Grant Enfinger won two of the first four NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series events of the 2020 season to secure his place in the Playoffs, but it had been a bit since he won heading into Thursday’s ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond Raceway — the final race of the regular season.
However, Enfinger made an incredible rally after contact with his teammate Ben Rhodes, who won Stage 2, late in the race to win. After pitting to repair a tire rub, Enfinger went on the charge to make up ground on fresh tires.
In the end, Enfinger chased down his other teammate Matt Crafton and passed him with eight laps left when the lapped truck of Norm Benning slowed Crafton’s run.
This is Enfinger’s third win of the season, and now he has a lot of momentum heading into the Playoffs.
“Man, even though we got the year started off pretty good, it’s been a rough couple of months,” Enfinger explained. “Thankful for Duke and Rhonda Thorson and everybody at ThorSport Racing that allows us to do this. We catch a lot of flack every now and again, but we had three ThorSport Racing F-150’s who could have won the race tonight. I’m proud of that.”
It was a 1-2-3 sweep for ThorSport Racing as Rhodes finished third behind Enfinger and Crafton.
Brett Moffitt, who led 32 laps on the night, finished fourth and Tyler Ankrum came home fifth.
For Ankrum, who had a rough night despite the solid finish, he secured a berth in the Playoffs. However, the driver of the GMS Racing No. 26 machine was not excited about the performance of his team heading into the Playoffs.
“I mean, that’s pretty much what saved a pitiful night right there,” Ankrum stated in disgust. “Thanks to my crew chief Chad. I don’t know, I was having brake issues from the start of the night. This truck just was not on point all night. We got a lot of work to do. If not, we have a short Playoff run.”
Underdog racer Codie Rohrbaugh scored a solid sixth-place run and was the final truck on the lead lap.
David Ragan, Austin Hill, Timmy Hill and Stewart Friesen rounded out the top-10.
Derek Kraus finished 23rd, four laps off the pace. As a result, his Playoff aspirations ended on Thursday night.
Here is your 10-driver 2020 NGROTS Playoff Field:
- Sheldon Creed, 2026 points
- Zane Smith, -4
- Austin Hill, -4 (won regular season championship)
- Grant Enfinger, -7
- Brett Moffitt, -11
- Ben Rhodes, -12
- Matt Crafton, -17
- Christian Eckes, -21
- Todd Gilliland, -23
- Tyler Ankrum, -24
Post-Race Stat Pack:
