NASCAR won’t reinstate eliminated ThorSport Truck Series drivers into playoffs

NASCAR will not reinstate the two ThorSport Racing Truck Series drivers, Grant Enfinger and Johnny Sauter, who have been eliminated from the playoffs.

Following the third and final race of the round of 8 of the three-round, seven-race 2019 NASCAR Truck Series playoffs, two drives were eliminated from championship contention as the field was narrowed from eight drivers to six.

Both of these drivers, Grant Enfinger and Johnny Sauter, drive for ThorSport Racing, and both were knocked out of contention in the round of 8 finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as a result of engine troubles.

In fact, ThorSport Racing’s other playoff driver, Matt Crafton, was also knocked out of this race as a result of engine failures, but he is still slated to advance to the round of 6.

As a result of the fact that Ilmor Engineering, which supplies engines for nearly every team in the Truck Series, claimed responsibility for the issues that knocked their playoff drivers out of the race, ThorSport Racing asked NASCAR to reinstate both Enfinger and Sauter into the playoffs.

Ilmor Engineering cited “high engine load condition combined with the extreme weather conditions in Las Vegas” as a reason for why these engine failures occurred.

Here is what ThorSport Racing general manager David Pepper had to say about the matter last week upon the team making this request, according to NBC Sports.

"“We feel the right thing for us is we were never allowed to race at Vegas for the playoff positions. We’re not asking to reset Vegas. We’ll take our last-place finishes. We’re just asking to move the cutoff date to Phoenix, eliminate four of us instead of two (after Vegas) and two (after Phoenix.) Allow it to be settled on the race track and not by an outside source that has openly said, ‘Hey, we made a mistake.’ I don’t want to beat on them. They made a mistake, but we shouldn’t be the victims of the mistake.”"

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NASCAR has now officially declined that request.

Crafton is set to be joined in the round of 6 by GMS Racing’s Brett Moffitt, Hattori Racing Enterprises’ Austin Hill, Niece Motorsports’ Ross Chastain, Halmar Friesen Racing’s Stewart Friesen and DGR Crosley’s Tyler Ankrum. Moffitt won the first two races of the round of 8 at Bristol Motor Speedway and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and Hill won the finale.

The three round of 6 races are scheduled to be contested at Talladega Superspeedway, Martinsville Speedway and ISM Raceway prior to the Championship 4 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The opening race of the round of 6 of the 2019 NASCAR Truck Series playoffs is the Sugarlands Shine 250, which is scheduled to take place on Saturday, October 12. This race is set to be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 from Talladega Superspeedway in Lincoln, Alabama beginning at 1:30 p.m. ET.