(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)
By Aaron Bearden
Post-race review and analysis from the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway
*Writer not present at the track this week. Observations are from afar.
Who Won?
Kyle Busch.
Who Claimed the Stages?
Grant Enfinger and Busch. Enfinger scored his first stage win on a strategy play before Busch took over for his sixth stage victory of 2019.
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Another Close Call
Stewart Friesen came witting reach of NASCAR victory lane once again on Friday night. But in order to make the trip, he’d have to topple one of the sport’s all-time greats.
It proved to be a feat too daunting to manage.
Friesen continued his strong start to the 2019 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series season at Texas Motor Speedway, rising in the final stage to find himself in contention for the win in the closing laps. With slightly fresher tires, Friesen reeled in and stalked all-time series win leader Kyle Busch through the last 20 laps.
The battle proved to be one of Busch’s most challenging of the year in NASCAR’s third series, forcing him to defend the preferred lane and ward off overtake attempts from Friesen and the No. 52 Halmar Friesen Racing Chevrolet as the laps wound down. At one point Friesen even managed to get alongside Busch, nearly clearing him for the lead.
But in the end the effort wasn’t enough. Busch held onto the position and drove off to a comfortable advantage over the final five laps. Friesen was left with his fifth runner-up result, once again denied a debut trip to Truck Series victory lane.
Afterwards the 2018 playoff contender claimed a lack of grip in dirty air kept him from completing the pivotal pass.
“We just got too tight,” Friesen told FOX Sports. “Trip (Bruce, crew chief) and the guys did a good job trying to free me up all race long, but just fought dirty air. The outside came in a little bit. if somebody was bad enough you could roll them.
“I thought I had him once there, and he just took the air off the spoiler and got us loose. That’s how you race these things, you know? I did it to a half-dozen guys, and a half-dozen guys did it to me. It’s tough. Just tough to clear him, and you’re racing the best in the business.”
Busch stormed off to his 55th victory after surviving Friesen’s challenge, extending his advantage as the tour’s winningest driver. The Nevadan expected a challenge in the closing laps – but he figured it would come from a different driver altogether.
“The 24 (Brett Moffitt) was who I was really worried about…and then something happened with him, and then the 52 (Stewart Friesen) was really fast and right there on our tailgate the whole finish of that race, until about the last five laps,” Busch said. “I don’t know if he just got heated up or what back there. He put up a good fight and about got to me a couple of times there, and fortunately I was just able to hold out and keep the Cessna Tundra up front.”
While his search for a victory continues, Friesen’s best-in-class run helped extend his slim advantage over Grant Enfinger in the championship to six points. The dirt modified standout has averaged a finish of 3.67 in the past three races after a difficult start to the season, storming to the top of the standings.
Friesen will carry that lead for the next month, where the intends to take advantage of the Truck Series’ lengthy spring break — the series doesn’t race again until May 3 at Dover International Speedway — to race elsewhere and fundraise for a special cause.
“I’m looking forward to the month of April, racing the modified,” Friesen said. “It’s Autism Awareness Month. We’ve got a lot of good stuff going on for the Autism Awareness to raise some money. Look for us at Dover. We’re going to be doing a special truck there and auctioning off some puzzle pieces so people can get involved, and then support the cause.
“Our son Parker lives on the spectrum, and there’s millions of other kids out there who need help, and not only them but the schools they go to need some help. That’s what we’re going to try to do, raise some money throughout April and go have some fun at Dover.”
Early Attrition
The final stage of Friday’s race saw green-flag runs of 27 and 25 laps, but the opening two stages beforehand were anything but clean.
With the close-quarters racing and emphasis on drafting in the Truck Series paired with the challenging nature of the recently-reconfigured Texas Motor Speedway oval, many of the stars and prospects of NASCAR’s third tour found themselves in or dodging crashes in the early stages of the Vankor 350.
Issues began just four laps into the event, when a three-truck incident led to heavy damage for playoff hopeful Todd Gilliland and the No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports team. Less than 10 laps later, Gilliland’s teammate Harrison Burton crashed out of the race with a hard hit into the Turn 1 wall.
The race was back to green after four laps of yellow, but another caution came just two laps into the ensuing run. The run after that crash lasted just three laps, and by the time that caution period was finished there were only five laps to contest before the end of Stage 1.
Stage 2 saw fewer crashes overall, but one big accident for Anthony Alfredo led to a large fire in the front of his No. 54 Toyota. Alfredo was unhurt in the incident, but the blaze and fluid dropped forced NASCAR to display the red flag for cleanup.
The opening two stages saw a combined five cautions for crashes, with seven of the race’s 32 competitors involved. The green flag flew for an average of just 5.71 laps per run, forcing the field to slow the pace early and often.
Stage 3 ran relatively clean by comparison, with just two cautions for single-truck accidents involving Codie Rohrbagh and Korbin Forrister. But the attrition continued despite the lack of yellows.
Daytona International Speedway winner Austin Hill fell out after 75 laps, forced to pit road with an overheating No. 16 Toyota. The result continued a stretch of poor runs for defending champions Hattori Racing, with an average finish of 24.3 in the past three races. Damage sustained on-track caused driver’s champion Brett Moffitt and Cup Series regular Bubba Wallace to fade to 19th and 20th, respectively.
The high attrition rate added up at race’s end. Of the 32 competitors entered, 13 finished more than five laps off pace.
Many of the drivers that dodged the carnage secured career-best runs as a result. Sixth-place finisher Tyler Ankrum matched his career-best result in his first 1.5-mile start. Tyler Dippel and Brennan Poole each scored career-best results in eighth and ninth, as did Cory Roper (12th), Ray Ciccarelli (16th) and Jesse Iwuji (17th).
Other Notes
- There was a heavy layer of VHT on the racing surface Friday, placed in an effort to add extra racing grooves to the recently-repaved oval. But Busch believes the cooler temps this weekend may keep it from being effective. “When you have cautions, as many cautions as we had and as cold as it’s going to be here the rest of the weekend, I don’t know if it’s going to activate,” he said. “It takes heat to activate it. It’s a very complicated scenario with that stuff.”
- Speaking of Busch, if he can win at Dover the 2015 Cup Series champion will tie Ron Hornaday Jr. for the most consecutive Truck Series wins at five. Busch has triumphed in his last five starts already, but the first the five came at Pocono Raceway last July.
- Matt Crafton hasn’t had a season with double-digit finishes in the top-five since 2015, but the veteran’s on pace to accomplish it early on in 2019. Crafton earned his third top-five in five races with a fifth-place run on Friday. His 7.0 average finish thus far matches the mark he hit in his most recent championship season (2014).
- Johnny Sauter hasn’t won yet in his return to ThorSport Racing, but he hasn’t fallen far from this time with GMS Racing. The 2016 champion has two top-fives and an average finish of 9.0 to start the year, which trails the past two years but is just one position per race removed from the results Sauter had during his title run.
- Ross Chastain has five top-10s in as many starts to open the 2019 season. His all-time record in the Truck Series is seven, back when he ran a partial schedule for Brad Keselowski Racing in 2013.
- Garrett Smithley made his first Truck Series start since 2015 on Friday, and finished one spot behind his career-best result in 15th.
