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Darrell Wallace Jr. takes NASCAR Camping World truck win at Gateway

Late spin by Erik Jones helps open the door.

Race winner Darrell Wallace Jr.

Race winner Darrell Wallace Jr.

Getty Images

Darrell Wallace Jr. celebrated the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series' return to Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Ill., near St. Louis on Saturday night by pulling his No. 54 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota into victory lane after the checkered flag of the 160-lap Drivin' For Linemen 200. Red Horse Racing teammates German Quiroga in the No. 77 Toyota and Timothy Peters in the No. 17 finished second and third.

Wallace was racing his KBM teammate Erik Jones in the No. 51 late in the race before Quiroga made contact with Jones, causing Jones to spin and bringing the seventh and final caution of the race inside the final 10 laps.

"We were driving really hard," Quiroga said, also commenting that Jones was already sideways before the contact. "I just kept it going."

After track clean-up and a scuffle on pit road between the No. 77 and No. 51 crews, the race restarted with three laps to go with Quiroga in the lead and Wallace in second. Wallace took the lead for good right after the race went back to green.

"He was a little better than me in one and two, and then I guess he fell asleep or something and I got around him in three and four."

Wallace had dominated the race early, showing the way up front until the third caution of the race interrupted a cycle of green-flag pit stops around lap 60. Wallace had already made his stop under green, and to make matters worse, his truck fell off the jack on pit road. As a result, he restarted 12th, while the No. 88 ThorSport Toyota of Matt Crafton restarted with the lead with the No. 8 SWM-NEMCO Motorsports Toyota alongside in second.

"I didn't even worry about it," Wallace said of the trouble on pit road and the loss of track position."

Crafton's time up front was short-lived. The yellow flag waved, again, soon after the restart, and Nemechek took the lead on the restart that followed the fourth caution. He held on to the lead until Crafton took it back with just over 40 laps remaining. And, again, Crafton's time up front was brief. Soon after taking the top spot, he blew a tire and hit the wall.

Nemechek got off pit road during the caution that resulted from Crafton's wreck. Wallace restarted second, and Jones third. When the race returned to green, both Wallace and Jones got by Nemechek to take first and second. Fewer than 20 laps later, Nemechek was the reason for a caution, the sixth in the race, when he spun while running third.

The race restarted with the Kyle Busch Motorsports teammates Wallace and Jones in first and second and the Red Horse Racing duo of Quiroga and Peters in third and fourth. Jones briefly took the lead from Wallace before his incident with Quiroga.

The No. 98 ThorSport Racing Toyota of Johnny Sauter finished fourth, and the No. 30 Turner Scott Motorsports Chevrolet of Ron Hornaday was fifth. According to Hornaday, bad fuel mileage that forced him to pit early got him the track position to finish in the top-five.

"I think we had a 12th-place truck," Hornaday said.

Pole sitter Cole Custer finished sixth in the 00 Bill McAnally Racing Chevrolet, the No. 29 Brad Keselowski Racing Ford of Ryan Blaney was seventh, the No. 5 Wauters Motorsports Toyota of John Wes Townley eighth, the No. 9 NTS Motorsports Chevrolet of Chase Pistone ninth, and the 32 Turner Scott Motorsports Chevrolet of Tayler Malsam rounded out the top-10.

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