PHOTO: Steven Taranto, @STaranto92
SEASON IN REVIEW
Marble Falls, Texas driver Clayton Green picked up his first LASTCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship in 2025, scoring four last-place finishes in seven races during a twenty-five race season.
Green was competing in only his second season in Truck Series competition. In that 2024 campaign, he made his series debut at North Wilkesboro, finishing 34th for team owner Cory Roper, then ran 24th in the fall race at Martinsville for Reaume Brothers Racing. Green reunited with Reaume for 2025, where he’d split time between the team’s #2 and #22 Ford entries alongside full-time rookie Frankie Muniz in the flagship #33.
Green’s first last-place finish of the season came in his third start at Richmond on August 15th, the eighteenth race of the season, where his unsponsored #2 Ford pulled off the track with mechanical issues after only two laps – a last-place reason that hadn’t been used in the series since 1997. The next two occurred in the following two consecutive races. He first moved to the team’s #22 for Darlington on August 30th, where this time the transmission was to blame after three laps. The race after at Bristol on September 11th, where he piloted a flat black #2 Ford, Green made it nine laps before transmission issues. This marked the first streak of three consecutive Truck Series last-place finishes by the same driver since 2016, which it was accomplished by Caleb Roark.
The deciding finish came four races later in the penultimate round of the season at Martinsville on October 24th. That weekend, Green had full sponsorship from his family’s construction business, Royal Vista, Inc. Reaume had entered Green in the race intending to park after the early laps as the truck was intended for a full-race bid in the Phoenix finale, where Green had competed in what was then the K&N Pro Series West. But in practice, Green got into fluid and backed into the wall, destroying the rear of his truck. The crew made quick repairs before the race, but pulled into the garage immediately after the command to start engines without ever entering the track. This resulted in a fourth last-place finish.
The Reaume team prepared a backup for Phoenix, where Green finished 20th, but he’d already locked-up the LASTCAR Truck Series Championship when the green flag dropped. By then, the only two drivers in position to take away the title were Norm Benning and Stephen Mallozzi, the latter one of the drivers who had traded driving duties in the #2 and #22 throughout the 2025 campaign. With three last-place finishes apiece, both Benning and Mallozzi were in position to win the LASTCAR title if they finished last in the Phoenix finale. But since neither were entered, both were eliminated once the race began.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
Green was one of the seven drivers who scored their first Truck Series last-place finishes of 2025, joined by Parker Kligerman (Daytona on February 14th), Ryan Roulette (Martinsville on March 28th), Kaden Honeycutt (Texas on May 2nd), Frankie Muniz (Nashville on May 30th), Alex Labbe (June 28th at Lime Rock Park, also his series debut), and Connor Mosack (Loudon on September 20th).
Keith McGee and Stephen Mallozzi were among the drivers who shared the #2 ride with Green, the two scoring three straight last-place finishes from February 22nd at Atlanta through March 21st at Homestead, then four of the season’s first six. McGee’s electoral issue after 43 laps at Atlanta, which started this streak, also happened to be the first last-place run for the #2 in the Truck Series since 1995. Mallozzi’s subsequent two in a row at Las Vegas and Homestead marked the first repeat last-place runs by a Truck Series driver since Josh Reaume in 2020.
Speaking of the Reaume team, Frankie Muniz in the #33 Buy American Veteran Ford scored his first last-place finish at Nashville on May 30th when a wiggins clamp came loose at the end of Lap 1, causing the oil line to fall off and spray fluid around the track. The team was unable to return, credited with just two laps.
Ryan Roulette’s last-place run at Martinsville in the #67 VGW – Veterans of Foreign Wars Chevrolet on March 28th was the first for the #67 in series history.
Both Norm Benning in his #6 MDIA Inc. Chevrolet on April 18th at Rockingham and Bryan Dauzat in the #28 FDNY Chevrolet at Pocono on June 20th were classified last for running “too slow.” Benning and Dauzat were flagged at the same time at Pocono, and each were parked after unsuccessful repairs.
On May 23rd at Charlotte, Chandler Smith wrecked after 70 laps in his #38 QuickTie Ford, marking his first last-place finish in the series since 2021. Ben Rhodes’ crash after 2 laps in his #99 TSport Trucks Ford around the Charlotte “Roval” on October 3rd marked his first in the series in 147 races, dating back to 2019. Driving his #9 Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet, Grant Enfinger’s crash after 3 laps of the Talladega race two weeks later was his own first last-place run in the Truck Series since 2012.
The first of three disqualifications came in the opener at Daytona, where Parker Kligerman scored an emotional victory for team owner Charlie Henderson, who passed away later that year. But his #75 Spiked Coolers Chevrolet was found to be too low on both sides, handing him the DQ and bumping Kaden Honeycutt out of last place. Honeycutt would go on to get his first last-place run of his career at Texas on May 2nd, the result of a hard crash. Layne Riggs earned the second DQ at Kansas on May 10th, negating a close 2nd-place finish after his #34 Love’s RV Stop Ford was found with an improperly sealed bed panel. The third went to Stewart Friesen, who on July 25th finished 3rd in his 200th series start on his 42nd birthday, only to be docked for his #52 Halmar International Toyota to be found too low in post-race heights. Three days later, Friesen was then seriously injured in a crash racing big block modifieds, handing the wheel to Honeycutt.
Connor Mosack’s wreck in the #81 F.W. Webb Company Chevrolet after one lap around Loudon on September 20th was reported as a “suspension” issue by the garage official over the radio, but was then shown as “accident” in the results.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Clayton Green (4)
2nd) Norm Benning, Stephen Mallozzi (3)
3rd) Kyle Busch, Bryan Dauzat, Grant Enfinger, Stewart Friesen, Kaden Honeycutt, Parker Kligerman, Alex Labbe, Keith McGee, Connor Mosack, Frankie Muniz, Ben Rhodes, Layne Riggs, Ryan Roulette, Chandler Smith, Dawson Sutton (1)
