After a solid day, Grant Enfinger was able to grab the top spot from Austin Hill due to his strong final restart from the fourth position in overtime. This is his second win of the season, and the fourth of this career. It was also the first win for Ford at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
“Man, first of all, Chis Lambert said it perfectly over the radio. This race was won at the shop. We didn’t have the best truck on the long-run, but we had the best truck on the short-run, I feel like. The good Lord was looking out for us. It’s just a special weekend. Congratulations to my grandparents. They’re celebrating their seventieth wedding anniversary. I’m sorry we couldn’t be there. Man, this one is for them. This one really means a lot,” Enfinger said.
Though Enfinger Won the race, it was Kyle Busch who captured both stage one and two wins. The second stage victory marked his fifth straight stage win at Atlanta.
Of the 200-mile race’s handful of accident-related cautions leading up to the checkered flag, the first appeared on lap two with Bryan Dauzat spinning on the backstretch. Additionally, Dauzat brought out the second caution, as his tire went down on lap 13. This also served as the competition caution. Stage one later concluded on lap 30. While pitting prior to the next stage, Matt Crafton and John Hunter Nemechek made contact.
The only caution of the second stage came with 79 to go due to a spin from Austin Wayne Self.
Many trucks began pitting under green with 34 to go in the final stage. This brought trouble for two NASCAR Cup Series stars. Chase Elliott carried too much speed while trying to get to pit road, which forced him to pit a lap later and resulted in some lost time on the rest of the field. Meanwhile, Busch collected a speeding penalty during his stop, and he made contact with the wall shortly after, as he tried to avoid Jordan Anderson on the track. Busch pitted to repair his damage under green and obtained a second speeding penalty.
The only caution of the final stage came with three laps to go, as Elliott spun around. This caution forced a restart under NASCAR overtime.
Surviving the duration of the 130-lap race allowed Hill to finish second, trailing only by 0.215 seconds, after leading 36 straight laps at his home track. Christian Eckes was third, and Todd Gilliland was fourth. Zane Smith rounded out the top-five with another solid finish following his third place finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The trucks will be back in action in just one short week. The tour’s next race will be on Saturday, June 13 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Coverage of the race can be found on FS1 at 12:30 PM.
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