Garcia Fends Off Challengers For Final Truck Playoff Spot

Jake Garcia earned the final NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoff berth Friday night. (Rusty Jones/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

RICHMOND, Va. – Young Jake Garcia rose to the moment in Friday night’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular season finale at Richmond Raceway to punch his ticket to the playoffs, fending off the field to secure the last of 10 postseason berths on points.

After outrunning rookie Gio Ruggiero and two-time Truck Series champion Ben Rhodes, Garcia earned the honor to race for a championship by 19 points, allowing him to set his sails for the Round of 10 opener at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway on Aug. 30.

Garcia finished seventh at Richmond to capture his eighth top 10 of the season and first since June, after he was seventh five races ago at Michigan Int’l Speedway.

He qualified eighth, which gave him an early track position advantage over Rhodes and Ruggiero, who started 14th and at the rear of the field, respectively.

In stage one Garcia held his track position and stayed in eighth, while in stage two he climbed inside the top five, eventually netting a haul of 11 total stage points after ending the second segment as the runner-up.

That forced Rhodes and Ruggiero to find another level of speed to make progress in the points battle, and gave Garcia a bit of breathing room after he fell back to 15th place when he got trapped a lap down by an untimely caution in the final stage.

Ruggiero, in particular, got toward the front late even though it took longer to put himself into contention. But it was Monroe, Ga., native Garcia who was able to maneuver and work through traffic the best to be where he needed to be at the end of the night.

“I was paying attention to the points lead, especially after we had two good stages and built a cushion. At that point, it was just a matter of managing our gap and making sure there was no possible way we could crash,” said Garcia. “I think we did a good job of that, and I tried my best to run a smart race after we had a little bit of an advantage to just get this thing into the playoffs.”

A big reason Garcia was able to lock up the final spot was due to his effort in the stages. To his 11 total stage points, Rhodes only earned four and Ruggiero had none, which aided mightily in the final difference.

Jake Garcia (13, foreground) leads Ben Rhodes (first background) at Richmond Raceway. (Gavin Baker/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

“A part of our confidence was how fast our truck was at Richmond. I know we finished seventh, but I certainly thought we were a top three to fifth place truck. We saw that in stage two with how quickly we passed some of those guys,” Garcia said. “I think we were even catching [Ty Majeski] a little bit at the end.”

For Rhodes, it wasn’t a lack of driver ability or speed that was brought to Richmond. It was just circumstances and logistics that didn’t fall his way over the course of the race.

“I missed our pit box and honestly, it wasn’t a terrible thing. It put us in position to capitalize on the first caution that came out. Our problem was the second caution that came out after that. That really did us in,” said Rhodes. “We had 10-lap older tires than the rest of the field at that point, and I think we were going to finish anywhere inside the top five to eighth.”

Rhodes said the late caution for a spinning Matt Crafton was the knockout punch to his playoff hopes.

Although Garcia was just 11 points ahead at that juncture, he was around the top five, while Rhodes was stuck deeper. It was simply too many cars for the former champion to pass in a short amount of time.

“I feel like if those cautions fell a little differently, it would have been easier to get the points we needed tonight,” he said. “It stinks, but they play out like that sometimes and you get in these positions from the whole season. Obviously, our regular season didn’t go the way we wanted.”

The 18-year-old Ruggiero, who’s shown potential this season, had the difficult task of driving through the field for most of the night after a right-rear hub issue prior to qualifying prevented him from making a time-trial lap.

He got up to 19th at lap 37, then 16th by the first stage break. As Rhodes and Garcia mixed and matched during stage two, he was still an outlier in the points battle, trying to make up positions.

He did get up to third at one point, as the late caution for Ty Majeski and Crafton spinning helped him sustain even better track position. Ruggiero battled briefly with TRICON Garage teammate and eventual race winner Corey Heim in an effort to get to the lead, but never got himself all the way into clean air.

Gio Ruggiero (17) missed the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoffs in his rookie campaign. (John Harrelson/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

With Garcia running a clean race, neither he nor Rhodes was realistically going to get the final transfer spot unless they won the race.

“Just a tough ending to a hard-fought race,” Ruggiero said afterward. “The problems with the truck and not getting to qualify set us back … and caused us to struggle a bit with the truck early in the race. It’s always harder when you don’t have track position.

“I thought I did a good job coming up through the field and my pit crew did a great job on our stops, making up a couple positions each time,” he added. “Drove it to [a battle for] second at the end and just couldn’t do anything with it. We didn’t have the speed or the drive off [the corner] to keep up with the [No.] 11 [of Heim] and I burned the tires up a bit.

“We’ll go on to the final seven and hopefully be able to compete for some wins.”

Looking ahead, in his career at Darlington – site of the first playoff race – Garcia has one top 20 in two career starts. However, he has qualified inside the top 15 in both tries, with a best starting position of fifth in 2023.

Garcia is just appreciative now of the opportunity that lies ahead of him.

“It’s definitely exciting and I’m just proud of the effort,” said Garcia. “I’m just glad these ThorSport Racing guys got a little reward and to be able to honor them for all of their hard work this year.

“I’m just really proud of how fast our truck was and the speed we brought [to Richmond],” he added. “If we can continue to bring that speed into the playoffs, I think we’ll be alright.”

Coverage of the playoff-opening Sober or Slammer 200 airs Saturday, Aug. 30 at noon ET on FS1, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.