NASCAR has wrapped up the round of 10 in the Truck series. Kansas played the eliminator, and it was once again for the 6th time this season that Corey Heim took the chequered flag. After two back-to-back spoilers from Layne Riggs in the first two races of the playoffs, this time, the #38 had to be satisfied with a P2 finish.

Regular season champion Christian Eckes took the 3rd, and Kaden Honeycutt followed him in 4th. Only in his third truck appearance did Dawson Sutton manage to bag a 5th place finish. However, the race wasn’t short of its thrills. Entering the race, Heim wasn’t certain if he’d even make the top 15. But it seems another P1 finish on the track was on the cards for the 22-year-old.

Corey Heim bags his 6th season win as Ty Majeski loses out once again

Corey Heim faced a challenging start to the race, failing to qualify after blowing a right front tire in practice, placing him 33rd on the grid. Fortunately, he had the fastest truck of the night, quickly climbing into the top 10 by Lap 14 and finishing third in Stage 1. He then battled Christian Eckes in Stage 2, ultimately securing the stage win.

In the final stage, Heim lost some ground due to a late pit stop, sitting sixth with 20 laps to go while Ty Majeski, who started from the pole, led the race. However, Heim’s strategy paid off, and Majeski ran out of fuel on the second-to-last lap, allowing Heim to seize the victory. In his post-race interview, Heim did express his relief over Majeski’s misfortune, who finished 15th.

The Kubota Tractor 200 winner said, “Just a deep sigh of relief. We were the best truck all night, it’s my favorite track I love coming here I look forward to this I had a smile on my face all week coming to this place and just thought that we could sweep the area. It’s such an awesome place to come. A huge thanks to Tricon Garage, and Toyota Racing. Certainly thought we had lost it to the 98 almost make it on enough fuel. It just showed my team made the right call.”

The Craftsman Truck Series playoff field was reduced from 10 drivers to 8 following the Round of 10 finale. Eckes, Heim, and Nick Sanchez were already locked in because they had a great showing in the first two races. While Majeski clinched his spot after crushing it in Stage 1, losing out on the win was still disappointing for him. Post-race, he said, “I thought I maximized it one lap short. yeah I mean the 11 was coming so I don’t know that it really could have saved a lot more and made it to the end and still won the race um unless I was just off on my technique so yeah we’ll have to go back and see what I could have done better to save but yeah.”

The final eight to qualify were Rajah Caruth, Taylor Gray, Grant Enfinger, and Tyler Ankrum, who rounded out the final spot. However, before Enfinger made it to the next round, he had an intense battle with the defending champion, Ben Rhodes.

Grant Enfinger and Ben Rhodes go neck-to-neck

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Enfinger did not get the 8th spot before Rhodes made him run for his money. Entering the race, Enfinger was +7 points above the cutoff line in 8th and Rhodes was -12 below it in 10th. The scenes were much like last year’s championship final when the two went head to head in the final laps of the race. Before Rhodes clinched the championship. However, this time, it was Enfinger who won that battle.

Rhodes had Enfinger sweating for some time as post the race, the #9 said, “It was definitely a little bit stressful, definitely too close for comfort there. This is a round we want to forget. We snuck through here, and now we’re looking forward to going to Talladega next week (for the first race in the Round of 8).” Rhodes had climbed to third place but, like his ThorSport Racing teammate Majeski played the same fuel gamble and ran dry before the race ended, finishing, 22nd.

Despite a good start, the two-time (2021, 2023) truck series champion could not keep his playoff campaign afloat. Naturally, he too was disappointed after the race. He said, “We qualified fourth, and at the start of the race, massive changes with the truck. We could not get it tightened up… Still kind of unacceptable. If we’d have gotten our stage points, it would have taken care of itself.”

What did you think of the eliminator? Let us know in the comments down below.