WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — The Mission 176 at the Glen for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race Friday (Aug. 8) at Watkins Glen International — or more like the Mission 198 at the Glen — will be remembered for a couple of things.
Neither of them will be the fact that Corey Heim took his sixth win of the year and increased his playoff point total to 45.
Instead, the race will be remembered for two things.
One is a spate of mechanical failures that put a number of drivers behind the wall.
The other is a series of wrecks that ultimately extended the race nine laps and put it up against darkness.
Mechanical issues started almost immediately, similar to the ARCA race earlier in the day. Rajah Caruth had issues toward the rear of his truck and went behind the wall. He eventually returned to the race but pulled out before the finish and was credited with 32nd.
Caruth’s teammate Kyle Busch had his steering box break during the first caution. It was judged to be unrepairable, resulting in Busch going behind the wall and finishing 36th.
Ross Chastain was one of Heim’s biggest rivals early in the race. However, he was forced to have his fuel pump replaced under caution. A second failure put him out.
Kaden Honeycutt, making a one-off appearance for Young’s Motorsports after being dismissed from Niece Motorsports earlier this week, ended up having a drivetrain failure in the race. His truck had the tell tale signs of leaking fluid all over his tailgate before going behind the wall.
A number of drivers had flat tires, a couple of which actually resulted from broken suspension pieces that cut the inside of the tire.
Parker Kligerman broke a track bar mount in the first race back for Henderson Motorsports since the death of team owner Charlie Henderson.
There were also fluky occasions. Toni Breidinger reportedly ran over a piece of debris that had already drawn a caution. The result was a fiery exit from the race.
There were also failures that caused wrecks. Jack Wood suffered a flat left front tire and pounded the guardrails in turn 2 early on. He was OK afterward but was not made available for comment after leaving the infield care center.
Ben Rhodes spent much of the race dealing with “the most difficult truck [he’s] ever driven.” On lap 69, a hub failure resulted in his left rear wheel falling off and pitching him into the wall.
As the race continued, the aggression and impatience increased. That resulted in a string of crashes that eliminated a number of drivers. Tanner Gray effectively tried to clear himself from Ty Majeski on the backstretch. That resulted in Gray spinning into the wall.
Connor Mosack managed to spin out twice in the inner loop late in the race. He took responsibility for the first one but believed that Majeski dumped him the second time.
The garage area after Friday’s race was a mess. There were multiple damaged trucks being worked on solely so that they could be loaded onto the transporters. You had frustrated drivers and some happy drivers because they managed to avoid the shenanigans.
For instance, Wesley Slimp looked around, noticed that the HNTB-sponsored Toyota that he finished 12th with looked clean, and was surprised.
Most others were not so lucky.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.