HLs: Craftsman Truck Series at Dover
Watch highlights from the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Dover International Speedway in the Ecosave 200 on Friday night.
Video Transcript
Kyle Busch on the outside.
Ty Majeski on the inside.
Gio Ruggiero, Kaden Honeycutt the first two rows.
Green flag is in the air.
We are racing at the Monster.
You know, the racetrack right now is, is a little bit of a different shape than what it's gonna be because, you know, we just finished with the Cup rover, and the racetrack actually got pretty wide in practice.
So, I'm pretty sure that these guys are gonna learn a lot of what the racetrack has right now and trying to adapt, towards, you know, later, the l- the races later in the race.
I think something that we have in common, Daniel, as a fan, I'm a fan of this deal, I watch it every weekend, and as a driver, you like when you can spread out.
You can run high, you can run low.
We've got multiple grooves, and you saw that on lap one.
They're already all over the place.
No, you can see, you know, NASCAR on the racetrack here, they did an amazing job cleaning the racetrack and using the tire dragon to have the racetrack ready quicker.
And, and, for us in the Cup practice, I mean, we were already in the second and third lane in our second, in our second esteeming in, w- of tires.
So these guys are gonna be running in the third lane very, very soon here.
Still there.
Still there.
Look at my amigo Clint.
He's already going at it.
Running just outside the top 20.
Still there.
Watch him work that wheel.
Everybody has a d- a, a different form, but you can see a little loose there on the bottom as he battles that wheel.
Look how rough it is.
Outside wheel is clean.
Head bobbing around.
He's bat- battling the truck and those around him.
Back in 22nd, just gave up a spot as we take a look at Boyer right now on track.
Just lost one spot since the start of this race, and even had a little contact here with Luke Baldwin.
Tries to fill a hole, and Baldwin says, "Not so quick, young man."
Oh, y- you know, Clint Boyer is doing a great job, to be honest, you know?
Like, he's doing a good job, and, he just racing with experience.
And, and, and I, I wouldn't be surprised if he actually goes towards the front as the race goes on.
I think so too.
I think the long haul is gonna be Clint's friend.
He knows how to get it done here.
Hearing Daniel Hemric is slow.
Brought it down pit road.
He was 11th at the time, and he's just creeping, barely under power here on pit road.
I'd say no power, just rolling to a stop.
That has every look of a, of an engine issue, electrical at least.
All right, Kyle Busch continues out front, but Clint Boyer barely hanging on.
He was the next to go a lap down.
Destiny Spurlock into the wall, and we get our first caution of this one.
She got loose and just overcorrected and lost it.
Oh, man, she fought that thing, didn't she, Daniel?
Man, she was I mean, she almost save it.
Yes.
Almost save it.
It seems to me that, that, the 44 truck of my amigo paisano Mexicano, he, he pack a little bit of air, and then she got loose, and, I mean, it was so close of saving that truck.
What a, what a shame.
That's just all the learning that goes on.
And if you're ever gonna try to save one anywhere in America, Dover might be the toughest place to do so.
Did you see how much banking are on those straightaways?
It's so difficult, Michael.
Pits are open.
Let's see, let's see, let's see what these guys do right here.
Snug on exit.
Kyle Busch off to the races.
And off pit road second, Kaden Honeycutt was able to best Kyle on pit road, and these guys are gonna come up behind some trucks that stayed out.
Those are the two, Michael, that stayed out there.
All the guys behind him immediately, those pitted.
Kaden Honeycutt, of course, you see him on there, will drop to the rear- Let me just tell you- for that speeding penalty those two aren't gonna win the stakes.
Carson Hocevar- That's right pushing the issue.
Are they four wide at Dover?
Oh, maybe.
They tried.
They were there for a second.
Oh, my God.
Look at this mess.
They're still three wide all over this track.
Oh, my God.
The 12 of Brendan Butterbean.
Brendan couldn't hang on, but Cole Butcher did a nice job hanging in there for a bit.
Look at that.
Stage one results took him no time at all.
Kyle Busch.
We listen in to Kyle Busch, the leader.
Felt like I was just a little bit slow to fire air pressure wise.
Just didn't quite have the stick that I needed.
Took, like, two laps to come in.
Now it's back to just kind of sliding the front tires again.
Center off.
Entry's fine.
Well, he's dominated.
He's led 70 laps.
He's leading now, but the truck isn't perfect.
Daniel, are you guys ever 100% happy?
You never, you know, because if you're 100% happy, then you have to push your car or truck to harder, you know, a little bit harder and, and make it do something.
But, you know, Kyle here right now, he's being proactive.
What do I mean with that?
You know, every single truck is trying to make adjustments, trying to make improvements to try to catch him, and the last thing he wants is to stay comfortable and then someone else to make an adjustment for a stage three and get a little bit better than him.
So he has to always trying to look what are the weakness of his truck or car to be able to continue to get better.
There he is.
There's Kaden Honeycutt.
Daniel said this truck is into the top 10.
Last time by, he was faster than the leaders.
Yeah, I think the leaders are also a little bit in traffic, but still, like, his truck is fast.
And I believe that, if he gets the track position back, I think he's gonna, he's gonna be a, a contender up front with, with the seven and the 45.
This is an unscheduled stop.
We talked about- Cole Butcher, look how much damage he has, Michael, on the right side we talked about him having trouble week in, week out, and, looks like he swung a little wide and hung that 13 truck into the fence.
Yeah.
Great first stage, and now he's got in a wreck again.
No, I think he's gonna be okay here on exit.
Yes, he is.
Final lap, and it's not enough.
Kyle Busch hangs on.
Wow, that was close.
Well, trouble for our man Clint Boyer right at the end of that stage.
Slides up the track, gets a little sideways.
Whoa, whoa.
He hangs onHe wasn't happy.
You know, Daniel, you said something really interesting earlier.
You said Kyle Busch was fast, but he had that track position.
If he loses it, what's his truck gonna be like?
We're getting ready to find out.
Yeah, we are ready to find out.
And you know, the, the, the 45 of, of Ross Chastain was actually pretty good, especially in the long run.
So now we're gonna see, you know, how good is the 45 with the track position and how good is the seven.
But he's marred in traffic.
Let's see if he has to rough up the 38.
He doesn't mind roughing people up.
I don't know if you've noticed that or not, Daniel.
He's had damage- Yeah from a couple other trucks throughout this race.
Add that to the list.
I, I, I would Whoa, whoa, whoa.
He didn't like that.
Well, I, I would say this.
What, what happened there is that the 38, scratched the wall on exit and, and the 77 was gauging his self to a left rear of the 30- of the 38.
And then, you know, they make contact, but it wasn't fault of the, of the 77.
More trouble for Carson Hocevar.
He had to pit from 14th.
More damage.
The right front of the truck now, we're being told he had a flat right front tire.
You see him trying to knock that out.
We'll see what happened here that took him essentially out and down to pit road.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He had an issue earlier, and this is just the end of it, making his way to pit road and oh.
Caution is out.
That was another caution.
That's Luke Baldwin in the two.
Saw him and his battles with Clint Bowyer all race long.
That's a big hit.
That's a big one.
That's a big one.
See what goes down racing against the 12 of Butterbean Queen.
Just got loose and didn't want to use Butterbean up.
that's so tough.
Such a tough position to find yourself in.
That's not so bad, but I'm afraid it's gonna go down and hit that inside wall.
This track just sweeps you down to the bottom once you have contact.
Well, at least it wasn't with our amigo Clint.
It was with his teammate.
Yes.
He spent a lot of time with our amigo Clint.
He has spent a lot of time with those ramps, for sure.
Yes, he has.
Look at Ty Majeski wrapping that outside.
Oh, into the wall.
That was Brandon Jones in that one truck.
He caught the wall off turn two.
Christopher Bell on the march forward in the 62, that bright blue truck in sixth right now.
Kayden Honeycutt there on the inside of Brandon Jones.
This is, this is actually very interesting, you know, because the tires of the 45 truck are actually holding on pretty good.
So I'm, I'm asking to myself, how many laps, you know, it would be the perfect scenario for the 45 to get a caution?
Because if, if, if he o- if we get a caution in 20 laps, he's gonna have the same advantage that the seven has on him right now, and he's gonna have horrible track position.
Yeah.
He's not gonna be able to get that back.
So it's gonna be very interesting right now to learn how long it's gonna take the seven or the tires to, to overcome, the older tires of the 45.
It's not a great scenario.
Even though Ross is able to hold the lead, it's not great for him because he's got another stop for fuel that he's gotta make.
So Brandon Jones in the one back in eighth right now.
Let's take a look at him bouncing off the wall.
Wow.
Oh.
And around goes mini Ty Rel.
Well, what do you do if you're Chastain?
I mean, you have to stay out because it's too early.
He going in.
Caution comes out for the fifth time.
Not, not Clint Bowyer wasn't involved in this, was he?
Oh my God, our amigo I think Bowyer in the 25.
Oh.
Making it three wide.
Oh, and the 14 just got loose.
That wasn't Bowyer's fault.
That just hard three wide racing.
Bowyer saw an opening and he went for it.
Anybody's gotta take that hole, aren't they, Daniel?
Totally.
Anyone would take the hole, especially because Bowyer knows that the 42 truck, the white truck, he's with old tires, so he had to, you know, fill up the gap.
This is actually, Chastain got their last win at Darlington back in 2024.
Last time we saw watermelons splash and splattered all over the racetrack in the truck series.
Well, they, he's about to get passed right here.
Here we go.
Kyle Busch to the inside of Ross Chastain.
Ross is just so good on that high line.
Can't clear him.
Nose to nose.
Oh, he dove it in there, didn't he?
He sure did.
Bumper, bumper.
Clear.
Clear for Kyle Busch.
Back out front.
That's gonna make this pit stop a little bit more, palatable for Ross Chastain.
I'm not leading and pitting from there.
Yeah, no, it's gonna be tough for him.
Kayden Honeycutt took the opportunity to make that pit stop when all the leaders came in aside from Ross Chastain.
Well, the radio to him was that we may be four laps short on fuel.
About 20 laps ago now they did tell him, "Restrict this truck.
Do not push it until we get 20 more laps."
So I'm assuming Kayden's gonna start taking off now with what he's got with that truck.
And on the case of Ross Chastain, I talked to Phil Gould.
He said they are 25 laps short on fuel, so if they don't get the caution, Ross will definitely be coming in before then.
They tried to play a strategy card that did not work.
The whole field came behind him.
Get that hand out the window.
Get down to pit road speed.
See how Clint gets to pit road.
You talked about your brain.
Whoa.
Let's not talk about Clint's brain.
I think we'd all get confused.
From the bottom lane inside.
Clear.
Clear.
That was a big moment for Bowyer.
It come apart.
They just told Bowyer on the radio he is done.
You see it right there.
Oh man, what a shame.
He, he was doing such a good job.
I'm, I'm very, very proud of Clint.
He, he was doing such a good job.
Busch won earlier this season at Atlanta.
Runs part-time.
I think that it, there are a couple trucks are slowing down a lot.
They're running out of fuel because- Is that Oh, every time I see this 7 truck, he looks like he's off the pace, but he's hanging in there.
Final lap of the race.
Two and a half second lead over Ty Majeski.
We haven't raced here in six years, and some things just seem to not change.
Kyle Busch.
Oh, he's good.
He's good at this.
Back behind the wheel.
He knows all about getting to victory lane.
Here he comes off at turn number four.
Kyle Busch wins at Dover for the fifth time in his career.
Woo-hoo.
All right.
Yeah, baby.
That's awesome.
Very good for- Good job, team.
There you go very, very good for Spire Motorsports.
Way to get it done.
Hendrickcars.com.
