Grant Enfinger entered the Camping World Truck Series playoffs at the bottom of the heap… almost. Seeded ninth, the 10-year veteran went winless through the first 16 races of the season and had just three top fives and seven top 10s all year. Something was just off with the No. 23 team.
But all it took was a single race to put Enfinger right back into the championship conversation.
In the Truck Series return to Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park after a 15-year hiatus, Enfinger led just 13 laps en route to his first victory since 2021. A late caution set up an overtime finish, and he took the lead, the win and the first guaranteed spot in the Round of 8.
“Well, we’re finally moving forward!” an elated Enfinger said about his win. “This is my first win since [Martinsville 2020]. [We had a] terrible [regular season], not because of these guys behind me, you know we’ve just been a little off as an organization.
“I can’t say thank you enough to Mike Beam, Maury Gallagher, Ron Booth, everybody at GMS Fabrication, and everybody on this No. 23 team. We’ve been working so hard because we’ve been sucking. It hurts to say it, but we have had a terrible season to this point, but we had a great No. 23 Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet all day.”
Interestingly enough, the win came just three races after Enfinger was reunited with crew chief Jeff Hensley, who sat atop the pit box for the veteran driver for his four full-time seasons with ThorSport Racing. In fact, there’s a level of trust between the two that is one of the keys to finding success on the race track.
“For four years, we’ve rode the roller coaster together,” Enfinger explained when asked about the trust level. “We’ve been in the lows, we missed the playoffs in our first year together, but we haven’t missed it since. We’ve had some success together. He’s a racer and I’m a racer, and neither of us are very smart, but we put it together tonight.”
Following those four full-time seasons at ThorSport, 2021 put Enfinger in a precarious position where he was forced to share a ride with Christian Eckes due to a lack of funding for a full season with the organization. And though he did miss one race during 2021, Enfinger managed to put together a full schedule by running for Rohrbaugh Racing for the races Eckes had in the ThorSport ride.
The part-time schedule raised questions about whether the veteran’s career might be winding down, and that’s where GMS…
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