PHOTO: Jared Haas, @RealJaredHaas
SEASON IN REVIEW
Creve Coeur, Maryland driver Spencer Boyd picked up his first LASTCAR Truck Series Championship in 2022, scoring three last-place finishes in twenty-two starts during a twenty-three-race season.
The 2022 season marked Boyd’s sixth in the Truck Series and fourth in one of Randy Young’s Chevrolets for Young’s Motorsports. The 2019 surprise winner at Talladega following the “yellow-line rule” infraction by Johnny Sauter, Boyd has also dabbled in NASCAR’s other top divisions. He ran the full 2018 XFINITY campaign for SS-Green Light Racing, raking 26th in points with a season-best 17th in the summer race at Daytona. He also made his first three Cup starts the following year with Rick Ware Racing, scoring a career-best 34th at Richmond – the only one of those three he finished under power.
Boyd struggled through the 2022 season – most significantly with his lone DNQ of the year at Talladega, site of his breakthrough victory. While he carried multiple different sponsors through the season, including Rimtyme, Freedom Warranty, and Hairclub, his worst stretch came in the final seven races, when he scored his three last-place finishes. The first of these came at IRP on July 29th, when his #12 Derm Dude Chevrolet caught fire after an early on-track tangle with Josh Reaume. Three races later at Bristol, his #12 Rimtyme Chevrolet again caught fire – this time after bouncing off the outside wall. The team debated about going behind the wall, knowing that doing so would end their night, but believing the contact to be minimal. Regardless, that final left turn ended their night under the “Damaged Vehicle Policy.” The series-leading third last-place run came just two rounds later at Homestead on October 22nd, where he was running last before falling out with brake issues in the final laps.
The Homestead finish broke Boyd’s tie with Dean Thompson, who had held the LASTCAR Truck Series Championship lead since the season opener at Daytona, where his wrecked #40 Worldwide Express Chevrolet was ultimately stopped with brake issues. Thompson had likewise suffered a fire that resulted in a last-place run – his at Martinsville on April 7th – and the season’s high number of first-time last-place finishers kept Thompson atop the standings. He’d ultimately fall two Bottom Fives short of challenging Boyd for the title in Phoenix, allowing Boyd to clinch with one race to go at Homestead.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
Fire would become a troubling trend in the 2022 Truck Series campaign. In addition to Spencer Boyd’s incident at IRP and Dean Thompson’s at Martinsville, there were two other instances that happened to result in last-place finishes. At Atlanta on March 19th, Hailie Deegan cut down a tire on her #1 Wastequip Ford. After her pit stop, she came back to pit road with smoke in the cockpit and had to be carried out of her truck by the crew. Deegan’s reason out was listed as “tire,” the first in a NASCAR last-place finish since April 24, 1955. Then on October 1st, Jordan Anderson had qualified a strong 9th in his #3 Dometic Outdoors Chevrolet when it erupted in flames off Talladega’s Turn 2, forcing him to bail from the truck an instant before it struck the inside wall. Anderson was sprayed by burning oil and suffered serious burns, requiring him to be airlifted from the track. This was Anderson’s first last-place run since 2016.
Only nine of the season’s twenty-three last-place finishers did not score their first last-place finish, resulting in no fewer than fourteen first-time last-place finishers. Included was a record-setting streak of nine consecutive first-timers from Akinori Ogata’s engine failure at Darlington on May 6th through July 9th at Mid-Ohio, where Mason Filippi also had engine trouble. This streak matched the record for the most consecutive first-timers in series history, tied only with the first nine Truck Series races ever held in 1995. Among these drivers was Brett Moffitt, who scored his first Truck Series last-place finish in his 92nd series start, which came at Kansas on September 9th.
G2G Racing, co-owned by Tim Viens and Billy Shear, was a frequent sight on the LASTCAR headlines, scoring their four last-place finishes with four of the year’s first-time last-place finishers. Most controversial was the team’s appearance at Sonoma on June 11th, where the team planned to enter two Toyotas – the #46 for Mason Filippi and the #47 for Travis McCullough. Neither driver would race. McCullough never turned a lap – his truck was completely unprepared to even go through technical inspection – and a delay in receiving the results of a drug test prevented him from driving for anyone else. Filippi made some laps, but wasn’t satisfied with the truck, and ultimately the wheel was handed over to Stefan Parsons. Parsons started the race, only for the engine to blow oil under the hood after a few laps, leaving them in last place. Filippi would finish last in the same truck at Mid-Ohio, where it again struggled around the track before pulling off on a breakdown lane.
Another G2G issue arose at Darlington May 6th, where Brennan Poole engaged in a tight last-place battle with Reaume Brothers Racing’s Akinori Ogata in the #43 Precision Kyowa Toyota. Poole missed the start of the race due to an electrical issue, requiring a battery replacement. Ogata then wrecked with teammate and team owner Josh Reaume. Ogata’s truck then stalled and also suffered a radio issue, all the while struggling to clear the “Crash Clock.” Poole then joined the race 20 laps down, and found his truck was running solid lap times. Ogata, however, believed he had engine issues, and the team thought he broke a valve spring from over-revving the engine. Ogata’s team examined the ECU in the garage, where Poole soon joined him after his own truck shut off. Poole returned and nearly made up his entire deficit to Ogata before he stalled again, then returned an finally put Ogata in last place on Lap 80. Ogata didn’t return to the track during this time and was ultimately out of the race with only 54 laps completed. After Matt Crafton’s disqualification for his truck being too low was overturned, Ogata retained the hard-earned last-place run.
On March 4th, Zane Smith was disqualified after finishing 2nd in Las Vegas for non-conforming lug nuts with missing threads on his #38 Michael Roberts Construction Ford. Smith, who overcame damage during the race to finish where he had, would go on to claim the 2022 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Championship in dominating fashion at Phoenix.
Bristol’s second dirt race on April 16th saw an entire Truck Series field finish under power for the first time, including 36th-place Austin Wayne Self, who earned his first last-place run since 2016. The entire field nearly came home under power again at Richmond on August 13th until late-race contact from Carson Hocevar ended the night for Nick Leitz in the #33 Impact Logistics Chevrolet.
The most emotional last-place run of 2022 belonged to veteran Todd Bodine, who joined with Halmar-Friesen Racing and Camping World to make the final few races he needed to reach 800 NASCAR starts. The tour ended at Pocono – selected as the closest allowed venue to his home state in New York – where on July 23rd, his #62 Toyota was collected in a wreck in Turn 1. It was only Bodine’s second Truck Series last-place run, and his first since 2005.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Spencer Boyd (3)
2nd) Dean Thompson (2)
3rd) Jordan Anderson, Todd Bodine, Tyler Carpenter, Sheldon Creed, Mason Filippi, Taylor Gray, Derek Kraus, Chase Janes, Jesse Iwuji, Nick Leitz, Brett Moffitt, Akinori Ogata, Stefan Parsons, Brennan Poole, Austin Wayne Self, Zane Smith, Armani Williams (1)
