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NASCAR’s decision not to reinstate ThorSport drivers the right one

By Asher Fair

BOWMANVILLE, ON - AUGUST 25: Johnny Sauter #13 driving the Tenda Heal Ford races in the Chevrolet Silverado 250 Gander Nascar Outdoor Truck Series event at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on August 25, 2019 in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images)
BOWMANVILLE, ON - AUGUST 25: Johnny Sauter #13 driving the Tenda Heal Ford races in the Chevrolet Silverado 250 Gander Nascar Outdoor Truck Series event at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on August 25, 2019 in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images) /
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NASCAR’s decision not to reinstate the two ThorSport Racing Truck Series drivers who were eliminated from the playoffs was the correct one.

After two of their three playoff drivers were eliminated following the round of 8 of the 2019 NASCAR Truck Series playoffs, ThorSport Racing sent a request to NASCAR for these two drivers, Grant Enfinger and Johnny Sauter, to be reinstated.

NASCAR responded by declining this request, meaning that the round of 6 field is set, and it includes only one ThorSport Racing driver, Matt Crafton.

NASCAR’s decision not to reinstate Enfinger and Sauter to effectively create an eight-driver round of 6 was the correct one. Really, it was the only one they could have made.

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ThorSport Racing’s request was based on the fact that engine failures eliminated Enfinger and Sauter from competition in the round of 8 finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In fact, the same issue eliminated Crafton from this race, although he still ended up having enough points to advance to the round of 6.

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.

In reality, the team never had a case, and NASCAR approving this request would have been a disaster.

Mechanical errors happen in NASCAR. So do blown tires, guys eight laps down spinning ahead of the leaders, strategy-ruining debris cautions, etc.

Teams know this coming in. Having one or more of these things ruin someone’s championship hopes is not a reason for reinstatement. If it were, William Byron would be the 2016 Truck Series champion.

Plus, nearly every team in the Truck Series uses these engines from Ilmor Engineering, and ThorSport Racing weren’t even the only team affected. 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, and let’s face it, it was pretty hot out for this race.

Teams also all know the playoff format.

The engines failures in the round of 8 finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway didn’t screw Enfinger or Sauter.

They could have won one of the first two races of the round of 8.

They didn’t.

They could have accrued more stage wins and more race wins throughout the regular season to enter the playoffs in a much more favorable position.

They didn’t.

Heck, Enfinger won the regular season championship, yet he didn’t win a single race. He easily could have had several additional playoff points had he found victory lane at any point throughout the 16-race regular season.

It’s not like he even really needed to do a whole lot more; as stated above, Crafton ended up advancing to the round of 6 anyway, and he wasn’t even the final driver to advance.

This race didn’t screw them over. It simply sealed their fate because they couldn’t previously capitalize.

Enfinger only entered the race two points above the round of 6 cut line in the sixth and final transfer spot. Sauter entered it two points behind.

The ideas that “We want to be able to control our own destiny” and “we’ve been eliminated from the playoffs and it was none of our doing”, which were set forth by ThorSport Racing team general manager David Pepper when he discussed the team’s decision to submit this request, simply hold no water in the grand scheme of things.

Learn from it, move on and get better.

But above all, accept responsibility for the 99% of the things that you did control and couldn’t accomplish, otherwise none of the other three will ever happen.

NASCAR isn’t just going to up and change the playoff format and the coinciding playoff rules to fit the desires of a team upset about issues that everyone knows can happen to them — and issues that only mattered because the team didn’t do enough beforehand to negate the potential effects of them.

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

The six round of 6 drivers are GMS Racing’s Brett Moffitt, Hattori Racing Enterprises’ Austin Hill, Niece Motorsports’ Ross Chastain, Halmar Friesen Racing’s Stewart Friesen, ThorSport Racing’s Matt Crafton and DGR Crosley’s Tyler Ankrum.

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