NASCAR Truck Series Final Four Decided at Martinsville

From Autoweek

• Grant Enfinger won Martinsville to advance to the Trucks Final Four.

• Sheldon Creed, Brett Moffitt and Zane Smith will also race for the title.

• Enfinger and Ben Rhodes were on the front row at the end and needed to win.
  

Equally desperate, Grant Enfinger held off a last-ditch effort from ThorSport Racing teammate Ben Rhodes and won his way into the NASCAR Truck Series championship race with a green-white-checkered triumph on Friday at Martinsville Speedway.

Enfinger led 49 of 200 laps, but nothing about it came easy, with so many drivers desperately needing a win to make the Final Four.

His first win at the historic half-mile was his sixth in Truck Series competition, but arguably his most important, as it permit him entry into the championship.

Enfinger entered this race facing a 42-point deficit, meaning that nothing short of a win would be enough, and that’s exactly what happened. The potential problem for Enfinger is that Rhodes was facing identical odds, 45 points, and gave his teammate a shove on that final restart.

Enfinger held on and will join Sheldon Creed, Brett Moffitt and Zane Smith as the championship eligible drivers next Friday night at Phoenix Raceway.

"We kind of came in here with nothing to lose, and honestly, that's how we'll attack Phoenix," Enfinger said.

Rhodes, Tyler Ankrum, defending champion Matt Crafton and regular season champion Austin Hill were eliminated from championship contention.

Hill’s elimination was the most dramatic, entering with a solid 27-point advantage over the cutline, but failing to advance to the final four due to an engine failure that became insurmountable after 117 laps. It began to show itself shortly after the conclusion of the first stage.

"Everyone that makes this deal happen deserves a lot better," Hill said. " We should be in this final four. ... I guess it's these great Ilmor engines. They like to breathe fire."

RETRIBUTION NEVER CAME

The most remarkable thing to come out of Martinsville is what didn’t happen.

It seemed inevitable that Christian Eckes would retaliate against Ben Rhodes for the incident that transpired between them last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.

Eckes had several opportunities if he wanted to, but they raced side-by-side and nose-to-tail throughout the race, and never enacted revenge.

Rhodes said he texted Eckes earlier in the week to explain what happened from his standpoint, but that went unanswered.

"I wasn't really worried about it," Rhodes said. "The biggest thing that upset me was the insults that I got walking up and down pit road today and going to my truck."

BATTLE OF ATTRITION

82 of 200 laps were run under caution.

"I don’t know if this was Martinsville or Bowman Gray," Smith said.

There were 11 cautions, and the average green flag run was 9.8 laps, but the length of the cautions curtailing the opportunities to race, drew the ire of several competitors like Crafton.

"That there at the end of the race was absolutely pathetic," Crafton said. "Soneone spins out and it takes us at least 10 laps to get going."

The intensity of making Martinsville the cutoff race before the championship race was extremely evident.

RESULTS

1. Grant Enfinger
2. Ben Rhodes
3. Zane Smith
4. Christian Eckes
5. Matt Crafton
6. Stewart Friesen
7. Danny Bohn
8. Sheldon Creed
9. Austin Wayne Self
10. Derek Kraus
11. Trevor Bayne
12. Tyler Ankrum
13. Carson Hocevar
14. Timmy Hill
15. Spencer Boyd
16. Dawson Cram
17. Brandon Jones
18. Sam Mayer
19. Jordan Anderson
20. Raphael Lessard
21. Clay Greenfield
22. BJ McLeod
23. Johnny Sauter
24. Parker Kligerman
25. Ray Ciccarelli
26. Norm Benning
27. Natalie Decker
28. Brett Moffitt
29. Jennifer Jo Cobb
30. Ryan Truex
31. Tanner Gray
32. Todd Gilliland
33. Spencer Davis
34. Codie Rohrbaugh
35. Austin Hill
36. Tate Fogleman
37. Josh Reaume