LOUDON, N.H. — When NASCAR changed from the playoff championship formula to the Chase, one question it raised was whether the final race of the regular season would be a letdown without the “win and you’re in” aspect.
As far as the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series was concerned, that was cleared up during Saturday’s (Aug. 22) Team EJP 175 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Tyler Ankrum entered the weekend with a 20-point advantage over Stewart Friesen, with Jake Garcia a single point behind Friesen. It wasn’t enough to be lackadaisical about, but a solid, straightforward race for Ankrum could have easily sealed his playoff berth.
Ankrum didn’t have that race.
Instead, a brake issue relegated Ankrum to midpack for most of the day. He missed out on stage points while Garcia picked up a total of seven and Friesen grabbed one. Suddenly that comfortable lead was anything but.
“We had a lot of mechanical issues earlier in the year,” Ankrum said after the race. “I thought we were past them. I thought we were over it. We had another one today.”
Meanwhile, both Friesen and Garcia were running with the leaders. Ankrum could only watch. With 10 laps to go, Friesen held the final spot over Garcia on a tiebreaker, with Ankrum just two points from making the cut. It was like a game of rock-paper-scissors to see who would come out on top. Ankrum held the tiebreaker over Garcia. Friesen held it over them both. All Garcia needed was one more spot to render the tiebreaker moot.
Then Gavan Boschele, who had been having a great day of his own, got spun with five to go. And suddenly Ankrum had one more chance: he could stay on track while many of the drivers in front of him, including Friesen and Garcia, pitted for tires. Of course, that meant that Ankrum had to survive as many overtime restarts as the race threw at him on older tires. Still, it was a chance.
The race restarted for the two-lap run to the finish, but a five-truck incident in turn 2 brought the yellow right back out. Ankrum had position, but another restart stood between him and his competitors and the final Chase spot.
This time, the restart went off without incident. Layne Riggs took the checkers for the sixth time this year and claimed the top Chase seed, while Ankrum held on to the 10th and final spot by just seven points.
“We just didn’t bring enough speed all year, Friesen said afterward. “We battled today. Bruce (Cook, crew chief) made a good call to get two tires and up in the front we got the balance pretty close and found a lane I could work with. It’s a bummer; I think we’re definitely a top-10 team. We just had some misfortune at Richmond last week and some other times throughout the season. It is what it is, we’ll just go back to work and keep building this team up and get better and better, I promise you that.”
“I thought for sure we were a top-five truck,” said Garcia, who finished 14th. “But … didn’t keep track position when we had it and had to fight back through the field.
“Overall, if you look back at the year, there are plenty of races where we lost 20 points by getting wrecked or having a mechanical failure … probably four of five races like that. Days like that are what cost you.”
Ankrum said he didn’t think his day would be enough to hold the final Chase seed.
“(We) got lucky,” he admitted after the race. (We) did not perform like we belong in the Chase. (Now, we) move on past this and go to the shop and improve and race for the championship.”
The Truck Series’ seven-race Chase kicks off Sept. 17 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.