HLs: Craftsman Truck Series at Michigan
Watch highlights from the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Michigan International Speedway in the DQS Solutions & Staffing 250.
Video Transcript
Ladies and gentlemen, I just have three things to say.
Be like Biff, do it for Dale, and drivers, start your engines.
Pace truck pulls off.
12th race of the season.
After today, six to go in the regular season in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
Up to speed.
Green flag in the air, underway at Michigan.
Todd, Majeski in the 88, on his inside the 62 of Christopher Bell.
Back on row five or so you see them flaring out three wide.
That was a very orderly start for our truckers.
Very calm and clean there.
Pushes that went well, but as you get back in the pack, look how intense Oh, and one into the wall already.
It's Christopher Bell at the point.
Oh.
That's the 19 off the pace, Daniel Hemric.
Daniel Hemric scrubbed that wall a long way.
Yeah, it looked like he was outside of at least two other trucks, maybe three.
Got a little wide on the outside edge there.
And he's bringing it straight to pit road.
Yeah.
I'm sure he thinks he damaged it enough to where he could've cut a tire.
Let's see if we can figure out what happened here.
He started 24th, obviously a crazy pack- Yep but just the air, Todd.
Yep.
He lost his nose and into that outside wall he went.
Little high, got up in the loose stuff, got some air off the nose.
That's all it takes.
You get up there and rub the wall.
And you're right, Michael, he, he had to come right to pit road.
You can't take the chance with these steel bodies of rubbing a, a tire and getting a flat.
Christopher Bell inside Ajosivar getting into three.
It's Majeski out front, the 88.
He and the 62 of Bell jockeying for position as Hemric comes down pit road to change tires.
Wow, did you see that move by Bell?
He tried to move up, wasn't clear, and that was crazy.
They were three wide.
Lane Riggs with a big move, and Christopher Bell said, "I'm not taking that."
Dives to the bottom and here comes Connor Mosack on the bottom.
He wants a part of this action.
Both those Spire trucks up in the top five with Mosack in the seven and Carson Ajosivar in the 77.
You know how this looks nice and orderly, Todd, everybody running in line.
You tell I'll tell you one guy that's not gonna sit there and I didn't get it out in time.
There he goes.
And that was Carson Ajosivar.
I said, "He's not gonna ride along in any line."
Nope.
He doesn't want to see that action, and there he went right to the bottom and he's challenging for the lead.
Can he get it done?
Big push from Bell- There you go into the back.
Two trucks together like that, just like Daytona, you are not gonna hold them off, and Carson got three trucks on the outside and goes back to fourth.
Pass for the lead.
Yep, it's Bell and Ajosivar.
And Christopher Bell back to the point.
Look at those teammates back there in fourth and fifth, fifth and sixth, excuse me.
Front row guys, Riggs and Chandler, they dive to the bottom.
Ajosivar to the lead.
Can he do it?
He does.
We saw Christopher right in the middle of that corner break loose and that gave the opening to Carson.
He carried all that momentum right up in front of Christopher.
Nice and tidy draft there.
Oh, trouble.
Oh, no.
Caution, the 81, Chris Wright is around.
And our first yellow of the day here at lap number seven.
Frankie Muniz was dicing it up where, there with Wright.
Watch him drift up right there, loose into the side of Davis, into the side of Wright.
And fortunately they're all driving away from this mess.
Yeah.
Ty Majeski's already lost about eight spots because he was not in the right lane and he They went around him on both sides.
Oh, he's in trouble now.
He's down by himself.
Look at those trucks just stream by him.
Well, yeah, Christian Eckes, one of the biggest movers of the day, up 14 spots, but just came over the radio and told the team he's struggling with overall grip.
He can't wrap the bottom like he wants to.
The team asked him, "Can you run different lines?
Can you run the middle?
Can you run up near the wall?"
He said, "It does not matter where I run.
I'm just too tight to be aggressive the way I want to right now."
And guys, how difficult is that when you want to be able to be racey, but the truck just won't allow you to?
It's, it's so frustrating, Josh, because you have this brain that tells you you can make moves, and you see a move for the lead Bell- Christopher makes us look bad here.
You know, he just got tired of waiting around.
He said, "I'm gonna go get this lead."
You gotta learn things, try things, and that's part of what that was right there.
Let's go back to how he got it done.
Big run down the front.
Yep.
And whoa.
You got that bigger run.
It's hard as a racer to not- pull out and say, "I'm just gonna pass you guy."
It'll be one to go here in stage number one.
Bell and Ajosivar.
You can see right there, running off the bottom like that, Carson just doesn't get the run down the front straightaway.
You can see Christopher's momentum will carry him right back around Carson.
It's y- it's tempting every lap.
You know, Carson's truck's really good down there, but you just can't g- carry that momentum.
Christopher Bell wins stage one over Carson Ajosivar.
Honeycutt third, then Chandler Smith.
Corey Heim up into third.
Ajosivar with the move to the bottom.
But what about Heim?
He says, "I'm going high if you're going low."
Eckes on the bottom in the 91.
Carson Ajosivar back out front here in Michigan as they head down the back stretch.
There's great trucks doing battle here, too, trucks that you wouldn't be surprised to see up in the top five.
Look at this battle for the lead.
Oh.
Oh, wow.
11.
77, the 11.
Whoa.
Narrowly avoiding the collision.
You, you folks at home heard Todd- lose his mind?
You ought to seen him.
Y'all heard on the broadcast, Todd, "Whoa."
Well, let's watch what whoa meant.
Look at the 11 truck, the red truck.
He makes a big move to the bottom right there, and watch what happens.
OhLane Riggs has started fourth.
He's now back in 30th.
An unscheduled pit stop.
Left front flat on that 34 truck.
He came down pit road, the team hopped over the wall to change the rights, like maybe that's where he thought the problem was.
But then watch on the wall, "No, no, no, no, no, no, over here."
The left front's the problem.
Gonna be tough now.
We saw him come back through the field late last week in dramatic fashion to win at Nashville, his second straight win.
This is gonna be an awfully tough, tall hill to climb.
Well, he's running up front, so only lost one lap.
The only problem he has, there's another really fast truck in Daniel Hemric that's a lap down, and they're gonna begin to catch the back of the field, as you see that left front tire.
That bottom with him.
Looks like a replay of the end of the first stage with two guys out in front trying to battle for the win.
But then look behind them, here comes Hocevar.
They get side by side, he's gonna go three wide, you know that.
He's always in the mix in the 77 as he wraps the bottom.
Heim there in the one truck.
He won at Darlington, he won at Rockingham.
Whoa.
Three top fives on the season, making his fifth start and there's the 77 making noise side by side with Heim.
Look at that move- Yeah in the middle of the corner.
Very aggressive for Carson to try to grab that spot, but he gets loose.
That I was just gonna say, Carson's truck is a little bit freer than these other two and that's why he's run them down and be able to run the bottom like that.
Makin Hay running 24th in the four truck, and Amanda has more.
Yeah, Michael, you talk about learning, and his expectation today is just to finish the race.
That's been his goal as he walked in here, to Michigan this weekend.
But how cool was it to see all those fans on their feet as he did the command to get this race started?
He told the team that he's a bit free here today, which is opposite of what he was dealing with in the Arthur race yesterday.
But as you guys said, just your second race.
Can you even imagine the growth that he's gone under?
Let's take a listen to his spotter, helmet over here.
Not bad down there.
I could see you were digging through the bottom there.
Just a little throttle crack adjustment, you'll get off the corner better.
That was good.
The, the truck can, when you're by yourself, open your entry into one, get to the bottom later, stay lower later when you're by yourself.
And he always knows he's on camera.
Into three and four for the final time in stage two.
The 62 of Christopher Bell, so far so good in his return to the truck series.
Green and white checkered flag in the air, and it's Christopher Bell taking stage two here at Michigan.
Hocevar in the 77, then Honeycutt, Enfinger, Bell, and Chandler Smith.
It was a rough one for Cory Heim.
They had an issue with the jack, and that's gonna bury him in the field.
A stage winner has never gone on to win at Michigan.
Heim led both, won both stages last year but finished 18th.
And Cletus Around in that four truck brings out the caution.
He was running 20th.
He was making some pretty good headway in that four truck, but Cletus Around.
Well, he talked about his truck was too free, and th- that's where it's gonna show up the worst, when you're in traffic.
I saw him way high, it looked like, up in the center of one and two prior to getting sideways.
So I don't know if he got squeezed up out of the groove.
See if we can hop on board with him and see what exactly goes down here.
Erk.
You hear him just battling those tires, trying to keep that thing heading in the right direction.
Did a great job keeping it out of the wall.
I'll give him an attaboy right there.
That was a very good job.
At the tailgate of the 77 with Bell up into third.
He won each of the first two stages, the 62.
Whoa, hang on, Ben.
And caution is out for the fifth time.
Hang on, Ben.
Oh, what a save that was by- Oh the 13 of Butcher as Stuart Friesen looks like spin around.
Those tires are flat.
Inside the four truck.
Whoa.
Yeah, it looks That was on the straightaway, Todd.
Yeah, that was To me, that's one of those deals back in the pack where somebody was making a move and caught somebody and got the fender, and Stuart paid the price for it.
Just saying, "Let's get out of town here, buddy."
Hocevar to the inside of the 62 of Bell, hugging the bottom line.
We asked could Ben Rhodes get there?
He is there in the fourth position in that red 99. Who, At 40 to go- Yeah if you'd have said those three names would be at the front, no one would be surprised, right?
N- not at all.
Those are three of the stars from the cup series that have come here, and we're like, "Well, will they be able to do something with our regulars?"
And they are doing it now.
Christopher takes the lead.
Corey follows right behind him in his draft.
Carson, eh, he looks there, can't quite make the pass back.
See what happened to the 88 while we were in break, our pole sitter Ty Majeski here.
Whoa, runs up on the outside of the 15 truck of Tanner Gray and just had the left front maybe clip the right rear of Gray and it just upset his truck, Todd.
Yeah, that's just that's just a racing deal.
You know, Tanner didn't do anything wrong.
Ty didn't do anything wrong.
He was just trying to make the pass and they got together.
Christopher Bell tried to go around the bottom and it's gonna cost him.
He lost all that momentum.
Look who's fourth, Lane Riggs.
The crowd is on their feet.
Listen to the crowd.
CautionCaution out here with 32 to go in turn two 76 and a 13.
That's Cole Butcher in the 13.
76 is Spencer Boyd.
Wow.
Both go around.
Cole Butcher doing the same in the 13.
Oh.
Yeah, the 13 got a flat right front, drove right, right up the racetrack.
Wow, look at that.
Left front.
Flat left front.
Oh, what a shame.
Not the Spencer Boyd just minding his own business And Chandler runs second behind Hocevar.
It's got to be a really, really good feeling for Hocevar to be out front leading this race.
Been there all day long here at his home track.
What about C. Bell, who won the first two stages?
Back in ninth now, just in front of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Look at the li- look to the bottom by Corey Heim.
Oh, Caden got a little loose there.
Gave Corey the spot.
Is he gonna get up in it?
He's gonna get up in it.
Yes, he is.
You know, Christopher can drive his guts out and he's not gonna gain any time on him, 'cause he's got the same speed in his truck these five have got.
So I don't think without a caution that he can get there.
Maybe if he gets somebody to draft with him.
Corey Heim in the one.
There's the move.
First time he has led today.
How's your tires now?
248.
Not going to say anything to anyone up here until we have to, but you got to give it the bottom through the corner, and then we can just tuck in behind P2 or P3 if we have to.
So that was a choreographed move.
Was there something on the grill?
I think that's the case because we saw Hocevar lead the race, fall back, and I think that was the spotter working together to get this debris off the grill.
And he's got his teammate behind him pushing hard.
It looks like they're, they're drafting up on these two.
Front row combo.
Seven laps to go.
They might get there.
But- Smith and Riggs, the two teammates, trying to pull back up there and take a shot.
Again, they were the fastest two trucks on the track.
They're, they're in the draft of that front bunch right now.
Look at this.
Honeycutt says, "I got to go."
Yeah, I think, I think Carson's tires are starting to get a little hot here.
Heim and Honeycutt took four tires at lap 89.
Hocevar, lap 89, only took two.
As Honeycutt dropping back a bit to see what kind of pull he can get.
And there it is.
It's Honeycutt- Oh, he's Right to the bottom- And that's- to the left rear quarter panel of Heim.
That, that move right there is not gonna make it.
He's not gonna pass him like that.
He's Now he's only got one shot.
That's off of turn two on the next lap.
Heim passed Honeycutt on the last lap for the win at Rockingham.
One of two wins on the year for Corey Heim, looking for number three here this afternoon.
He's back the right distance.
He's got to make the run again.
He's back the right distance.
Can he make the run?
White flag in the air, one to go at Michigan.
It's Heim and Honeycutt.
Honeycutt to the bottom.
Heim blocks him toward the outside as well.
There was contact there.
That was some great blocking there by Heim.
Corey Heim making that number one truck very wide here as they head down the back stretch for the final time.
I think he's bent his ri- left front fender with that little bit of contact.
I think Caden did a wonderful job putting it to the outside, but it's not gonna work.
One more time through three and four.
Corey Heim in the one, Honeycutt in the 11 for TriCon Garage.
He's coming.
It's Heim and Honeycutt at the line.
And it's Corey Heim taking- Whoa the checkered flag here at Michigan in dramatic fashion.
