Truck Championship 4 Set, Gragson Punches Ticket at Homestead

Homestead-Miami Speedway featured a Doubleheader Saturday for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series, as the season continues to wind down.

It was Ty Majeski, who already clinched a spot in the Championship 4 with a win at Bristol, who had a strong showing and earned his second career win at Homestead. He led 67 of the 134 laps in his No. 66 Thorsport Toyota on his way to winning the race, with Zane Smith finishing in second, four seconds back of the leader.

It was a fight to clinch the final spots to make it to Phoenix, as Stewart Friesen finished third but ended up missing out on contending for a Championship in Phoenix, as defending series champion Ben Rhodes was able to sneak his way into the Championship 4 by one single point in his sixth place finish.

The Championship 4 is officially set and in two weeks, Ty Majeski, Zane Smith, Chandler Smith, and Ben Rhodes will be racing for the biggest prize of them all, the championship, on November 4th at Phoenix Raceway.

Majeski wasn’t too sure about the points situation unfolding behind him he that it was close, adding that he has a lot of confidence in his team heading into the championship race.

“We certainly have momentum on our side winning two of the last three,’’ Majeski said. “I can’t really say who the favorite is and who isn’t. But I really like my chances going to Phoenix.”

23-year-old Zane Smith, the regular season champion, will be making his third attempt at winning the championship, as he came very close in the last two years. Smith has three wins this season.

Chandler Smith, 20, finished 10th at Homestead to clinch a spot and will make his debut in the Championship 4. Smith also has won three races this season.

Then there’s defending champion Ben Rhodes, 25, who won one race this year at the Bristol dirt race, who will get to compete for the championship for a second time and will look to make it 2 for 2 on winning the championship.

“Fighting with my teammates really hard there for the last few laps,’’ Rhodes said. “Every spot matters and we got in by one point. I’m just really happy we had a good showing for this Toyota Tundra.

“Really happy to have an intense race for them, give them some excitement,” Rhodes said of guests this weekend.  “But man, it was harder than it should have been. Just glad we can defend the title really.”

Ryan Preece finished fourth, Corey Heim finished fifth, and then Rhodes, Christian Eckes, Matt Crafton, Parker Kligerman, and Chandler Smith rounded out the top ten.

Friesen, Eckes, Grant Enfinger, and John Hunter Nemechek were the four drivers that missed out on making the Championship 4. Enfinger, who won the opening playoff race at IRP, was in a must-win situation, as he suffered a tire problem and finished in 14th. John Hunter Nemechek, who is also driving for 23XI this weekend for the suspended Bubba Wallace, also had a rough afternoon, hitting the wall and finishing six laps down to finish 35th.

“Sucks we won’t be racing for the championship,’’ Nemechek said. “But one last race to go win with this bunch and hopefully we can go get it done.’’

Moving over the Xfinity Series, one spot was already clinched by Josh Berry last week at Las Vegas and another was clinched at Homestead by the hottest driver in the series right now, Noah Gragson.

Gragson led 127 of the 200 laps in a dominating fashion as he took the checkered flag over Ty Gibbs in a late restart with five laps to go. This makes it eight wins on the season for Noah Gragson, more than doubling his previous best in single-season wins.

“I wanted this one so bad,’’ Gragson said after the race. “The last three years. … Words can’t describe how thankful I am for everybody at JR Motorsports.”

Gragson joins his teammate Josh Berry for the Championship 4 with one race left in the Round of 8. Ty Gibbs, who finished second, now sits third in the points standings, 30 points ahead of fourth-place AJ Allmendinger.

“We were just battling our race car all day, we made great adjustments and my guys never gave up,’’ said the 20-year-old Gibbs.

“We’ll move on to Martinsville. I feel like that’s a place we were really fast at earlier this year and probably had a shot to win it so I’m excited to go back there.”

As for the other two Jr Motorsports drivers, who are also playoff contenders, Justin Allgaier finished 10th after having to come back from being a lap down. Sam Mayer finished in fifth and now sits 28 points back from AJ Allmendinger.

Austin Hill of Richard Childress Racing finished ninth and is seven points back from the cutline. Allmendinger finished third, his Kaulig Racing teammate Daniel Hemric finished fourth, and as previously mentioned Sam Mayer finished fifth. Trevor Bayne, who led 46 laps in the race, finished sixth, as he was in contention with Gragson until being hit with a speeding penalty on pit road late in the race. Chandler Smith, who clinched a spot in the Truck Series Championship 4 earlier in the day finished seventh, and Riley Herbst, Austin Hill, and Justin Allgaier rounded out the top 10.

The Xfinity Series heads next to Martinsville Speedway on Saturday, October 29th (3 p.m. EST) for the Dead on Tools 250, as this will be the last race before the championship race in Phoenix. Noah Gragson won this race a year ago, while Brandon Jones won there back in the spring. The Truck Series has one race to go, that being the Championship race at Phoenix Raceway on November 4th.