by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
SCREENSHOT: FS1
Nick Sanchez picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career in Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race at the Homestead-Miami Speedway when his #77 Modo Super Gaming App Chevrolet fell out with a driveshaft failure after 104 of 134 laps.
The finish came in Sanchez’ 51st series start. In the Truck Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 4th for the #77, the 7th from the driveshaft, and the 474th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 30th for the driveshaft, the 60th for the #77, and the 2,073rd for Chevrolet.
Homestead signaled the end of a turbulent and unpredictable 2026 campaign for Sanchez. After losing his O’Reilly Auto Parts Series ride at Big Machine Racing to Dr. Patrick Staropoli, Sanchez found his way to AM Racing, only to find the team on unsteady ground. Despite fielding two cars in Daytona, AM wasn’t even planning on competing until a sale to Sigma Performance Services fell through over the offseason. Incredibly, Sanchez nearly pulled off a win in the second round of the season at Atlanta before he finished 3rd, and just five races later, the team had shut down. He didn’t enter the next ten races until Pocono, when the Peterson Racing Group hired him to split the remaining schedule between an outgoing Austin Green and an incoming Lee Pulliam. His best run in that stretch was a 6th-place showing at Iowa.
During his O’Reilly exploits, Sanchez had been largely absent from the Truck Series since his two-win 2024 campaign with Rev Racing, a year that saw him fall just short of making the Championship Four. His lone series start in 2025 came with Spire Motorsports, with whom he finished 13th at Texas. He didn’t run any races this year until the 16th round at IRP, where he piloted Spire’s #77 to a strong 5th-place finish after he qualified in 3rd. After a last-minute deal to substitute an ailing Parker Kligerman in the Henderson Motorsports entry at Bristol, he then won the pole at Kansas in his return to Spire, only to finish three laps down in 28th.
For Homestead, Sanchez would again pilot the #77, which carried one of several vibrant paint schemes for the Miami weekend. Both he and Daniel Suarez, Spire’s Cup driver of the #7, would run similar paint schemes for online gambling app Modo, and featured the face of professional golfer and Modo brand ambassador John Daly. A collage featuring several prints of Daly’s face across both sides of the truck gave the appearance of snakeskin, which stood out against a neon-and-black base.
Sanchez was one of 35 drivers entered for just the fourth short field of the 2026 Truck Series campaign. He began the weekend Thursday night with impressive speed, ranking 3rd on the speed charts as the fastest Chevrolet with a lap of 32.790 seconds (164.684mph), trailing only the two ThorSport Ford entries of Ty Majeski and Jake Garcia. The 31st truck on track for qualifying, Sanchez bested Chandler Smith by 0.086 second to put the #77 on pole with an even faster lap of 32.756 seconds (164.855mph). This was the eighth series pole for Sanchez and his first since May 10, 2024 at Darlington.
Securing the 35th and final starting spot was the black-and-white #76 Desnuda Organic Tequila Chevrolet of Spencer Boyd, who was 2.492 seconds off Sanchez’ pole. Boyd was also more than one full second off the pace of Clayton Green, whose #22 Royal Vista, Inc. Ford arrived in Friday’s race as the leader in the 2026 LASTCAR Truck Series Championship. Green didn’t need to finish in last place to secure his second-straight LASTCAR title, but Boyd was one of seven drivers in the field who could have snatched away the title with a last-place finish on Friday. The other six were Kris Wright, Cole Butcher, Corey LaJoie, Christian Eckes, Stewart Friesen, and Ben Rhodes.
No drivers dropped to the rear for pre-race penalties, so Boyd trailed the inside line coming to the green flag, 3.396 seconds back of the lead. Up front, Corey Heim immediately swept to Sanchez’ inside in what was suddenly a three-wide battle for the lead between both drivers and outside-polesitter Chandler Smith. Stuck in the middle lane, Sanchez now ran to the inside of Smith’s teammate Layne Riggs, whose #34 Love’s Travel Stops / Fleetguard Ford arrived just 20 points out of the NASCAR championship lead held by Kaden Honeycutt. Sanchez battled back into Turn 3, but Smith and Heim pulled away in the first two spots, leaving Sanchez to deal with 3rd-place Riggs. As the tail end of the field crossed the stripe, Boyd remained in last, 4.341 seconds back of the lead, and about two-tenths back of 34th-place Green. Back up front, coming off Turn 2 on Lap 2, Riggs now pulled to Sanchez’ inside in the race for 3rd. At corner exit, Sanchez appeared to come down as Riggs pulled up, causing contact between the right-rear of Riggs’ truck and the left-rear of Sanchez. Riggs fought for control off the corner as title contender Honeycutt made his way past. While now back to 5th, Riggs continued around the track with what appeared to be just cosmetic damage. The field completed the second lap with Boyd still in last place, now four-tenths back of Green.
Boyd’s gap to Green started to increase on Lap 5, when Boyd was 10.758 seconds back of the lead, now nearly six-tenths back of Green. That increased to nine-tenths by Lap 6, then on Lap 7, he was already 15.173 seconds back to Green’s 13.726, nearly one-and-a-half seconds back. The deficit increased to ore than two seconds by Lap 9. The next time by on Lap 10, Green climbed to 33rd place, passing teammate Frankie Muniz in the #33 Modo Rips Ford. But Muniz fought back, to which Boyd’s spotter said, “Go get that 33.” On Lap 12, Muniz dropped Green back to 34th, 20.887 seconds back of the lead to Boyd’s 23.313, the gap now about two-and-a-half seconds. Then on Lap 14, as Boyd’s crew discussed trying another lane, Green made an unscheduled pit stop. His truck was overheating as he’d picked up a dried-up windshield tear-off that stuck to his grille. The crew removed a tear-off, topped off his fuel tank, and sent him back out. By Lap 16, he was firmly in last place, now running two laps down to the leader.
During this run, Riggs was still feeling out his truck, and began to report he felt like a tire was going down. Then on Lap 18, while headed down the backstretch, the right-rear tire blew. He made it to the access road without drawing the caution flag, but immediately plummeted down the order. The crew made quick repairs and changed tires, sending Riggs back on track two laps down. He remained in 34th, still one spot ahead of last-place Green, and weighed the options of taking the wave-around when Stage 1 ended. Meanwhile, the leaders started to lap the trailing trucks. Boyd lost a lap in 33rd by Lap 22, followed by 32nd-place Muniz on Lap 25. When Stage 1 finally ended on Lap 31, there were 30 trucks on the lead lap, handing the Lucky Dog to 31st-place Spencer Davis in the #5 Ruud / Surf USA Mobile Toyota. This trapped both Green and Riggs two laps down in the final two positions.
Under the caution, where Riggs took the wave-around, Green reported his water temperature was ow at 209 degrees. When told of the tear-off that was stuck to his grille, he said, “It’s just my luck.” Green stayed out, putting him one lap down along with Riggs, and was told he was good on fuel after his unscheduled stop. “Looks like you’ll be racing Layne Riggs, huh?” said Green’s crew as he prepared for the restart. Green also reported his truck was getting a little tight going into the corner during the opening run.
On the Lap 35 restart, Green and Riggs were the last two of four trucks shown one lap down. Shortly after, Sanchez had another close call with the leaders, bouncing between Gio Ruggiero’s #17 JBL Toyota and Daniel Hemric’s #19 NAPA Auto Care Chevrolet as they entered Turn 3. Further back, Riggs had yet to climb out of the 34th spot, unable to catch the other two lapped trucks of Boyd and Muniz. Soon after, Riggs grazed the wall entering either Turn 1 or Turn 3. Again, his right-rear tire went down, and again this didn’t bring out the caution as he made an unscheduled stop under green. Riggs took last from Green on Lap 47 as the crew continued their work on the right-rear, each knowing the championship was now out of their reach. By the time he returned on Lap 51, Riggs was six laps down. He lost a seventh lap after he immediately received a penalty for too many men over the wall. His first completed lap after the stop clocked in at 211.999 seconds, or around 3 minutes and 30 seconds.
By the time Stage 2 ended on Lap 61, where Honeycutt increased his earned total stage points to 13, Riggs was still seven laps down with 34th-place Green now two down himself. “Just for my knowledge, did the 77 do anything wrong there on the initial?” asked someone on Riggs’ crew, referring to the Lap 2 contact with Sanchez. The response, “I don’t know. . .I’ll have to watch it.” Riggs briefly got a lap back before his stop, then managed to not lose another lap during his repairs, keeping him seven down in last place. Incidentally, the #34 hadn’t finished last in a Truck Series race at Homestead since 2020, when Bryant Barnhill was driving for Josh Reaume, and NASCAR.com’s used the number font of Barnhill’s entry in their app.
The race restarted on Lap 67, and this time, Riggs seemed able to keep up with the tail end of the field. By Lap 89, he was running a half-second faster than at least the next six trucks ahead of him, but was several laps behind all of them. Still, Riggs and crew continued to discuss ways to get their truck running faster. On Lap 94, Riggs radioed he was “free off the bottom, but it’s getting tighter,” and “about a two loose overall.” He then closed a lap on Green, who on Lap 95, lost a third lap just before pit stops. Boyd lost a third lap on Lap 101, dropping him to 34th behind Green before Green fell a fourth lap down on Lap 104, retaking 34th. Sanchez made his own stop on Lap 96.
Then on Lap 105, the caution flew for the first on-track incident of the night. Coming off Turn 4, Sanchez’ truck erupted in smoke, and he pulled to the apron down the frontstretch. He made it to the access road on the apron of Turns 1 and 2, where the fluid beneath his truck briefly ignited. Instructed to stop by NASCAR, he stopped and got out soon after, where rescue crews attended to the driver and the fire. While appearing to be a blown engine, the official results listed him out with a driveshaft failure. He dropped to last place on Lap 111, ending a night where he’d finished 2nd in Stage 1, 3rd in Stage 2, led three times for ten laps, and even earned the fastest lap of the race, which came on Lap 2 – the lap he made contact with Riggs.
Riggs clawed his way to 32nd by the checkered flag, still six laps down at the finish. The two trucks he passed were the #18 LiUNA Chevrolet of Tyler Ankrum and the #44 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet of Andres Perez de Lara, both collected in a multi-truck pileup shortly after the restart following Sanchez’ caution. Green rounded out the Bottom Five, three laps down at the finish, and after post-race inspection secured his second-straight LASTCAR Truck Series Championship.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Sanchez is only the fourth polesitter in Truck Series history to be classified last in the same race, and the first since March 26, 2022 after Sheldon Creed’s #20 Wiley X Chevrolet had a drivetrain failure after one completed lap.
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #77 in a Truck Series race since June 1, 2007 at Dover, where Brendan Gaughan’s #77 Georgetown / South Point Hotel Chevrolet was involved in a multi-truck crash after 1 lap. The number had never before finished last in a Truck Series race at Homestead.
*The 104 laps completed by Sanchez are the third-most of any Truck Series last-place finisher at Homestead. The record remains 134, set by a disqualified runner-up finisher Zane Smith on October 21, 2023 in the #38 Ambetter Health Ford. Spencer Boyd leads all non-disqualified last-place finishers at the track with 124 laps before brake issues on his #12 Hairclub Chevrolet on October 22, 2022.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
35) #77-Nick Sanchez / 104 laps / driveshaft / led 10 laps
34) #18-Tyler Ankrum / 115 laps / crash
33) #44-Andres Perez de Lara / 115 laps / crash
32) #34-Layne Riggs / 128 laps / running
31) #22-Clayton Green / 131 laps / running
2026 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL
1st) Team Reaume (7)
2nd) Niece Motorsports (6)
3rd) Halmar Friesen Racing, McAnally-Hilgemann Racing, ThorSport Racing (2)
4th) Freedom Racing Enterprises, Front Row Motorsports, Kaulig RAM Racing, Motorsports Business Management, Rackley-W.A.R., Spire Motorsports (1)
2026 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL
1st) Chevrolet, Ford (11)
2nd) Toyota (2)
3rd) RAM (1)
2026 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL
