Oh, Canada.
It’s only fitting that a Chevrolet Silverado made its way into Victory Lane Sunday afternoon at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in the running of the Chevrolet Silverado 250, but it wasn’t the exact way that Chase Elliott wanted to win his first-career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race.
Elliott, who became the youngster winner in NCWTS tangled with Ty Dillon’s No. 3 Chevrolet Silverado in the final corner of the 10-turn course sending Dillon hard into the tire barriers and Elliott to the win in the truck’s return to road-course racing for the first time in 12 years.
Subsequently, the first four trucks that took the white flag were involved in a last-corner lap-lap entanglement as Max Papis and road racing ace Mike Skeen crashed coming to the checkered flag.
Chaos literally erupted on pit road and on the course, as several teams and drivers showed their displeasure with each other.
Chad Hackenbracht snuck through the last-lap carnage and collected a career-best second place finish in his No. 51 Tastee Apple / Ingersoll Rand Toyota Tundra for Kyle Busch Motorsports, while Brazil’s Miguel Paludo netted third with Darrell Wallace Jr. placed fourth and sponsorless Ron Hornaday Jr. closed out the top-five.
“He obviously wasn’t happy and he had every right not to be happy. I wouldn’t have been happy either,” said Elliott. “At the same time, you have to do what you have to do.”
An irate Dillon, who’s making the move to the NASCAR Nationwide Series next season leaned into the window of Elliott, before the son of NASCAR champion Bill Elliott made his way to victory lane.
In the garage, Dillon, the grandson of Richard Childress Racing expressed his frustration with his fellow Chevrolet teammate.
“I was doing all I could to make it to the finish,” said Dillon, who dropped from first to 17th. “He just gave up trying to race and dumped me. I mean, he killed our truck. He killed our day.”
Meanwhile, while Elliott was soaking up the win for Hendrick Motorsports, tension and tempers remained high in the garage area. Skeen’s girlfriend, Kelly Heaphy showed her displeasure with Papis and his post-race comments with a highly magnitude slap across his face. From there, the feud died down. Skeen nor Heaphy were asked to report to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series hauler.
Papis, though hasn’t ruled out possible criminal charges against Heaphy.
“I got out of the truck and got assaulted by some of the mechanics of the 6 truck,” Papis said. “That was really poor as well. I just didn’t want to create extra problems. I got out of the truck and went to talk to this kid – but he didn’t want to stand up for his own issues. I got out and this lady came running up to me and she started screaming and hit me so hard that she dislocated my jaw. But I’m not hitting anyone – especially a lady.
“This was a wife or, whatever, a girlfriend of that kid. I thank my wife for being cool about this stuff. That was between me and that guy right there — I don’t even know his name — the 6 driver. It was not between the crew. It was not between me and his girlfriend, wife, whatever she was. I’ve got to think about what I want to do here. I talked to NASCAR about it, and I’m not very happy about what happened there. I don’t know. I might consider something about pressing charges — it’s not good. What she did is not good. I didn’t like that at all. I went to NASCAR and talked to them.”
Papis settled for a sixth place finish in a third NTS Motorsports entry, Ross Chastain, Timothy Peters, pole sitter James Buescher and championship leader Matt Crafton comprised the remainder of the top-10.
Stuart, Florida native Bryan Silas scored his career-best finish in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series on Sunday afternoon, finishing 11th after starting the event dead last. Previously, his best finish was 12th at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway last October.
Jeb Burton fell victim to transmission issues and finished 22.
Johnny Sauter, after starting 16th had a fast Toyota Tundra, but his ThorSport Racing team battled fuel pressure issues resulting in a disappointing 28th place-run.
Crafton, the leading ThorSport Racing racer continues to mount top-10 finishes in NASCAR Camping World Truck Series competition and posted his 14th consecutive top-10 finishes and holds a 47-point lead over James Buescher.
RACE NOTES:
Average Speed: 86.775 MPH
Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 48 Mins, 49 Secs.
Margin of Victory: Caution
Lead Changes: 7 among 6 drivers
Cautions: 5 for 10 laps
Unofficial Top-Ten in the Point Standings: 1. Matt Crafton – 532 (Leader) 2. James Buescher – 485 (-47 Points Behind the Leader) 3. Ty Dillon – 469 (-63) 4. Jeb Burton # – 467 (-65) 5. Miguel Paludo – 464 (-68) 6. Timothy Peters – 462 (-70) 7. Ryan Blaney # – 450 (-82) 8. Brendan Gaughan – 444 (-88) 9. Darrell Wallace Jr. # – 426 (-106) 10. Johnny Sauter – 425 (-107).
Next Up: The 2nd annual American Ethanol 200 at Iowa Speedway on Sunday, September 8th, with an approximate starting time of 2:20 pm (ET) and television coverage provided by FOX Sport 1 beginning with their 1:30 pm (ET) pre-race show.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
