Tyre rub cruels top 10 Truck Series run for SVG

During Stage 3, van Gisbergen got squeezed up against the wall and suffered damage to the front splitter of his #71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado.

He had run a race-high fifth but had been 10th at the time that he was forced to pit during the final stanza.

After practice and qualifying was rained out, van Gisbergen started from second-to-last in 35th after the grid was set by the qualifying metric.

He made some headway early but lost time on Lap 3 when he was forced to check up in avoidance of Luke Baldwin’s #2 Team Reaume Ford F-150.

On Lap 7, van Gisbergen spun in Turn 2 while racing with Travis Pastrana in the #25 Kaulig Racing Ram. Thankfully, van Gisbergen escaped any damage.

At the time of the yellow, Layne Riggs led Christian Eckes, Kaden Honeycutt, Brandon Jones, and Chandler Smith.

Speaking to his crew, van Gisbergen said he was being too cautious getting up to speed.

The race resumed on Lap 9 with van Gisbergen in 35th. On the second time of asking, he wasted little time making headway and was up to 25th in just a few laps.

On Lap 22, the second caution came out for Ty Majeski whose #88 ThorSport Racing Ford slowed on the apron.

Pits opened on Lap 25. Eckes led the lion’s share of the field to the pits, including van Gisbergen.

Some elected to stay out, including Justin Haley in the #41 Kaulig Ram to assume the lead of the race. Van Gisbergen, meanwhile, was 20th.

SVG survived a frenetic two-lap dash to the green-white-chequered flag to end Stage 1 in 19th. Eckes won the stage ahead of Jones and Riggs.

Stage 2 began on Lap 36. It was a short-lived green-flag run, though. On Lap 39, Baldwin’s engine expired in spectacular fashion, belching flames from beneath his Ford.

Racing resumed on Lap 46 but lasted less than a lap when Corey Day spun off the nose of Gio Ruggiero’s #17 Tricon Garage Toyota Tundra.

Day’s car briefly got airborne before slapping the inside SAFER barrier.

The #7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet came back across the track and swiped Mini Tyrell’s #14 Kaulig Ram.

“The #17 just got a big run off of [Turn] 2 and he kind of started to shade down, so I shaded with him, he shaded back up and that was it,” said Day after being released from the infield care centre.

“My spotter didn’t do anything wrong…I just thought I was clear and I wasn’t.

“I just hate it for the #7 guys. This is exactly what I didn’t want to do today. I just wanted to deliver them a good run. I feel terrible. I hate it.”

Van Gisbergen elected to flip the stage and pit under the yellow with a handful of other cars, dropping him to 23rd.

Riggs led the restart with seven laps to go in the stage followed by Eckes, leaving Jones and Hemric to jockey over third.

With fresh tyres, van Gisbergen ripped the high line and surged forward to finish Stage 2 in 15th.

Riggs clinched the stage ahead of Eckes and hard-charger Ross Chastain. Hemric was fourth and Jones fifth.

The front-runners pitted during the break while van Gisbergen and most who pitted under the prior yellow stayed out.

Grant Enfinger inherited the lead ahead of Connor Zilisch, Ruggiero, van Gisbergen, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Eckes was the first of those who pitted during the stage break in 10th with Chastain and Riggs behind him in 11th and 12th respectively.

From the outside of row two, van Gisbergen looked like he might make headway on teammate Zilisch only to check up and hemorrhage positions to ninth.

Spencer Boyd brought out the yellow on Lap 69 when he spun his #76 Freedom Racing Enterprises Chevrolet.

Ruggiero led Zilisch, Enfinger, William Sawalich, Eckes, Tanner Gray, Jones, Riggs, van Gisbergen, and Stenhouse Jr. under the yellow.

The race restarted with 62 laps to go. Van Gisbergen surged to seventh, which quickly became fifth on Lap 75.

On Lap 77, the caution came out when Leland Honeyman Jr. spun out of Turn 2 in the #62 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota following light contact with another truck.

Lap 79 pit stops brought the front-runners to the lane, led by Ruggiero. Van Gisbergen was among those to stop.

There was a divergence in strategy between some cars, with a split of two-tyre and four-tyre changes.

On corrected order, van Gisbergen was 13th. The top two – Tyler Ankrum and Dawson Sutton – elected not to pit. Jones in ninth was the first car on four new tyres, while those ahead of him, excluding the top two, only took two tyres.

The green dropped on Lap 83 with 52 laps to go in the race, though it soon became evident that the race would not go the full distance owing to a midday (local time) cut-off.

Riggs rocketed to the lead of the race with Chastain and Smith in tow. Van Gisbergen soon cracked the top 10.

The carnage continued on Lap 88 when Kris Wright in the #81 McAnally–Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet collided with Brenden Queen in the #12 Kaulig Racing Ram on the front stretch.

Van Gisbergen was forced to pit under the yellow with damage to the left front corner, causing a tyre rub after being squeezed into the wall.

That demoted van Gisbergen to the rear of the lead lap in 28th.

As midday approached, the “laps to go” was replaced with minutes remaining.

Eckes got the jump on Riggs on Lap 94 for the race restart. Riggs returned serve a few laps later, retaking the lead with 12 minutes to go entering Turn 1.

Stewart Friesen threatened to bring out the yellow when he spun through the infield. However, it wasn’t long after that that the yellow did fly for Andre Perez De Lara spinning at Turn 1 in the #44 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet.

By then, van Gisbergen got himself up to 18th, prompting a humorous remark.

“There are some interesting drivers back here,” he laughed.

“I’m probably being a bit more cautious than I should be.”

A flurry of pit stops promoted van Gisbergen to 13th for the restart with a little under five minutes to go.

Riggs led the restart and edged away from the field. Smith was his nearest adversary initially but fell back into the clutches of Honeycutt and then Zilsch.

With three minutes to go, Smith spun the #38 Front Row Motorsports Ford on his own exiting Turn 2 for the 11th caution.

Van Gisbergen fell back to 15th during that short green flag run, reporting a tight truck.

As the clock hit midday (local time), NASCAR threw the white flag under the caution.

Riggs was the winner ahead of Honeycutt, Zilisch, Ben Rhodes, and Ruggiero.

Van Gisbergen was 15th. He will be back in action on Monday at 8am AEST for the Coca-Cola 600 where he will start third.

Results: NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series NC Education Lottery 200, Charlotte Motor Speedway

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