Austin Hill survives chaos of inaugural Corn Belt 150

For the first time ever, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series raced at Knoxville Raceway. Despite the fanfare and excitement surrounding Friday’s Corn Belt 150, it ultimately left many fans and drivers frustrated as multiple wrecks resulted in fourteen cautions and four overtimes that dragged out the event. By the end, Austin Hill was able to survive the carnage to win his first race of the year.

Hill started thirteenth while Derek Kraus was on the pole following heat races. While the first two stages ran mostly clean as much of the incidents were for single-truck spins, the wheels came off in the final stage as it featured nine of the fourteen cautions. Kraus, who won the first two stages, found himself antagonising much of the field with his driving, resulting in him being turned by Grant Enfinger and Tyler Ankrum during post-race cooldown laps.

While Truck races generally run for one-and-a-half hours, the Corn Belt 150 was stretched to 2 hours, 25 minutes, and 55 seconds due to the litany of cautions, especially in the final laps as constant overtime sessions from crashes resulted in laps being added; what was supposed to be a 150-lap event would end at 179. Such a lengthy race drew comparisons to the Daytona Road Course event in February, which ran longer than the Cup Series‘ race there the previous year and is the longest race in series history by duration, and the Darlington race in May that reached 2:28:40.

After Hailie Deegan, Sheldon Creed, and Jett Noland (ironically, Deegan and Creed have extensive off-road experience while Creed and Noland have raced together in the Stadium Super Trucks) wrecked with two laps remaining to set up the first overtime, the largest accident of the night was triggered shortly after the restart with seventeen total drivers involved. Three more overtimes would take place, and Hill escaped with his seventh career win and first of 2021.

“Kind of thought we were out of it there on that restart when I was on the outside of the #38 (Todd Gilliland) and I fell back to like twentieth and I didn’t think we were going to make it back up,” said Hill. “Track position was huge and it was really hard to get around people. You had to kind of rough them up to get around them. I just kept my head down. […]

“If you would have told me that we would win a dirt race this year, I would have told you that you were lying.”

Many expressed their displeasure with the race for various reasons, such as Knoxville’s viability as a track and the inexperience of drivers in the field. Others pointed out bizarre moments from race officials such as the flagman accidentally waving the white flag five laps too early in a heat race, resulting in a caution, and Ben Rhodes receiving a black flag as the feature was resuming rather than under caution. Some pointed out the relatively clean product that the Superstar Racing Experience provided at the track in June was a sign that changes to NASCAR’s handling of the event could save it in the future.

Creed was particularly vocal following his retirement from the race, telling FS1 that the Trucks should be racing at Iowa Speedway. The .875-mile paved track is located in the same state as Knoxville but was removed from the calendar after 2020.

Stewart Friesen, a dirt and Truck regular who was caught in the final caution, sardonically talked to Truck owner/driver Jordan Anderson about “rich kids buy(ing) rides” in response to Anderson tweeting he had “never seen guys with such disrespect for each other.”

Carson Hocevar, who ran in the top five for much of the event but finished sixteenth after a spin on the final lap from contact with John Hunter Nemechek, simply tweeted, “what a joke.” Hocevar’s Niece Motorsports team followed up by replying to Jayski’s Silly Season Site that Nemechek was responsible for the incident.

Nemechek finished eleventh but secured the regular season championship with an 85-point advantage over Rhodes entering the final race at Watkins Glen.

In the forty-driver field, Brian Brown—who ran the SRX Knoxville race—was the highest-finishing newcomer as he placed eighth. Devon Rouse (eighteenth), Jessica Friesen (twenty-sixth), Parker Price-Miller (twenty-ninth), Donny Schatz (thirty-second), and Morgan Alexander (fortieth) also made their Truck débuts in the race.

Tate Fogleman finished ninth for his first career top ten, and was the only Chevrolet driver to finish in the range. Chris Windom was fifteenth as a replacement driver for Michael Annett. Of the five heat race winners, Heat #4 victor Hocevar was the highest finisher ahead of Ankrum (Heat #3, seventeenth), Kyle Strickler (Heat #2, twenty-third), and Josh Berry (Heat #1, twenty-eighth).

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	13	16	Austin Hill	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	179	Running
2	10	18	Chandler Smith	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	179	Running
3	26	98	Grant Enfinger	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	179	Running
4	3	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	179	Running
5	1	19	Derek Kraus	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Toyota	179	Running
6	9	88	Matt Crafton	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	179	Running
7	18	99	Ben Rhodes	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	179	Running
8	15	51	Brian Brown	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	179	Running
9	28	12	Tate Fogleman	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	179	Running
10	23	30	Danny Bohn	On Point Motorsports	Toyota	179	Running
11	37	4	John Hunter Nemechek	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	179	Running
12	34	34	Jake Griffin	Reaume Brothers Racing	Chevrolet	179	Running
13	31	40	Ryan Truex	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	179	Running
14	14	21	Zane Smith	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	179	Running
15	32	02	Chris Windom*	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	179	Running
16	5	42	Carson Hocevar	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	179	Running
17	2	26	Tyler Ankrum	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	179	Running
18	39	33	Devon Rouse	Reaume Brothers Racing	Chevrolet	179	Running
19	36	6	Norm Benning	Norm Benning Racing	Chevrolet	179	Running
20	6	13	Johnny Sauter	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	179	Running
21	4	1	Hailie Deegan	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	179	Running
22	24	41	Cody Erickson	Cram Racing Enterprises	Chevrolet	177	Running
23	8	20	Kyle Strickler	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	177	Running
24	29	49	Andrew Gordon	CMI Motorsports	Toyota	177	Running
25	40	10	Jennifer Jo Cobb	Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing	Chevrolet	176	Running
26	25	62	Jessica Friesen	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota	175	Running
27	19	52	Stewart Friesen	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota	170	Running
28	11	25	Josh Berry*	Rackley WAR	Chevrolet	163	Accident
29	7	3	Parker Price-Miller	Jorda Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	160	Running
30	21	22	Austin Wayne Self	AM Racing	Chevrolet	159	Accident
31	27	15	Tanner Gray	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	153	Accident
32	22	17	Donny Schatz	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	153	Accident
33	30	23	Chase Purdy	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	153	Accident
34	38	9	Codie Rohrbaugh	CR7 Motorsports	Chevrolet	153	Accident
35	16	2	Sheldon Creed	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	153	Accident
36	12	04	Chase Briscoe*	Roper Racing	Ford	153	Accident
37	33	45	Jett Noland	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	151	Accident
38	17	37	Brett Moffitt*	AM Racing	Chevrolet	139	Accident
39	20	24	Jack Wood	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	91	Accident
40	35	44	Morgan Alexander	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	63	Accident

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for Truck points