TRUCKS: Opening-lap crash in Phoenix hands Dawson Sutton first career last-place finish

Written By Brock Beard

by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief

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Dawson Sutton picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career in Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship at the Phoenix Raceway when his #26 Rackley Roofing Chevrolet crashed without completing any of the night’s 161 laps.

The finish came in Sutton’s 32nd series start. In the Truck Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 7th for the #26, the 204th from a crash, and the 465th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 50th for the #26, the 1,439th from a crash, and the 2,021st for Chevrolet.

This season marked Sutton’s first full-time season in the Truck Series, the result of a determined progression from U.S. Legends Cars and Ron Hornaday, Jr.’s driver development program. Nicknamed “Soup” by Hornaday, Sutton made his way to Rackley-W.A.R.’s late model program, where team owner and mentor Willie Allen soon had a business partner in Sutton’s father Curtis. Piloting the #26, Sutton was crowned Pro Late Model Rookie of the Year at the Nashville Fairgrounds, the result of four poles, two wins, and five runner-up finishes among 16 top-five finishes. Incidentally, Sutton will again compete at Nashville next week, and his hometown is Lebanon, where the Nashville Superspeedway is located.

Last year at North Wilkesboro, Sutton made his Truck Series debut as teammate to the team’s full-timer Ty Dillon. In that first start, Sutton’s #26 finished 28th, just three spots behind Dillon’s #25. By Kansas that fall, Sutton was promoted to the team’s flagship #25, and immediately earned a career-best 5th. The finished 20th or better in three of the next four races, and soon landed his full-time ride for 2025, again renumbered the #26.

Coming into Friday, Sutton ranked 18th in points, having improved on his career-best run with a 4th just two races ago in Talladega, and has continued to keep DNFs to a minimum. Through these first 24 rounds of the season, he’d only failed to finish twice – a driveshaft failure at Charlotte, and an expiring “Damaged Vehicle Policy” clock after a wreck in Pocono. Even at Richmond, where he pulled off the track due to a cockpit fire, he returned to the driver’s seat and finished under power in 31st, just 27 laps down.

Sutton was one of just 34 entrants for the 2025 season finale, and on his 24th and final lap in practice put up the 21st-best time with a lap of 27.614 seconds (130.369mph). He then qualified 22nd despite a faster lap of 27.159 seconds (132.553mph).

LASTCAR CHAMPIONSHIP

Not among the entrants in Phoenix were both Norm Benning and Stephen Mallozzi, who were the only two drivers mathematically in contention to beat Clayton Green for the 2025 LASTCAR Truck Series Championship. By starting the race, Green secured the title. His four last-place finishes are the most scored by any Truck Series driver in a single season since 2019, when Joe Nemechek also earned four.

While Green’s LASTCAR title is largely because he was on “start-and-park” duty, the plan had been all along to run the full race in the season finale at Phoenix, where Green had previously run in what is now the ARCA Menards Series West. To help the Reaume Brothers Racing team, he entered his Phoenix truck – sponsored by his family’s company Royal Vista, Inc. – with plans to park it after a few laps. But after the wreck in practice, the team ended up parking before the start. There wasn’t enough time to completely repair the truck that was wrecked, so Green piloted a different ride in Phoenix. I spoke to Green after he qualified 30th, beating two other trucks on speed.

“We struggled yesterday in practice,” said Green. “We could not get the car where we wanted it to, and today, we finally threw some pretty big changes for the last minute and used this qualifying as a practice. And I'm pretty happy with it, where it is to race-wise. I think we can only get better. And I tend to do better in a race than I do qualifying. So it's just gonna be, to me, it's gonna be all forward from here.”

Green also looks ahead to more Truck Series racing in 2026. “. . .And we've got some more races next year that are planned. We got about six more tied-in with different sponsors and things like that, just trying to get more laps and trying to get as much experience as we can for the next year. . . Every race helps. It's the first time, like when I started in Nashville this year and Pocono, those were the first two races I've ever had with aero and having to deal with that. So that was a whole new learning experience, and I learned quite a bit from that experience of Nashville and Pocono that's going to help me for next year when we go, because we’re going to try and run mainly mile-and-a-halves, and maybe if I get the funding, I'll try and do a superspeedway. But I feel like what I learned in those two races is pretty big for next year.”

In the race, Green overcame a spin to finish 20th, a new career-best.

THE RACE

Securing the 34th and final starting spot was Caleb Costner, whose #74 Ideal Insurance Agency Chevrolet was one of a few in the field to sport a Halloween-themed paint scheme. Costner’s #74 was one of two teams that didn’t turn a lap in qualifying, joined by Matt Mills, who outranked him on Owner Points to take 33rd on the grid in his #42 J.F. Electric Chevrolet.

Soon to join both Mills and Costner was Layne Riggs, whose #34 Love’s RV Stop Ford incurred a technical infraction early on Friday. The Front Row Motorsports team installed an unauthorized panel that closed off the space between the oil pan and floorboard. As part of the penalty, crew chief Dylan Cappello was ejected for the rest of the weekend. Riggs would also have to qualify his truck so he wouldn’t start on sticker tires, and in that session ended up beating teammate Chandler Smith for the pole. But the rest of the penalty’s terms required Riggs to drop to the rear and then serve a pass-through penalty after taking the green flag.

Riggs dropped to the last spot just before the green, taking the spot from Costner, who pulled alongside Mills down the backstretch. As the field crossed the stripe, Riggs ran the inside lane, following in Mills’ tire tracks as both worked under Costner. Not far ahead, Sutton as in the high lane behind a four-wide battle between Tyler Ankrum in the #18-LiUNA! Chevrolet, Daniel Hemric in the #19 NAPA Auto Care Chevrolet, Cole Butcher’s #62 Atlantic Tiltload Toyota, and Connor Mosack in the #81 NAPA Nightvision Chevrolet. Between Turns 1 and 2, and surrounded by three of his teammates at the McAnally-Hilgemann team, Hemric broke loose and got into the left-rear of Butcher, who pulled his truck straight. Not so fortunate was Sutton, who was collected by Hemric as both bounced off the outside wall. Sutton’s truck was too heavily damaged to move from Turn 2 while Hemric made it to the pits with heavy right-rear damage. He ended up driving back to the garage, just a few spaces to the left of Sutton, also done for the night. Both were soon checked and released from the infield care center, and both spoke with me:

“Yeah, really, just no luck there,” said Sutton. “The 19 got loose, overcorrected it, or somebody got on his door and they overcorrected, and just hit me. I was on his outside. Really had nowhere to go, but really just unlucky and hopefully move on to next year and have better luck and go to Nashville next week and have a good run there.”

“I haven't seen it (a replay of the wreck) yet,” said Hemric. “But I think I just was trying to get my teammate a little room to the left, and I went to kind of change my direction and path. And I think it was the 62 (Cole Butcher) kind of made his angle into the corner. I saw we were probably going to make contact, so I was trying to stay off him. And it was weird the way my right front caught his left rear and ripped the wheel out of my hand, and that was it. So, yeah, not ideal.”

Riggs, unable to serve his pass-through due to the first-lap caution, would instead serve it on the ensuing restart. He’d recover to lead 24 laps and finish 4th, best of the non-Playoff drivers. This was a further rally from a brutal elimination from the “Championship Four” on a tiebreaker with Kaden Honeycutt, who finished 3rd on Friday.

As Sutton and Hemric took the final two finishing positions, the 32nd spot fell to Mason Maggio, whose #22 Denssi Energy Pouches Ford was reportedly leaking rear end grease before the engine let go, taking him out of the race. The Bottom Five was completed by a pileup between Turns 3 and 4 where Andrew Perez de Lara’s #44 Telcel Chevrolet caught air after striking the outside wall. Giovanni Ruggiero, whose #17 JBL Toyota was also collected, also ended up in the garage area with much of the truck’s nose left behind pit wall near pit exit.

Reif, Wood, and Costner earn strong finishes

Against the backdrop of Corey Heim’s dramatic championship-clinching victory, Tyler Reif returned to the site of his own last-lap heroics at Phoenix (his in an ARCA Menards Series West race) to finish 9th in this, his Truck Series debut. Reif drove for Niece Motorsports in the #41 McLaren Transport Chevrolet, which finished ahead of all three of his teammates.

Also finishing the year on a high note was Jack Wood, who returned to the track and race where he finished last after a crash in 2024 to come back and take home 10th in his #91 Columbia Bank Chevrolet. This marked just the fifth career top-ten finish of Wood’s career and his first since Rockingham in April.

And earning a career-best finish was Caleb Costner, who drove Mike Harmon’s #74 to a 22nd-place finish. Costner’s previous best finish in five previous starts this season was a 28th in Darlington, and he came into Friday’s race after four consecutive DNFs, three of which early in Stage 1.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*This marked the first last-place finish for the #26 in a Truck Series race since March 29, 2021, when Tyler Ankrum crashed after 34 laps of the Bristol Dirt Race. The number had never finished last in a Truck Series race at Phoenix.

*This was also the first time since 2019 that the last two Truck Series races of the season each had a last-place finisher who failed to complete the opening lap.

*The 2025 season marks just the fifth time in Truck Series history that Ford won the LASTCAR Truck Series’ Manufacturer’s Championship. The last time was in 1998, at the conclusion of a four-year streak.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

34) #26-Dawson Sutton / 0 laps / crash

33) #19-Daniel Hemric / 2 laps / crash

32) #22-Mason Maggio / 107 laps / engine

31) #74-Caleb Costner / 115 laps / crash

30) #5-Toni Breidinger / 116 laps / crash

2025 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL

1st) Reaume Brothers Racing (11)

2nd) Norm Benning Racing (3)

3rd) Front Row Motorsports (2)

4th) CR7 Motorsports, FDNY Racing, Freedom Racing Enterprises, Halmar Friesen Racing, Henderson Motorsports, McAnally-Hilgemann Racing, Niece Motorsports, Rackley-W.A.R., Spire Motorsports (1)

2025 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL

1st) Ford (13)

2nd) Chevrolet (11)

3rd) Toyota (1)

2025 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL

Brock Beard https://lastcar.info
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