PREVIEW: New entries and drivers crowd the Truck Series garage at Loudon
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: Garage 66 & MBM Motorsports, @MBMMotorsports
Saturday, August 22, 2026 (Green Flag 1:52 P.M. ET, FS1)
TRUCKS Race 18 of 25
Regular Season Finale
Team EJP 175 at Loudon
2025 Last-Place Finisher: Connor Mosack
ENTRY LIST
There are 41 drivers entered for 36 available starting spots in tomorrow’s Truck Series race at Loudon, which according to Joseph Srigley, marks the largest entry list for a Truck Series race at a track other than Daytona since April 8, 2023, when 41 also arrived for the Dirt Race at Bristol. This also happens to be the series’ Regular Season Finale – their Chase begins after three consecutive off-weekends at Bristol on September 17th.
DRIVER CHANGE: #1-TRICON Garage
After a strong 8th-place series debut at IRP, Gavan Boschele is back for his second series start with this same TRICON #1 team, taking the place of 12th-place Richmond finisher Nick Leitz. American Land Partners will again be his sponsor.
DRIVER CHANGE: #2-Team Reaume
Luke Baldwin will pull double-duty between the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour (in his father’s #7) and tomorrow’s Truck Series race. This marks his sixth Truck Series race of the season and first since North Wilkesboro, where he finished 33rd with this same #2 entry at the Reaume team. That race also happened to see him finish under power for the first time since Rockingham in April following a string of three DNFs at Bristol, Dover, and Charlotte. Baldwin takes the place of Dystany Spurlock, who finished next-to-last in her second series start last week in Richmond.
DRIVER CHANGE: #5-TRICON Garage
John Hunter Nemechek will also run double-duty, but with the Truck Series and Cup. This effort takes place at the same Loudon track where his father won in both O’Reilly and Cup, and on the weekend his sponsor Dollar Tree sponsors the Cup race and both Legacy Motor Club entries in recognition of their 40th anniversary (see below). Nemechek takes the place of Richmond runner-up Corey Heim for his third series start of the season and first since Atlanta in February, where he drove the second Halmar Friesen Racing entry to an 8th-place finish.
DRIVER CHANGE: #7-Spire Motorsports
One week after Shane Van Gisbergen won his first NASCAR oval track pole and came home 4th, the Spire #7 returns to Connor Mosack. This marks Mosack’s eighth series start of the year and first since IRP, where he earned a career-best runner-up finish to a dominant Layne Riggs. Mosack will again carry sponsorship from the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation.
DRIVER CHANGE: #22-Team Reaume
Patrick Emerling, as with Reaume teammate Luke Baldwin, will likewise run double-duty with this weekend’s NASCAR Modified race, again piloting his #1 entry for USNE Motorsports. This would be Emerling’s first Truck Series start of the season and first in the division since this same race last year, when he ran 28th in the Spire #7. This time around, Emerling takes the place of 24th-place Richmond finisher Derek Lemke in the #22 and carries sponsorship from Liberty Brew Coffee.
DRIVER CHANGE: #25-Kaulig RAM Racing
Elliott Sadler left Richmond disappointed with his 32nd-place run at his home track at Richmond, his first start in the series in nearly 15 years. This week, the #25 entry will be piloted once again by Colin Braun, marking his first oval-track start of the season. Braun has been impressive in both his starts with Kaulig this year, taking 9th in St. Petersburg, then 10th on the road course in Lime Rock.
DRIVER CHANGE: #26-Rackley-W.A.R.
DRIVER SWAP: #27-Rackley-W.A.R.
With such a large entry list, one multi-truck team is trying to make sure both their entries make the field. Full-time competitor Dawson Sutton moves from his full-time #26 entry to the Rackley effort’s part-time #27, which Kasey Kleyn failed to qualify last week in Richmond. Instead of Kleyn, the #26 will be driven by Toni Breidinger, who gave the #27 its most recent start at IRP, taking 25th.
DRIVER CHANGE: #62-Halmar Friesen Racing
After a scheduling conflict on Sunday morning forced Christopher Bell to climb out of the #62, handing the wheel to Leland Honeyman, Jr. for a 17th-place finish, Bell will again attempt the double-duty effort at what is arguably his best track. This will be Bell’s sixth series start of the season and first since a season-worst 15th-place showing in North Wilkesboro.
RETURNING: #69-Motorsports Business Management
While the entry list showed team owner Carl Long’s truck to be a Ford, it’s instead the RAM with which Jonathan Shafer failed to qualify in its attempted debut in IRP. Taking the wheel this week is Derek White, who in addition to his OCR Gaz Bar sponsorship welcomes new backing from Canadian petroleum contractor Léveillée-Tanguay, Inc. This would be White’s second series start of 2026, his first since a 35th-place finish at St. Petersburg.
RETURNING: #71-Spire Motorsports
Connor Zilisch, fresh off his announcement of going to Hendrick Motorsports’ #48 in 2028, returns to also pull double-duty with Sunday’s Cup race, where he’ll run a near-identical SuperFile paint scheme to teammate Shane Van Gisbergen. For Saturday, he’ll drive for Spire in their returning part-time #71, which last ran at North Wilkesboro for Van Gisbergen’s 3rd-place finish.
NEW TEAM: #72-Halmar Friesen Racing
Michael Christopher, Jr. runs a tribute scheme to the Whelen Chevrolet driven by uncle Ted Christopher on a new third entry out of HFR. The chosen truck number, #72, was also piloted by Ted when he first drove for Kirk Shelmerdine’s team at this Loudon track in 2004. Mike made his second and most recent start of the season at IRP, where he finished a career-best 10th in the HFR #62.
MISSING: #90-Terry Carroll Motorsports
Justin S. Carroll and team aren’t among this week’s entrants after Richmond handed them their fourth DNQ in six attempts this season. Carroll hasn’t started a Truck Series race since Darlington, where he finished 26th.
DRIVER CHANGE: #93-Costner Motorsports
One week after team owner Caleb Costner also failed to qualify at Richmond, he again hands the wheel to a driver who will make his Truck Series debut. Enter a 61-year-old D.L. Wilson, who made his 39th and most recent ARCA Menards Series start this past spring at Kansas, where he finished 24th for Andy Hillenburg’s Fast Track Racing. Wilson carries sponsorship from Rodney Cole Insurance Agency and Auto-Owners Insurance.
CUP INVADERS: #5-John Hunter Nemechek, #62-Christopher Bell, #71-Connor Zilisch
Sunday, August 23, 2026 (Green Flag 3:10 P.M. ET, USA)
CUP Race 25 of 36
Dollar Tree 301 at Loudon
2025 Last-Place Finisher: Daniel Suarez
ENTRY LIST
While the Truck Series entry list is massive, Loudon’s Cup garage sees just 36 cars entered for 40 spots, marking the 23rd short field in 25 races this season and the fourth with only the Chartered cars, joining Las Vegas, Sears Point, and Iowa.
NUMBER CHANGE: #40-Legacy Motor Club
In a one-race deal, John Hunter Nemechek switches from the #42 to the #40 in honor of race and team sponsor Dollar Tree’s 40th anniversary.
MISSING: #66-Garage 66
Carl Long will focus his attention on his Truck Series program this week, leaving their #66 Cup Series entry in the shop following Josh Bilicki’s 35th-place run in Richmond.
Friday, August 28, 2026
O’REILLY Race 24 of 33
Regular Season Finale
Winn-Dixie 250 at Daytona
2025 Last-Place Finisher: Parker Retzlaff
The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series returns to action one week from tonight.
TODAY IN LASTCAR HISTORY (August 21, 2005): Kyle Busch picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Nextel Cup Series career in the GFS Marketplace 400 at Michigan when his #5 Kellogg’s Chevrolet qualified 4th and led 2 of the first 46 laps, only to fall out with overheating issues after 81 laps. Just two weeks later, Busch would win his first career Cup race at Michigan’s sister track in Fontana, California.
