Bearden Breakdown: JAG Metals 350

By Aaron Bearden, Motorsports Editor

Post-race review and analysis from the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. 

Who Won? 

Justin Haley. He earned his second surprise win of the playoffs to punch his ticket to the Championship 4.

Who Claimed the Stages?

Haley and Myatt Snider. The pair each won their first stages of 2018 in a caution-filled 70 laps.

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A familiar story

For the second time in the past five Truck Series races, Kyle Busch Motorsports rookie Todd Gilliland led the field to the white flag – his first victory in sight.

Once again Justin Haley improbably prevailed.

Gilliland’s No. 4 team appeared to have executed a perfect race Friday’s 147-lapper, positioning the 18-year-old to battle for his first Truck Series victory in the race’s final stage. The North Carolinian led a race-high 60 laps, survived the final set of green flag pit stops without any glaring issues and held a comfortable lead over Haley with the laps winding down.

Entering the final lap, Gilliland appeared to have the race in control. Nothing save for an unexpected issue would keep him from a breakout win.

Then, the unthinkable. Gilliland slowed off of Turn 2, allowing Haley to power by for his third win of 2018.

The culprit? Low fuel. Gilliland believed he was good to the finish, but a sputter coming to the white flag indicated that he didn’t have enough fuel to go the distance.

After a dominant Stage 3 effort, Gilliland limped through the final lap with no power. He crossed the line fourth, pulled down into his pit stall and pounded his truck in frustration as the emotion of the moment began to set in. Father David Gilliland quickly found his son and embraced him in a comforting hug, but the sting of another heartbreaking loss still shone through.

“Just heartbreak and kind of disbelief,” Gilliland said of his emotions. “You’re a half-lap away from my first win at a place like this that’s so special and after everything we did today coming from the back, I felt like we executed a perfect race honestly.

“Besides lacking a little bit of speed to beat some of those guys straight up. With what our cards were dealt for the race, we ran 100 percent perfect I felt like minus the last half-lap.”

Friday night wasn’t the first time Gilliland had felt the stinging disappointment of a loss. Just two months ago the Toyota prospect had led the field on the final lap at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, a debut triumph within sight.

That day a last-corner crash with teammate Noah Gragson cost Gilliland the celebration of a race win. For such heartbreak to come a second time was a disappointment the young star could only classify as “horrible.”

“I’m incredibly disappointed, upset with myself and I still feel like we could have been faster if I didn’t wreck in qualifying,” he said. “There’s so many things. We win and lose as a team.”

Gilliland’s heartbreak proved to be another season-boosting gift for Haley and GMS Racing.

In August the crash between KBM teammates allowed third-place Haley to sneak by for his second-career win and a spot in the Round of 6. Gilliland’s fuel issues gave another win to Haley on Friday, pushing him through to the Championship 4.

“I’m speechless,” Haley said afterward. “This is an opportunity of a lifetime to be able to run for a championship with GMS Racing.”

Haley entered the 2018 playoffs as a dark horse, scraping by on points over the spring and early summer before securing a playoff position with a win at Gateway Motorsports Park.

The 19-year-old made the field of eight, but he sat below the cutoff at the beginning of both preliminary rounds. Without Gilliland’s issues, Haley would have been at risk of elimination in either round. But by being in position to capitalize on KBM’s mistakes, the Hoosier turned his season around with a pair of playoff-advancing victories that will allow him to battle teammate Johnny Sauter and two others for a title at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“My (No.) 24 Fraternal Order of Eagles guys are unbelievable and we stick with each other no matter what,” Haley said. “They gave me a hot rod tonight and I’m so thankful to be a part of the team. We’ve got the momentum and this team is peaking at the right time. The dark horse is coming.”

Gilliland can take pride in his No. 4 Toyota’s speed in recent weeks, and could potentially use Haley’s success as an example of his potential future.

Haley showed promise in 2017, but went winless and missed the playoffs after falling into an early hole in the points due to his age preventing him from starting a couple of the season’s early races.

The same can be said of Gilliland through his rookie season to date. He failed to crack the postseason field after missing a handful of early races due to age, but has shown enough speed to run with the playoff contenders throughout the season.

In many ways the tales of Haley and Gilliland appear parallel. But Gilliland is intent to change one aspect of the pair’s similar beginnings – he feels he needs to win.

“Absolutely for the competition as well as myself,” Gilliland said. “It’s been a long time since I won a race. In that mindset, I guess. Once I win one truck race, you see you can do it and win another. Same with every series.”

Pit road proves costly again for Stewart Friesen

Stewart Friesen could easily be a two-time winner at Texas this season. He fell just short of a race win to Sauter in June and led in Stage 3 on Friday. But a late pit road miscue left the dirt modified ace winless leaving the Lone Star State.

Friesen led 12 laps from third on the grid and found himself at the front of the field during the final stage of Friday’s JAG Metals 350. The No. 52 Halmar Friesen Racing team needed only to conquer one of their biggest challenges — green-flag pit stops — to contend for their first Truck Series victory.

Unfortunately for Friesen, a win wasn’t meant to be. When the Canadian came to pit road for his final stop on Lap 115, an outside pass of the lapped Austin Wayne Self left him with an awkward entry to the pit lane. Friesen entered pit road at the last moment, and in doing so got caught speeding in the opening pit sector.

Tough one for the 52 truck there #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/MWxoqmY8jg

— Ben Kennedy (@BenKennedy33) November 3, 2018

The subsequent pass-thru penalty from NASCAR left Friesen 12th after the final round of pit stops. A caution in the final 25 laps could have given the 35-year-old a renewed chance to win, but the yellow flag never waved in Stage 3.

Friesen battled back through the field, but ran out of time before he could get anywhere near contention. The veteran took the checkered flag in eighth.

“Missed the win tonight by .22 mph coming onto pit road after some confusion on the radio,” Friesen said afterward. “Thanks to everyone that has busted their ass to build me fast trucks and Halmar for the support to live my dream and compete at this level.

“When it’s meant to be, it will be.”

Phoenix storylines set

Next weekend’s race at ISM Raceway will be a tale of three pairs for the Truck Series playoff contenders.

The only comfortable drivers will be Sauter and Haley. The GMS Racing teammates are each guaranteed a spot in the Championship 4, so they can enter the new-look Arizona oval knowing their result in Phoenix won’t matter in the scheme of things.

Sitting on the right side of the bubble on points are Toyota’s Brett Moffitt and Noah Gragson.

Moffitt surged to his second top-three finish of the round in Texas, passing the slowed Gilliland in the closing moments to deliver a third-place performance in Hattori Racing’s first race with the crate NT1 motor.

The Iowan’s consistency has him sitting 22 points clear of the cutoff line heading to Phoenix. Another top five should be enough to get him to the final round, but Moffitt believes his team needs to step up if they hope to secure their first Truck title.

“It certainly helps to run good, but when we’re in the Playoffs like this, we need to get back to victory lane,” he said. “That would be the most important thing to do. I thought we executed Martinsville very well from where we qualified to finishing second.

“I thought tonight we did a better job at getting some stage points and being right there with the competition and fortunately things ended the way they did for the Playoff guys that ran out of fuel. That helped, but we still need to get a little bit better.”

Gragson’s playoff run hasn’t gone as smooth, but a healthy playoff point advantage has helped the Nevadan stay clear of the cut line despite the surprise winners in each round.

The KBM sophomore is in the Championship 4 by 18 points heading into the final race of the Round of 6, despite a 10th-place struggle after sustaining early damage in Texas.

A decent run at Phoenix will likely be enough to keep Gragson’s playoff push alive to Homestead, but he knows his No. 18 team will need to make dramatic improvements to their 11.4 average finish through the postseason to date if they hope to hoist the trophy at season’s end.

“I’m going to work my ass off this week and next week and do whatever we have to do,” he said. “This is unacceptable and we just have to get out there in Phoenix so we can get to Homestead.”

On the opposite side of the cutoff are Grant Enfinger and Matt Crafton. The ThorSport Racing pair each sit well behind the playoff cutline, and Haley’s win means they’ll likely need a victory in Arizona if either veteran hopes to keep their title bid alive.

Enfinger suffered late heartbreak in Texas, running out of fuel on the final lap and dropping from a top-five to 12th at the checkered flag. The late drop pushed Enfinger 18 points behind Gragson for the final spot on points, effectively relegating him to must-win territory if he can’t close the gap early on with stage points next weekend.

“I feel like we might’ve had one of the best trucks here, and we just didn’t take advantage of it,” Enfinger said. “We were in position to run second or third there at the end and we just ran out of gas. It’s not really a testament to our entire year. We’ll have to go to Phoenix and win the race.”

A two-time Truck Series champion, Crafton has struggled to find winning pace this season in his No 88 Ford. The 19-year veteran has gone winless and finished no better than third in the past 16 races.

Consistency has been enough to push Crafton through to the penultimate round of the playoffs, but with a 23-point deficit to Gragson he’ll likely need to break through for a win to keep his postseason bid alive to the season finale.

Other Notes

• Austin Hill and Young’s Motorsports put together arguably their best run to date in Texas. Hill was a consistent presence in the top 10 throughout the day, and after a successful final pit stop the Georgian rose to tally a fifth-place finish at race’s end. The result was Hill’s first top-five in 49 starts.
• Harrison Burton and Tyler Dippel made their 1.5-mile oval Truck debuts on Friday, and their performances were largely successful. Burton put together a strong sixth-place run for KBM, while Dippel tallied stage points en-route to 14th with GMS Racing.
• Ben Rhodes’ quiet second-place run continued a strong streak for the Kentuckian. Rhodes has averaged a finish of 7.57 in his past seven starts – a run that would be more notable if the two subpar runs — 14th at Canada and 16th at Talladega — hadn’t come in the Round of 8 and resulted in his playoff elimination.
• Look beyond the top 10 on the race results and you’ll find Brennan Poole in 15th. The Texan made his first NASCAR start of the year at his home track, competing for NextGen Motorsports. Poole’s only other notable appearances this year have come in a May Xfinity test at Charlotte Motor Speedway with GMS Racing and as a relief driver for Natalie Decker in the June ARCA race at Pocono Raceway.