Jake Garcia claims his first career NASCAR Truck Series win as the top chasers loosen up at Bristol Motor Speedway in Thursday night’s UNOH 250.
BRISTOL, Tenn. — It was a case of stealing thunder for Jake Garcia.
Jake Garcia. First win
It was a blunder for the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Chase drivers.
Driving no. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford, Garcia took control in the third round of Thursday night’s UNOH 250 presented by Ohio Logistics at Bristol Motor Speedway to win for the first time in his ’94 start.
In the opening Chase for the series, Garcia led 104 laps three times. On laps 250 to 230, he took the lead from Stewart Friesen with an inside pass and held it the rest of the way. Garcia took the checkered flag 1.305 seconds ahead of Bailey Currie, who passed Friesen for second on lap 247.
“I’m really proud of all my guys,” said Garcia, who finished 12th in regulation. “They brought an amazing truck tonight. Today was good (in practice), but qualifying went by, so we got a good strategy that helped us come from behind, gain some track position … and just kind of work our way up from there.”
Garcia ended the drought for ThorSport Ty Majeski wins 2024 Championship 4 at Phoenix Racewaybut it was hardly plain sailing all the way. Garcia lost the lead to Friesen on the lap 220 restart and spent the next ten laps trying to regain it.
“They had some trouble on the last restart, but luckily the truck was quick enough to overcome it,” Garcia said. “ThorSport Racing is a really strong team, especially historically, so I’m proud of all my guys on the ’98 team for ending that winless streak.”
Curry finished second in his first Truck Series season start. With Friesen third, Justin Haley fourth and Tristan McKee fifth, at age 16 the youngest driver in series history to earn a top-five finish, no Chase driver finished better than sixth (Giovanni Ruggiero).
“I still got it, I guess,” said Curry, who drove the No. 5 TRICON Garage Toyota. “Just a huge, huge thank you to everyone at TRICON, at Toyota. just a great opportunity and glad we were able to make the most of it.
“I thought I was going to crash there at the end, but we were able to fight there and bring home P2. Obviously I wanted to win, but coming off the couch I’m fine.”
William Savalic, Honeycutt, Majeski and Grant Enfinger rounded out the top ten behind Ruggiero.
Bristol Trouble for Top Chasers
In fact, the Chase’s top four seeds have all had unusual struggles. Top-seeded Lane Riggs started from the pole and won the first two stages wire-to-wire, leading the first 135 laps.
But Riggs was sixth out of the pits at the start of the final lap, and on lap 156 he radioed his crew that his No. 34 Front Row Racing Ford had a loose right rear wheel. Riggs pitted for four tires on lap 161, but lost two laps to the leaders and never recovered.
After contact with the damaged No. 1 Toyota of Nick Leitz late in the race, Riggs was forced to pit again and finished 32nd, 16 laps down.
The two stage wins proved to be a godsend for Riggs, who maintained the Chase lead by three points over Caden Honeycutt. The driver of the No. 11 Toyota finished eighth despite an unscheduled pit stop with a loose wheel at the end of the race under caution.
“There was a lot of fighting tonight,” Riggs said. “I’m just thankful that we had a fast enough truck that we won the first two rounds and got some points, but we just went down pit road and had an absolute disaster of a stop.
“I don’t understand how we stopped so slowly and we didn’t squeeze the wheels… I’m very disappointed. It seems to me that the truck needs to be beaten again.”
Lane Riggs now leads runner-up Caden Honeycutt by three points.
Third-place finisher Chandler Smith was hit with both a speeding penalty during the Stage 2 break and a tire that lost air at the end of the final run. Smith finished 24th and leaves Bristol third in the standings, 30 points behind Riggs.
Ty Majeski is fourth, 35 points behind the lead, as Gio Ruggiero is fifth, 39 points behind Riggs.
Fourth-place finisher Christian Eckes’ Chevrolet suffered early front-end damage and finished 30th. Ekes dropped four spots in the Chase standings to eighth, 58 points off the leader.
Next
The Chase resumes for the Truck Series at the Race to Stop Suicide 200 at Kansas Speedway on September 26. The race begins at 1 p.m. ET on FS1, NRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Last year’s winner is now NASCAR Cup Series driver Carson Hotsavar.