The dreaded ‘Big One’ struck coming to the conclusion of lap 70, with Coughlin getting turned off the front bumper of Snider just after he lost the lead to teammate Enfinger.
At that point, Coughlin spun into the pack and went straight towards the outside SAFER Barrier in the tri-oval, nearly going upside down as his truck landed on top of the front end of Chris Fontaine’s machine.
The ensuing melee also collected Ben Rhodes and Wendell Chavous, with Nemechek narrowly avoiding being collected again to keep his hopes of advancement alive.
After a red flag period of eight minutes and 21 seconds, the field began circulating again, with Enfinger and Bell leading the field back to green with 18 laps to go.
Enfinger escaped quickly with the lead, while Justin Haley found his way back to the back bumper of his teammate Sauter and lined the GMS duo up second and third in the draft behind Enfinger.
All was calm until 10 to go, when the leaders were working lapped traffic and the Sauter-Haley tandem got shuffled out of the lead pack, but they came right back to assume the point briefly with eight to go before a huge run by Bell and Kligerman returned them to the point in turn.
At that time, Sauter tried to tuck back in front of his teammate, but Haley hung the defending champion out on the top lane before a caution with five to go bunched the field up one last time — a spinning Austin Wayne Self and tire debris off turn four the cause for the slowdown.
That set up the final green flag run, which saw Bell leading the field when the race resumed for the last time.
On the restart, Haley and Sauter tried to get a run from behind Bell, but when Haley looked to the outside and expected his teammate to go with him, Sauter hung Haley out to dry in the middle as he tucked in behind Bell down low.
That cost the bottom lane their momentum, however, and saw Kligerman surge past on the outside with help from defending race winner Enfinger coming to the white flag.
Though Bell got back to second with help from teammate Snider, it was all Kligerman out front when the yellow lights illuminated to freeze the field and end the race.
Enfinger crossed the line in fourth ahead of Austin Cindric, while Nemechek may have been the happiest man in Alabama with his sixth-place effort after such a harrowing afternoon.
“I’m excited,” said Nemechek, who advances past the Round of 8 for the first time in his career. “I would have never thought that we would finish sixth after the day we had, but my guys never gave up and that’s all you can ask for as a driver. I never lost faith … this is awesome to be able to advance after the luck we’ve had. We’re looking forward to getting back at it now in Martinsville and making something even bigger happen.”
Career runs for Vinnie Miller and Clay Greenfield saw them finish seventh and eighth, respectively, with Matt Crafton and Tyler Young completing the top 10.
The second round of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series playoffs begins Oct. 28 at Martinsville Speedway.
Full race results can be viewed on the next page…
