Yesterday, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series raced at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, California. Carson Hocevar, after suffering a horrible wreck and injury last week at Gateway, put his #42 Niece Motorsports Chevy on pole, but would start at the rear due to repairs. His teammate and Cup Series regular Ross Chastain started second in the #41 Chevrolet. Behind them was former Cup Champion Kyle Busch in his self-owned #51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Tundra, alongside Ty Majeski in the #66 Toyota for Thorsport. In the third row was Tyler Ankrum in the #16 Toyota for Hattori Racing and yet another Cup regular Alex Bowman in the #7 truck for Spire Motorsports. John Hunter Nemechek in the #4 started behind with Grant Enfinger in the #23, and Hailie Deegan in the #1 and Stewart Friesen in the #52 occupied the fifth row.
As the field took the green flag, Ross Chastain pulled away from Kyle Busch and by turn four, he’d already opened a healthy gap. The trucks shuffled position back and forth for a majority of the opening laps, when further behind Stewart Friesen spun his truck in turn seven. No significant damage was done.
By lap 10, Carson Hocevar was already up to the mid-twenties in the running order, after starting from the rear. Just a few laps later, he pulled into the pits. Due to his injury, he was in extreme pain. Hocevar’s team performed a driver swap between Carson and Cup regular Daniel Suárez, who came out of the pits two laps down.
With only a few laps left in the stage, lots of the frontrunners pitted for a set of new tires and fuel. Ty Majeski went on to win stage one, with Tyler Ankrum close behind.
The restart once again saw Chastain lead from Busch, but with a much smaller gap between them compared to last time. As much of the field behind third place Bowman was tightly packed, the #23 of Grant Enfinger locked up the front brakes, running too fast in the corner and spinning.
Back up front, Busch and Chastain battled for the lead. Going into the final hairpin corner, Chastain locked up the front brakes which allowed Busch to get past him easily. In the middle of the field, John Hunter Nemechek in the #4 battled with Christian Eckes in the #98. The pair collided, sending Eckes into the wall and bringing out the caution.
At the restart, Busch once again led from Chastain. After a few laps of relatively calm racing, the #88 of Matt Crafton was battling the #62 of Todd Bodine for position. Bodine went for a gap, but Crafton was already there and the two crashed, with Crafton spinning. The race stayed green.
After yet another pit cycle, the #99 of Ben Rhodes took the second stage win.
Kyle Busch once again pulled away from Chastain at the restart.
After a few laps, further behind, the #52 of Friesen was battling with the #25 of Matt DiBenedetto. Going into the last hairpin, Friesen attempted to block, but DiBenedetto was already committed to his line. The two collided, and as the two spun, a tire barrier was misplaced, bringing out another caution.
The field pitted, except for the #99 of Ben Rhodes, the #19 of Derek Kraus, and the # 61 of Chase Purdy, putting Kyle Busch in fourth at the restart. Going into a corner, Rhodes locked the brakes and Kraus spun, ending the advantage they both had so far and giving the lead back to Busch. With ten laps to go, the #1 of Hailie Deegan lost a tire, struck one of the barriers, and became stranded in the runoff dirt, bringing out another caution.
At the restart Busch pulled away from Rhodes, and Chandler Smith, Busch’s teammate, went up to second after passing the #99. After battling with Zane Smith in the #38 for third place, Rhodes lost a tire.
On the front stretch, the #30 of Josh Bilicki and the #52 of Friesen had a hard collision, collecting Bowman in the #7 and starting a fire on Friesen’s truck, and bringing out the red flag.
After a short cleanup, there was a green-white-checker finish. Kyle Busch pulled away from second place, as Chandler Smith and Zane Smith battled for the runner-up spot. After leading a majority of laps, Kyle Busch took his #51 Tundra to win in Sonoma!
Behind him was Zane Smith in the #38 Ford for FRM. Ty Majeski in the #66 held on for a good finish in third, ahead of Ross Chastain in the #41. The #18 Chandler Smith fell back to fifth after his battle with Zane, and behind him Daniel Suárez had a great recovery up to sixth in the #42 for Carson Hocevar and Niece Motorsports. Parker Kligerman in the #75 had a great finish of seventh, with Nemechek in the #4, Ankrum in the #16 and DiBenedetto in the #25 finishing up the top ten.
Photo Credit///@KBMteam on Twitter.com
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