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SEASON IN REVIEW
Level Green, Pennsylvania driver Norm Benning picked up his first LASTCAR Truck Series Championship in 2020, scoring two last-place finishes in seventeen starts during a twenty-three race season. The two finishes he scored were the fewest of a LASTCAR Truck Series Champion since Tracy Hines did the same in 2005.
The popular underdog entered his fifteenth season in the Truck Series, where he’d been running at or near full-time since his most recent ARCA Menards Series start in 2009. He enjoyed the most memorable moment of his career in the series, edging Clay Greenfield for the final transfer spot in the inaugural Last Chance Qualifier at Eldora in 2013. The Eldora race has long since been the highlight of Benning’s season, where he has continued to try and run as many races as possible. While Eldora was scrubbed from the 2020 schedule following the restructuring caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, he would still be helped by NASCAR’s decision to cancel qualifying and allow 40-truck fields. With fewer than 40 entries in all but four races, he started more often than not.
Benning’s first last-place finish of the season came in the seventh race of the season on July 11, when his #6 H&H Transport Chevrolet dropped out with engine trouble after 13 laps at Kentucky. The race was rain-shortened after just 71 laps, and at the time, Benning’s crew was working hard to repair a broken rocker arm in the engine. When the race was called, he was unable to come back out. This finish also happened to be the 15th of his Truck Series career, breaking a tie with Johnny Chapman for the most in series history.
He would extend the LASTCAR Truck Series lead by just one more finish six races later, when he had brake issues after 56 laps at Dover on August 21. By the end of the season, four other drivers had matched Benning’s total of two last-place finishes in 2020, including Josh Reaume, who swept the final two last-place runs of the year at Martinsville and Phoenix. But Benning retained the bottom-five tiebreaker with eight over his nearest competitor, a frustrated Johnny Sauter with five.
At the same time, Benning enjoyed some solid runs. At Kansas on July 25, he engaged in a tight last-place battle on track with Ray Ciccarelli in the #49 CMI Motorsports Chevrolet. Ultimately, Benning finished 25th with Ciccarelli a lap ahead of him in 24th. Both would finish ahead of Bryan Dauzat, whose electrical issues put him behind the wall after 61 laps. It was Benning’s second-best finish of the year, trailing only a 22nd at Talladega on October 3.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
On May 26 at Charlotte, Spencer Davis picked up the first last-place finish of his career in the first 40-truck field since 1998. Davis was driving the #11 Tower Sealants / Southern Premiere Construction Toyota, and secured the first last-place finish for the #11 in the series since 1998. Prior to that night, Mike Hurlbert had been the only Truck Series driver to finish last in the #11.
Mechanical issues such as Benning’s at Kentucky were not unusual in 2020, especially after the cancellation of both practice and qualifying. On September 10 at Richmond, Jennifer Jo Cobb’s team spent half the race trying to take apart the transmission, trying to get her #10 Fastener Supply Company Chevrolet back in the race. Natalie Decker had also missed the start of the race due to an electrical issue on her #44 Ruedebusch Development Chevrolet, but managed to complete 155 of the 250 laps to finish 34th. On August 16, Roger Reuse’s clutch failed on his #49 CMI Motorsports Chevrolet, keeping him from completing a single lap around the Daytona Infield Road Course. And at Martinsville on October 30, Josh Reaume’s #00 Levrack Chevrolet also busted the clutch on the pace laps, and the team spent half the race trying to replace the transmission before finding they couldn’t climb out of last place.
On September 25, Natalie Decker would also not start the race in Las Vegas as she was not medically cleared after the truck was gridded. With no other driver able to fit in her seat, the truck was pushed behind the wall without completing a lap. The initial results indicated she was out with “fatigue,” marking not only the first last-place finish from that cause, but by far the fewest laps – zero – with a driver listed out for that reason. While the results were later changed to show “did not start” instead, the LASTCAR statistics have as yet not been changed.
Two more disqualifications changed the last-place results in 2020. First was Johnny Sauter, who on June 6 at Atlanta was disqualified after one of his tires failed a “dunk test,” dropping him from 17th and taking last from Bryan Dauzat, who crashed twice in the first 13 laps. The other was Trevor Bayne, who finished 5th in just his third-ever Truck start in the #45 Proceller8 Chevrolet, only to fail post-race heights. This lifted Josh Reaume’s “start-and-park” from last place, which altered the outcome of the LASTCAR Truck Series Championship. Had the finish counted, Reaume would have been the only driver with three finishes in 2020.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Bryant Barnhill [3 B5s], Norm Benning [8 B5s], Tanner Gray [2 B5s], Josh Reaume [4 B5s], Johnny Sauter [5 B5s] (2)
2nd) Trevor Bayne, Josh Bilicki, Spencer Boyd, Matt Crafton, Kevin Donahue, Jennifer Jo Cobb, Bryan Dauzat, Spencer Davis, Natalie Decker, Stewart Friesen, Ty Majeski, Roger Reuse, Austin Wayne Self, Tim Viens (1)
