TRUCKS: Recently reinstated Chris Hacker gives #30 first-ever Truck Series last-place finish; Josh Reaume secures title
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| PHOTO: Brock Beard |
by Brock Beard
LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
Chris Hacker picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career in Friday’s Craftsman 150 at the Phoenix Raceway when his #30 Morgan & Morgan / The Taco Spot Toyota was involved in a multi-truck accident after 53 of 179 laps.
The finish, which occurred in Hacker’s 15th series start, was his first of the season and first in a Truck Series race since September 24, 2021 at Las Vegas, 49 races ago. In the Truck Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 1st for the #30, the 189th from a crash, and the 53rd for Toyota. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 27th for the #30, the 402nd for Toyota, and the 1,360th from a crash.
Just last week at Martinsville, Hacker was reinstated by NASCAR following a suspension in August following his arrest for driving while intoxicated near Huntersville, North Carolina. Having been sober for more than two months and completed NASCAR’s “Road To Recovery” program, Hacker was cleared to run last week, where he steered Emerling-Gase Motorsports’ #35 XFINITY car to a 30th-place finish. It was his first series start since Loudon, where he finished 30th after a 14th-place debut in Richmond for RSS Racing.
For Phoenix, Hacker was one of several drivers to run double-duty in the season finale. On top of his run for Emerling-Gase in XFINITY – this time in the #53 – his Morgan & Morgan sponsorship would also be on a plain white Toyota fielded by On Point Motorsports. It was with this team that Hacker made his most recent Truck start at IRP, taking 29th. The Taco Spot also joined as backer, putting their logos on the quarter-panels. In between a 25th-place speed in XFINITY practice, Hacker ran 32nd in Thursday’s opening Truck practice, then qualified 30th with a lap of 132.558mph (27.158 seconds). He was second-slowest of those locked in on speed. Interestingly, the truck didn’t carry the driver’s “Hackerman” moniker as it had back in 2021. It instead showed Hacker’s name with a character from the film “Finding Nemo” saying “LFG.”
Not on the entry list for Phoenix were LASTCAR Truck Series title contenders Greg Van Alst and Stephen Mallozzi. After the remaining 38 entrants attempted the final 36-truck field of 2023, the list was shortened further. Sent home were the #12 King of the Hammers Chevrolet of Spencer Boyd – the defending LASTCAR Truck Series Champion who was eliminated from title contention after Zane Smith’s disqualification in the last round at Homestead – and the #33 More Core Ford of Keith McGee, who entered the race as the only driver who didn’t need to finish last in order to take the title from team owner Josh Reaume, who wasn’t entered.
With that, only four drivers were in position to take the LASTCAR Truck Series Championship from Reaume: 4th-place Zane Smith in the #38 Speedco / Delo Ford, 15th-place starter Dean Thompson in the #5 Thompson Pipe Group Toyota, 26th-place Colby Howard in the #9 Grant County Mulch Chevrolet, 31st-place Lawless Alan in the #45 AUTOParkit Chevrolet. All these drivers could only claim the title if they finished last – otherwise, it would stay with Reaume.
Securing the 36th and final starting spot was Tyler Hill in the #56 Consolidation Coach / UNITS Toyota – a truck which had no sponsorship on the rear TV panel. He’d be joined in the back by Stefan Parsons, who landed the best ride of his Truck Series career in a one-off for Rackley W.A.R. But late in Thursday practice, where he’d just put up the 13th-fastest lap, a cut right-front tire sent him into the wall, forcing the team to roll out the backup. During the final pace lap, Parsons dropped to the rear down the backstretch, slotting in line behind Hill’s #56.
When the green flag dropped, Parsons quickly gained a few spots, and Hill followed him past Nick Leitz, whose #20 Precision Measurements Chevrolet stayed locked onto Hill’s bumper. On Lap 3, Hill was now racing Marco Andretti in Spire Motorsports’ #7 Gainbridge Chevrolet. Leitz lost more ground until the next time by, when the first caution fell for Stewart Friesen’s Turn 2 spin in the #52 Halmar International Toyota. Friesen continued with only a small tire mark to the left-rear corner of his rear bumper, taking 35th ahead of the still last-place Leitz. Still under yellow on Lap 8, the spot fell to Hailie Deegan, who had stopped her #13 Pit Boss Ford to avoid the spinning Friesen.
Deegan restarted in last place and now battled Hill to his outside. On Lap 14, she pulled ahead, but Hill caught her the next time by and on Lap 16 crossed her nose going into Turn 3 to drop her back to last place. On Lap 18, both Hill and Deegan passed another struggling truck in Spencer Davis, returning to the #04 Fly Alliance / CarQuest Ford. Davis started to lose ground to both Hill and Deegan, and for the first time was about to be caught by the leaders. On Lap 21, Deegan was up to 33rd and working over Christian Rose in the #22 Disability Opportunity Fund Ford. Behind her, Leitz now held 34th, leading a trailing line of Hill and Davis. Davis began to catch Hill just before the leaders caught them, and on Lap 27, then-leader Ty Majeski put Davis the first truck one lap down.
As traffic continued to thread their way through the back of the field, Davis reeled in the now 35th-place Rose, who had fallen behind Deegan, Leitz, and now Hill. Davis caught and dropped Rose to last on Lap 30, then fell behind Davis by open ground. The gap grew from about one second on Lap 35 to three seconds on Lap 41, counting down the laps to the end of Stage 1. After running the low lane down the backstretch for several laps, he pulled high on Lap 44 to let Matt Crafton work his way past. Rose remained last when Stage 1 ended on Lap 46. Under the yellow, Rose’s crew discussed shock and air pressure adjustments, then settled on track bar changes. This was done on Lap 50, when he pitted with the other lapped trucks.
Under this same yellow, Sean Hingorani made at least three stops for a persistent issue on his #75 Fidelity Capital Chevrolet. This dropped him to last on Lap 52. Two laps later, as Hingorani left his stall from his third stop, the leaders had already taken the restart and were working their way through Turns 1 and 2. This put Hingorani about five seconds back of the 35th-place runner, a gap which was soon erased when the last-place battle came to a sudden end.
Per a report by David PeQueen, Hacker had finished 32nd in Stage 1, complaining of his truck running “tight in the center, plowing, not able to cut to the bottom like he wants. He says the back wants to jump out on throttle, a result of having so much wheel in it.” On Lap 56, Hacker had slipped to 32nd when he tangled with the now 34th-place runner Marco Andretti. The collision put Hacker hard into the outside wall, crumpling both ends of his #30, which was left stranded on track. Andretti made it past the stripe and onto pit road, where the team saw they had too much damage. “Thank you, guys, what a bummer,” said Andretti on the radio, reporting that he was hit by “several trucks” before he crashed. The medical staff picked him up and transported him to the infield care center, where Hacker was soon treated and released. An AMR official accompanied Andretti’s wife Marta to the medical center, and he too was soon released. After both were interviewed, Andretti watched replays of the accident.
With the last-place finish, Josh Reaume locked-up the 2023 LASTCAR Truck Series Championship.
More accidents soon filled the Bottom Five. Taking 34th and 33rd were Conner Jones in the #66 Lung Cancer Awareness Ford and Jake Drew in the #61 Cyclum Truck Stops Toyota, whose battle for 15th led to Drew sliding into the wall and a trapped Jones following him into the fence. Competing the group was Daniel Dye, whose “throwback” scheme to Sheldon Creed’s 2020 title run ended with a stack-up in Turn 3 which destroyed the front of his #43 GMS Racing Chevrolet. Dye was checked and released, but not cleared to run his own double-dury effort with Alpha Prime's XFINITY team. His #44 for Saturday went to Leland Honeyman.
Multiple overtimes yield a few surprising performances
After all the chaos of a race that went 29 laps past the scheduled distance, some drivers came out with fantastic runs. In only his third career start, Jesse Love took home 4th despite a bumper bar sticking from the nose of his #1 HomeSmiles Toyota. On the eve of his full-time XFINITY ride with Richard Childress Racing in 2024, Love has now made three Truck starts, completed all of his attempted laps, and finished no worse than 13th. Dean Thompson – one of the LASTCAR title contenders – finished 7th, his second-best run of the entire season. Kaden Honeycutt, running another unsponsored Young’s Motorsports entry, finished 8th in the #02, improving on his career-best 9th in this same race last year, which he’d matched earlier this year in the Bristol Dirt Race. And after running last at the end of Stage 1, Christian Rose recovered to finish on the lead lap in 16th – a significant improvement over his 32nd-place debut earlier this year at Richmond.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Hacker completed the third-most laps of any Truck Series last-place finisher at Phoenix. The record remains with Travis Kvapil, who turned 99 laps before a crash on February 25, 2011.
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #30 in a Truck Series race. Coming into Friday, the #30 was the lowest available truck number to have yet to finish last in a points-paying race in this series. Friday marked its 363rd start in the series’ history, dating back to Joe Bessey’s 4th-place run in the 1995 inaugural at this same Phoenix track.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
36) #30-Chris Hacker / 53 laps / crash
35) #7-Marco Andretti / 54 laps / crash
34) #66-Conner Jones / 100 laps / crash
33) #61-Jake Drew / 100 laps / crash
32) #43-Daniel Dye / 128 laps / crash
2023 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL
1st) Reaume Brothers Racing, Young’s Motorsports (4)
2nd) G2G Racing (3)
3rd) AM Racing, Niece Motorsports, Roper Racing, TRICON Garage (2)
4th) CR7 Motorsports, FDNY Racing, Front Row Motorsports, GK Racing, Kyle Busch Motorsports, On Point Motorsports (1)
2023 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL
1st) Chevrolet (9)
2nd) Ford (8)
3rd) Toyota (6)
2023 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL
