In a season where he joined forces with an organization that is in its third consecutive season fielding a full-time entry in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Grant Enfinger has defied the odds by utilizing his crafty expertise and competitiveness to elevate both himself and his new team, CR7 Motorsports, into potential championship status with a sealed spot into the 2024 Playoffs.
Enfinger, the 2019 Truck Series Regular Season Champion from Fairhope, Alabama, capped off the 2023 season on a bittersweet note through two fronts: the first by finishing in the runner-up spot in the championship battle to Ben Rhodes and the second being his final campaign with GMS Racing, the team where Enfinger notched his first Truck career victory in 2016 and had campaigned with over the previous two seasons, before the organization ceased all operations and left the veteran without a ride.
A month after the 2023 season concluded, however, CR7 Motorsports tapped Enfinger to pilot the team’s No. 9 Chevrolet Silverado RST entry for the 2024 season. By then, the team had only recorded a total of eight top-10 results in five years of existence and was coming off a second full-time campaign with Colby Howard.
Commencing the season with a 17th-place result at Daytona International Speedway after being involved in a final lap multi-truck wreck, Enfinger was in position of notching the first victory for his new team during the following event Atlanta Motor Speedway when he fell off the pace from the lead with seven laps remaining due to a flat right-front tire and ended up in 25th place. He would rally by notching back-to-back ninth-place results during his next two starts before finishing no higher than 12th twice over his next five races.
Then beginning at North Wilkesboro Speedway in May, Enfinger ignited a hot streak that started by finishing in the runner-up spot, which marked a career-best result for CR7, followed by a third-place finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Despite finishing 17th at World Wide Technology Raceway in early June, the Alabama native would the finish no worse than sixth for the remaining four regular-season events. During his latest four-race span, Enfinger notched another runner-up result at Pocono Raceway in July, lead 71 laps en route to a third-place run during the following event at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park and lead a race-high 98 laps while winning the second stage period before settling in fourth place in the regular-season finale at Richmond Raceway.
Through 16 events of the 2024 season, Enfinger’s five top-five results and eight top-10 results are the most for a competitor competing for CR7 Motorsports. Enfinger, who currently holds the fifth-best average-finishing result for full-time competitors in 2024 at 11.8, is set to commence the Playoffs in sixth place in the Playoff standings and with 2,007 points as he aims to record the first NASCAR national touring series championship for himself and CR7 Motorsports.
Ironically, the 2024 Playoff is set to occur at the Milwaukee Mile, the site of Enfinger’s 10th and latest Truck Series victory that enabled him to transfer from the Playoff’s Round of 10 to 8 a year ago.
“I’ve been proud of us all for the last eight or nine races,” Enfinger said following the regular-season finale at Richmond on FS1. “Definitely very, very proud of the speed that [crew chief] Jeff [Stankiewicz] has brought to the track. It’s been great. Now, we got seven [races] to go. I feel like we’re building momentum at the right time. Now, it’s time to go Playoff racing.”
Grant Enfinger’s 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs is set to commence at the Milwaukee Mile for the LiUNA! 175. The event’s broadcast time is scheduled to occur this Sunday, August 25, at 4 p.m. ET on FS1.
