Corey Heim gained Friday night time’s Kubota Tractor 200 within the quickest truck, however he wanted assist from fellow Playoff driver Ty Majeski to safe the victory within the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Sequence Spherical of 10 elimination race at Kansas Speedway.
Majeski ran out of gasoline approaching the white flag whereas main, permitting Heim to surge previous in his No. 11 TRICON Storage Toyota and declare his sixth victory of the season in a race that noticed reigning sequence champion Ben Rhodes and Playoff rookie Daniel Dye eradicated from title competition.
Below the third and closing warning on lap 78 of the 134-lap race, Majeski got here to pit highway for tires and gasoline, together with ThorSport Racing teammate Rhodes and eventual fourth-place finisher Kaden Honeycutt.
Heim, runner-up Layne Riggs and third-place finisher Christian Eckes stayed on monitor in the course of the warning and made green-flag pit stops inside the closing 30 laps. Heim, who began the race from the rear of the sector after hitting the surface wall and chopping a tire in apply earlier within the day, was chasing Majeski when the latter ran out of gasoline.
Majeski, who had clinched a berth within the Spherical of 8 together with his win in Stage 1, rolled dwelling in fifteenth, the final driver on the lead lap.
“We have been the perfect truck all night time. It’s my favourite monitor; I like coming right here,” mentioned Heim, who gained on the 1.5-mile speedway within the spring. “I look ahead to this. I had a smile on my face all week coming to this place.
“I simply thought we might sweep the yr right here. It’s an superior place to come back. I definitely thought we had it misplaced there to the No. 98 (Majeski), nearly making it on gasoline, but it surely simply exhibits my staff made the suitable name.”
Transfer @CoreyHeim_ to the purpose! #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/g1pcBnExnG
— NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Vehicles (@NASCAR_Trucks) September 28, 2024
The victory was Heim’s second at Kansas and the eleventh of his profession. He led a race-high 64 laps in an occasion that featured 10 lead modifications amongst three drivers.
Heim, Eckes and Nick Sanchez had clinched spots within the Spherical of 8 within the second race of the Spherical of 10 at Bristol. Majeski, seventh-place finisher Rajah Caruth, ninth-place Grant Enfinger, 14th-place Tyler Ankrum and 18th-place Taylor Grey superior on factors Friday night time.
Within the closing laps, there was actual suspense relating to the fortunes of two-time sequence champion Rhodes and Enfinger. Rhodes was on the identical technique as Majeski and ran as excessive as third because the race neared its conclusion.
Enfinger gained positions as Rhodes misplaced them within the late going, and the die was solid when Rhodes ran out of gasoline.
“We certified fourth, and at first of the race—large modifications with the truck,” mentioned Rhodes, who gained titles in 2021 and 2023. “We couldn’t get it tightened up… Nonetheless type of unacceptable. If we’d have gotten our stage factors, it might have taken care of itself.”
Rhodes got here dwelling twenty second after operating out of gasoline and fell 25 factors wanting Enfinger for the ultimate spot within the Spherical of 8.
“It was positively somewhat bit annoying, positively too shut for consolation there,” Enfinger mentioned. “It is a spherical we need to neglect. We snuck by way of right here, and now we’re trying ahead to going to Talladega subsequent week [for the first race in the Round of 8].”
Dye scraped the surface wall twice in the course of the first stage and made a number of pit stops, falling three laps down. He completed twenty seventh and, like Enfinger, was 25 factors away from advancing to the subsequent spherical.
Riggs, who didn’t qualify for the Playoffs in his rookie season, added the runner-up end to his two victories within the earlier two races.
Dawson Sutton ran fifth, adopted by Tanner Grey, Caruth, Bayley Currey, Enfinger and Connor Mosack.
