If you didn’t watch Friday night’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Darlington, then you missed out on what Michael Waltrip called “incredible driving.” He really isn’t wrong, either Up until the final laps of regulation, this truck race had some excellent driving all over the field.
There were some Cup Series guys in this race. William Byron, Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain, and Corey LaJoie all tried their hands at the trucks. However, this race was not going to be won by a Cup guy.
With 13 laps to go, the race restarted with Christian Eckes and Hailie Deegan on the front row. Deegan was on older tires and was trying to hold on as best she could. Then we started to see saves, moves up the wall to pass multiple drivers, and even four-wide at Darlington. Get this, no one wrecked! This is more than two minutes of the best Truck Series racing you will see.
Don’t take it from me, take it from Michael Waltrip himself.
That move up the wall by Rajah Caruth was the move of the race. He was picking up a half second on the leaders Eckes and Byron. By the time he got ono Byron’s rear, a caution came out and ruined it all.
Caruth went on to start behind Byron and the Cup Series driver just missed his shift. It caused both drivers to fall back to avoid piling up 15 cars. To their credit, they were able to get it done.
Michael Waltrip is right, that was incredible
If you watch the Craftsman Truck Series week in and out, you know how many wrecks there can be. These are young drivers honing their skills mixed in with a bunch of veterans who are used to doing things a certain way.
When you get that mix, things get wild. However, it also gives you great moments like Michael Waltrip pointed out. With all of the Cup Series drivers in this race, it was really Eckes and Caruth that shined through it all.
While Byron and Caurth slipped to P4 and P6, respectively, Eckes was able to come out on top. His No. 19 Chevy was just too good for this field to catch up. Caruth had a chance, but he needed the race to finish under green and not go to overtime.
Michael Waltrip sure did get excited. And honestly, I was out of my seat watching the final restarts of this race. Nothing like some solid truckin’.
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