By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Correspondent
In a carnage-filled NextEra Energy Resources 250, Spencer Boyd was in the right place, at the right time, to survive and earn his career best finish. In his first race as a full-time NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series driver, Boyd earned a top-five finish at Daytona International Speedway.
Boyd, whose No. 20 1A Auto Chevrolet Silverado easily had the enough fuel in the tank, skated through two overtime attempts. In the first attempt, he was ahead of the carnage. On the second attempt, Boyd was one of just nine trucks remaining on track, a record low for trucks running at the finish for the series.
With no drafting partners, he crossed the line of the longest race in Truck Series history, 277.5 miles, in fourth. Boyd’s Chevrolet was the only Young’s Motorsports vehicle to finish as his teammates Gus Dean and Tyler Dippel were both swept up in incidents.
With two laps to go in the scheduled distance, the second ‘big one’ occurred as race leaders Ben Rhodes and Dean made contact. As eventual race winner Austin Hill emerged from the wreckage unscathed, Boyd received minor damage, his splitter bent upwards. The multi-truck incident set up the first overtime attempt.
Boyd was also lucky to escape a major incident on lap 53. A misjudgment by Jordan Anderson led to an 11-truck pile-up exiting turn four. Boyd was one of many trucks that dove onto the apron, using pit road as an escape route to avoid the melee.
The fourth-place finish is the first top-five finish for Boyd in his NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series career. Before Daytona, his previous best finish was 13th, at Talladega Superspeedway in 2017. Boyd’s fourth-place finish is also the best finish in the history of Young’s Motorsports, and the organization’s third top-five finish.
Boyd celebrated his fourth-place finish on Twitter.
When you finish P4 at @DISupdates 🇺🇸 Thank you @1AAuto!! #BOYD20 🦅🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/L03xxGuFg3
— Spencer Boyd (@SpencerBoyd) February 16, 2019
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