There was no pressure to win for Grant Enfinger on Saturday at Homestead Miami Speedway but the CR7 No. 9 team responded to some early adversity by catching a break and winning the race anyway.
Enfinger, who won earlier in the month at Talladega Superspeedway to advance into the Truck Series championship race in two weeks at Phoenix Raceway, had no threat of consequence whatsoever. So when he collided with Christian Eckes, and lost a lap to tend to a cut tire, it didn’t matter.
But the No. 9 got back on the lead lap on pure speed and stretched their fuel mileage to go back-to-back in the third-tier division … keeping the playoff pressure on everyone else next weekend at Martinsville Speedway.
“At the end of the day, [crew chief] Jeff [Stankiewicz] just had the best truck out here,” said Enfinger.
“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. I feel like I saved at least 20 percent more than I did in the first run. Jeff was on me pretty hard obviously and the 38 [Layne Riggs] ran out and the 2 [Nick Sanchez] did too.”
Sanchez, who effectively needed nothing less than a win, was running second when he ran out of gas on the final lap on a similar strategy to Enfinger — having come in one lap earlier.
Now he must win at Martinsville.
“I like that better than having to chase points, honestly,” Sanchez said. “Just have to go to Martinsville to be aggressive and try to make it happen.”
Tyler Ankrum and Rajah Caruth got a top-5 and top-10 out of it but that isn’t enough right now either.
Again, must win.
Ankrum had a deflating tire on the first stage and just couldn’t consistently run in the top-10 to get stage points. Caruth says he has to go out there and ‘flip the script’ at Martinsville.
“Anything is possible if we work hard enough and catch some breaks,” Caruth said.
And like on the Cup Series side, any of those teams below the cutline winning would also bump the lowest in points without a win down one position, meaning the 16-point deficit from Ty Majeski to Christian Eckes could become relevant at Martinsville too.
“You’re never comfortable, right,” Eckes said. “#9 points is good but at the same time, anything is possible there.”
