MARTINSVILLE, Va. – The theme of Friday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series practice day at Martinsville Speedway was clear: ThorSport Racing has speed and the team is hungry to win.
ThorSport Ford F-150s paced the final two sessions of the day at the half-mile paper clip, with Grant Enfinger’s No. 98 Champion Power Equipment/Curb Records Ford ending the day with the fastest overall lap among the 34 drivers attempting to make the grid for the Alpha Energy Solutions 250.
Enfinger toured the track in 19.921 seconds (95.055 mph) on his mock qualifying run, just edging out teammate Matt Crafton by .003 of a second for top honors on the afternoon.
“Man, this truck feels really good,” said Enfinger. “I like what we’ve got and on our mock run it felt like we had some great speed in it … even as we went more laps I really felt comfortable. I think we’ll have something to say during the race tomorrow.”
Crafton was second-fastest overall with a time of 19.924 seconds in the No. 88 Ideal Door/Menards Ford, leaving him optimistic at a track where he has traditionally run strong and finished second last fall.
“After we gave away the win the last time we raced here, I’m hungry for redemption and Martinsville is the perfect place for it. I love this place, man. We’ve seen some good success at Martinsville and it’s a great track to get our Menards Ford F-150 locked into the playoffs.”
“The key to getting around Martinsville is the restarts, taking care of your equipment and track position. You have to get out front, stay out front and stay out of trouble. We had speed today, so I think we’ll be able to execute tomorrow and do just that.”
Kyle Benjamin was third-fastest overall (19.959/94.874) in his debut for DGR-CROSLEY, followed by Brett Moffitt and Cody Coughlin.
The top three laps of the day were all posted during the third and final hour-long session, while Moffitt and Coughlin ran their best times during the second practice of the day.
Justin Haley led the first round of the day for GMS Racing, posting a best lap of 20.118 seconds (94.125 mph), with Noah Gragson, Crafton, John Hunter Nemechek and Johnny Sauter completing the top five.
In second practice, it was Crafton heading the pack at 20.023 seconds (94.571 mph), ahead of Moffitt, Coughlin, Ben Rhodes and Haley.
Of note, rookie Todd Gilliland was unable to crack the top-10 in any of the three rounds of practice, with his best lap of 20.202 seconds slotting him 12th on the board in the final session of the day. The engine in his No. 4 Toyota Tundra failed during the second practice, forcing the team to install a backup prior to the third practice.
