Baldwin’s Grant Enfinger wins Atlanta Truck race on last-lap pass

Fairhope native finished with second victory of 2020

By Don Coble
Posted 6/8/20

ATLANTA - Just like he’s done throughout his racing career, Grant Enfinger reached a little deeper to find the speed and nerve he needed for the final two laps of the 2020 NASCAR …

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Baldwin’s Grant Enfinger wins Atlanta Truck race on last-lap pass

Fairhope native finished with second victory of 2020

Posted

ATLANTA - Just like he’s done throughout his racing career, Grant Enfinger reached a little deeper to find the speed and nerve he needed for the final two laps of the 2020 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series race at the Atlanta Motor Speedway June 6.

The 35-year-old from Fairhope moved up three spots to fifth when trucks restarting ahead of him had to serve pit road penalties ahead of a two-lap shootout in overtime.

From there, Enfinger did the rest. He jumped second place at the exit of the second turn on the first lap. He got beside Austin Hill’s Toyota for more than a lap before finally pulling away in the fourth turn coming to the checkered flag.

Not only did Enfinger give Ford its first win at the 1.54-mile quad-oval in truck-racing history, sandwiched with his season-open victory at the Daytona International Speedway, he now has two victories in four starts this year.

“You just keep on truckin’. You keep digging,” he said.

Enfinger has worked for 13 years to build a career in NASCAR. He started with one car – two used Fords once driven by Carl Edwards – to make selected starts in the ARCA Menard Series.

His first ARCA victory came at his home track, the Mobile International Speedway, in 2013. He won 16 times in his ARCA career, including the 2015 series championship, to earn a ride one of Duke and Rhonda Thorson’s Fords for ThorSport Racing.

Saturday’s truck victory was his fourth in 87 starts.

“I’ve been beating my head for a long time,” he said. Enfinger was credited with leading seven of 136 laps, including the final two.

“We were having trouble on pit road getting boxed in,” he said. “You wanted to restart on the bottom, but not back in fifth. On the restart, we’ve always had a good launch. I got to second relatively easy. Austin went to the bottom and I kept my momentum up. He was trying to block the bottom, so I decided to try the middle in [Turns] 3 and 4.”

Enfinger kept his truck pinned against Hill’s in the turns to keep him from sweeping wide to keep his momentum on the straightaways.

“I was surprised to hear Ford had never won a truck race at Atlanta,” Enfinger said. “That’s something to be proud of. And the win at Daytona was Ford’s 100th in the series.”

Enfinger’s next start was set for Wednesday, June 10 at the Martinsville Speedway.

On June 21, Enfinger and his team return to Alabama for a run at the FOX GEICO 500 on the Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega. Chase Elliott won last the event year.