TRUCKS: Crash damage to left-rear hands Corey LaJoie RAM’s first last-place finish since 2015
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
ALL PHOTOS: Brock Beard
Corey LaJoie picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career in Sunday’s Navy 250 “Forged by the Sea” at Naval Base Coronado when his #10 Mopar RAM fell out with crash damage after 14 of 53 laps.
The finish came in LaJoie’s 25th series start. In the Truck Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 10th for a RAM, the 22nd for the #10, and the 211th from a crash. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 10th for a RAM, the 139th for the #10, and the 1,464th from a crash.
LaJoie’s current Truck Series ride can be said to symbolize his rather chaotic path through his NASCAR career. Not willing to compromise on being a regular in the Cup Series, he responded to his release from Spire Motorsports heading into 2025 by funding a four-race deal with Rick Ware Racing. While driving this #01 entry – the number emblematic of the “Stacking Pennies” motto that LaJoie has parlayed into a successful podcast – LaJoie’s lone highlight was leading 10 laps in the Daytona 500 and still challenging for the lead when he was swept up in a last-lap crash. By the summer, when he’d also become an analyst for Amazon Prime’s new NASCAR coverage, he reunited with Spire through their Truck Series team, where he finished well, but remained as winless as he had been in both Cup and the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
Entering this year, LaJoie was set to continue his broadcasting role along with a few starts in the “all-star” #25 entry fielded by the new RAM effort at Kaulig Racing. He first drove the truck at Darlington, where he came home 21st, and was about to race the next round at Rockingham when an unexpected opportunity arose. Daniel Dye, one of LaJoie’s Kaulig teammates, was the full-time driver of the team’s #10. That is, until Dye’s statements about IndyCar driver David Malukas were unearthed in a recorded livestream. Dye was suspended, then ultimately resigned and picked up three other deals in the two months since. And LaJoie, already under contract with Kaulig, was moved over to the full-time #10 in Dye’s place. The only problem was NASCAR denied his exemption from running full-time for championship points, despite starting with the team in the fifth race of the season. In addition, LaJoie’s 7th at Rockingham and 8th at Dover have been the only highlights of a season of subpar performances. Last time out in Michigan, he finished just 29th.
For San Diego, LaJoie was one of 35 drivers entered for 36 available starting spots, securing everyone a place in the field for the landmark race. In the first of two practice sessions, he ranked a strong 11th, best of the RAM entries, with a time of 140.158 seconds (87.330mph). He then jumped to 5th in final practice, again the fastest RAM and this time by a bigger margin, his lap of 139.095 seconds (87.997mph) placing him well above 22nd-place Justin Haley in the #16 at 148.988 seconds (82.154mph). He then ran 4th-fastest in Qualifying Round 1A with a lap of 138.165 seconds (88.590mph), earning him 15th on the starting grid. This marked his fourth consecutive qualifying run of 15th or better, dating back to Charlotte in May.
Securing the 35th and final starting spot was Tanner Gray, who on his first timed lap, destroyed the left-front suspension and bodywork of his multi-colored #15 Place of Hope Toyota hit the wall, forcing the McAnally team to roll out their black-painted backup. His was one of at least four backup trucks brought out as a result of accidents. The others were 22nd-place Stewart Friesen, sent to a white backup truck after wrecking his #52 Halmar International Toyota, 30th-place Christian Eckes, who was speared by a tire barrier in his #91 Columbia Bank Chevrolet, leaving his team to re-wrap a black backup Chevrolet, and 31st-place Justin Marks, who wrecked hard in his beige #77 Jockey 150th Anniversary Chevrolet during final practice, and would also run a black truck.
At least five other drivers dropped to the back for significant repairs which constituted unapproved adjustments. Adam Andretti’s #5 TopLiner Toyota was the first damaged truck in the garage during opening practice, the crew stripping down the right side to the bare metal as they hammered flat its loosened crush panels. Andretti’s incident happened on his first timed lap, producing by far the slowest lap of the session at just 154.419 seconds (79.265 mph), nearly six full seconds off the slowest truck.
Joining Andretti in the garage were 28th-place Brendan Gaughan who had heavy right side, right-front, and splitter damage on his #20 South Point Hotel & Casino Chevrolet, 32nd-place Daniel Hemric whose crew had to rebuild the rear end of his #19 NAPA Auto Care Chevrolet, and 34th-place Brenden Queen, who was critical of his mistake while shifting that caused damage to the left-front and left-rear of his #12 Cummins RAM-sponsored RAM, Also arriving late in the garage with damaged trucks were 6th-place Giovanni Ruggiero for flattening the left side of his #17 JBL Toyota, and 9th-place Landen Lewis for minor rear bumper damage and a missing panel above the left-rear wheel of his #45 J.F. Electric Chevrolet.
Among those ten drivers who found significant trouble, six didn’t take a lap in qualifying as the crew completed repairs. This included three of the four backup trucks – Eckes, Gray, and Marks – plus the damaged Andretti, Hemric, and Queen.
By race time, two more drivers were sent to the back, citing a tire change on 13th-place Ben Rhodes’ #99 Campers Inn Ford and a transmission change on 21st-place Jamie McMurray, making his first series start since 2008 in another Kaulig truck, the #25 The USO RAM. The spot then changed during the pace laps, when Austin Varco in the #22 Tacos El Franc / Dave’s Hot Chicken / Autism Society of San Diego Ford was the last truck to pull onto pit road for his speed test. It then changed just before the start, where 23rd-place qualifier Mini Tyrrell’s #14 RAM-sponsored RAM was last to come off a bumpy Turn 16 and take the green flag.
At the end of Lap 1, Tyrrell remained in last place, now trailing a tightly bunched pack of four drivers running by themselves. The group was led by Gaughan’s repaired #20 and included both Varco’s #22 and the #33 Lakeside Construction Ford of teammate Frankie Muniz. By the end of Lap 2, Tyrrell had passed the other three members of this group, including both Varco and Muniz, dropping Gaughan to last place at the start of Lap 3. With his truck so badly damaged from practice, Gaughan immediately lost ground, and by Lap 4 was already several seconds behind 34th place.
Gaughan was saved on Lap 5 when a battle around the 15th spot caused a two-truck spin. Working through Turn 13, Dawson Sutton’s #26 Rackley Roofing Chevrolet crossed the nose of Nathan Nicholson’s #76 Whelen Aerospace Technologies Chevrolet, sending both into a spin. While Nicholson continued with a visible dent on the passenger-side door, Sutton’s truck stalled, and he lost a lap before the engine re-fired, leaving behind the tow truck that had been dispatched to the scene. During this caution, multiple drivers came down pit road, including Nicholson, and Sutton was told to drop to the tail end of the field. “All we need to do is not be in the wreck,” Sutton’s team told him as the race restarted on Lap 7.
Back under green, Gaughan again lost touch with the pack, dropping ten seconds behind a now 33rd-place Varco on Lap 9, then 20 seconds behind on Lap 10. Meanwhile, a few drivers planned to make early pit stops, including Cole Butcher, who had already pitted his #13 Atlantic Tilt Load Ford during the Sutton caution. Butcher came in for a splash of fuel, joined by Parker Kligerman in the #75 FMS Chevrolet and Ty Majeski in the #88 SPAM / Menards Ford. Even with these stops, Gaughan only gained a couple spots before he dropped back to 34th on Lap 12, the last lap of Stage 1. That lap finished without incident, and Sutton finally got his lap back in the 35th and last spot.
Sutton pitted by himself under caution, when NRN reported that McMurray was struggling with a brake issue, forcing him to make a lengthy pit stop. This stop dropped McMurray to last on Lap 14, and he returned to the track just before the Lap 15 restart, trapping him nearly a half-lap down on the massive course. With the field up to speed on Lap 16, McMurray was still running by himself, about 20 seconds ahead of the leaders.
Meanwhile, LaJoie was running well, holding the 9th spot on the Lap 7 restart, though on the final lap of Stage 1, he narrowly lost the final stage spot when Tyler Reif took the 10th spot off the final chicane in his #42 Niece Equipment / Foundation for Pops Chevrolet. But by Lap 15, things went sideways as he took over the last spot, sitting on pit road with the window net down. By Lap 17, he was shown two laps down when Justin Marks clobbered the wall in his backup #77, forcing him to pit road where he shut off the engine, the right-front tire completely shredded. Marks returned to the track two laps down, but LaJoie remained in his pit stall until Lap 25, when he was now nine laps down. Only then did a tow truck drag his truck backwards into the garage area and stop at the stall. LaJoie’s left-rear tire was flat, the suspension pulled backwards with noticeable damage on the left-rear quarter-panel, and the right-rear lower quarter-panel was also pushed in.
Two laps later, McMurray’s #25 was towed nose-first into the garage with heavy damage on the right-front corner. He’d hit a wall on Lap 24 and was shown limping round the track. When the tow truck arrived, it dropped McMurray’s truck off at the Kaulig hauler directly to the left of LaJoie’s. Both were done for the afternoon. FS1’s leaderboard once again had issues with timing and scoring. In the closing stages, it showed LaJoie last with McMurray in 31st. With five to go, it changed to show McMurray in last with LaJoie in 34th. NASCAR’s official results correctly indicated LaJoie in last with McMurray in 34th.
Taking the 33rd spot was Friesen, whose backup #52 Halmar International Toyota dropped out with power steering issues (listed as “power” in NASCAR’s original timing and scoring). Jake Garcia’s transmission failed on his #98 Quanta / Curb Records Ford, leaving him 32nd behind 31st-place Tyler Ankrum, who ripped the right-side sheetmetal from his #18 LiUNA Chevrolet after he slammed a concrete barrier hard enough to move the wall, forcing a red flag for repairs. Ankrum walked away without serious injury.
Reif nearly wins, Nicholson also impressive at Coronado
Reif’s #42 truck after the hard-fought race
While Layne Riggs scored his second-straight street course victory, the day very nearly went to Tyler Reif, whose team owner Al Niece once served at Naval Base Coronado in the U.S. Marine Corps, and whose truck honored Medal of Honor recipient Col. John W. Ripley. Making just his seventh series start, Reif caught the leaders during the frantic battle for the finish, then took the lead coming to the white flag in overtime. Reif managed to fend off Riggs for nearly the entire lap until the final chicane, where he missed one of the tire stacks and had to immediately stop to serve a stop-and-go penalty. As Riggs won, Reif had to settle for 19th. This was just the latest impressive run for the newcomer, who finished 9th in his series debut at Phoenix just seven months ago.
Also impressive was Nathan Nicholson, who in only his third series start as the “road ringer” for owner Spencer Boyd’s team Freedom Racing Enterprises was battling inside the Top 10 in the final laps before he was spun into a wall in the closing stages, destroying the nose of his #76 Whelen Aerospace Technologies Chevrolet for a 28th-place finish.
Among those who survived the chaos, Kaz Grala finished a strong 3rd in the #62 Fire Dept. Coffee Toyota, his first Truck Series start since 2023, and his best finish since he came home runner-up at COTA in 2021. Right behind him in 4th came Landen Lewis, who finished a career-best 4th in only his sixth career start in the repaired #45, much to the joy of his mentor Ron Hornaday, Jr., who watched the race trackside. And despite the damage they suffered in practice and qualified, the repaired Brenden Queen recovered to take 7th, Giovanni Ruggiero took 10th, and Christian Eckes claimed 9th in his backup #91 Chevrolet.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first Truck Series last-place finish for a RAM since August 30, 2015, when Robert Mitten was supposed to start the race in Mosport, but his #53 NDS Motorsports RAM crashed into a tire barrier during qualifying, preventing him from starting the race. This finish was classified as a “did not start.”
*This was the first last-place finish for the #10 in a Truck Series race since August 20, 2021, when Jennifer Jo Cobb scored her ninth and most recent Truck Series last-place finish for her longtime owner-driver operation. That day, she had engine trouble on her #10 Fastener Supply Co. Ford after 28 laps.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
35) #10-Corey LaJoie / 14 laps / crash
34) #25-Jamie McMurray / 22 laps / crash
33) #52-Stewart Friesen / 29 laps / power steering
32) #98-Jake Garcia / 40 laps / transmission
31) #9-Grant Enfinger / 45 laps / crash
2026 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Team Reaume (3)
2nd) Niece Motorsports, ThorSport Racing (2)
3rd) Front Row Motorsports, Halmar Friesen Racing, Kaulig RAM Racing, McAnally-Hilgemann Racing, Motorsports Business Management, Rackley-W.A.R. (1)
2026 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Ford (7)
2nd) Chevrolet (4)
3rd) RAM, Toyota (1)
2026 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
