BY: TIM MOORE
KANSAS CITY, KS. - The Craftsman Truck Series rounded out its Round of 10 action Friday evening , September 27, at Kansas Speedway for the Kubota Tractor 200. TRICON Garage's Corey Heim started in the rear of the field, but charged through the field early to dominate a strategy filled race.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The race began with Ty Majeski of ThorSport Racing on pole along with the young Connor Mosack of
Spire Motorsports on the front row. Majeski and McAnally Hilgemann Racing driver Christian Eckes jumped out and took control of the race to open up the stage.
Further back in the field the real story was beginning, as just twelve laps in, Heim was charging through the field, as he was already in eleventh position as he had passed a mighty twenty-two trucks in the opening laps. Both Majeski and Eckes finished frist and second in the opening stage, and come stage end Heim found himself finishing third.
Stage 2 began with a side by side battle for the lead, but as time progressed Heim showed his hand as the strongest car, taking the lead and walking away from the field. However, a new competitor came to play, as Front Row Motorsport's Layne Riggs coming off of back-to-back wins would run Heim back down. However with a lack of rear security Riggs was unable to complete the pass, allowing Heim to close out the second stage, earning his seventh stage win of the season.
Heim jumped out early in the third stage, but as it turned out, no elimination race would be considered drama free, as contact between McAnally Hillgemann Racing's Corey Day, who was making his second start in the Craftsman Truck Series took a hard hit, after Niece Motorsport's Matt Mills lost control of his truck on the bottom, causing him to get turned into TRICON Garage driver Taylor Gray and then hit the outside wall head on.
This caution led to pit strategy, as ThorSport Racing driver and defending series champion Ben Rhodes had his team pull a Hail Mary, as despite starting fourth, he found himself with no stage points and entering the race below the cutline. He topped off on fuel on lap 82, with the goal of stretching it to the end.
From that point on the race went green the entire way through. With Rhodes and four others staying out, this put CR7 Motorsports driver Grant Enfinger on the bubble as with under twenty laps to go he found himself even on the cutline. Rhodes made his move for third around Dawson Sutton, and but realistically was not on the winning strategy, Heim ran him down and passed him. However, as it turned out, Rhodes never had the opportunity to make his strategy a winning one as he found himself trapped far behind ThorSport teammate Ty Majeski.
As fate had it, both Majeski and Rhodes ran out of gas in the closing two laps, intercepting the hopes of back to back championship runs for Rhodes. He'd finish 22nd while Majeski coasted to a 15th place result. Coming around to take the checkered in dominant fashion was Heim as he captured his sixth win of the season, expanding his gap to 38 points to open up the Round of 8 at Talladega Superspeedway.
There were also some notable results throughout the field as well, as Riggs finished second yet again, making it his fifth straight top five result. Niece Motorsports driver Kaden Honeycutt had an excellent run, earning a 4th place finish and his second top five of the season. The biggest highlight however came from Rackley W.A.R.'s Dawson Sutton who stretched the gas tank earning his team its first top five finish of the season. This was an emotional run for the team as previously in the week they parted ways with Ty Dillon after the first eighteen races.
UP NEXT:
The NASCAR Xfinity Series will take on Kansas tomorrow Saturday, September 28th, at 3:00 p.m. ET on USA Network. It shall be an exciting race as the series will open up its first playoff race beginning the Round of 12. You can keep up with all the action you can follow along on X @MrtsprtsToday as well as @Motorsportstoday on TikTok!
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