After last week’s Throwback Weekend in Darlington, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series returned to Kansas Speedway this Saturday. Last week’s winner, John Hunter Nemechek, piloted his #4 Kyle Busch Motorsports Tundra to pole position in the morning’s qualifying session. He started alongside his KBM teammate Corey Heim in the #51, and the pair started ahead of the #66 of Ty Majeski and the #38 of Zane Smith. Behind them was the #52, usually being driven by Stewart Friesen. Friesen was absent for the morning, so Cup regular Bubba Wallace drove his truck as a substitute. This meant Friesen started at the rear in the race later in the afternoon.
The early laps saw the front four of Nemechek, Heim, Z. Smith and Majeski show early speed. Nemechek fell to battle for third, and Heim was only just behind Zane, but it was clear the four were extremely fast, especially Smith, in this part of the race. Much near the tail of the field, the #9 of Blaine Perkins was spun by the #30 of Tate Fogleman, but since Perkins had it cleaned up on his own without hitting anything, the race remained green.
As the leaders reached backmarkers, the handle of Smith’s car fell off, giving Heim a chance to take the lead and pull away slightly. Not much happened during the remainder of the stage, but as Heim took the stage win, Smith lost second place to Ty Majeski.
Zane Smith once again took the lead after the restart. Heim was not too far behind, but couldn’t catch up enough to close in. After an uneventful stage, Zane Smith won stage two.
Zane Smith once again led from the restart. Heim fell back a couple of positions, and Ty Majeski was running second behind Smith. For the most part, Zane held a comfortable lead over Majeski. After a very calm stretch of laps, the #44 of Kris Wright hit the wall, putting a small amount of debris on the race track and bringing out the first caution for an incident. As the leaders pitted, the #51 of Corey Heim just barely passed the #38 of Zane Smith on pit road, making him the new leader
Zane Smith swiftly took the lead from Corey Heim after the restart. After a handful of laps, Corey Heim collided with the wall, causing a flat tire and forcing him to pit. Zane Smith still led over John Hunter Nemechek in the #4. Suddenly, the #40 of Dean Thompson spun on the backstretch, bringing out yet another caution. The leaders did not pit.
The race restarted with only eight laps to go. As expected, the #38 of Smith pulled away to a very comfortable lead. After dominating one of the more tame Truck Series races in recent memory, Zane Smith got his third win of the season at Kansas!
After Smith, the #66 of Ty Majeski finished second, with the #23 of Grant Enfinger finishing a solid third place. Chandler Smith’s #18 was the highest finishing KBM Tundra in fourth, finishing ahead of Thorsport’s Christian Eckes in the #98 and KBM teammate John Hunter Nemechek in the #4, fifth and sixth respectively. Behind them was the #25 of Matt DiBenedetto driving a good race to finish seventh. Derek Kraus followed, finishing eight in his #19 Chevy, and a pair of Thorsport Tundras rounded out the top ten, #88 of Matt Crafton in ninth, and #99 of Ben Rhodes in tenth.
Photo Credit///Chris Graythen, Getty Images
pitboxpress.com 