Chase Briscoe edged Grant Enfinger at the finish to win Wednesday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Eldora Dirt Derby at Eldora Speedway.
Briscoe and Enfinger raced side-by-side throughout the two laps of overtime around the half-mile dirt oval, making contact several times. As they headed to the checkered flag, Briscoe made contact with the left side of Enfinger’s truck before it slapped the wall. At the finish, Briscoe was ahead by inches.
“I wasn’t going to wear him out. I wasn’t just gonna wreck him for the win,” said Briscoe, a former Truck Series regular who has returned to running midget and sprint cars this year after Brad Keselowski Racing shut down. “We rubbed. I definitely let it float all the way to the wall and I’m sorry about that. It’s not how I race, but this means so much to win at Eldora.”
Briscoe, who is also running limited schedules in IMSA and the Xfinity Series, won in what is slated to be his only Truck Series start of the season.
“It just means so much to win Eldora,” he said. “I was growing up as a dirt guy. My grandpa won here and this is our Daytona for dirt guys. This win is for all the dirt guys out there who don’t get a shot. Tonight proves a dirt guy can do it at this level. I’m so thankful that Ford allowed me to do this race. I was begging them about three weeks ago to let me do it and it came together at the last minute. It’s awesome to be in Victory Lane.”
The margin of victory was 0.038 seconds, the closest of the season and at Eldora. Enfinger was gracious in defeat yet disappointed he could not pull off the victory.
“Man, I wanted to really win this thing,” Enfinger said. “He (Briscoe) didn’t do anything wrong. Just hard racing and we finished second. Still, a great night for us and the series.”
Stewart Friesen, Matt Crafton and Brett Moffitt rounded out the top five. Noah Gragson, John Hunter Nemechek, Logan Seavey, Justin Haley and Nick Hoffman completed the first 10 finishers. Ben Rhodes and Briscoe won the first two stages. Wins in heat races went to Rhodes, Todd Gilliland, Briscoe, Crafton and Friesen while Nemechek won the last-chance qualifying race.
The Camping World Truck Series returns to action on Saturday, July 28, at Pocono Raceway.
