When the attention was fully directed at the 10 drivers fighting for a championship in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Chase, non-Chase driver Jake Garcia decided it was his turn to step into the spotlight.
The 21-year-old driver managed to pick up his first career victory in Thursday’s UNOH 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway, leading 104 laps en route to the win in what was a breakout performance for the ThorSport Racing driver making his 94th Truck Series start.
Garcia started Thursday’s race from the 12th position following the cancellation of qualifying due to inclement weather (lightning) with nine trucks left to run. At the time, the driver of the No. 98 Quanta Services Ford F-150 was the fastest qualifier.
After the race’s opening stage, where the Monroe, Georgia-native drove all the way to fourth, crew chief Josh Hankish decided to play strategy and bring the No. 98 down pit road to take tires – the only time that the race-winning truck would visit pit lane. The strategy resulted in Garcia holding the lead to start the final stage, which aside from a 10-lap stint on a late-race restart, where Stewart Friesen snagged the lead, he held until the checkered flag waved.
“I’ve been pushing for it for 94 starts, but I’m really proud of all my guys. They brought an amazing truck tonight. It was good today, but qualifying got rained out,” Garcia said. “We had a good strategy that helped us come from the back, got some track position and started stage three with the lead and kind of took off from there. We had some adversity on that last restart, but, fortunately, the truck was fast enough to overcome that and just really proud of this moment.”
Bayley Currey, making his first NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series start in almost a year, finished in the runner-up position, 1.305 seconds behind race-winner Garcia. It’s a career-best for Currey, who is making the first of two starts in the No. 5 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for TRICON Garage in the Chase.
Stewart Friesen backed up a solid result from New Hampshire Motor Speedway (four weeks ago) with a third-place finish, while Kaulig Racing recorded its first top-five in NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series competition with Justin Haley finishing fourth. Tristan McKee became the youngest driver to finish top-five in a NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series event, finishing fifth in his third start in the No. 77 Chevrolet Silverado.
Gio Ruggiero was the highest-finishing driver in the Chase, in sixth, with William Sawalich seventh, Kaden Honeycutt eighth, Ty Majeski ninth, and Grant Enfinger rounding out the top-10. Ben Rhodes, Daniel Hemric, and Tyler Ankrum finished 11th through 13th.
Chandler Smith had a tire going down late in Thursday’s 250-lapper, and was forced to put under green, leaving him to finish 24th, several laps down. Meanwhile, his teammate, Layne Riggs, had a loose wheel after leading a race-high 135 laps, which forced him to pit under green and lose several laps, before a late incident further dampened his evening.
Christian Eckes also ran into problems in Thursday’s event, making significant contact with the wall while trying to come up off the bottom lane in Turn 4, and getting turned into the outside wall by fellow Chase driver Grant Enfinger.
With a poor finish for Riggs, the No. 1 Seed in the Chase, the points battle tightens. Layne Riggs leaves Bristol with a three-point advantage over Kaden Honeycutt, with Chandler Smith in third, 30 points behind.
The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series returns to action next weekend at Kansas Speedway.
