A strategy call from the pit box and patient pacing led veteran Grant Enfinger to win his second straight NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Playoff race in Saturday’s Baptist Health 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, while his closest rivals were fueled behind him at the close. it was over. type.

Enfinger, who won the opening race of the Playoff round at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway three weeks ago, denied seven other Playoff racers the chance to automatically qualify for the championship. So now at least two drivers will advance based on points earned in next Saturday’s race in Martinsville, Va., and decide whether the other three drivers will continue their championship fight.

Enfinger’s No. 9 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet was damaged during the race’s early restart, and the team opted to switch to a different pit strategy; While he received tires and fuel on lap 80, most of the day’s previous race leaders opted to pit later on lap 100. Ultimately, Enfinger was able to both save enough fuel and race with such an advantage that no one could catch him as he raced towards his 12th career victory.

Having taken the lead outright with 22 laps remaining, Enfinger took a 17.5-second lead over ThorSport Racing’s Ty Majeski, and the other trucks followed a similar alternate strategy to Enfinger – the No. 38 driven by Layne Riggs and the No. 2 driven by Nick Sanchez. number — I started to run out of fuel in the last two laps.

See what fresh rubber can do!

After getting under the yellow, @LayneRiggs99 Powers to leadership! pic.twitter.com/A7rq79Q822

— NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) 26 October 2024

Enfinger had plenty of fuel, even performing a burnout to celebrate the win.

“At the end of the day, Jeff had the best truck out there,” said Enfinger, who made one touch after another on the track as he restarted the race and cut his tire earlier in the day.

“Our car was really fast after about five laps yesterday and it was the same today. Jeff did a good job of getting me on the tires and then on the fuel. I feel like I saved at least 20 percent more than I did on the first start. Frankly, Jeff was pretty tough on me and Number 38 is over and so is number 2.

“Those two weeks are hard to beat,” he added with a grin.

“We had potential all year long,” the 38-year-old Alabama native continued. “Sometimes I didn’t execute and sometimes we got lucky. Maybe it’s time for us to gain momentum.”

Connor Mosack posted a career-best third-place finish in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports truck. The most dominant truck of the day, driven by TRICON Garage’s Playoff driver Corey Heim, finished fourth after winning a best 68 of 134 laps. Heim continues to lead the championship standings, currently sitting 49 points above fifth place, with the top four drivers moving into the title race.

“Overall it was a good day to score points but it was disappointing,” said Heim, who is on a year-best streak of six wins. “Last year we were very fast and we wanted to come back and redeem ourselves and of course win the race. But the fact that there are no complaints about points will make Martinsville a little easier if we have a good day.”

McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Playoff driver Tyler Ankrum finished fifth, his best Playoff race to date. Senior Stewart Friesen placed sixth, followed by Daniel Dye.

And three Playoff drivers rounded out the top 10: Spire Motorsports’ Rajah Caruth, McAnally-Hilgemann’s Christian Eckes and Tricon Garage’s Taylor Gray.

Heading into the next race, Heim has a 49-point lead over the cutoff line. Eckes has a 38 point advantage and Majeski has a 22 point advantage. Caruth sits fifth and is the first driver outside the Play-off bubble, 22 points behind. Gray is 24 points behind, while Ankrum and Sanchez, who were in 13th place after running out of fuel, are 41 and 43 points behind respectively.

Frankie Muniz, popular actor on the television series Malcolm in the Middle, finished 33rd in his first series and his truck suffered mechanical problems early in the race.

The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series competes in the Zip Buy Now, Pay Later 200 next Friday night at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway (6 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) to determine the Championship Four field. Eckes won the race this April.

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