Fantasy NASCAR Racing

Fourteen races later, Denike guided Mayer to his first career victory at Bristol Motor Speedway during the 2020 Truck Playoffs in September.  To go along with a total of four top-five results and seven top-10 results, Denike led the #24 GMS Racing team to a 16th-place result in the 2020 Truck owners’ standings.  Owner Maury Gallagher paired Denike with Tyler Ankrum in 2021 as he took his first shot at being a full time crew chief.  They ran ok, and had a best finish of third on two occasions; coming at COTA and Richmond.  They had five top ten finishes.  In 2022, Denike split his time between two drivers.  The first 14 races he worked with Grant Enfinger and the final nine with Derek Kraus.  With Enfinger, they had three top five finishes, with a best finish of second at Charlotte.  At Charlotte, Cup regular Ross Chastain just beat out Enfinger for the win.  They also had two third place finishes.  They finished in the top ten seven of their 14 events.  Denike left GMS to go work with owner Bill McAnally and his young driver Kraus; they posted three top tens, with a best finish of sixth at Bristol.  McAnally paired Denike with Christian Eckes full time in 2023.  They got off to a great start; finishing third as the season opened at Daytona.  They followed that with a sixth place finish at Las Vegas, and pulled off the win at Atlanta.  The next five races were disappointing as they had two 15 place finishes, and three 30th place finishes as they crashed or had mechanical issues.  Then at Darlington, they were back in the winners circle.  They ran well in the playoffs; winning again at Kansas.  In the Round of 8 they had issues and had two finishes around 20th place.  That eliminated them from running for the championship.  That was unfortunate, because at Phoenix they had a strong truck, led 36 laps and got the win.  For the year they had four wins, tenth top five and 13 top ten finishes, and finished fifth in points.  The pair will be back together again in 2024.