NASCAR News

Heim beats Enfinger in three-lap shootout

Heim beats Enfinger in three-lap shootout


With rain approaching the track, Heim maintained a steady lead, but his No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota team had waited to make a final green-flag stop for fuel.

A caution on lap 45 provided something of a cushion, saving some fuel, but when rain finally brought out a caution with eight of the scheduled 70 laps remaining, his team felt sure he had enough to make it.

As it turned out, he did. After more than a 20-minute delay, the race was restarted with three laps to go, and Heim easily held off Grant Enfinger by 0.867 seconds to earn his series leading fifth win of the 2024 season.

 

While Christian Eckes started on the pole when qualifying was rained out and led the first 11 laps, Heim was never seriously challenged once he took the lead for the first time on lap 12.

The win is the 10th of Heim’s career.

Eckes finished third, Taylor Gray was fourth and Ross Chastain rounded out the top five.

Completing the top 10 were Chase Purdy, Stewart Friesen, Matt Crafton, Dean Thompson and Rajah Caruth.

Stage 1

Heim ran down Eckes and passed him for the lead with four laps remaining and held on by 1.753 seconds to take the Stage 1 win. Tyler Ankrum was third, Daniel Dye fourth and Enfinger ended up fifth.

 

Stage 2

Heim elected not to pit after Stage 1 and cruised the Stage 2 victory over Eckes by 2.097 seconds, his sixth stage win of the 2024 season. Dye finished third, Enfinger fourth and Ankrum rounded out the top five.

Stage 3

Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, several lead-lap trucks elected to pit but Jake Garcia – who pit before the end of Stage 2 – stayed out and inherited the lead.

Heim, on four new tires, went from fifth to first on the restart with 34 laps to go and quickly reclaimed the lead.

With 30 laps remaining, those teams which needed a final stop for fuel to make it to the finish began making green-flag stops. Garcia had issues changing both his left and right-side front tires and lost a lap.

Caruth spun around through Turn 1 on lap 45 to bring out a caution but was able to keep his No. 71 Chevrolet off the wall.

The race resumed with 22 laps remaining and Heim leading Chastain and Enfinger on the restart. Enfinger quicky moved into the runner-up spot ahead of Chastain on the ensuing lap.

Ty Majeski was forced to pit road with 16 laps to go as his No. 98 Ford lost power and required a new battery to be installed.

On Lap 63, NASCAR displayed a caution when rain began to fall in the area of Turn 2 of…

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