BROOKLYN, Mich. — With 10 laps to go, Saturday’s (June 7) NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Michigan International Speedway was shaping up to be a five-horse race between Grant Enfinger, Carson Hocevar, Ross Chastain, Layne Riggs and Corey Heim.
Enfinger and Riggs had the track position, while Hocevar, Heim and Chastain had the fresh rubber to run them down. The result was incredible three-wide battles for the lead as all five trucks raced under a blanket for multiple laps.
But soon the leaders began dropping like flies, one by one.
Chastain nearly wrecked off of turn 2 and faded to fifth. Riggs hit the turn 2 wall to bring out a caution with single digit laps remaining, while Hocevar (flat left rear tire) and Enfinger (fuel) had to surrender their track position under said caution to hit pit road.
That left Chastain and three TRICON Garage trucks (Heim, Tanner Gray and Gio Ruggiero) as the leaders with five to go for an ugly restart that went haywire before the field even reached the start/finish line.
Ruggiero, the control truck, was slow to get up to speed on the outside line, and Heim ran straight into the back of him.
Gray simultaneously ran into the back of Chastain on the inside line, and everyone met in the middle in a crash that collected at least a dozen trucks, if not more.
The damage to the No. 44 was severe enough that Chastain had to retire from the race.
âThe push came really hard from behind,” Chastain said. “It felt like a couple trucks connected to come through the No. 15 (Gray) to me. I haven’t seen a great replay yet, but I definitely was getting pushed before the restart zone even started.
“I didn’t want to jump, and then I felt him get off of me, and I was like, âoh, darn it, I’m going to be in the middleâ, and then I got wrecked. So, yeah, I think it was just a lot of pushing and that’s what it takes to win Craftsman Truck Series races.â
Meanwhile, Heim limped home to 18th with a wounded truck after sweeping the first two stages.
“Thought we had the right strategy in the third stage, coming from back in the pack, and in position there on the last restart,” Heim said. “Myself and the No. 17 (Ruggiero) just didnât link up the way we wanted to, and it went down from there. …
“Definitely had the truck to beat today. Just didnât work out.â
Ruggiero recovered to finish 12th, but he’ll have to wait another day to score his first Truck win.
“I donât know (what happened),” Ruggiero said. “Have to watch the replay. Havenât seen it yet, looked at it, (nor) talked about it as a team yet. Yeah, itâs unfortunate. We had a really good truck and not sure what happened there. Just felt like I wasnât ready to go yet. I was right at the start of the restart zone. Just have to look at the replay to see what happened there.”
The seas parted for Corey LaJoie to take the lead. Enfinger and Hocevar found themselves right back in the mix for the first overtime attempt, which immediately came to a halt when Daniel Hemric blew a tire and hit the turn 3 wall. Hocevar received a restart violation for changing lanes on the second overtime restart and faded to 11th, but Enfinger used his fresh tires to take the lead, only for another multi-truck crash to force a third try.
It was during the third try that Stewart Friesen powered to the lead and held off Enfinger to the flag for his fourth Truck win and his first since 2022.
âYeah, it certainly wasnât good to start,” Friesen said. “Fought (being) free, then got on the tight side of it. Luckily, got enough cautions to keep working on it. We were swinging the pendulum back-and-forth on it, and then we just nailed it there for those last couple laps. Had a little bit of strategy there.
“Thought Corey might take the front row there with Grant and then Iâd line up behind Ben (Rhodes) and just push the heck out of the top. Then (when the front row was available), I was like âIâll take it,â and try to get the best launch I could, and we got a killer launch. Got in clean air and had enough speed to keep this No. 52 Halmar International Tundra TRD Pro up front.”
Enfinger didn’t have enough power or enough of a push to hold Friesen off on the restart. He wound up one spot short of his first win of the 2025 season.
“Feel like all in all, we executed to the best of our ability, but it just wasnât meant to be,” Enfinger said.
Friesen’s triumph marks the second consecutive week that a driver below the playoff cut line clinched a playoff spot, and with five races left in the regular season, it’s defending series champion Ty Majeski clinging to the last spot by just three points in a playoff battle that will come all the way down to the wire.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is âStat Sheet,â and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf