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Gio Ruggiero Dominates Dega’ En Route To First Truck Series Victory

by racerx55 October 18, 2025 0 comments

Story & Photos By Christian Koelle/TheFourthTurn.com

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Yet another driver added his name to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series winner’s list at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday.

TRICON Garage’s Gio Ruggiero held off runs from teammate Corey Heim, Ty Majeski, Dawson Sutton and Layne Riggs to earn his first-career victory in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Love’s RV Stop 225. Crossing the line in basically the place he sat all day, Gio led a race-high 37 laps after starting from the pole.

“It feels great,” Ruggiero said. “It’s a great accomplishment. We’ve been working so hard at this all year and to win in my rookie season like this is awesome especially with the last couple weeks with the top-fives and top-threes that we’ve had. I think we can have a good end to our season and have a good chance to win at Martinsville or Phoenix.”

Heim came up just a spot short of his 11th victory of the 2025 season, finishing in second, while Majeski, Sutton, and Riggs rounded out the top-five. 

With Ruggiero earning the victory, no driver punches his ticket to Phoenix as the series heads to the semi-final race of the season. While no driver was locked in, some drivers left Talladega feeling more comfortable than others. Rajah Caruth won Stage 1 and finished third in Stage 2. While leaving Talladega with a ninth-place finish, he’s 14 points above the cutline in second. Tyler Ankrum’s sixth-place finish has him +8 points in third, while Kaden Honeycutt currently holds the final spot +5 points off the cutoff.

Though for others, Friday’s race was rather calm, Daniel Hemric and Grant Enfinger left Talladega in a must-win to make the Championship 4 next weekend at Martinsville Speedway. Enfinger was involved in the first caution of the afternoon at Lap 3, destroying the No. 9 Chevrolet as the defending Talladega winner went behind the wall early. He’s now -40 points below the cutline. 

Hemric’s day took a turn as his tire went down. As he was making his way to pit road, Toni Bredinger ran right into the rear of the No. 19 Chevrolet, and as he got down pit road, they ultimately took the truck behind the wall. Hemric won in the spring at Martinsville, and the 19 truck itself, has won three straight Martinsville races.

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will visit Martinsville Speedway on Friday, Oct. 24 for the final race before the Championship race. The Slim Jim 200 will broadcast live on FS1 at 6 p.m. ET.