Sanchez Surges Late For Charlotte Truck Series Score

CONCORD, N.C. – Fresh tires and clean air turned out to be the keys to victory for Nick Sanchez Friday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Sanchez, who fell back as far as 23rd early on with a truck he described as “wrecking loose,” rallied during the final stage of the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 and put himself in position to pounce when it mattered most.

The Miami, Fla., native stormed from seventh to the race lead on a restart with nine laps left and then held off race-long dominator Corey Heim in the waning moments for his second NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win of the season.

Sanchez led only the final nine circuits en route to his win at the 1.5-mile Charlotte quad-oval.

“Man, this team is fun!” he said over the radio after taking the checkered flag.

“It’s awesome to work with this group,” Sanchez added once he climbed from his No. 2 Gainbridge Chevrolet Silverado RST. “What more can I say about them that hasn’t already been said? We started off horrible and we knew it, but we didn’t let that affect us. We went to work and put ourselves where we needed to by the end.”

Making the night more special was the fact that Sanchez brought his truck chief – Chris Showalter – to victory lane in the 700th race for the Truck Series since its inception in 1995.

Showalter is the only crew member to have worked at every Truck Series event in history.

“This one is for Chris,” Sanchez noted. “It’s his birthday and he celebrated 700 races tonight. He’s the backbone of our team. I was with him last year, and working with him is like having a second crew chief; he’s just so knowledgeable and able to understand what I need out of each race weekend.

“He’s someone who knows what he wants and sometimes calls the shots, set-up wise, because of that,” continued Sanchez. “He’s so important to us and means so much to me personally, as well as to the Truck Series as a whole. We’re glad we could give him this moment tonight.”

Friday’s race was characterized by Heim’s dominance early and various pit-road miscues down the stretch that played a hand in shaping the final laps.

Heim led 72 of the first 83 laps, but lost control of the race during a round of service with 51 to go when the primary jack broke during his pit stop. That relegated him back to 27th place and led to one of the most exciting green-flag runs of the season.

In 15 laps after the lap-88 restart, Heim rocketed forward 21 positions, then clawed his way to fourth by the time the yellow flag waved for the fifth and final time when Chase Purdy cut a tire and hit the turn-two wall.

At that point, Christian Eckes was leading after starting from the rear due to practice damage that prevented him from making a qualifying attempt, but the chaos wasn’t over.

Eckes and five other trucks stayed out, while Honeycutt and Heim led a train of lead-lap trucks down pit road. During that final cycle of stops, Honeycutt’s team had an air gun break, which relegated him out of contention for the win despite coming down pit road in third place.

Meanwhile, Heim lined up 11th and Sanchez gridded up seventh after the choose for a wild restart that featured three- and four-wide racing and several tense moments at the front of the field.

Sanchez wrapped the bottom in turns one and two to come off the backstretch second, then dipped inside of Eckes in turn three to complete the race-winning pass.

Heim passed Stewart Friesen for second on-track coming to six laps left, but could never get close enough to Sanchez to make a final charge for the lead. He crossed the finish line .507 seconds back.

Unfortunately for the 21-year-old from Marietta, Ga., his runner-up effort after sweeping both stages was thrown out by a post-race disqualification for three lug nuts that were not safe and secure.

That elevated Friesen to second in the final rundown, followed by veteran Grant Enfinger and Niece Motorsports young gun Matt Mills, who notched his career-best Truck Series finish in fourth.

Two-time and defending Truck Series champion Ben Rhodes closed the top five, ahead of Jake Garcia and Honeycutt, who had a truck with race-winning speed but was derailed by a mid-race penalty for removing his fuel can from the pit box prior to the late air gun malfunction.

Honeycutt did, however, get credit for winning stage one after Heim’s disqualification. Tanner Gray, who started on the pole and led 11 laps early before finishing 18th, was awarded the stage two victory.

Connor Mosack, Dean Thompson, and Eckes finished eighth through 10th, respectively.

The biggest incident of the night came on a lap-68 restart to begin the final stage, when Tyler Ankrum spun through the infield grass before coming up the turn-four banking into the path of Thad Moffitt.

Moffitt’s truck t-boned Ankrum’s in the passenger-side door, in an incident that also collected Jeffrey Earnhardt and Keith McGee. All drivers climbed from their vehicles before being checked and released from the infield care center.

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season continues Saturday, June 1 with the running of the Toyota 200 at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Ill. Enfinger is the defending event winner.