The Craftsman Truck Series took on the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course under the weekend-long threat of rain for a second consecutive season.
“It’s always interesting in the rain, especially here at Mid-Ohio,” Christian Eckes told me prior to the start of Sunday’s race. “The rubber’s just weird how it really gets attacked [here] so there’s a lot of unknowns.”
During last year’s event, practice and qualifying were held in the wet while the race remained dry. This year, it was the opposite.
The 99 of hometown hero Ben Rhodes topped the leaderboard in practice with the 42 of Carson Hocevar right behind. The rest of the top five included the 2 of Nick Sanchez, 11 of Corey Heim, and 19 of Eckes.
For qualifying, it was the 11 of Heim on top with the 98 of another hometown driver, Ty Majeski, beside him. Sanchez, Eckes, and the 23 of Grant Enfinger rounded out the top five starting positions.
With the threat of rain looming all day, some drivers had concerns about finishing the race while others thought they would be able to make it the total distance.
“It looks like it’ll rain at the beginning for a little while but then it looks like it’s supposed to dry up,” Lawless Alan, driver of the 45, told me. “Considering the amount of rain that we qualified in last year, we’re going the distance.”
Alan was certainly correct about the rain arriving at the beginning of the race. As we took our seats at the scheduled start time, the skies opened up and the race was put in a hold for lighting. Over an hour later, pre-race ceremonies resumed and the race began under a light sprinkle.
As the drivers made their way around the 2.4-mile track, the caution was immediately thrown in turn two for the 35 of Jake Garcia. The race was restarted on lap four with Heim still up front. Four laps later, another caution was flown for the 15 of Tanner Gray who spun into the turn nine gravel trap.
At the lap 12 restart, the 98 of Majeski was the new leader with Heim behind him. Heim quickly regained the lead in turn 13.
Two laps later, the yellow flew for the 42 of Carson Hocevar and 9 of Colby Howard who collided in turn two. The stage ended under caution with the 99 of practice leader Rhodes earning the victory.
The Ohio crowd had much to cheer for at the start of stage two as ThorSport drivers Matt Crafton and Ben Rhodes made up the front row. Rhodes held the lead until lap 26 when the 45 of Alan spun in turn two.
The rest of the stage remained green regardless of some on-track contact. The 98 of Majeski continued the strong day for ThorSport by earning the stage two victory.
For the final stage, double-file restarts were instated for the first time all day. Majeski and Heim made up the front row with Heim taking the lead in turn four.
Another caution was flown on lap 45 for the 02 of Will Rodgers who went off track in turn one. This time, the restart saw Heim and the 38 of Zane Smith leading the pack to green. 11 laps later, another caution came out for the 02 again, this time for being run off the track by the 22 of Austin Wayne Self.
The field had not even made it a full lap after the restart before another caution came out. Heim and Smith remained the leaders for the final restart, with Heim taking and holding onto the lead. The final four laps stayed green and Corey Heim claimed his second win of the season.
The Craftsman Truck Series will return to action at Pocono Raceway on July 22nd at 12:00 p.m.
Featured image from @NASCAR_Trucks on Twitter.
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