As rumors swirl about whether this will be the final year of the Bristol Dirt race, the Craftsman Truck Series made the trip to Tennessee on a cold, and at times rainy night for the series’ sixth race of the season.
Ty Majeski came into the night as the points leader ahead of Zane Smith (-3) and Ben Rhodes (-12), and ran towards the front all day long, but ultimately couldn’t hang with defending Cup Series champion Joey Logano, who dropped down to the Truck Series and collected the win – the second Truck Series win of his career, and first since 2015. Cup Series stars William Byron and Chase Briscoe also dropped down to the trucks to get some extra laps ahead of Sunday’s race.
71 year old fan-favorite Norm Benning was able to qualify his way into the field thanks to a solid heat race run, while dirt track ringers Jonathan Davenport, Tyler Carpenter, and Tanner Carrick also hopped into trucks for one-off starts. Davenport & Carrick fared okay, but Tyler Carpenter was involved in multiple incidents throughout the day, and eventually would suffer a DNF following a hard wreck with 28 to go.
It was a chaotic night with a great deal of attrition as 12 trucks failed to finish on the lead lap, including. Many of the issues throughout the evening were prompted by tire issues, as Goodyear’s new dirt track-specific tire suffered several left rear failures, prompting possible concerns about their durability in the leadup to tomorrows Cup Series race. Christian Eckes, Nick Sanchez, and Tyler Ankrum (DNF) – all of whom came into the race in the top-10 in points – all ran into major issues.
A notable wreck occurred with 20 to go, as Ben Rhodes overcooked it in turn four immediately following a restart and collected Stewart Friesen, Chase Briscoe, Corey Heim, and Carson Hocevar, all of whom were running inside the top-10. While none of the trucks suffered race-ending damage, all but Briscoe suffered major setbacks in terms of track position.
Logano had the race firmly in hand essentially wire to wire, as he was clearly the class of the field all race long, particularly dominating on restarts. Majeski & Byron were relegated to battling for second for most of the race, with Majeski eventually prevailing. Matt Crafton came home p4 ahead of his third career Cup Series race tomorrow as he fills in for Cody Ware. Grant Enfinger collected p5, Jake Garcia (p6), Chase Briscoe (p7), Tanner Gray (p8), Kaden Honeycutt (p9), and Matt DiBenedetto (p10) rounded out the top-10.
The Truck Series heads from one legendary track to another next week, as they will take on the hallowed ground of Martinsville Speedway in what should be a fun race.
Photo Credit: NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Twitter
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