TRUCKS: Spencer Boyd among those who wreck early in heated Loudon race
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
ALL PHOTOS: Matt Miller, @MGMiller17
Spencer Boyd picked up the 6th last-place finish of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career in Saturday’s Team EJP 175 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway when his #76 Granite State De-Icing Supply Chevrolet fell out with crash damage after 75 of 189 laps.
The finish, which came in Boyd’s 169th series start, was his first of the season and first in a Truck Series race since July 12, 2024 at Pocono, 52 races ago. In the Truck Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 3rd for the #76, the 213th from a crash, and the 471st for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 12th for the #76, the 1,472nd from a crash, and the 2,060th for Chevrolet.
Since he was last featured here, owner-driver Boyd and his Freedom Racing Enterprises team have been slowly developing their program, and have occasionally earned some impressive runs. Just six races after his last-place run in Pocono, Boyd finished 10th at Talladega, site of his lone series win in 2019. Last year, he improved from 25th to 21st in the point standings while also expanding to a second part-time entry, the #67, for newcomer Ryan Roulette and a returning Michel Disdier. So far in 2026, Boyd’s primary #76 has been the lone entry for the team, though he’s also handed the wheel to road course drivers Nathan Nicholson and IndyCar sophomore Louis Foster. Both drivers excelled - Foster nearly earned the team a Top Ten at Lime Rock Park before a spin in the final laps while Nicholson showed speed most of the day in San Diego before a crash not of his making.
Coming into Loudon, Boyd’s own best finish of the season was a 20th in Texas. For Saturday’s race, he’d carry a local sponsor in Granite State De-Icing Supply, based in nearby Merrimack, New Hampshire. It was Granite’s first time sponsoring a NASCAR team. Boyd also happened to be one of 41 drivers entered for 36 starting spots, marking the largest entry list for a Truck Series race not at Daytona in more than three years. He began the weekend ranking 37th in practice with a best lap of 30.32 seconds (123.534mph). He was also eighth on track for qualifying, where he secured the 35th starting spot – next-to-last on Owner Points – with a lap of 30.943 seconds (123.091mph).
Two of the five teams sent home ran laps a half-second faster than Boyd, but were outranked in Owner Points: both Luke Baldwin in Team Reaume’s #2 Mohawk Northeast Inc. Ford and the #20 BRUNT Workwear Chevrolet of Mason Massey. The slowest completed lap was completed by Derek White for Motorsports Business Management in the #69 Léveillée-Tanguay, Inc. RAM. During his own qualifying lap, a 61-year-old D.L. Wilson crashed Caleb Costner’s #93 Rodney Cole Insurance / Auto-Owners Insurance Chevrolet, keeping the ARCA driver from making his series debut. Also sent home was Dawson Sutton who was swapped into Rackley-W.A.R.’s part-time #27 Rackley Roofing Chevrolet in an attempt to get both trucks into the field. That bid failed after Sutton had brake trouble in practice, preventing the team from even getting on the track.
Securing the 36th and final starting spot was Frankie Muniz in the #33 Dr. Sheffield’s The Original Toothpaste Ford. But by race day, the tail end of the field had changed significantly. News broke that Muniz had voluntarily stepped out of the #33, feeling that his DNQ’d teammate Luke Baldwin would have a better chance of a good run. Rackley-W.A.R. made a similar decision after their own driver swap resulted in Toni Breidinger only qualifying 34th in the #26 Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers Chevrolet. Breidinger was swapped out for the DNQ’d full-timer Dawson Sutton, putting Breidinger out of the field along with Muniz.
Along with the driver changes for both Sutton and Baldwin, Boyd was one of two additional drivers sent to the rear for pre-race unapproved adjustment penalties. The other driver docked was 28th-place qualifier Kris Wright in the #81 Warranty Solutions Chevrolet.
As the field addressed the starter’s stand, Boyd was trailing the inside line while Baldwin trailed the outside. Coing off Turn 4, Baldwin had just dropped Boyd to the 36th spot as the outside line got a jump, leaving Boyd behind the #14 RAM-sponsored RAM of Mini Tyrrell. Further ahead, the inside line started to stack-up around the 9th spot, where Jake Garcia’s #98 Quanta / Curb Records Ford was rear-ended by 11th-place Connor Mosack in the #7 Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Chevrolet. Mosack, who finished last in this race just last year after a first-lap crash, ducked out of line along with a few others. At the same instant, the advancing outside line also stacked-up, causing a chain-reaction that shunted its way back to Baldwin, who rammed the rear bumper of Sutton’s #26. By the time the back of the field crossed the stripe, Boyd had re-passed Baldwin for the 35th spot, and Baldwin spun to a stop in the middle of the track with heavy nose damage.
Baldwin returns to the track after repairs following the first-lap wreck.
Under the ensuing caution, Baldwin made it to pit road and stopped in his stall – No. 40, the second stall on the Turn 4 side of the pits – for extensive repairs and large patches of tape across the hood of his Ford. He missed the Lap 6 restart and didn’t return to the track until around Lap 11, when he was classified ten laps down. Moments later on Lap 13, Landen Lewis’ #45 J.F. Electric / Utilitra Chevrolet was running 17th on the outside of John Hunter Nemechek in the #5 Dollar Tree Toyota. Nemechek made contact with Lewis’ left-rear, sending Lewis into a lazy spin up the track between Turns 1 and 2. Lewis seemed to have minor contact with the rear bumper, but the truck whipped around and smacked the wall again with the left-front, drawing the caution once more.
Landen Lewis after his tangle with Nemechek.
Lewis, too, made it to pit road in Stall No. 17 just past the finish line, where the crew called for a baseball bat as they tried to bend both the rear bumper and left-front fender back into shape. He returned to the track around Lap 16, only to report his water temperature was at 290 while the crew noticed a puddle of fluid in their stall. He returned to pit road just before the Lap 19 restart for a look under the hood, dropping him four laps down. Baldwin, meanwhile, earned the Lucky Dog under Lewis’ caution. Now nine laps down, he was quickly closing the gap on 35th-place Lewis, whose crew now called for a generator. On Lap 26, Baldwin dropped Lewis to last place, but by now had just one minute left on the “Crash Clock.” They sent him back out on Lap 27, his last lap clocked at 340.373 seconds (or about five and a half minutes). On Lap 29, Lewis cleared minimum speed, but by Lap 31 had lost an 11th lap to the leaders, putting him two laps behind Baldwin, who lost a tenth lap on Lap 40.
During this run, Boyd’s was the last truck on the lead lap, clocked at 20.659 seconds back of the lead on Lap 31. He then lost a lap to the leaders on Lap 42, taking the “Lucky Dog” from Baldwin. Race leader Zane Smith had caught Lewis on Lap 55 and followed him to the green-and-checkered flag to end Stage 1, keeping Lewis just one lap behind Baldwin. By then, there were only 26 trucks on the lead lap, and 27th-place Sutton got his lap back as the “Lucky Dog.” For a moment, both Lewis and Baldwin were each shown ten laps down, but scoring reset to show Lewis 11 down after he stopped for his splitter brace. The order remained the same when racing resumed on Lap 64.
During a commercial break on Lap 77, Boyd was bumped by the #25 RAM-sponsored RAM of Colin Braun entering Turns 3 and 4. Boyd slapped the outside wall with both the left-front and left-rear of his Chevrolet, drawing the fourth caution of the afternoon. He made it to pit road and stopped in his stall, No. 6, one of the last on the Turn 1 side of pit road. Crews attempted to make repairs, but by the Lap 83 restart, they were pushing his truck backwards up pit road. The crew tried to get the truck into the Cup garage, only to find its entrance locked by a gate, so it was some time before they found another entrance on Lap 86. By then, Boyd was already ten laps down and about to be caught by both Lewis and Baldwin. This was done on Lap 88, moving Lewis to 35th and Baldwin to 34th. On Lap 104, NASCAR declared Boyd out of the race under the “DVP” or “Damaged Vehicle Policy,” but the official results cited “accident.”
Gavan Boschele’s truck towed behind the wall at Turn 1.
Finishing 35th was Patrick Emerling, whose double-duty bid in the third Team Reaume entry ended with suspension issues on his #22 Liberty Brew Coffee Ford past the halfway point. Kris Wright took 34th in his #81 Warranty Solutions Chevrolet, which was damaged in a three-truck accident in Turns 3 and 4 on Lap 120. Taking the 33rd spot was Gavan Boschele, who was competing for his second top-ten finish in as many career starts when he spun in Turns 1 and 2, slamming the outside wall hard enough to knock the entire splitter assembly from the nose of his #1 American Land Partners Toyota. Lewis rounded out the Bottom Five, having lost just one more lap by the checkered flag.
Eatmon and McKee earn career-best marks in Loudon
After multiple overtime finishes, Saturday’s regular season finale marked the first career top-ten finish for Parker Eatmon, who has shown speed in these first five career starts in Niece Motorsports’ #42 Operator Standard Chevrolet. Among those he bested for the position was Mike Christopher, Jr., whose tribute paint scheme to his late uncle Ted Christopher was battling inside the Top 10 in the closing laps before his #72 Whelen Engineering Toyota took 12th. And continuing to impress was Tristan McKee, who in just his second career start earned his second-consecutive top-ten finish by taking 6th in the #77 Delaware Life Chevrolet. McKee battled as high as 4th in the final laps, nearly earning his first Top Five.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Boyd fell just three laps short of setting a new record for most laps complete by the last-place finisher of a Truck Series race at Loudon. The record of 77 laps was set by Jose Luis Ramirez, who crashed his #08 Pro30.com Chevrolet on September 17, 2005. Both are among the only five Loudon races where the last-place finisher completed more than seven laps.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
36) #76-Spencer Boyd / 75 laps / crash
35) #22-Patrick Emerling / 131 laps / suspension
34) #81-Kris Wright / 146 laps / vibration
33) #1-Gavan Boschele / 169 laps / crash
32) #45-Landen Lewis / 177 laps / running
2026 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Niece Motorsports, Team Reaume (4)
2nd) Halmar Friesen Racing, ThorSport Racing (2)
3rd) Freedom Racing Enterprises, Front Row Motorsports, Kaulig RAM Racing, McAnally-Hilgemann Racing, Motorsports Business Management, Rackley-W.A.R. (1)
2026 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Ford (8)
2nd) Chevrolet (7)
3rd) Toyota (2)
4th) RAM (1)
2026 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
