Enfinger Wrenches Victory in Milwaukee Craftsman Truck Race

 Grant Enfinger, driver of the #23 Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Clean Harbors 175 at The Milwaukee Mile on August 27, 2023 in West Allis, Wisconsin. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)

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(MILWAUKEE, WI – AUG 27, 2023 – RIS) Grant Enfinger won the pole position in qualifying, both stages and led 96 laps on his way to victory in the Clean Harbors 175 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at the Milwaukee Mile. As a warmup for the day’s feature race on the historic flat oval, he also ran to a fifth-place finish in the ARCA Menards Series Sprecher 150 earlier Sunday.

Ty Majeski stayed on the lead lap after his pass-through penalty at the start of the Clean Harbors 175 while Grant Enfinger and Nick Sanchez raced side-by-side for the lead until Enfinger pulled out to a lead of about three-quarters of a second. The yellow flag flew in the first 20 laps, allowing Majeski to pit under caution for adjustment to keep the truck ahead of track changes as the race wears on.

Ty Majeski, after starting last and having to serve a drive-through penalty after the right rear (valve stem?) wheel assembly failed tech inspection, moved his way into eleventh with less than ten laps left in the first stage. The gap to tenth place kept shrinking but not fast enough for Majeski to catch Derek Kraus for the position and playoff point with it. Kraus eased his way into ninth then a challenge for eighth but the green and white checkered flag came out before he could get around Chase Purdy for eighth. 

At the end of the first stage, Majeski had led every lap, followed by Nick Sanchez, Taylor Gray, Corey Heim and Christian Eckes in the top five. The balance of the top ten wewre Carson Hocevar, William Sawalich, Derek Kraus, Chase Purdy and Ben Rhodes, with Majeski almost three seconds back in eleventh, out of the stage points.

Corey Heim led the pack out of the pits after Enfinger’s truck fell off the jack, slowing his stop and dropping twelve positions after the field rearranged. A crash among Greg Van Alst, Brad Perez and Derek Lemke on the restart caused an immediate yellow on the restart. Leading laps for his eleventh consecutive race, Heim, Enfinger, Eckes, Sawalich and Sanchez ran in the top five with Majeski already working his way to twelfth by lap 80, getting to tenth place quickly. Enfinger swept into the lead on lap 95, easily passing Heim on the inside and going on to extend the lead until the end of the second stage.

Enfinger’s truck got blocked in and slowed his pit exit, dropping him three positions as Eckes, Hocevar and Sanchez all lined up in front of him after stopping before the choose for the restart. Christian Eckes became the fourth race leader until Hocevar got around for the lead with Sanchez, Enfinger and Rhodes chasing Eckes.

Spencer Boyd’s solo spin in the second turn caused the fifth caution of the race, Hocevar, Sanchez, Eckes, Enfinger and Tanner Gray held the top five places on the restart with Majeski reporting that the handling on his truck was terrible. William Sawalich spun and baked into the wll in the first turn after getting loose inside of Ben Rhodes entering the turn for the race’s sixth caution flag.

Hocevar led the restart then Nick Sanchez spun into the wall in the fourth turn when he slowed to avoid hitting Hailey Deegan and Corey Heim couldn’t react in time to avoid tapping Sanchez’ truck, sending the No. 2 into a half spin and gently into the wall. Sanchez continued without falling out of the lead lap.

The restart with 28 laps left led to a four-wide gaggle on the back straight for one turn until Hocevar moved into a half second lead over Derek Kraus with Grant Enfinger third and Christian Eckes fourth. Enfinger moved around Hocevar for the lead with less than 20 laps left and eased out to a lead of eight tenths of a second with ten laps left in the race.

“We had a winning truck today, I don’t know if we had a dominating truck but we had a winning truck,” said Enfinger in Victory Lane.

“If we have a bad day or something, bid dea – our 42 chevy was really fast. I was driving like a dirt car, I had a lot of fun just being able to move around,” said Hocevar.

Matt Crafton said that his truck was the loosest he’d ever driven in practice but the team changed the sway bars and shock absorbers, after practice, transforming the driveability. 

Ben Rhodes ended the day three points under the cutoff line for the next race, 

Unofficial  Results: Clean Harbors 17, August 27, 2023, Milwaukee Mile Speedway
Fin, Str, Driver, Truck, Laps, St1, St2, Tms Led, Laps Led, Playoff Pts, Pts, Status
1) 1, Grant Enfinger (P), No. 23 Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet, 175, 1, 1, 3, 95, 7, 60, Running
2) 3, Carson Hocevar (P), No. 42 Worldwide Express Chevrolet, 175, 6, 4, 1, 40, , 47, Running
3) 6, Christian Eckes (P), No. 19 Gates Hydraulics Chevrolet, 175, 5, 3, 1, 5, , 48, Running
4) 8, Corey Heim (P), No. 11 Safelite Toyota, 175, 4, 2, 1, 35, , 49, Running
5) 22, Matt Crafton (P), No. 88 Ideal Door/Menards Ford, 175, , 8, , , , 35, Running
6) 7, Chase Purdy, No. 4 Bama Buggies Chevrolet, 175, 9, , , , , 33, Running
7) 13, Ty Majeski (P), No. 98 Road Ranger Ford, 175, , 7, , , , 34, Running
8) 25, Derek Kraus(i), No. 7 gener8tor Skills Accelerator Chevrolet, 175, 8, , , , , 0, Running
9) 9, Jake Garcia #, No. 35 Adaptive One Calipers Chevrolet, 175, , , , , , 28, Running
10) 14, Bayley Currey, No. 41 GlobalTranz Chevrolet, 175, , , , , , 27, Running
11) 11, Tanner Gray, No. 15 Serial 1 Premium E-Bikes Toyota, 175, , 9, , , , 28, Running
12) 18, Zane Smith (P), No. 38 Birch Gold Group Ford, 175, , 10, , , , 26, Running
13) 4, Taylor Gray #, No. 17 JBL Toyota, 175, 3, , , , , 32, Running
14) 15, Rajah Caruth #, No. 24 Wendell Scott Foundation Chevrolet, 175, , , , , , 23, Running
15) 19, Dean Thompson, No. 5 Thompson Pipe Group Toyota, 175, , , , , , 22, Running
16) 10, Ben Rhodes (P), No. 99 Farm Paint/1848 Coffee Ford, 175, 10, , , , , 22, Running
17) 24, Colby Howard, No. 9 Grant County Mulch Chevrolet, 175, , , , , , 20, Running
18) 28, Conner Jones, No. 66 TSPORT Ford, 175, , , , , , 19, Running
19) 29, Bret Holmes #, No. 32 Precision Garage Doors Chevrolet, 175, , , , , , 18, Running
20) 16, Tyler Ankrum, No. 16 LiUNA! Toyota, 175, , , , , , 17, Running
21) 20, Lawless Alan, No. 45 AUTOParkit Chevrolet, 175, , , , , , 16, Running
22) 17, Hailie Deegan, No. 13 Ford Performance Ford, 175, , , , , , 15, Running
23) 27, Sean Hingorani, No. 61 Fidelity Capital Toyota, 175, , , , , , 14, Running
24) 2, Nick Sanchez # (P), No. 2 Gainbridge Chevrolet, 175, 2, 6, , , , 27, Running
25) 26, Matt Mills (P), No. 51 J.F. Electric Chevrolet, 175, , , , , , 12, Running
26) 12, William Sawalich, No. 1 Starkey/Soundgear Toyota, 175, 7, 5, , , , 21, Running
27) 23, Matt DiBenedetto (P), No. 25 Rackley Roofing Chevrolet, 173, , , , , , 10, Running
28) 5, Daniel Dye #, No. 43 Hamlin & Associates Chevrolet, 173, , , , , , 9, Running
29) 32, Tyler Hill, No. 56 MF1 Fantasy Racing Toyota, 173, , , , , , 8, Running
30) 21, Stewart Friesen, No. 52 Ferris Commercial Mowers Toyota, 172, , , , , , 7, Running
31) 33, Derek Lemke, No. 33 Super Cubes LLC Ford, 172, , , , , , 6, Running
32) 30, Spencer Boyd, No. 12 Cronauer Law Chevrolet, 172, , , , , , 5, Running
33) 35, Josh Reaume, No. 22 JAG Metals LLC Ford, 171, , , , , , 4, Running
34) 36, Greg Van Alst, No. 20 CB Fabricating Chevrolet, 63, , , , , , 3, Accident
35) 34, Brad Perez(i), No. 30 Bread Rocket Toyota, 62, , , , , , 0, Accident
36) 31, Josh Bilicki(i), No. 02 Insurance King Chevrolet, 9, , , , , , 0, Accident
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series, (P) Playoffs qualified, (#) Rookie

Distance: 175 Laps - 175. Miles
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 4 Mins, 23 Secs.
Average Speed: 85.683 MPH
Margin of Victory: 1.533 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 23, 2, 17, 11, 19, 42, 1, 7, 4, 99
Stage 2 Top 10: 23, 11, 19, 42, 1, 2, 98, 88, 15, 38

Comments: Grant Enfinger won the Clean Harbors 175 at Milwaukee Mile Speedway, his 10th career NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series victory.

Prior to the start, the following trucks dropped to the rear of the field for the reasons indicated: No. 51 (unapproved adjustments) and No. 98 (inspection penalty).

Failed to Qualify: (1) 21 Dexter Bean(i).

Cautions: 7 for 44 laps;
Laps: 11-17 (No. 02 Incident in Turn 2 [None]);
57-64 (Stage 1 Conclusion [61]);
66-71 (No. 20 and 30 Incident in Turn 1 [45]);
112-118 (Stage 2 Conclusion [66]);
125-129 (No. 12 Spin in Turn 2 [13]);
136-140 (No. 1 Incident in Turn 2 [45]);
142-147 (No. 2 and 11 Incident in Turn 3 [1]).

Lead Changes: 5 among 4 drivers;
G. Enfinger (P) 1-59;
C. Heim (P) 60-94;
G. Enfinger (P) 95-113;
C. Eckes (P) 114-118;
C. Hocevar (P) 119-158;
G. Enfinger (P) 159-175.