When the checkered flag flew over Homestead-Miami Speedway last Saturday (Oct. 22) afternoon, the 2022 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Championship 4 became official.
Ty Majeski made a major statement, snagging two wins in the three races during the Round of 8 at Bristol Motor Speedway and Homestead. Meanwhile, Chandler Smith and Zane Smith, both of whom entered last weekend’s race with a decent cushion over the cut line, were able to point their way into the championship race with little fanfare by finishing 10th and second, respectively.
It’s at this point, though, where the battle for that fourth and final spot got a little more interesting. Early in the race, John Hunter Nemechek pretty much took himself out of contention when he smacked the wall with a flat right front tire and was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop under green. His elimination from the equation became much clearer just a few laps later when the damage forced another stop after he suffered a flat right rear.
Similar to Nemechek, Grant Enfinger suffered a flat tire around midway through the final stage, and the damage was enough to take him out of the battle as well. But what was a bit different for Enfinger was that he was in a must-win situation, needing a lot to go wrong for the other playoff drivers (and right for his team) for him to point his way into the Championship 4. If not for the damage he suffered, who knows what might have been.
Enfinger: “We’ve got everything to win and nothing to lose.” Don’t be surprised to see him put it all on the line today. #NASCAR
— Beth Lunkenheimer (@NASCARBeth) October 22, 2022
That ultimately left ThorSport Racing teammates Christian Eckes and Ben Rhodes, along with Stewart Friesen, to battle it out for the one final spot, and the driver above the cut line as the field ran shuffled numerous times throughout stage three. Each driver scored points in stages one and two, but since Friesen and Rhodes earned five and six points more than Eckes, respectively, the battle really came down to those two, barring an accident or mechanical failure.
As Rhodes struggled with an ill-handling truck through much of stage three, Friesen had plenty of speed and did as much as he could to put himself in a position to advance. He moved all the way up to third by the end of the race, but the margin created by a round of green-flag pit stops was too much for him to overcome to move any further up the running order.
With each position…
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