaptive One Calipers Chevrolet | 90 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16 | Running |
| 22 | 25 | 38 | Chandler Smith | Wheelers Ford | 90 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | Running |
| 23 | 6 | 66 | Luke Fenhaus | Soda Sense Ford | 90 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 20 | Running |
| 24 | 29 | 2 | Josh Reaume | Aerial Titans Ford | 89 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | Running |
| 25 | 34 | 35 | Greg Van Alst | Top Choice Fence Toyota | 88 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | Running |
| 26 | 21 | 75 | Parker Kligerman | Pickers Vodka Chevrolet | 87 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | Running |
| 27 | 27 | 69 | Tyler Tomassi(i) | Elly Productions Ford | 87 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Running |
| 28 | 9 | 1 | Bret Holmes | ShopTRICON.com Toyota | 87 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | Running |
| 29 | 26 | 13 | Jake Garcia | Quanta Services Ford | 87 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | Running |
| 30 | 33 | 22 | Jason White | Powder Ventures Ford | 83 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | Electrical |
| 31 | 20 | 45 | Bayley Currey | DQS Solutions & Staffing Chevrolet | 68 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | Driveshaft |
| 32 | 32 | 6 | Norm Benning | MDIA Inc Chevrolet | 55 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | Engine |
| 33 | 30 | 5 | Toni Breidinger | Coach Toyota | 54 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | Suspension |
| 34 | 17 | 19 | Daniel Hemric (P) | Gates Hydraulics Chevrolet | 52 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 3 | Accident |
| 35 | 36 | 74 | Caleb Costner | Ironside Forestry Toyota | 43 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | Electrical |
| 36 | 15 | 9 | Grant Enfinger (P) | Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Accident |
Up Next:
The series heads to Martinsville Speedway on Friday, October 24th, for the Slim Jim 200 at 6:00 pm ET on FS1. It will be the final race before the championship battle at Phoenix Raceway.
