Grant Enfinger's 2020 Plan? Win Early, Get Locked-In

News and Notes:

Behind the Paint… ThorSport Racing will celebrate their 25th season in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series in 2020 and the traditional and modern 25th year anniversary gift is silver. Therefore, the No. 98 Ford F-150 of Grant Enfinger, and his ThorSport Racing teammates, will bare silver in all of their paint schemes at Daytona International Speedway (DIS) to commemorate the occasion.
Welcome Back… Champion Power Equipment, a market leader in the power equipment field, enters it’s seventh consecutive season with Enfinger, and their fourth season with ThorSport Racing in 2020.
Music to Our Ears... Mike Curb, owner of Curb Records, and the No. 98 entry at ThorSport Racing, enters his 12th full-time season with the Sandusky, Ohio-based team.
This Week's No. 98 Champion Power Equipment/Curb Records Ford F-150... The No. 98 ThorSport Racing team will unload chassis No. 60 for Friday night’s Gander Trucks NextEra Energy 250 at DIS. This is the same chassis Enfinger piloted to a second-place finish at the 2.5-mile track in 2019.
Daytona Down Low… Enfinger will make his sixth career start at DIS in Friday night’s NASCAR Gander Truck Series event. In five previous starts, the ThorSport Racing driver has one pole (2016), and has led six laps en route to one top-five (2019) and two top-10 finishes. Furthermore, Enfinger has two wins (2014, 2015) at DIS in the ARCA Menards Series.
Ford Fact… Ford-powered F-150's have found victory lane 99 times since 1995 in the Gander Trucks, including five wins at DIS; Mike Wallace (2000), Rick Crawford (2003), Carl Edwards (2004), Mark Martin (2006) and Tyler Reddick (2015).
2019 Review… 2019 was a career-best for Enfinger, earning two poles (Texas-1 and Kentucky) and leading 303 laps en route to 10 top-five and 18 top-10 finishes.
Truck Series Stats… Enfinger has 83 career Gander Truck starts to his credit since 2010. His success includes 574 laps led en route to two wins, five poles, 28 top-five and 53 top-10 finishes.
Catch Grant at Daytona… Enfinger will make several stops while in Daytona. Check out his schedule below:
Enfinger will be cruising the campgrounds on Friday, Feb. 14 from 12-1 and on Saturday, Feb. 15 from 11-1 looking for fans who own Champion Power Equipment generators. If you’re camping at DIS and want Grant to stop by your campsite, send us a message on social, @bsm_partners.
Enfinger will participate in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series autograph session from 1:15 – 2:00 p.m. ET on Friday in the UNOH Fan Zone.
Finally, Enfinger will make an appearance at Ocean Deck on behalf of Ford Performance from 6 – 6:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Feb. 15.

Chatting with Grant Enfinger...

With the expansion of the Playoff field from eight to ten drivers over the off-season, does that change your game plan from the driver’s seat at all this season?

“Initially, going into Daytona, it doesn’t change mine or Jeff Hensley’s strategy at all. First and foremost, our plan is to win races and second to that is stage points. We did a great job of that last year, especially during the regular season, but this year I feel like it’s more important to go out there, win early and get ourselves locked-in, something we weren’t able to do last year. I feel like if we were to win in these first six to eight races, you’re able to be a little bit more aggressive in your play calling for the rest of the regular season and also you’re able to experiment a little bit from a setup standpoint, to help yourself prepare for the Playoffs.”

Can you carry momentum from 2019 into the 2020 season?

“On our No. 98 ThorSport team we actually didn’t end the 2019 season on the highest note. Overall, we had a very solid season, but we didn’t have the Playoffs we feel like we deserved – some of it on ourselves and some of it wasn’t. So I don’t feel like we ended the season with as much momentum as we could have, but I do feel like the organization, ThorSport Racing, did end the season with momentum. With (Matt) Crafton winning the championship and with us having the mindset of Duke and Rhonda Thorson to keep everything going this winter, to keep building on what we have. For the most part, all four ThorSport Racing teams have stayed intact, and we’ve just been able to continue to build on what we have there. The fact that we didn’t make any big overhauls during the off-season, from drivers to crew chiefs, I feel like that gives us an advantage for the first part of the season. We’re still fine-tuning on what we have because we didn’t change the world last year.”

Team Info/Stats:

Crew Chief: Jeff Hensley

2019 Driver Points Standings: 7th

2019 Owner Points Standings: 7th

Spotter: Chris Lambert