NCTS Race Recap: EJP 175

All eyes were on the EJP 175 as it was the final race of the round of ten for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Corey Heim was the fastest in qualifying, so he started the race on the pole. Chandler Smith joined him on the front row. Ty Majeski and Layne Riggs started the race in the second row. The stage lengths were 55 laps for the first two stages, with the final stage being 65 laps.

Cautions, Cautions

Heim got a great start to the race. Smith dove into turn one deep and made contact with Heim. Immediately, Tanner Gray overdrove turn one. He made contact with Matt Crafton and got turned around. Connor Mosack, Ben Rhodes, and Brent Crews were also involved in the incident. That brought out the first caution.

Majeski joined Heim on the front row for the restart. Heim, again, got a great jump and took the lead out of turn two. Majeski settled into the second spot.

Jack Wood and Dawson Sutton made contact. Sutton was on the receiving end of the hit. His truck got sideways, but Sutton was able to save it and kept it off the wall. The race stayed green.

By lap 30, Heim had pulled away from Majeski by over a second. He was the fastest truck on the track. The top two pulled away from Smith, in third, by just four seconds.

On lap 33, the second caution came out when Jayson Alexander and Caleb Costner got together in turn one. Daniel Hemric tried to avoid the wreck but made contact with the outside wall.

After the caution, Heim and Majeski brought the field back to green. Majeski spun his tires on the restart, which allowed Heim to retake his lead. Smith was able to capitalize on the mistake by taking the second position.

More Cautions

Before the field could complete the lap, the third caution came out. Michael Christopher, Jr. got into the left rear of Christian Eckes. That sent Eckes into Connor Jones, who got into the outside wall.

The race restarted with seven to go with Heim and Majeski on the front row. Heim took the lead into turn one. He scampered off by almost half a second. Before the field could finish the stage, Derek White brought out the fourth caution after coming to a stop in the middle of turn three.

That caution ended the stage with Heim getting the stage win! Smith, Majeski, Rajah Caruth, and Jake Garcia rounded out the top five.

Perez Showed his Speed

Andres Perez and Brent Crews brought the field back to green. Perez got the better restart and took the lead into turn one. Crews held on to second after fighting off Gio Ruggiero. Perez began to pull away from Crews. He built his lead to almost a second.

Corey Heim, who restarted in 14th, quickly made up ground. He got back into the top ten and was able to continue to make up ground.

Ruggiero was able to get around Crews. He made up the ground to Perez and challenged for the lead. Ruggiero was finally able to get alongside Perez. He could not complete the pass and fell back to second. All of the battling at the front allowed Dawson Sutton to close the gap to the top two.

While the battle continued at the front, Heim sliced through the top ten. With 20 to go in the stage, He had already made his way into fifth. Heim was the fastest truck on the track, closing the gap to the leader.

Heim Time

The fifth caution came out when Patrick Emerling got turned around. He complained that he had a tire go down, which caused the incident.

Perez was the first truck off of pit road. Heim and Ruggiero followed Perez out of the pits. Caruth did not pit under the yellow flag.

With four to go in the stage, Caruth and Perez brought the field back to green. Caruth was unable to hold the lead. Perez and Heim quickly passed Caruth. Heim took back his lead after passing Perez. Heim would hold his lead to win stage two in the EJP 175! Perez, Smith, Ruggiero, and Riggs finished the stage in the top five.

The Big One

Heim and Smith brought the field to the green flag. Heim snatched the lead into turn one. Perez got shuffled out of the groove and fell outside of the top five. Grant Enfinger bumped Perez into turn four. Perez continued to fall down in the running order.

Heim pulled away from Smith by over half a second. He was, once again, the quickest truck on the track.

The seventh caution came out on lap 127. Tyler Tomassi was turned by Spencer Boyd. Boyd got loose on the inside of Tomassi and slid up the track and into him.

Heim and Ruggiero brought the green back out. Heim reassumed his lead after taking the spot on the outside of turns one and two.

As they say, “Cautions breed cautions.” While the field was trying to get back up to speed, the eighth caution came out. Toni Breidinger got turned sideways and hit the outside wall nose-first. Ben Rhodes got into the outside of Breidinger, which got her sideways. They collected Matt Crafton in the incident. It was a lengthy cleanup process as some fluids got onto the track.

To The Finish

With 33 laps to go, Heim and Ruggiero lead the field back to green. Ruggiero got a better restart, but Smith pushed Heim back out front. Smith snuck around Ruggiero to take second. Layne Riggs followed Smith into third.

Heim began building the gap to second. He pulled away by over a second with 20 to go. Smith ran laps equal to those of Heim but could not get any closer to the leader. Riggs followed Smith about a second and a half behind.

Heim caught some lapped traffic with 12 to go. Smith had trouble getting around two of the lapped trucks. He fell behind by over a second and a half. Smith then began closing the gap. He started running faster laps. The gap would eventually close to under a second. He would get the gap to .9 seconds. It was not enough.

Heim would take the white and then the checkered flag to win the EJP 175! That was his ninth win of the season! Smith, Riggs, Ruggiero, and Majeski rounded out the top five.

Marvin’s Minute:

I have run out of ways to describe the dominance of Heim. He has time and time again impressed with his speed. He still does not have a ride locked up for next season, which is crazy. As I have stated before, Heim is the clear-cut favorite to win the championship in Phoenix. The truck series continues its schedule in Charlotte in two weeks!