BROOKLYN, Mich. — What a thrilling finish! Darrell Wallace Jr. passed Christopher Bell to take the checkered flag in the LTi Printing 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race on Saturday at Michigan International Speedway. It was his sixth victory in the truck series.
There were seven lead changes among seven drivers in Saturday’s 100-lap race. The average speed during the race was 126.493 mph. The race lasted one hour, 34 minutes and 52 seconds from start to finish.
“We’re just pumped up…it’s a sweet victory,” Wallace said during the post-race press conference. “It’s such a huge moment, for not only myself, but everybody involved. We got a lot of good things working for the team. I knew those last laps were going to be hectic. This is a product of having the truck series come to Michigan and put on a great race.”
Earlier this year, Wallace lost his Xfinity series contact with Roush Fenway Racing due to a lack of sponsorship. Then, last week a big change in direction. He signed a one-race deal to drive the No. 99 MDM Motorsports Chevrolet in the NASCAR Camping World Truck series.
“I met the team at Pocono. We talked about it for two to three weeks. For it to come together so fast it adds to that sweet victory. I’m pretty confident this has helped a good amount. Hopefully this opens up doors for more truck races.”
Kyle Busch won the first two stages of the races. He ended up finishing in third after all was said and done. Busch led 47 laps of the 100.
Christopher Bell finished second and leads in driver points standings with 572. Johnny Sauter is second with 535 points and Matt Crafton rounds out the top three with 510 points.
“Bubba killed it, we came here specially to see him,” said racing fan Kyle Worgan. “He came through and he finished solid. We’ve got to build a NASCAR raceway in Toronto. That’s what we’ve got to do.”
His friend, George Parry, added: “They made a big push here at the end. He held on and it was a great finish. It’s my first time ever seeing a NASCAR race. It blew my mind. I can’t imagine how loud it was. The experience was amazing.”
Cautions: John Nemechek spun out and hit the wall early on lap six to bring out the first caution of the race. It lasted for four laps. The second caution from laps 32-36 was for end of stage one. Jordan Anderson got stuck in corner of the backstretch to bring out the third caution on lap 53. The fourth caution was laps 62-65 for the conclusion of stage two.
The only accident happened on lap 67. Four cars collided on the frontstretch including Cody Coughlin, Darrell Wallace Jr., Ben Rhodes, and Kyle Busch. The caution lasted for six laps.
“I enjoyed it a lot, I like trucks,” said attendee Alex Spees from Battle Creek. “I like fast trucks all of the time.”
His friend, Carly Travis, added: “It’s a good experience. People can bring their families and watch it. It’s a beautiful track out here. We had amazing weather today.”
Matt Crafton was the Keystone Light pole winner. He had a lap time of 39.076 seconds at 184.256 mph. Crafton finished in 6th position in Saturday’s Lit Printing 200.
The evening wrapped up with concerts by country music duos LOCASH and Thompson Square. All attendees who had a Sunday race ticket were allowed to watch for free.
“I thought it was great, there was a lot of excitement out there,” said attendee Nadia Barey. “I thought the drivers did a really great job keeping it together. There were a lot of cautions. A good time for everybody. I’ve been to the Daytona 500 and that’s the only race I’ve been to.”
Next up: The NASCAR Camping World Truck series will head to Bristol for an evening race on Wednesday at 8 p.m ET.
