Grant Enfinger, driver of the No. 98 Champion Power Equipment Ford for ThorSport Racing in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series is on pace to have a career year. Through the first half of the season, he has been near or on top of the points standings, swapping the lead back and forth. Lately, he has maintained the summit spot based off some very consistent runs week in and week out, holding a 480 to 426 point lead over second.
“We’re consistently good, we consistently unload with a top-five caliber Ford F-150 most weekends,” says Enfinger.
Through twelve races in 2019, Grant has earned one pole, six top-fives, and ten top-tens. Career bests in those categories for a full season are one pole, nine top-fives, and 15 top-tens. He has 11 more races to add to those numbers following the Camping World 225 at Chicagoland Speedway. The No. 98 qualified fifth and led 46 laps in the first two stages before getting shuffled back and an accident relegated him to 16th, two laps down in the final finishing order.
“We just haven’t had a full race play out the way we need it to for a win,” Enfinger continues, “Still, we’ve had a solid year, very proud of that effort, very proud of the guys that have been working on this stuff. We’ve got really good Ford F-150s each and every week.”
The only thing missing is the trips to victory lane but when you are running in the top-five on a weekly basis, it is going to happen soon rather than later.
“We got a goose egg in the win column,” says Enfinger after qualifying for the Camping World 225 at Chicagoland Speedway. “So that’s definitely first and foremost in our minds and we want to change that this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway. Feel like we’ve had probably three or four opportunities where we coulda, woulda, shoulda if the stars would’ve lined up, we could have gotten some wins.”
When that win comes, Grant Enfinger doesn’t see it ending there as the ultimate goal is the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Championship.
“I truly feel like we can not only be a championship contender, I feel like we can be a championship favorite if we hit our stride when we need to,” explains Enfinger. “And we’ve steadily been gaining on it really from this time last year to where we’re at right now. This team is together, the core group of guys are still here that bought in, they believe in me, I believe in them. Got a lot of confidence in my crew chief Jeff Hensley. Everything is clicking the way we need it to, its just a matter of having everything lining up and being there when it counts.”
The NASCAR Gander Outdoor Truck Series schedule will give the No. 98 team six more opportunities before the playoffs begin, starting with Kentucky on Thursday, July 7th.