ROSSBURG, Ohio – A consolation chat from Eldora Speedway owner and three-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart didn’t erase all of the sting from Grant Enfinger’s runner-up by a nose finish in the Eldora Dirt Derby.
Enfinger and Chase Briscoe went side-by-side for nearly the entire final lap with contact coming off of Turn 4 and Briscoe emerging as the winner by 0.038 seconds. Adding additional intrigue, Briscoe and Enfinger were ThorSport teammates for this one with Briscoe making a one-off start in the No. 27 Ford.
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“Man, that was close,” Enfinger said when shown the replay by FS1’s Kenny Wallace on pit road. “By a bumper. It’s a shame. It’s a heartbreaker here but really proud of the effort of these guys.”
For his part, the 33-year-old Alabama native said there is not much if anything he would have changed about how he approached those last two laps.
“I feel like we had the position on him,” Enfinger said. “We really had equal trucks. Thought I had the spot on him in (Turns) 3 and 4. He kind of used us up down there but it wasn’t nothing dirty. It was the same thing I would have done to him when it’s the last lap at Eldora for a really, really big race.
“… Hindsight is 20-20. I feel like I kind of nailed the restart getting up. Feel like I had the preferred line in the middle of the track. he had the preferred line on exit. I think I was going to beat him coming to the line and he just kind of swiped us a bit.”
Briscoe enjoyed racing against his teammate in the NASCAR Overtime finish and knew that Enfinger would be stiff competition on the final restart since he rarely spins his tires.
“Me and Grant ran like an inch apart from each other without touching for a lap and seventh-eighths,” Briscoe said. “Coming to the line I knew if I didn’t go all the way to the top, I probably wasn’t going to win.
“It wouldn’t have been right for me or Grant, I don’t think, if I had lifted and raced him differently. We both did it clean and I definitely didn’t want to have contact with him.”
The runner-up result was Enfinger’s best finish of 2018 and his third straight top-eight finish. That leaves Enfinger fourth in the standings and one of three winless drivers in the provisional playoff field with three races to go in the regular season. He has a 120-point lead on the first driver sitting on the outside of the playoff field (teammate Myatt Snider). Yet, Enfinger is taking nothing for granted.
“I don’t think we are solid at all,” Enfinger said of his playoff positioning leaving Eldora. “I want a win for this 98 team to lock us in. Yeah, it was a good points night but with three races left anything can happen.”