Fairhope driver Grant Enfinger racing for NASCAR trucks title on Friday night

If Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” blasts out of the speakers at Phoenix Raceway on Friday night, it won’t be the standard crowd-entertainment selection. Instead, the song will signal that Fairhope’s Grant Enfinger has won the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship for the 2023 racing season.

Enfinger is one of the four drivers who can capture the circuit crown at the final race of the season – the Craftsman 150, a 150-lap affair on the 1-mile Avondale, Arizona, oval that starts at 9 p.m. CDT Friday. FS1 will televise the race.

The assignment is clear for Enfinger: Have his No. 23 Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet in front of the other three championship contenders at the finish of the race.

Also vying for the truck-series title are Corey Heim, Carson Hocevar and Ben Rhodes.

“I’d say the biggest thing for our group is just don’t beat ourselves,” Enfinger said. “We have had great trucks all year, and there’s been winning speed at a good amount of races. I feel like even though we might not have been the best truck at Gateway, we were a top-three truck at the end of it, and when we turned around to Milwaukee, I feel that no question we had the best truck out there.

“Gateway and Milwaukee aren’t exactly like Phoenix, but there are some characteristics there that translate well between the three. We’re taking the same truck that we ran with at Milwaukee, and I don’t think that there’s been too much of a change in the truck package and from the racetrack as a whole to where we know what to expect. It’ll be the same tire, and our guys have been preparing so much for this race.

“I’m going into this weekend with the mentality of we need to win this race to secure the deal. And I am confident in our team that we will have a Champion Power Equipment Chevy that can contend on Friday night.”

On the way to the Phoenix finale this season, Enfinger won the truck races at Kansas Speedway on May 6, Worldwide Technology Raceway in Gateway, Missouri, on June 3 and the Milwaukee Mile on Aug. 27.

The ARCA Racing Series champion in 2015, Enfinger is in his seventh full season on the truck series. He also made the Championship 4 field in 2020 but finished 13th in the final race of the season after starting on the pole.

Friday night’s race will be the final one for GMS Racing, which is closing shop after 12 years in the game.

Enfinger aims to send GMS Racing out on top.

“I know for (crew chief) Jeff (Hensley) and I personally, we both feel like we owe a lot to Maury and Spencer Gallagher, Mike Beam and Ron Booth,” Enfinger said. “They have been a big part of my career and gave me my first big break in the ARCA Series back in 2014. But not only that, they’ve given so much to the series as a whole. They’ve been so good and have helped so many drivers, teams and crew chiefs along the way, and it would be very special to get them one last championship in their final race.

“We want to send them off the right way for sure, but at the end of the day the guys that we are racing against want it, too. I feel like we are in a position with our organization and the speed of our trucks that if we do everything right, I think we can beat the other three guys at their best. That’s been our focus to control everything we can control on our end. Now if we stumble some and show up with a top-five truck, we might need some help. But that’s not the mentality we’re going into it with.”

Regardless of the outcome on Friday night, Enfinger will need a new ride in 2024, but he’s keeping his focus on the final race.

“I do know what I’m doing next year, and I feel really good about it,” Enfinger said. “But not really ready to talk about that yet.”

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.