NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C.: Grant Enfinger is with his third different Craftsman Truck Series team in the last four years.
Since earning his first fifth-place finish on the tour in 2016, the 39-year-old driver has never gone this deep in the season before scoring a top-five.
Following a pair of back-to-back ninth-place finishes at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway with the No. 9 CR7 Motorsports team earlier this season, Enfinger fought back to a strong second-place result at North Wilkesboro Speedway in the Wright Brand 250.
“This was the third truck we brought to the track that had contending speed,” Enfinger said. “I think if we had had a caution there at the end, we could have made it interesting. I definitely think the leader had the advantage here.”
Race winner Corey Heim snatched the lead from Jake Garcia on a Lap 186 restart. Enfinger restarted sixth. Following the seventh and final caution on Lap 219, Enfinger passed Butterbean Queen and points leader Christian Eckes with 30 laps to go.
After getting by Garcia, Enfinger patiently moved by Layne Riggs to secure second place with two laps remaining. Unfortunately, Heim held a 3.292-second lead after taking the white flag. Enfinger cut Heim’s advantage to 2.474 seconds on the final lap but had to settle for second.
“Kudos to North Wilkesboro Speedway,” Enfinger said. “This is by far the best new repave I’ve ever been on. There were multiple grooves. If you had a fast truck, you could pass guys.”
Enfinger is encouraged by the team’s progress over the past month. He feels Darlington was a turning point for the team. Last weekend, Enfinger scored points in the both stages in the Darlington truck race. He led three laps and was running third before a multi-lap crash shuffled the field with 45 laps remaining. Enfinger finished 16th.
“I was upset with the way things were going, but Jeff (Stankiewicz, crew chief) unloaded a great truck last week and another great one today. So thank you to Bill McAnally, MHR and all the guys over there that have helped us get back on track.
“Hopefully, now we can return the favor and share some notes because we have some performance at back it up now, too.”
Enfinger scored his first of 10 truck wins in 2016 and graduated to full-time competition the following season. He’s never finished worse than 11th in the standings and has advanced to the Championship 4 twice—in 2020 with Thorsport Racing and last year in GMS Racing’s swan song, when Enfinger finished a career-best second.
But 2024 has been a challenge — until now.
“I think there are a lot of details that we’re still working through—minor details,” Enfinger said. “I think we’re doing a lot of the big things right. I think there have been some growing pains.
“And honestly, we’ve made a lot of mistakes—little mistakes, but uncharacteristic mistakes. These guys in the Craftsman Truck Series are tough. You’ve got to be on your game all the time.”
On Sunday, everything came together for the Stankiewicz-led team. Enfinger’s 59th-career top five elevated the driver from 11th to eighth in the driver standings.
“Today, we optimized everything we could from restarts, to pit stops, to strategy,” Enfinger said. “Jeff did a great job. My spotter, Tim Fedewa, did a great job. I think it’s just been little mistakes and details we’ve been leaving out. It’s not an effort deal, it’s just a growing pain deal, and we’ve been working out some of the kinks.
“But incredibly grateful for Codie Rohrbaugh, Larry Berg and everybody that’s allowed us to do this. Proud of the strides we’ve made as a team. I feel like we haven’t been able to show it. We’ve been making gains in the shop. Our performance hasn’t been there (this season) but the last two weeks it has. We’ve had really, really good Champion Power Equipment Chevrolets.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
