2024 NASCAR Truck Series playoff grid set

Daniel Dye snatched the final transfer spot from Tanner Gray in Saturday’s race, and stage points made all the difference for him. Among the must-win drivers, Layne Riggs was the closest to pulling off an eleventh hour victory, but ended up fifth.

“It’s really good to validate myself and the work that I’ve been putting in to change up what I’ve been doing,” Dye told Fox Sports 1. “It’s so cool to have our No. 43 (truck) in the playoffs. I’m whooped! It wasn’t easy. It’s not an easy track. Just proud of everybody. Everybody has been working so hard to keep me under control and not too freaked out. Man, proud to be here.”

Gray was hard on himself and visibly upset with the outcome, telling FS1: “We just weren’t good enough. All day, we just didn’t have the speed, didn’t have the balance, and I didn’t do a good enough job … really frustrated. When you come into a race where your’e on the cut like this, you just got to be better, and we weren’t tonight.

“Congrats to Daniel [Dye]. They were better, and they were better coming down the stretch when it mattered. We just made too many mistakes overall throughout the season. Just too sloppy. We got to clean it up and I got to clean up a lot of things on my end. We just need to be better.”

Christian Eckes clinched the regular season championship, while Ty Majeski won the race after a dramatic late-race pass on Grant Enfinger. After the points reset, Heim sits atop the championship standings with 2,041 points.