In a chaotic ending from Michigan International Speedway featuring several attempts at overtime, Stewart Friesen was able to execute an immaculate restart to claim the lead before holding off Grant Enfinger for the win.
Friesen’s fourth career win snaps his 72-race dry spell and locks him into this year’s playoffs.
Enfinger came home runner up to cap his up-and-down day, while polesitter Luke Fenhaus came home third.
Ben Rhodes emerged late to finish fourth, while Corey Lajoie finished fifth after holding the lead in the closing stages.
Matt Crafton finished sixth ahead of Jake Garcia in seventh, Chandler Smith in eighth, Andres Perez in ninth, and Layne Riggs, who completed the top-10 finishers.
For much of the opening stages of the race, it was a familiar battle up front between old rivals Carson Hocevar and Corey Heim. While racing through the pack was furious, Heim and Hocevar pulled away to swap the lead between themselves.
While Hocevar led for much of the opening stage, Heim passed him up on the final lap to take the stage win.
Stage two played out straightforward with the same result, as once again Heim and Hocevar raced only each other for the top spot. This time, it was Heim who led towards the end of the stage and successfully fended off Hocevar’s advances to claim the second stage.
Hocevar climbed to the lead to open the final segment, and another showdown between Heim and Hocevar appeared to be brewing, this time for the race win.
However, a series of cautions beginning with around 50 laps to go turned the race strategy on its head and introduced many new contenders. A caution for a hard crash involving Nathan Byrd and Morgan Baird brought out another caution with only 41 laps remaining and split the field as Heim, Hocevar and other frontrunners pitted while others like Enfinger, Gio Ruggiero, and Garcia stayed out.
In all, seven trucks stayed out during the caution period that eventually turned to a red flag period for SAFER barrier repair. This pitted the leaders back in traffic for the first time all afternoon and set up an intriguing finish as they charged towards the front while those on older tires tried to nurse their trucks while also maintaining track position.
With less than 20 laps remaining, the consistent contenders throughout the day worked their way back to the front, and a furious battle for the lead broke out between Enfinger, Heim, Hocevar, Riggs and Chastain.
Nearly each of the five drivers had their turn at the front in a brilliant exchange involving several three wide passes. This thrilling sequence was only broken up when Riggs slid into the wall and blew a tire, triggering a debris caution with only 10 laps remaining.
Enfinger’s fuel shortage forced him to pit from the lead scrap, along with Hocevar who had to pit to tend to damage from the lead battle. With these contenders temporarily out of the picture, Ruggiero inherited the lead ahead of Heim, Chastain and Daniel Hemric.
As the leaders came to the restart with only five laps remaining, the race would once again be turned on its head when Ruggiero and Chastain both got turned from the front row and collected nearly all frontrunning trucks.
Lajoie emerged from the mayhem as the leader, while Hemric followed him through to second with heavy damage. The carnage also allowed Enfinger and Hocevar to enter the picture once again. Friesen also avoided the melee to establish himself as a contender.
Lajoie, in search of his first win in one of NASCAR’s top three series, led the field down for its first attempt at an overtime finish. Lajoie’s great restart appeared to have him on his way to victory, but Hemric’s damaged truck lost a left front tire into turn 3, sending him careening into the wall and setting up another attempt at overtime.
On that successive overtime attempt, Lajoie led the field to green alongside Garcia with Enfinger right on his bumper. The veteran Enfinger executed a textbook restart and swept past Lajoie out of turn two. Much like Lajoie, Enfinger appeared to have had it won before another crash prompted yet another overtime attempt.
This time, it was Matt Mills, Toni Breidinger and Tanner Gray who collided down the back stretch to bring out the yellow.
As the leader, Enfinger chose the top for what would prove to be the final restart, with Friesen opting to start alongside on the front row. Friesen was able to do something that had not been done all afternoon when he snatched the lead on the restart from the inside lane, and after that power move, Friesen never looked back on his way to victory.
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It was the Canadian’s first win in the Truck Series since 2022 at Texas Motor Speedway.
