Well, that was certainly surprising. After a wild, incident-filled NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series LiUNA! 150 at Lime Rock Park, it was Grant Enfinger, driving the No. 9 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado, who emerged victorious.
Race Results: LiUNA! 150 at Lime Rock Park
Enfinger held off a hungry Landen Lewis, who was driving the No. 45 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet, for the win, which snapped a 40-race winless drought for the Alabama native. Enfinger was well aware of his career track record on road courses coming into the day.
“I told [crew chief] Derek [Smith], I think this is only my second top-10 at a road course,” Enfinger chuckled. “So, we have had good road course trucks this year. But this one, I think we were a solid top-five truck. The seas parted, and the good lord blessed us today and was able to come home for a win.”
While he isn’t known as a fluent road racer, Enfinger says that in what has been a trying season for him and the No. 9 team, their best efforts have seemingly come on road courses. Saturday, they finally had a clean race to allow them to get a finish to show for their efforts.
“I mean, honestly, Derek has given us great road course trucks all year long. This is, sadly enough, this has been our best opportunity to win is a road course. We’ve had issues in all three of them. This time, we had our issues in practice, and broke a shock,” Enfinger said.
With the bad luck out of the way going into the race, Enfinger kept his head down and worked his way into contention. When the chips were on the line, he beat Lewis, who raced him cleanly, for the win.
With the win, the 13th of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career, Enfinger vaulted from outside the cutline for the Chase for the Championship to 42 points above the cutline with just four races remaining until the fight for the championship begins.
Kaden Honeycutt, who, along with Layne Riggs, was among the dominant drivers in the race, was swept up in a mid-race incident but was able to charge his way back through the field for a solid third-place finish.
Honeycutt was involved in an incident with his TRICON Garage teammate, Gio Ruggiero, in the closing laps, an incident that sent Ruggiero spinning out to a 20th-place finish.
Parker Kligerman, who is part of the ownership group of Lime Rock Park, was able to nab a fourth-place result, driving the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, and Christian Eckes finished in the fifth spot, despite nursing a Grade 3 Lateral sprain of his left foot.
Daniel Hemric, Andres Perez de Lara, Tanner Gray, Stewart Friesen, and Colin Braun rounded out the top-10 finishers in the race.
Layne Riggs, the series point leader and polesitter, would finish one lap off the pace in 23rd after suffering a lot of damage late in the event.
Thomas Annunziata, who won Friday’s ARCA Menards Series event at Lime Rock, was looking for a weekend sweep. And with 21 laps to go, it looked like he had a decent shot, as he was sitting in the second position.
However, his No. 1 TRICON Garage truck burst into flames, and that would end his day. Annunziata, who finished 29th, would be transported to a local hospital after the race.
