Nick Sanchez Nabs A Crash Marred NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Fresh From Florida 250

Daytona, FL. (February 16th, 2024)

It’s the last lap of the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Fresh From Florida 250. The field had finally taken the white flag in the second overtime and the race was up for grabs. Then what seemed like the inevitable happened, a massive high flying pile up on the back straight in what would be a record setting twelfth incident of the race. Nick Sanchez, Corey Heim and Rajah Caruth managed to barely escape the carnage at the famed Daytona International Speedway with Sanchez leading the way to capture his first race win of his career.

Indeed the race saw many wrecks with half of it run under caution. Lap six saw the first incident happen. As the field was running down the back stretch Christian Eckes in his Chevrolet shoved three time series champion Matt Crafton’s Ford into the Ford driven by Layne Riggs. The ensuing wreck ended the day for Ty Dillon, Thad Moffitt as well as Jake Garcia. Dillon would relate “Chaos, a lot of craziness, everybody was just kind of all over the place. I’ve never seen anything look like that from behind the wheel four laps into a race.” Also caught up in the crash was race winner Nick Sanchez, but luckily enough he was able to continue on.

It seemed as though every favorite was involved in one incident or another. Even defending series champion Ben Rhodes was caught up in the action. On lap 68 Tyler Ankum slammed into the door of Rhodes with his Ford. Rhodes made it back to the pits with a flat tire but as he left the pits he spun out and crashed as the pack attempted to dodge his stricken Ford. Not too much longer after that incident, Johnny Sauter’s night was done as well as he was caught in a four truck crash even though he had led twenty four of the hundred lap race.

But the most dramatic incident of the night came after what was left of the field took the white flag. Rajah Caruth in the fourth spot moved up the track and turned Jack Wood in his Chevrolet directly into the path of the field. Then the Chevrolet of Daniel Dye and the Toyota of Taylor Gray tangled which launched Gray into the air with his truck flipping and eventually landing on its wheels right into the wreckage of the rest of the field. While all this was happening Sanchez and second place Corey Heim got away unscathed. Trailing behind them was Caruth for third place.

After the race Sanchez said “It’s huge. We spent all of last year trying to get a win. I knew coming into this year I knew that I had to, right? What better race than to do it than Daytona? Honestly, out of every race, if I was going to do it, this would have been the last one I expected, but happy to do it. It’s awesome. I just knew I had to lead at the white flag, because they were probably going to wreck. I’m glad they wrecked if everyone is OK. I’m just happy. It’s huge. Obviously, we have a new technical partner in Spire Motorsports, our first race with them. What a better way to start a partnership. Gainbridge has stuck with me. They were winless last year. They all deserve it, and they’re going to celebrate with me.”