TALLADEGA, Ala. (NASCAR Wire Service) \u2014 Rookie Gio Ruggiero capped a typically dramatic afternoon of racing on the Talladega Superspeedway high banks with the 19-year-old\u2019s first career trip to NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Victory Lane in Friday\u2019s Love\u2019s RV Stop 225.<\/p>\n
Though not in the playoffs, Ruggiero held off his Tricon Garage teammate and current championship leader Corey Heim in a two-lap overtime duel to the checkered flag, his No. 17 Toyota leading the way by a mere .059 seconds. The effort rewarded an absolutely strong day for the young driver, who won pole position and led a race-best 37 of the 90 laps.<\/p>\n
Ruggiero took the lead with two laps remaining in regulation after then-race leaders, ThorSport Racing teammates Ben Rhodes and rookie Luke Fenhaus, made contact \u2014 both Fords spinning out and allowing Ruggiero and Heim to the front. The teammates held position for the two laps of overtime to claim the win.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuper thankful all the guys on this 17 truck, they worked their butts off today and definitely brought the best piece today,\u201d the Massachusetts driver Ruggiero said. \u201cWe showed it in qualifying and throughout the race there that we had the fastest piece. Thanks to Toyota and everybody who supports me. Great to win a race with my mom and dad here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heim\u2019s runner-up effort was the best showing by one of the eight playoff drivers with only a single race remaining in this three-race round to finalize which four will race for the championship on Oct. 31 at Phoenix Raceway.<\/p>\n
Heim, the regular-season points leader and 10-race winner, has led laps in all 23 races this season. He is the only driver with a secure entry to the Phoenix finale thanks to a victory in this round\u2019s opening race at the Charlotte Roval two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
ThorSport Racing\u2019s Ty Majeski \u2014 the reigning series champion \u2014 turned in an impressive rally on the afternoon to finish third after dropping to 34th in the 36-car field early with collateral damage from an early-laps accident.<\/p>\n
Rookie Dawson Sutton was fourth, followed by playoff driver Layne Riggs, who, like Majeski, earned his top five the hard way. He started at the rear of the field after an inspection violation and was involved to varying degrees in multiple incidents during the race.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just glad to end the day in one piece,\u201d said Riggs, driver of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford. \u201cI know Chandler [Smith] gave me a bad push getting into the corner there, and we both wrecked. Just so glad that wasn\u2019t a day-ender.<\/p>\n
\u201cStarted shotgun on the field and went to the back a few times, there at the end just trying to be patient and hold that bottom and hoping the top would break up and it did. Really bummed we didn\u2019t get any stage points. We\u2019re not quite in the position we want to be in, but it\u2019s a lot better than it could have been.\u201d<\/p>\n
Six of the eight playoff drivers finished among the top 10, with playoff driver Tyler Ankrum in sixth, followed by former three-time series champ Matt Crafton and part-time driver Corey Lajoie, and playoff competitors Rajah Caruth and Kaden Honeycutt rounding out the top 10.<\/p>\n
Three positions in the Championship 4 are still to be decided. The playoff standings heading to the final race of this round show Caruth heading to Martinsville 14 points above the cutline with Ankrum plus-eight and Honeycutt plus-five. Majeski is five points below the line and Riggs is six back.<\/p>\n
Daniel Hemric, who had a tire go down late in the race during a green flag run, finished 34th and Grant Enfinger was 36th \u2014 essentially putting both veteran drivers in a must-win situation next week at Martinsville Speedway. Hemric is 32 points below the cutline and Enfinger is now 40 points back.<\/p>\n
Enfinger, the defending Talladega race winner entering Friday\u2019s event, was an innocent victim collected in an accident only four laps into the race, his No. 9 CR7 Motorsports Chevy among three playoff trucks suffering damage. But Enfinger\u2019s Chevy was unable to continue, making him the first title contender with issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cBounced off a guy on the inside and thought I had it saved, just one of those Talladega deals,\u201d the Alabama native Enfinger said. \u201cI love this place, but it just wasn\u2019t meant to be today. so our job\u2019s pretty simple at Martinsville next week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLADEGA, Ala. (NASCAR Wire Service) \u2014 Rookie Gio Ruggiero capped a typically dramatic afternoon of racing on the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":316746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[1441,20721,159094,1406,1425,62,127550,11936,26103,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-316745","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-championship","9":"tag-corey-heim","10":"tag-gio-ruggiero","11":"tag-nascar","12":"tag-playoffs","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-talladega","15":"tag-truck-series","16":"tag-ty-majeski","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115402538301678639","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}