Austin Hill wins inaugural Truck race at Knoxville

It took four overtime attempts, but Austin Hill was victorious in Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race on the dirt at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway.

Hill had already clinched a Truck playoff spot on points, but now has his first win of the season.

The overtime period began with the night’s biggest incident – a Talladega-style “Big One” that swept into Turn 1 and involved 16 Trucks. Cup full-timer Chase Briscoe, sprint car legend Donny Schatz, and reigning Truck champion Sheldon Creed were among those eliminated in the incident.

Two more crashes ended the second and third overtime attempt. But just before the caution came out on the third attempt, Hill was credited with being ahead of Chandler Smith for the lead.

That gave Hill the all-important inside lane on the final restart. Hill made it count and quickly pulled away before beating Smith to the checkered flag by 1.2 seconds.

Grant Enfinger finished third. Todd Gilliland finished fourth. Pole sitter Derek Kraus finished fifth.

In all, the caution flag flew nine times in the final 89 laps (60 laps in the final stage and 29 laps of overtime), giving a disjointed finish to the inaugural Truck race at the “Sprint Car Capital of the World.”

Stewart and Jessica Friesen became the first husband-wife duo to compete in the same NASCAR national series race since Elton Sawyer and Patty Moise in an 1998 Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

But the couple, well-versed in dirt track racing, had mixed fortunes. Both drivers were involved in at least two incidents. Jessica wound up finishing 26th, Stewart 27th.

WHO HAD A GOOD RACE: Chandler Smith lost out after leading a race-high 71 laps, but still increased his lead over Johnny Sauter for the final Truck playoff spot to 40 points … Ben Rhodes recovered from a black flag for damage repair to finish seventh … Top sprint car driver Brian Brown finished eighth for Kyle Busch Motorsports in his Truck debut.