by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: Brad Perez, @bradxperez
Friday, November 6, 2026 (Green Flag 7:51 P.M. ET, FS1)
TRUCKS Race 25 of 25
Chase Race 7 of 7 (Season Finale)
NASCAR Truck Series Championship Race at Homestead
2025 Last-Place Finisher (March): Stephen Mallozzi
NASCAR CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #11-Kaden Honeycutt
2nd) #34-Layne Riggs (-20)
LASTCAR CHAMPIONSHIP
Clayton Green, the current leader in the 2026 LASTCAR Truck Series Championship, returns to action while fellow two-time last-place finishers Cleetus McFarland and Jackson Macenko are not. Of the ten remaining drivers who could take the title from Green by finishing last in today’s race, only seven are entered: Kris Wright, Cole Butcher, Corey LaJoie, Spencer Boyd, Christian Eckes, Stewart Friesen, and Ben Rhodes.
ENTRY LIST
There are 35 drivers entered for 36 spots, marking the fourth short field in 2026 and first since Lime Rock Park.
DRIVER CHANGE: #1-TRICON Garage
One year removed from his Truck Series championship, Corey Heim wraps up an equally spectacular season by running double-duty between the Truck Series and Cup Series. He begins his weekend tonight, when he takes the wheel of TRICON’s #1 in place of 24th-place Martinsville finisher Gavan Boschele.
DRIVER CHANGE: #2-Team Reaume
DRIVER SWAP: #22-Team Reaume
TEAM CLOSED: #56-Hill Motorsports
In position to lock-up his second-straight LASTCAR Truck Series championship is Clayton Green, who returns for his 20th career Truck Series start and first since his 35th-place showing in Phoenix. Green, the only two-time last-place finisher from 2026 in the field, takes the place of team owner and 26th-place Martinsville finisher Josh Reaume in the #22. Reaume had been scheduled to slide over to the #2 in place of 35th-place runner Monty Tipton. However, that ride will now go to Timmy Hill, jump starting an announced full-time effort in the #2 for the 2027 season. Hill’s arrival comes after the closure of his Hill Motorsports team following a 31st-place finish following a multi-truck wreck in Martinsville. This marked the second team in as many weeks to close, joining Rackley-W.A.R.’s closure after the previous round in Talladega.
DRIVER CHANGE: #4-Niece Motorsports
Al Niece’s #4 team swaps in a Connor for a Conner as Connor Hall returns for his sixth start of the season and first since late-race accidents in Kansas left him in the 32nd spot. Hall takes the place of Conner Jones, whose latest in a string of mechanical woes put him in last place at Martinsville due to rear gear trouble.
DRIVER CHANGE: #5-TRICON Garage
The TRICON #5 goes this week to Spencer Davis, who returned to the series after a three-year absence at Michigan this past summer, where he lined up 10th and finished in 24th. Ruud and Surf USA Mobile return as sponsors this week as Davis takes the place of O’Reilly Auto Parts Series regular William Sawalich, who came home 9th in Martinsville. Davis has two previous series starts at Homestead, most recently a 32nd-place run due to electrical issues in 2023.
DRIVER CHANGE: #7-Spire Motorsports
Connor Mosack will close out the year for Spire’s flagship #7 entry once driven by the late Kyle Busch. This marks Mosack’s 12th series start of the season and first since Phoenix, where he finished in the 11th spot. He takes the place of Sammy Smith, whose own mechanical troubles in Martinsville dropped him from the Top Ten to a 33rd-place finish.
RETURNING: #20-McAnally-Hilgemann Racing
The McAnally team brings back their part-time #20 entry for the season finale and drops behind the wheel Mason Massey, who finished 25th in his lone Truck Series start this year in Richmond, then failed to qualify in his most recent attempt at Loudon. Last week, Massey closed out the 2026 ARCA Menards Series West campaign second in the point standings, just 43 markers behind champion Trevor Huddleston. Babson College sponsors his Chevrolet.
DRIVER CHANGE: #25-Kaulig RAM Racing
The “all-star” RAM entry closes out its 2026 campaign with Parker Kligerman behind the wheel, marking his fifth series start of the season and 130th of his career. Kligerman’s last series start came back at Lime Rock Park, where he finished a season-best 4th for Spire Motorsports. He last piloted this RAM back at Michigan, where he finished in 16th. He takes the place of Carson Ferguson, who took 29th last week in Martinsville.
DRIVER CHANGE: #62-Halmar Friesen Racing
Leland Honeyman, Jr. will make his 70th series start tonight and his sixth of the 2026 campaign, his first since a 34th-place showing in this same second HFR entry at Phoenix. Honeyman takes the place of Kasey Kleyn, who last Friday came home 16th at the Martinsville short track.
RETURNING: #66-ThorSport Racing
The preliminary entry list showed “TBA” in the driver’s column, but a post on social media this week confirmed that three-time series champion Matt Crafton would make his first Truck Series start since last November’s championship race at Phoenix, this time in ThorSport’s part-time #66 (which makes its first start of the year). Crafton will again run bright Menards yellow, but with a slightly different scheme from teammate Ty Majeski as MasterForce sponsors the truck’s hood.
MISSING: #69-Motorsports Business Management
Not making the trip to Homestead is MBM’s #69 entry, the RAM with which Tyler Tomassi gave its first start en route to a 28th-place finish in Martinsville.
DRIVER CHANGE: #77-Spire Motorsports
Last week saw Tristan McKee shatter the age record for youngest NASCAR polesitter, and very nearly set a new record for race winner before late-race contact shuffled him back to the 5th spot. McKee will not run tonight as Nick Sanchez will round out the year for Spire’s #77 entry with sponsorship from Modo Super Gaming App.
MISSING: #90-Terry Carroll Motorsports
Also not among the entries this weekend is that of the Carroll team after Justin S. Carroll’s first start in seven months ended with his #90 Toyota heavily damaged in a pileup on the Martinsville backstretch, leaving him in 32nd at the finish.
CUP INVADERS: None
Saturday, November 7, 2026 (Green Flag 5:11 P.M. ET, CW)
O’REILLY Race 33 of 33
Chase Race 9 of 9 (Season Finale)
NASCAR O’Reilly Series Championship at Homestead
2025 Last-Place Finisher (March): Christian Eckes
NASCAR CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #7-Justin Allgaier
2nd) #2-Jesse Love (-22)
3rd) #17-Corey Day (-23)
4th) #1-Carson Kvapil (-31)
5th) #00-Sheldon Creed (-42)
LASTCAR CHAMPIONSHIP
J.J. Yeley leads the 2026 LASTCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series standings, but isn’t entered this week as the #38 entry from RSS Racing once again goes to Patrick Emerling (Yeley will run the Cup race on Sunday). The only driver both entered and able to take the title with a last-place finish on Saturday is Dawson Cram, who ranks one finish behind Yeley but has more Bottom Fives (11-6) and Bottom Tens (14-6).
ENTRY LIST
There are exactly 38 drivers entered for 38 spots, so all will qualify.
DRIVER CHANGE: #32-Jordan Anderson Racing Bommarito Autosport
Andrew Patterson returns for his ninth career start and first since a 14th-place showing for the Anderson team back at Phoenix. He takes the place of Daniel Dye, who was involved in a pair of incidents at Martinsville before crash damage left him in the 34th spot. This will be Patterson’s third series start on a 1.5-mile oval, following a 28th-place run in Charlotte and a 22nd in Las Vegas.
MISSING: #35-Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen
As with the Truck Series race, Justin S. Carroll is not entered in tomorrow’s O’Reilly season finale as the Gase team has likewise not fielded their part-time #35 entry. Carroll came home 26th in his series debut last Saturday.
DRIVER CHANGE: #42-Young’s Motorsports
Brad Perez makes his first series start since a 27th-place run in Phoenix, when he was also driving this #42 entry for the Randy Young effort. This time around, he takes the place of Baltazar Leguizamon, whose first-ever NASCAR start on an oval yielded a lead-lap finish in 27th. Perez will also run a “throwback” scheme to the iconic Elliott-Marino Motorsports #13 FirstPlus Financial Ford driven in 1998 by Jerry Nadeau, a scheme doubly significant to Perez as a Florida native and die-hard Miami Dolphins fan. Nadeau, whose #13 ride immediately preceded the Cup Series racing at Homestead, signed the roof rail of the car at the team shop earlier this week. Luckiest Man Sports Cards is the listed sponsor.
RETURNING: #50-Pardus Racing
Another hometown driver competing in tomorrow’s race is a returning Preston Pardus, who one week after Martinsville brings his own Halloween paint scheme to the track on the #50 Chinchor Electric Inc. Chevrolet. This would be Pardus’ sixth series start of 2026, his first since a 23rd-place run at Darlington in September, and his first for his family’s team since a season-best 18th in San Diego. This will be Pardus’ first series start at Homestead.
DRIVER CHANGE: #53-Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen / Big Machine Racing
As at both Phoenix and Talladega, Joey Gase Motorsports will team up with Big Machine Racing to field a team car to Big Machine’s full-timer Patrick Staropoli as Will Rodgers pilots the #53 sponsored by Driving Good Health. Rodgers, who finished 25th his last time out in Talladega, takes the place of Carson Ware, who finished 23rd back at Martinsville.
DRIVER CHANGE: #87-Peterson Racing Group
Nick Sanchez completes a double-duty effort with the Truck Series as he rounds out an eventful 2026 campaign in the #87 for the Peterson team, taking the place of 14th-place Martinsville finisher Lee Pulliam. Sanchez, who started driving for Peterson shortly after AM Racing shut down after the spring Martinsville race, last finished 22nd in the car at Phoenix.
DRIVER CHANGE: #92-DGM Racing x JIM
Following a 22nd-place finish for a returning Alex Labbe in Martinsville, the #92 goes back to Josh Williams for the season finale, who returns to action for the first time since his 23rd-place effort in the Ricky Bobby-inspired #92 back at Talladega. This will be Williams’ 10th series start at Homestead, where he finished a best of 12th with this team in Race 2 of a double-header in 2020.
CUP INVADERS: None
Sunday, November 8, 2026 (Green Flag 3:13 P.M. ET, NBC)
CUP Race 36 of 36
Chase Race 10 of 10 (Season Finale)
NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Homestead
2025 Last-Place Finisher (March): Carson Hocevar
NASCAR CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #5-Kyle Larson
2nd) #20-Christopher Bell (-67)
3rd) #11-Denny Hamlin (-70)
LASTCAR CHAMPIONSHIP
Connor Zilisch locked-up the 2026 LASTCAR Cup Series Championship after the race at Talladega two weeks ago.
ENTRY LIST
There are 40 drivers entered for 40 available starting spots on Sunday, marking just the fifth “full field” in the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season.
RETURNING: #44-NY Racing Team
One of two significant career start milestones for Sunday involves J.J. Yeley, who will make his 400th career Cup start when the green flag falls. Yeley, who has made a number of “start-and-park” starts in a very fast Ford for RSS Racing in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, will reunite with John Cohen’s team. The car carries returning sponsorship from concierge service PCNY and boasts a fall-themed paint scheme in conjunction with The Garden of Eden Foundation and an effort to feed struggling families across New York state.
RETURNING: #62-Beard Motorsports
Sunday will also mark the 500th career Cup start of Casey Mears, whose first start in the 2003 Daytona 500 for Chip Ganassi Racing came nearly two years before Yeley’s in the September 2004 race at Fontana, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing. The Gracie Foundation will again back Mears in the Beard Motorsports #62 Chevrolet, which came home in last place at Talladega after late-race mechanical trouble. Mears very nearly won this race back in 2005, two years before his lone series victory in the 2007 Coca-Cola 600.
DRIVER CHANGE: #66-Garage 66
While not entered in the Truck Series race, Carl Long’s Garage 66 effort has already announced a six-race sponsorship deal for 2027 with Illuminate’s Experience Circuit, beginning with the Daytona 500. The company will also back Lavar Scott in between 11 and 18 O’Reilly races for Alpha Prime Racing the same year. This weekend, Chad Finchum takes the place of Martinsville last-place finisher Josh Bilicki, and the black-and-gold Ford carries logos for Protection Technologies, SunCoast Performance, and CooperHunter USA. This will be only the second series start for Finchum at Homestead, his first since a 37th-place run out of 38 starters in 2024.
RETURNING: #67-23XI Racing
Corey Heim closes out his double-duty weekend with still no firm announcement if he will continue to campaign the #67 with which he won both San Diego and Indianapolis, and most recently ran 5th in Phoenix, or will switch to the #35 made available by a departing Riley Herbst. In the meantime, he runs similar Mobil 1 colors to his Truck Series effort on Friday in what will be just his 20th series start.
DRIVER CHANGE: #77-Spire Motorsports
Following his repeated brake-checking of Austin Cindric last week in Martinsville, Carson Hocevar has been suspended by his team for the season finale, where Justin Haley will rejoin the team as their one-off driver. Hocevar’s suspension came moments before NASCAR penalized both he and Josh Berry both money and points for their on-track incidents last Sunday. Berry will still run his last start for the Wood Brothers on Sunday.
TODAY IN LASTCAR HISTORY (November 6, 1983): Blackie Wangerin picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Winston Cup Series career when his #39 Wangerin Racing Ford did not start the Atlanta Journal 500 at Atlanta. Wangerin had been classified last on the 40-car starting grid, which originally credited Joe Booher with last place following a blown engine after 2 laps.
