Photo – Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images
Looking at his 2017 season with ThorSport Racing, 2015 ARCA Racing Series champion, Grant Enfinger is living his dream. Enfinger’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series rookie season has given him the chance to transition into NASCAR’s top-three with a few bumps along the way. But overall, Enfinger is happy with the solid performance of his team.
“Well it’s definitely been a dream come true,” says Grant Enfinger about his 2017 season at ThorSport Racing. “It’s something I’ve wanted for a long time – to be full-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. I feel like everything hasn’t gone as smooth as we had hoped. But, in the grand scheme of things, I think it’s been a pretty solid year at this point. You know a lot of teams have had to transition to the Stage racing, we’ve probably given up a few points there, but we had a lot of good solid finishes as well. Overall, I really like driving these Tundras, I feel like we still have a way to go, but we’ve got eight races to get there.”
This weekend, Enfinger’s focus is on winning TheHouse.com 225 at Chicagoland Speedway tonight, Friday, September 15th at 7:30 pm ET.
“Our number one goal is to get into the playoffs, and that starts tonight,” continues Enfinger. “So we’re basically in a situation where we have to win. Crazy stuff can happen and technically we can get in on points, but our focus is to get a win tonight. It’s not something that’s going to be easy. But I think our guys are up to the task. We’ve been in that situation quite a few times throughout my career, so hopefully, we can get it done tonight.”
In the two Truck Series practice sessions this weekend, Enfinger finished eighth then, sixth in the last session. That’s encouraging for the driver, but he understands where he is and what he needs to pull off an upset win.
“Overall it (practice sessions) seemed decent,” says Enfinger. “I don’t think we were the best truck yesterday, but we were one of the good trucks. We need to be a little bit better. We’re getting a little bit tight off of turn two and we struggled – everybody is struggling – over the big bump there over in turn three and four. I’d like to help that a little bit too, So, if we can help those two parts of the track, I think we’ll be in contention (to win).”
At ThorSport Racing, it seems the communication between teams is where they find a lot of their success. And that communication is important in helping all their teams do well. Should Enfinger win tonight, it would mean his teammate Ben Rhodes may not make the playoffs. But, Enfinger isn’t worried about that, because of the relationship they’ve developed as teammates throughout the season.
“Everybody knows the situation we’re in,” says Enfinger about his teammates at ThorSport Racing. “We talked about our trucks during practice, and as a group, ThorSport Racing does a good job of having the drivers all communicate at the race track, and try to make each of our trucks as good as we can. Once practice is over and we’re in race mode, it’s not like we have any team orders or anything like that. We all try to help each other.”
Looking beyond the season, Enfinger hopes to stay with ThorSport Racing, but for now, his focus is on one race at a time.
“My focus is what’s at hand right now at Chicagoland. Everything is in front of us here tonight. We’ve just got to stay focused and get the job done.”
Watch the Camping World Truck Series in TheHouse.com 225 at Chicagoland Speedway tonight on FOX Sports 1 at 7:30 pm ET.