Nick Sanchez never led in the first 125 laps of Friday's North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but he was out front when it mattered most.
Sanchez took the lead on Lap 126 after the race's final restart, then held off Corey Heim for the last nine laps to capture his second career NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series win and his first at Charlotte.
Heim won Stages 1 and 2 en route to leading a race-high 72 of 134 laps, but issues with the jack on his final pit stop forced Heim to have to carve his way to the front. He initially finished the night one position shy of his fourth victory of the year, but Heim was disqualified shortly after the race's conclusion due to having three loose lug nuts in post-race inspection.
Stewart Friesen was promoted to second, his best result of the year. Grant Enfinger, Matt Mills and Ben Rhodes completed the top five with Jake Garcia sixth and Kaden Honeycutt seventh. Connor Mosack, Dean Thompson and Christian Eckes rounded out the top 10.
Eckes sustained damage in Friday's practice session and started 35th due to not posting a qualifying time, but he found himself in the lead on the race's final restart. Worn tires were no match for the trucks behind Eckes, though. Eckes led 37 laps Friday before having to settle for 10th.
Sanchez's victory earned the second-year Truck Series driver a $50,000 bonus for capturing the first leg of the series' Triple Truck Challenge.
NICK SANCHEZ, NO. 2 REV RACING CHEVROLET (RACE WINNER): "We started off the race, I don't want to say horrible, but we were horrible. Last year I was one of the fastest trucks and tonight, I was pretty close to the same, but we started off wrecking loose. We drove from like 23rd to ninth, I don't know if I had anything for (Heim, if he was still out front), but I was a second- or third-place truck. Good track position, fresh tires and some adjustments just fixed me up. We had a tight race with (Heim) obviously, but mirror driving was the name of the game."
STEWART FRIESEN, NO. 52 HALMAR FRIESEN RACING TOYOTA (RUNNER-UP): "I'm proud of the whole Halmar Friesen team. These guys have been working really, really hard. We've obviously got some work to do on our body stuff. It's tough. We're learning as we go. We're good in clean air, obviously, we qualify good, we just can't run good in the pack. I'm just proud of my team. We're a small group compared to most, but we're learning pit stop to pit stop. We made some good calls to get this thing fightable at the end."
