Stewart Friesen led the field to green under a cloudless blue sky at Martinsville Speedway, and for the first eight laps, held off a charging Kyle Busch. But from lap nine on, Busch had the early command, quickly opening up a 10-trucklength lead over Friesen. From there, there were comers and goers in the TruNorth Global 250, but at the front it was the Kyle Busch show, as he led 174 of 250 laps.
No other driver led more than 53 laps on the day (Ross Chastain). Truck Series regulars led just 23 laps on the day (Friesen led 18 and Austin Hill led five).
Early on, four-time Martinsville winner Johnny Sauter was on the move, moving into third by lap 20 after starting eighth and second soon afterward. Late in Stage 1, though, Sauter’s engine began to miss, and he fell to third late. A handful of laps before the green and white checkered flag fell, the caution flew for Gus Dean’s detonated engine, and the cleanup took the field until the end of the stage. Busch took the stage win and then led the field to pit road. Busch was first out of the pits as well, with Friesen second and Matt Crafton moving up to third, but a penalty for Crafton for an uncontrolled tire meant he’d start at the back of the field. Sauter’s team fixed a plug-wire issue on the stop, hoping it would put him back in contention.
Austin Hill stayed on track during the stage break, but was no match for Busch’s fresh tires. Ross Chastain looked like he might run Busch down from second, and was able to stalk Busch’s bumper for almost 50 laps, when a spinning Daniel Sasnett brought out the caution.
Friesen and Brett Moffitt stayed on track, and the strategy worked for Friesen, but Chastain and Busch made quick work of Moffitt. Chastain got past Moffitt on the outside, allowing him to clear Busch and catch Friesen quickly. Ben Rhodes passed Busch for third as an impatient Chastain worked his way past Friesen for the lead, giving the slower No. 52 a tap after Friesen tried to block him as Stage 2 quickly wound down. A battle between Friesen and Rhodes allowed Chastain to open up his lead in the final stage laps. Chastain took the stage by almost a second over Rhodes, Busch, Friesen and Moffitt.
Chastain held point until 65 laps remained, when Busch powered by just as Johnny Sauter limped to pit road after a cut tire and the caution flew as Sasnett spun a second time.
Cautions tend to lead to more cautions late in a race at Martinsville and Saturday was no exception. Cory Roper was next to go around with just over 40 laps left in the race, allowing some of the leaders to get their last sets of tires bolted on for the run to the finish.
Busch got away from a charging Ben Rhodes and appeared to have a comfortable lead of a second with 10 laps to go, but then a Tyler Dippel spin with seven laps remaining changed the complexion of the race one more time, putting Busch on defense for the restart instead of the offensive he had been on before the caution. Busch got a jump on the restart with three laps to go, though, and was able to drive away and take the white flag. A spin on the final lap ended the race under caution, and Busch took his 201st national series win.
“It was a case of being patient,” Busch said after the race. “Obviously with trying to go 150 laps to the end of the race on one set of tires is a long way to go, so we just kind of wanted to bide our time and take it easy, make sure we didn’t push too hard. We didn’t need to go up there and get any stage points or anything like that so the opportunity for us to just kind of ride was given to us. We knew the 52 (Stewart Friesen) was going to pit, so I kind of let the 99 (Ben Rhodes) go and was riding in fourth and going to inherit third on a restart. All of the battling ended up ensuing there anyways.
“Awesome day. These guys gave me a great Cessna Beechcraft Tundra. It was awesome to drive. It wasn’t so awesome yesterday. We worked really, really hard on trying to make this thing better and improve this truck and our program and all of the other trucks as well too.”
Rhodes finished second, Moffit third, Chastain fourth and Friesen fifth.
Myatt Snider, Grant Enfinger, Crafton, Sauter and Darrell Wallace, Jr. rounded out the top 10.
Friesen leaves Martinsville with the series point lead, taking over from Grant Enfinger, who now sits second, four points back after finishing seventh. Moffit is third, on point behind Enfinger, with Sauter and Harrison Burton making up the rest of the top 5. They’re followed by Rhodes, Crafton, Hill, Todd Gilliland and Creed in sixth through 10th.
The series is next scheduled to race Friday night, March 29th at Texas Motor Speedway.
NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series
Martinsville Speedway – Martinsville, VA
TruNorth Global 250 – March 23, 2019
1. (2) Kyle Busch(i), Toyota, 250.
2. (16) Ben Rhodes, Ford, 250.
3. (5) Brett Moffitt, Chevrolet, 250.
4. (10) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 250.
5. (1) Stewart Friesen, Chevrolet, 250.
6. (15) Myatt Snider, Ford, 250.
7. (19) Grant Enfinger, Ford, 250.
8. (6) Matt Crafton, Ford, 250.
9. (8) Johnny Sauter, Ford, 250.
10. (13) Darrell Wallace, Jr.(i), Chevrolet, 250.
11. (18) Harrison Burton #, Toyota, 250.
12. (21) David Gilliland, Toyota, 250.
13. (12) Austin Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 250.
14. (7) Raphael Lessard, Toyota, 250.
15. (3) Todd Gilliland, Toyota, 250.
16. (9) Austin Hill, Toyota, 250.
17. (4) Sheldon Creed #, Chevrolet, 250.
18. (11) Derek Kraus, Toyota, 250.
19. (14) Tyler Ankrum #, Toyota, 250.
20. (24) Spencer Davis, Ford, 249.
21. (23) Timmy Hill(i), Chevrolet, 249.
22. (26) Austin Theriault, Ford, 248.
23. (20) Tyler Dippel #, Chevrolet, 248.
24. (27) Reid Wilson, Chevrolet, 247.
25. (30) Korbin Forrister, Toyota, 246.
26. (29) Jordan Anderson, Chevrolet, 246.
27. (25) Spencer Boyd, Chevrolet, 244.
28. (32) Travis Kvapil, Chevrolet, 240.
29. (28) Brennan Poole, Toyota, 239.
30. (31) Daniel Sasnett, Chevrolet, 238.
31. (22) Cory Roper, Ford, Rear End, 225.
32. (17) Gus Dean #, Chevrolet, Oil Line, 61.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 70.175 mph.
Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 52 Mins, 26 Secs. Margin of Victory: Under Caution Seconds.
Caution Flags: 7 for 50 laps.
Lead Changes: 8 among 4 drivers.
Lap Leaders: S. Friesen 1-8;K. Busch(i) 9-74;A. Hill 75-79;K. Busch(i) 80-120;S. Friesen 121-130;R. Chastain(i) 131-180;K. Busch(i) 181;R. Chastain(i) 182-184;K. Busch(i) 185-250.
Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Kyle Busch(i) 4 times for 174 laps; Ross Chastain(i) 2 times for 53 laps; Stewart Friesen 2 times for 18 laps; Austin Hill 1 time for 5 laps.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 51,52,13,4,45,88,24,16,8,46
Stage #2 Top Ten: 45,99,51,52,24,18,13,16,27,4
Top 10 in Points: 1. Stewart Friesen – 151; 2. Grant Enfinger – 147; 3. Brett Moffitt – 146; 4. Johnny Sauter – 142; 5. Harrison Burton – 142; 6. Ben Rhodes – 140; 7. Austin Hill – 135 (1 Win); 8. Matt Crafton – 130; 9. Todd Gilliland – 126; 10. Sheldon Creed – 111.
