The Craftsman Truck Series returned to Charlotte Motor Speedway over the holiday weekend for the North Carolina Education Lottery 200.
The 98 of ThorSport’s Ty Majeski led the way in practice with a time of 30.100. Taylor Gray took second place, just 0.154 seconds behind the 98. The remainder of the session saw the 42 of Carson Hocevar, 2 of Nick Sanchez, and 24 of Rajah Caruth rounding out the top-five.
Qualifying saw a bit of a mix-up with the 15 of Tanner Gray leading the way and earning pole position. Behind him was the practice leader Majeski. The rest of the top-five included the 11 of Corey Heim, 24 of Caruth, and 52 of Stewart Friesen.
Prior to the start of the race, the 16 of Tyler Ankrum and 2 of Sanchez were sent to the rear of the field for a changed driveline and unapproved adjustments, respectively.
As the green flag flew, Gray and Majeski led the field around the mile-and-a-half track. By lap 4, the 11 of Heim had taken the lead. Other than some contact between the 98 and 15, the opening stage was relatively quiet with Heim taking the stage victory.
At the stage break, the 56 of Tyler Hill earned the free pass and got back onto the lead lap. There were some issues on pit road as Majeski and Caruth had to pit twice for damages.
At the restart, Heim and Hocevar led the field to green. Again, aside from some minor contact in the middle of the pack, the stage remained quiet and the 42 of Hocevar earned the stage win.
Caruth once again had troubles on pit road, this time for a crew member over the wall too soon. The 15 of Tanner Gray also had to pit again for an overheating issue.
It was once again Heim and Hocevar out front as the final stage began. On lap 81, the 46 of Armani Williams wrecked in turn four and hit the pit wall. As the caution came out, the 15 of Gray earned the free pass after his pit road mishaps.
Since the 4 of Chase Purdy took only two tires, he found himself at the front on the restart alongside the 99 of Ben Rhodes. On the first lap of the restart, the 38 of Zane Smith and 13 of Hailie Deegan got into each other and wrecked, bringing out another caution. The 30 of Ryan Vargas was the free pass.
After another restart, the field made it seven laps before yet another caution came out. This time for the 16 of Tyler Ankrum and 02 of Kris Wright. The 2 of Sanchez earned the free pass.
On the final restart, the 42 of Hocevar and 99 of Rhodes led the field to green in hopes of ending the race. 23 laps later, they did just that with the 99 of Rhodes earning his first victory of the year.
The Craftsman Truck Series will return to action on Saturday, June 3rd at Worldwide Technology Raceway.
Featured photo from @NASCAR_Trucks on Twitter.
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