RELATED: Texas race results | Truck Series Chase Grid
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Spencer Gallagher led 88 laps in Friday night's Striping Technology 350 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, but a slow pit stop with less than 25 laps remaining sealed the GMS driver's fate.
Instead of contending for a win in the closing laps at Texas Motor Speedway, Gallagher found himself trying to work his way back through traffic after falling from first to seventh during the third and final caution period of the night.
At the checkered flag, the 26-year-old was still seventh. Teammate Johnny Sauter won the event, his second in a row. It was the third straight victory for GMS -- Grant Enfinger had started the roll with a victory two weeks ago at Talladega Superspeedway.
To see a potential victory slip from his grasp was more than somewhat disappointing.
"Kind of? (Expletive) kind of," Gallagher said. "It's the most disappointed I've ever been. Stupid to lose this race.
"We did not 'not' win this race, we lost it. But hey, three in a row for GMS, baby."
Gallagher's biggest hurdle didn't come on the track but on pit road where he lost positions each time the field pitted -- there were only three cautions, each brought on by the expiration of the Caution Clock.
The first two times he quickly showed just how fast the blue No. 23 Chevrolet was, passing almost at will. But a short, 18-lap run to the checkered after the final stop left him little time or opportunity to advance.
Gallagher said he hadn't been told the specifics of the final stop and what caused the loss of significant track position.
"I couldn't tell you, honestly," he said. "We just lost spots. I wish there was some secret thing I could tell you that we had an issue with this or that, but it was kind of cut and dried. Lead, come in, lose spots. Lead, come in, lose spots."
Gallagher started on the pole, ahead of the six Chase drivers and everyone else.
He led the first 40 laps before the caution clock brought everyone to pit road. Daniel Hemric (Brad Keselowski Racing) was first out of the pits and led 35 laps before Gallagher swept back into the lead.
Eight laps later, the Caution Clock expired again, and once again Gallagher saw his advantage vanish, restarting second alongside Hemric. Four laps later, he was once again out front.
"I'm so proud of these guys, the truck they put together," Gallagher said. "Off the truck, we knew it was something special, we thought it was, anyway. And we got confirmation of it in the race.
"It started off a little slow frankly, slower than I'd like. Whenever you saw me going for the top, that's when it finally ... just all of a sudden we would level off and (everyone else) would keep dropping. That's where you'd see us get big leads. From the end of a run on, this thing was monstrous. Absolutely monstrous."
It was the third time this season that a Camping World Truck Series race was slowed by only three cautions, and the lack of yellow flags caught most drivers by surprise. Especially since the event was the second of the Round of 6, with the top four after next week's race at Phoenix determining the Championship 4.
"It was a real green race; I honestly wasn't expecting that," Gallagher said. "I thought people would be getting crazy, fighting hard. But this place is three lanes wide from the start and that definitely helps when people can go somewhere and don't have one groove.
"When people get locked into one groove, that's when stupid stuff happens, that's when people start getting ants in their pants. It's spacious. Someone can at least try something different. They tend to be less idiots."
Two-time series champion Matt Crafton (ThorSport Racing) finished second, with Hemric and teammate Tyler Reddick third and fourth. Daniel Suarez (Kyle Busch Motorsports) rounded out the top five.
Sauter, Crafton, William Byron (sixth) and Christopher Bell (11th) were the top four Chase drivers. Chase contenders Ben Kennedy finished 13th while Timothy Peters was 14th.