NASCAR: 2018 Alpha Energy Solutions 250 at Martinsville results

The NASCAR Truck Series race at Martinsville, the Alpha Energy Solutions 250, took two days to complete, but it was action-packed once it began.

Ben Rhodes led the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series field to the green flag on Saturday afternoon. The driver of the #41 Ford led the first 19 laps until Mike Senica spun and brought out the first caution.

The race was stopped at lap 24 for a rain delay and rescheduled for Sunday. Then, snow on Sunday caused the race to be rescheduled for Monday morning.

Rhodes picked up where he had left off on Saturday, dominating stage one. HE led until the caution at the end of stage one. During the caution, Stewart Friesen took two tires during his pit stop and exited the pits in front of Ben Rhodes.

Friesen didn’t hang on to the lead for very long. Rhodes passed him on the opening green flag lap, and Friesen only led under caution. Friesen fell back and made contact with Harrison Burton. Both drivers spun and brought out a caution flag.

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On the restart, Rhodes and Todd Gilliland battled side by side for two laps until Rhodes cleared him. Another caution flag came out on lap 117 when Tyler Matthews got turned around by Friesen. Once the race went back to green, Rhodes passed Gilliland and didn’t look back. He won stage two.

While most of the field pitted, Kyle Benjamin, among others, stayed out to take the lead for the final stage. The race went back to green until lap 159 when Matthews and Justin Fontaine collided.  They brought out another caution flag. With 60 laps remaining, Benjamin was in the lead in his Truck Series debut. Gilliland passed Grant Enfinger and John Hunter Nemechek to grab  second place.

Then Gilliland, driving the #4 Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports, started to closing in on the #54 of Kyle Benjamin for the lead. This created an interesting storyline.  Gilliland was gaining on the same #54 truck that is partly owned by his father, David Gilliland. David Gilliland had high hopes for a 1-2 finish for his son and his car, but a caution for debris came out with 36 laps left to go.

On the restart, Nemechek got underneath Benjamin and Gilliland and took the race lead. Nemechek began to pull away from the field until Johnny Sauter had engine problems. Sauter’s engine troubles caused him to slow down in front of Matt Crafton, damaging the front of Crafton’s truck. The race restarted with 21 laps to go, but it didn’t stay green for very long due to Robby Lyons having engine trouble as well.

The saying, “cautions breed cautions” was in full effect. With 12 laps remaining, Reid Wilson crashed just after the race had restarted. On the race’s final restart, Nemechek pulled ahead of Benjamin. Nemechek’s lead never got bigger than eight tenths of a second. Benjamin got to the bumper of Nemechek but could not pass him. In an exciting finish, Nemechek held off Benjamin for his first win of the season and the sixth of his Truck Series career.

Here are the full results from the Alpha Energy Solutions 250 at Martinsville.

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Be sure to tune in to the next NASCAR Truck Series race, which is not until 5:00 pm ET on Friday, May 4th. That race, the Dover 200, is set to be held at Dover International Speedway, and it is set to be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 at that time on that date.