Enfinger cruises to Truck Series win as local driver runs out of gas and out of contention

Nick Sanchez was running second in the final lap of Saturday’s Baptist Health 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Then his No. 2 Gainbridge Chevrolet Silverado ran out of fuel.

Positioned to finish runner-up to Grant Enfinger, the Miami native wound up 13th after suffering the same fate as Layne Riggs, whose empty tank with two laps left allowed Sanchez to move up from third.

Enfinger captured the checkered flag for the second consecutive NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Round of 8 playoff race. He seized the lead with 22 laps to go and cruised across the finish line 17.5 seconds ahead of Ty Majeski.

“Hard to beat these two weeks,” Enfinger said with a grin.

Connor Mosack finished two-tenths of a second behind Majeski. Pole-sitter Corey Heim, who led 68 of the 134 laps, and Tyler Ankrum rounded out the top five.

“At the end of the day, [crew chief] Jeff [Stankiewicz] just had the best truck out here,” said Enfinger, who shook off contact with Christian Eckes on a final-stage restart.

“Our car was really fast after about five laps yesterday [in practice] and was the same way today. Jeff did a good job managing me with the tires and then managing me with the fuel.”

The top four on the playoff leaderboard — Heim (+49), Enfinger (+40), Christian Eckes (+38), and Majeski (+22) — remained the same with one race left before the Championship 4 on Nov. 8 at Phoenix. Sanchez sits eighth, 43 points below the cutoff.

“For me, it’s a must-win,” Sanchez said of the final Round of 8 race Nov. 1 at Martinsville Speedway. “That’s how I’m looking at it going in. I think it’s a little bit easier to approach a race as a must-win.

“We finished fourth at Martinsville in the [Long John Silver’s 200 on April 5], so I don’t see any reason why we can’t contend next week. We just have to fully focus on that and get it done.”

Of his driving Saturday, Sanchez said, “It was a little bit choppy. I started fourth and I fell like a rock. Just did not fire off good. … A little disappointed with how we did, but that’s racing.”

Sanchez, Enfinger and Riggs all made a pit stop under yellow caution with 55 laps to go Saturday. Only Enfinger saved enough fuel.

“I think as a team, we made the right call to go for it at the end,” said Sanchez, who finished 17th at Homestead last year. “That’s the strategy that won the race. We were just a lap short of fuel.

“I definitely saved more [fuel] than 38, but obviously I didn’t save as much as the niner. I thought I was saving more than him, but he was pulling away from me.”

Said Enfinger: “I knew the 38 and 2 were under the same strategy and I didn’t want them to go away from us. …I just committed to running the bottom [of the track] every lap I could, tried not to use any brakes, and just coast as much as I could.”

Enfinger won at Homestead-Miami Speedway for the first time in eight races on the track.

The 39-year-old entered Saturday’s race, which he started in the No. 9 position, as the only driver to have locked up a spot in the Championship 4. He earned that distinction by winning the Love’s RV Stop 225 at Talladega Superspeedway, in his home state of Alabama, on Oct. 4.

“From a mental standpoint, I’ve been preparing for Phoenix,” Enfinger said. “I haven’t really been preparing for Homestead as much.”

Despite that, Stankiewicz “really wanted to make a statement here at Homestead,” he said.

“We’ve had potential all year,” Enfinger noted. “There’s been sometimes, I haven’t executed and sometimes we’ve just had bad luck. Maybe it’s just time we get our momentum now.”

Meanwhile, Heim is best positioned to grab one of the other three spots in the Championship 4.

“Overall, a good day for points, but disappointing,” said Heim, who finished third here in 2023. “We were so fast last year and wanted to come back and redeem ourselves and win the race, of course. But no complaints as far as points go, makes Martinsville a little bit easier if we put together a decent day.”