TRUCKS: Connor Mosack ends Green’s last-place streak after first-lap crash
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: McAnally-Hilgemann Racing, @BMR_NASCAR
Connor Mosack picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career in Saturday’s Team EJP 175 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway when his #81 F.W. Webb Company Chevrolet fell out with crash damage after 1 of 175 laps.
The finish came in Mosak’s 32nd series start. In the Truck Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 8th for the #81, the 201st from a crash and the 463rd for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 27th for the #81, the 1,432nd from a crash, and the 2,013th for Chevrolet.
The 26-year-old Mosack is a relative newcomer to NASCAR’s national stage, having made the jump from late models to ARCA, where he’s since won a pair of races at Kansas. He also boasts some road course experience in Trans-Am, where he won a pair of TA2 events at Watkins Glen. He thus began his NASCAR career as a kind of road course specialist. In 2022, he made his XFINITY debut for Joe Gibbs Racing at Portland, where he qualified 8th but crashed out late. A month later came his Truck Series debut at Mid-Ohio, where he qualified Bret Holmes’ Chevrolet in 11th before brake issues ended his day.
Mosack ran the majority of the 2023 XFINITY Series campaign for Sam Hunt Racing, where he earned a career-best 5th in his return to Watkins Glen. But last year, he switched from Toyota to Chevrolet, and with this change got an opportunity to drive for both Al Niece and Spire Motorsports in the Truck Series. He closed out the year strong, finishing 10th in Kansas, 3rd at Homestead, and 8th at Phoenix. This landed him his first full-time run in Trucks, where he pilots the team’s #81 Chevrolet. The Friends of Jaclyn Foundation, which backed many of last year’s late-season runs, has joined forces for much of this year.
Mosack’s 2025 campaign got off to a rough start in Daytona, where he couldn’t get out of reverse gear, leaving his truck stranded on pit road during the pace laps. He missed the start, then came back out to finish 32nd, 11 laps down. The next week he won the pole in Atlanta, only to encounter more bad luck and finish 25th. He then finished 9th at Rockingham, 6th at Pocono, and just last week in Bristol claimed a 7th.
After CR7 Motorsports withdrew its second #97 entry for XFINITY Series regular Carson Kvapil, Mosack was among the 36 entrants who would complete the field for the first Truck Series race at Loudon in eight years. The F.W. Webb Company, Mosack’s sponsor for the weekend, is a Boston-based plumbing, heating, and HVAC company which has been in business since 1866 (and given its current name in 1899 after Frank Webb purchased the company). This marked the company’s first sponsorship in NASCAR national competition.
In practice, Mosack ranked 18th with a best lap of 30.360 seconds (125.455mph), then jumped to 11th with a lap of 29.381 seconds (129.635mph), right behind teammate Tyler Ankrum.
Seuring the 36th and final starting spot was Caleb Costner, whose #74 Ironside Forestry Toyota had a mechanical issue in practice which prevented him from taking a qualifying lap. Two other drivers didn’t turn a lap in qualifying – Tyler Tomassi in Josh Reaume’s #33 Tomassi Law LLC Ford and Derek White, who bumped the Turn 2 wall with the right-rear of Carl Long’s #69 Wholesale JL Ford. Tomassi and White incurred tail-end penalties for unapproved adjustments along with 28th-place Christian Eckes in McAnally’s part-time entry, the #16 NAPA Nightvision Chevrolet.
During the pace laps, Costner lagged behind the pack along with Stephen Mallozzi, this week’s driver of the unsponsored black #2 Ford for Reaume Brothers Racing. Taking the place of teammate Clayton Green, who finished last the previous three races in a row, Mallozzi turned the slowest completed lap, which put him 33rd ahead of the three who didn’t run. “I think it’s gonna be a race to pit road between you and the 74,” Mallozzi was told over the radio. “We’ll see.” Coming to the stripe, NASCAR reminded Costner to start in the high lane, saying, “They don’t get to choose back there.”
When the green flag dropped, Mallozzi was in last place across the stripe, 5.183 seconds back of the lead to the now 35th-place Costner’s 4.271. But an instant later, as the leaders were still working their way through Turn 2, trouble broke out near the front. While battling Matt Crafton for the 5th spot, Taylor Gray’s #15 Place of Hope Toyota slid up the track and was then bumped by Corey LaJoie’s #77 Gainbridge Chevrolet, sending Gray spinning to the inside of the track. Closing on the scene was TRICON teammate Brent Crews, whose #1 JBL Toyota was bumped into a spin by Jake Garcia’s #13 Quanta Services Ford. As the right-rear of Crews’ truck slid into the left-front of Gray, this blocked the entire inside lane for a closing Mosack, whose right-front struck the driver’s door of Gray.
Both Gray and Mosack made it to pit road, followed by Crews, who needed a moment to turn the right direction. Crews took last as Lap 1 was completed under caution, but Mosack took last on Lap 3 as the crew worked on the damaged right-front, the wheel tilted inward at a sharp angle. Mosack was pitted in Stall 9, past the starting line, thus crediting him with one lap complete. Mallozzi also remarked that Gray’s truck had an odd stance after the incident. On Lap 4, NASCAR instructed Mosack, Gray, and Crews to drop to the tail end for the restart. But Mosack’s truck was already being pushed back to the garage, headed for Stall 22. The damage to the suspension was too much to repair, and Mosack was done for the afternoon.
By the Lap 7 restart, Gray had lost a lap in the 35th spot as the crew set to work repairing his truck on pit road. Back on the track, Crews (14.736 seconds back of the lead), Mallozzi (11.495), and Costner (8.821) lost touch with the pack. Ahead of them, Norm Benning tumbled to 31st in his #6 MDIA Inc. Chevrolet. On Lap 8, Crews cleared minimum speed as he climbed to 33rd ahead of Mallozzi, who pulled behind the wall. By Lap 11, the 35th-place Gray had three minutes left on the “Crash Clock,” and Benning was 17.464 back of the lead in 33rd. Gray returned to the track on Lap 12, five laps down, and soon passed Mallozzi for 34th. Mallozzi and team still discussed coming back out if Gray returned to the garage in the next 15 laps, but by then, Gray had cleared minimum speed.
On Lap 16, both 32nd-place Costner and 33rd-place Benning lost a lap to the leaders. Benning was black flagged for failing to meet minimum speed on Lap 19, followed by Gray on Lap 20. Since Gray had cleared minimum speed for his prior incident, he’d be allowed to make repairs in the garage, which he did on Lap 22. There, Gray’s crew unbolted the track bar, which was bent “like a horseshoe” by six inches. The crew took a hammer to bend it back straight. By then, Benning had come down pit road, where the driver shouted at the team to make adjustments to both rear corners of his truck. Benning returned to the race three laps down in 33rd, just ahead of Costner. On Lap 27, Costner was lapped by then-leader Corey Heim entering Turn 3, then Benning for a fourth time at Turn 1.
On Lap 33, NASCAR black-flagged Benning, calling him to the garage. An instant later, the caution fell for Jayson Alexander, who made an aggressive move entering Turn 1 in the #02 Chevrolet, but ended up colliding with the lapped Costner, sending Alexander into the outside wall. Costner went behind the wall under yellow, and Alexander’s wrecked truck was towed to the garage at Turn 3. Benning had planned on staying out until the restart, but went behind the wall on Lap 35. He asked the crew for clarification from the NASCAR officials, but the crew said the official present only shrugged. “I came here to race,” said Benning. “I drove 26 hours to get here, spent a ton of money. And I wasn’t below minimum speed that often. I hope they know they’re ruining a team. . .They don’t want us here.”
On Lap 39, Tanner Gray returned from the garage 22 laps down. The truck still seemed to “crab walk” on track – possibly due to a bent front truck arm – but the team said he should be able to clear minimum speed. He took the restart on Lap 42, but another caution fell after Conner Jones backed his #41 AutoVentive / Precision Chevrolet into the Turn 4 wall, and Christian Eckes was bumped sideways by Jack Wood. This allowed Gray to make a pit stop under yellow for the crew to bottom-out the track bar. This same caution saw Derek White drop to 30th, losing two laps after repairs on a stuck throttle. Michael Christopher, Jr., making his series debut in the #62 Toyota, dropped to the tail end in front of Gray as he wasn’t able to serve a changing lanes penalty before Jones’ caution.
Soon after the Lap 49 restart, NASCAR declared all trucks cleared minimum speed, including Gray, who remained 22 laps down. This happened an instant before Derek White’s throttle hung a second time, this time sending him into the wall at Turn 3. White climbed from the truck under his own power, and Gray now looked to catch the eliminated Jones and White to reach the 29th spot. On Lap 53, Gray climbed past Benning into 33rd, then to 31st past Costner and Alexander on Lap 55. But by Lap 60, Gray said the truck felt way worse, and soon mentioned a vibration in the right-rear that again put him in danger of not meeting minimum speed. On Lap 70, with the leaders bearing down, Gray pitted for four fresh tires, by which point he’d climbed to 29th. Now 24 laps down with no other drivers ahead of him more than one lap behind, Gray and crew discussed parking unless the field kept wrecking. The original plan was to reach the end of Stage 2, and he took on fresh tires again on Lap 85. But on Lap 91, he pulled behind the wall and stopped behind the team hauler.
NASCAR finally declared Mosack out on Lap 87 along with both Alexander and Costner. Then on Lap 88, Benning, Mallozzi, Jones, and White were also declared out. Mallozzi, Benning, Costner, and Alexander completed the Bottom Five. While Mosack was listed out by “suspension” issues according to the NASCAR official, the official results showed “accident” instead.
Perez De Lara keeps momentum going in Loudon
One week after his 8th-place finish in Bristol, Andres Perez de Lara enjoyed the best run of his career on Saturday, leading 47 laps on his way to a runner-up finish in Stage 2. Perez De Lara’s #44 Telcel Chevrolet dropped back in Stage 3, finishing the race in the 15th position.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #81 in a Truck Series race since November 18, 2016, when Ryan Truex lost the engine on the #81 Chiba Toyopet Toyota (fielded by Shigeaki Hattori) after 49 laps around Homestead. The number had not finished last in a Truck race at Loudon.
*This was the first time the last-place finisher of a Truck Series race at Loudon completed only the opening lap since September 13, 2008, when Norm Benning fell out after rear end trouble on his #57 Benning Racing Chevrolet. From 2008 to now, four of the five Loudon races where the last-place finisher failed to complete any laps also occurred.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
36) #81-Connor Mosack / 1 lap / crash
35) #2-Stephen Mallozzi / 7 laps / suspension
34) #6-Norm Benning / 29 laps / too slow
33) #74-Caleb Costner / 30 laps / crash
32) #02-Jayson Alexander / 31 laps / crash
2025 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Reaume Brothers Racing (9)
2nd) Norm Benning Racing (3)
3rd) Front Row Motorsports (2)
4th) FDNY Racing, Freedom Racing Enterprises, Halmar Friesen Racing, Henderson Motorsports, McAnally-Hilgemann Racing, Niece Motorsports, Spire Motorsports (1)
2025 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Ford (11)
2nd) Chevrolet (9)
3rd) Toyota (1)
2025 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
