Enfinger wins Overtime thriller at Atlanta

By Nick Lewis

Grant Enfinger won at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the Vet Tix Camping World 200 over Austin Hill after overtaking him on an overtime restart.

This is the first season in which Enfinger has won multiple races in the Camping World Truck Series.

Enfinger, starting in second on the outside of Hill, was able to use that lane to side draft Hill and ultimately clear him for the lead. Enfinger said that his truck was good on the short run, but lacked the long run speed needed to run with Elliott and Busch.

“We didn’t have everything we needed to make a real run at those guys,” said Enfinger. “On the short run I knew if it could come right down to it and we got through the gears good and got a good restart we could make it happen.”

Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott battled through the lead throughout the race. Busch won the first two stages and led 37 laps. Elliott led 16 laps and was often trying to reel in Busch who was the class of the field up until his issues on pit road.

Hill had a lead of over four seconds with 3 to go when Chase Elliott spun off of Turn 2 to bring out the caution. Hill, who is a native of Georgia, led 36 laps after inheriting the lead from Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott who had problems during green flag pit stops.

Busch was caught for speeding and Elliott had trouble getting to pit road under green as he was trying to pit the same lap as Busch.

“I wanted to win here so bad this is my home track,” said Hill. “I’ve run so many races here in the bandolero and legend car series, won a lot of races here doing that so to get a win here would’ve been special.”

The track was 30 degrees warmer than usual as the race is usually run in March. Enfinger said that the track was slicker but not by a lot and didn’t make as big a difference as he thought.

“The tires always fall off a lot here but honestly the tires didn’t seem to fall off as much as normal. That kind of caught me off-guard this weekend and Charlotte, I didn’t feel like we had as much falloff as normal,” said Enfinger.

Finishing behind Enfinger and Hill were Christian Eckes, Todd Gilliland, Zane Smith, Ross Chastain, Derek Kraus, Brett Moffitt, Ben Rhodes, and Stewart Friesen to round out the Top-10.

Enfinger is the only series regular to win a race this season with Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott winning the other two races.

The Gander RV & Outdoor Truck Series returns next weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway on June 13 at 7:30 on FS1.