Grant Enfinger won Friday night’s NASCAR Truck Series season opener at Daytona in an overtime finish that saw him and Jordan Anderson slam doors coming to the checkered flag as Enfinger beat him by .010 seconds.
It is Enfinger’s third career win and comes after he went winless in 2019.
The top five was completed by Codie Rohrbaugh, Derek Kraus and Natalie Decker.
“The biggest thing is we had a really good Ford F-150 to do it with,” Enfinger told FS1. “I made a mistake there with about 20 (laps) to go, I got hung up in the sucker hole. I pulled up in front of (ThorSport Racing teammate) Ben (Rhodes) too late and he was going to wreck me or put me in the middle and that’s what happened …. I tried to bide my time on the bottom and then it got to four, five laps to go and it’s time to go and we were able to get up into the third groove make things happen.”
Anderson’s finish is his best in 102 Truck Series starts and his first top-five finish.
“There’s not too many opportunities that you get to go for your win,” Anderson told FS1. “I’m almost speechless … I came here in 2015 and emptied my bank account to come down here and run. To be in a position to even go for a win at Daytona, I’m just a kid that wanted to go racing from South Carolina.”
Rohrbaugh’s finish is his best in 12 career starts, Kraus earned his first top five in six career starts and Decker earned her first top five and first top-10 finish in 20 career starts.
Decker’s finish is the best by a female driver in the Truck Series. The previous record was held by Jennifer Jo Cobb (sixth) at Daytona in 2011.
“It just feels so good, we had such a good team effort and plan,” Decker told FS1. “We all stuck to it and that’s what got me that good finish.”
The overtime finish was setup by a massive wreck with three laps left in the scheduled distance. The wreck occurred in Turns 1 and 2 as the front half of the field was racing three-wide, multiple rows deep. Among the drivers collected were Ben Rhodes, Todd Gilliland, Christian Eckes, Johnny Sauter, Stewart Friesen, pole-sitter Riley Herbst, Tanner Gray, Tyler Ankrum and Jesse Little.
STAGE 1 WINNER: Riley Herbst narrowly won the stage over Tyler Ankrum in a one-lap shootout.
STAGE 2 WINNER: Grant Enfinger
WHO HAD A BAD RACE: Ty Majeski was unhurt after his truck rolled onto its roof in a multi-truck wreck with five laps to go in Stage 1 that included Austin Way Self, Todd Gilliland and Tate Fogleman … A multi-truck wreck occurred with 35 laps to go that eliminated Fogleman, Bryan Dauzat, Angela Ruch and also included Zane Smith, Brett Moffitt, Sheldon Creed and Christian Eckes.
NOTABLE: Enfinger’s win is the 100th for Ford in the Truck Series … During the race broadcast on FS1, series sponsor Gander RV & Outdoors aired a tribute to the late John Andretti, who helped bring the company into NASCAR as a sponsor.
WHAT’S NEXT: Strat 250 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway at 9 p.m. ET on Feb. 21 on FS1.
