With the Monster Energy Cup Series taking the weekend off, the Gander Outdoors Truck Series does a little Sunday racing when they travel north of the border to Toronto and the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park for the Chevrolet Silverado 250.
Last week the Truck Series opened their 2019 playoff season with a win by Brett Moffitt. This week playoffs drivers Ross Chastain, Stewart Friesen, Grant Enfinger, Matt Crafton, Johnny Sauter, Austin Hill, and Tyler Ankrum are hoping that they can be the one to join Moffit in round two of the playoffs.
Seven of the 29 drivers in the race are Canadian born racers; it is the largest number of Canadians in the field of a NASCAR race.
After crashes in practice, Stewart Friesen and Sheldon Creed had to move to backup trucks. Friesen and Creed will have to start the race from the back of the field.
Jordan Anderson also had a bad crash but he has no backup truck and the crew had to do some quick work to get the truck ready to race.
The course at Motorsport Park is a two and a half mile road course.
After two rounds of group qualifying Brett Moffitt puts his number 24 truck on the pole for the second week in a row. Todd Gilliland will start alongside Moffitt on the front row.
Stages one and two of the race are only 20 laps each with stage three lasting 24 laps.
Brett Moffitt brings the field down for the green flag start of the only road course race in the Truck Series and jumjjps out in front for the lead.
With none of the previous winners in today’s race, there will be seven different winners in seven years at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park for the Truck Series.
Brett Moffitt leads the first lap with Todd Gilliland right behind him less than a quarter of a second back.
Lap four, after starting at the back of the field Stewart Friesen and Sheldon Creed have moved into the top 20. Brett Moffitt continues to lead the race by less than half second lead on Todd Gilliland.
Lap seven, Brett Moffitt has pulled out to a lead of over two and a half seconds on Todd Gilliland with watermelon man Ross Chastain in third.
Raphael Lessard makes an off road excursion but holds on to the truck and gets back on the track with no caution flag.
Bobby Reuse spins out but stays off the wall and the track stays green.
Halfway through stage one – 10 to go – Brett Moffitt has led every lap and has pulled out to a commanding lead over Todd Gilliland.
Lap 12, Brett Moffitt now has a lead of over four seconds on Todd Gilliland with 22 trucks on the lead lap.
Todd Gilliland spins out and makes contact with the wall. The track stays green.
Lap 13, Brett Moffitt continues to lead the race with Ross Chastain in second over 10 seconds back.
Lap 14, Alex Tagiani’s team brings hin down pit road for a green flag pit stop.
After his spin out Todd Gilliland made a pit stop and was charged with having an uncontrolled tire.
A number of drivers are short pitting and coming down pit road for service before the end of the stage.
Five laps to go in stage one, Brett Moffitt has a lead of over 13 seconds on Ross Chastain.
Johnny Sauter makes contact with Grant Enfinger causing Enfinger to spin out but the track stays green.
Two laps to go in stage one, the top eight drivers are the eight drivers in the playoffs with points leader and pole sitter Brett Moffit leading the way by nearly 15 seconds over Ross Chastian.
Jason White spins out after making contact with Tyler Ankrum, but the track stays green.
After leading every lap Brett Moffitt wins stage one by over 16 seconds in front of Ross Chastain for his fourth stage win of the season.
The top 10 at the end of stage one:
Brett Moffitt
Ross Chastain
Austin Hill
Tyler Ankrum
Matt Crafton
Johnny Sauter
Stewart Friesen
Grant Enfinger
Austin Wayne Self
DJ Kennington
With the top five staying out on the track, Alex Tagliani and Ben Rhodes bring the field down for the green flag start of stage two on lap 25 with Ben Rhodes getting his number 99 out in front for the lead.
Matt Crafton had to restart the race from the back of the field after leaving pit road with equipment.
Lap 27, Ben Rhodes has a lead of over half a second on Sheldon Creed with Brett Moffitt in third after restarting the race in sixth place.
Dan Corcoan spins out and hits the wall bringing out the caution flag on lap 30.
Several drivers come down pit road for service including the leaders.
After staying out, Ross Chastain brings the field down for the green flag restart 33 but it is Austin Hill that gets out in front for the lead. Ross Chastain passes Austin Hill to retake the lead with Tyler Ankrum in third.
Lap 35, Ross Chastain has pulled out to a lead of nearly two seconds on Austin Hill.
With three laps remaining in stage two, Todd Gilliland brings his truck down pit road for some short pitting.
Ross Chastain wins stage two with a three second lead on Austin Hill for his fifth stage win of the season.
The top 10 at the end of stage two:
Ross Chastain
Austin Hill
Tyler Ankrum
Grant Enfinger
Johnny Sauter
Matt Crafton
Brett Moffitt
Alex Tagliani
Ben Rhodes
Harrison Burton
Austin Hill wins the race off of pit road but not all of the drivers came down pit road.
Brett Moffitt brings the field down for the green flag start of stage three on lap 44 with Moffitt getting out in front of Alex Tagliani for the lead. Dylan Lupton spins out but stays off the wall and the track stays green.
Lap 45, Brett Moffitt has already pulled out to a lead of over a second on Alex Tagliani.
The eight playoff drivers are in the top 15 on the track.
Lap 46, Brett Moffitt is now over two seconds out in front of Alex Tagliani.
With 16 laps remaining in the race, Brett Moffitt has a lead of over three seconds on Alex Tagliani. There are 21 trucks on the lead lap.
Lap 50, Brett Moffitt has led over half of the race and currently has a lead of over three seconds on Alex Tagliani with Ben Rhodes in third over four seconds back.
Thirteen to go, Brett Moffitt’s lead is now over four seconds ahead of Alex Tagliani.
Twelve to go, Todd Gilliland brings his truck down pit road with some kind of an engine issue; the crew has the hood up trying to fix the issue.
Ten to go, Brett Moffitt has a lead of nearly four and a half seconds on Alex Tagliani; Ben Rhodes, Harrison Burton, and Stewart Friesen round out the top five.
With eight laps remaining in the race, Brett Moffit is driving away with it, he has a lead of over five seconds on Alex Tagliani.
Five to go, Brett Moffitt has a lead of over five seconds on Alex Tagliani as the laps count down. There are 19 trucks on the lead lap.
Harrison Burton and Stewart Friesen get off of the track, but they recover and the track stays green.
Three to go, Alex Tagliani has closed the gap on leader Brett Moffitt to under four seconds.
Harrison Burton brings his smoking car down pit road with a possible blown engine.
Brett Moffitt takes the white flag with a lead of nearly four seconds on Alex Tagliani.
For the second week in a row, Brett Moffitt goes from the pole to win the race. Leading some 45 of the 64 laps, Moffitt had a dominating win over the field for his second playoff win in two races.
The results of the Chevrolet Silverado 250:
Brett Moffitt
Alex Tagliani
Ben Rhodes
Sheldon Creed
Austin Hill
Johnny Sauter
Stewart Friesen
Ross Chastain
Tyler Ankrum
Raphael Lessard
Matt Crafton
Gary Klutt
Grant Enfinger
Austin Wayne Self
DJ Kennington
Jordan Anderson
Gus Dean
Todd Gilliland
Dylan Lupton
Jason White
Harrison Burton
Bobby Reuse
Jennifer Jo Cobb
Norm Benning
Roger Reuse
Josh Reaume
Dan Cocoran
Greg Rayl
Ray Ciccarelli
After winning the first two races in the first round of the playoffs, Brett Moffitt has a 22 point lead on second place driver Ross Chastain.