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

Bayley Currey picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career in Friday’s Love’s RV Stop 225 at the Talladega Superspeedway when his #41 DQS / Masked Owl Technologies Chevrolet fell out with rear gear failure after he completed 17 of 85 laps.

The finish, which came in Currey’s 64th series start, was his first of the season and first in a Truck Series race since August 16, 2018 at Bristol, 141 races ago. In the Truck Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 5th for the #41, the 16th from a rear gear issue, and the 451st for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 52nd from the rear gear, the 61st for the #41, and the 1,960th for Chevrolet.

After years of fighting to get the most out of his XFINITY Series rides at underfunded teams like Mike Harmon Racing and JD Motorsports, Currey has reinvigorated his career in his return to the Truck Series. The turning point may have been at Pocono in 2019, when he qualified 11th in his first race for Al Niece. His next time out at Michigan, he finished a career-best 6th. Over the next few years, Niece steadily brought him on for more of the Truck Series schedule. By last year, he finished 4th in Atlanta, 5th in Nashville, and 5th again in Homestead. This secured him his current ride – his first full-time effort in the Truck Series – driving Niece’s #41 Chevrolet. While still winless and out of the Playoffs, Currey just last week in Kansas earned his first top-ten finish of the year, taking 8th in Kansas.

At Talladega, Currey was one of 39 drivers entered for 36 spots, a list trimmed to 38 after Young’s Motorsports withdrew their #46 entry without a listed driver. With no practice at the track, Currey secured the 32nd spot on the grid with a lap of 55.556 seconds (172.367mph), the fastest truck to rely on Owner Points to make the field. Unsatisfied with their performance, the Niece crew put the truck on jack stands to complete an engine change, hoping they wouldn’t miss the start as Stefan Parsons had under similar circumstances last month at Bristol.

Currey’s engine change incurred him a tail-end penalty, one of two handed out after qualifying. The other involved Jim Rosenblum’s team FDNY Racing, whose driver Bryan Dauzat had qualified 24th on the grid in the #28 FDNY Racing / OB Builders Chevrolet. A deal was soon worked out with Reaume Brothers Racing, whose driver Keith McGee had entered a Ford under the Owner Points of still another team, Young’s Motorsports, using their #02. Despite the deal, McGee’s #02 NuggetTrap.com Ford ended up one of the two DNQs, joined by a surprising Timmy Hill in the #45 Coble Enterprises / UNITS Toyota. But by acquiring Dauzat’s spot in the field, McGee climbed aboard. On the grid, the team hastily applied McGee’s NuggetTrap.com logos and crafted a new rear glass nameplate out of strips of white tape.

The 36th and final starting spot had originally fallen to Johnny Sauter, making a rare start this year with Hattori Racing Enterprises, and bringing Aflac back as a sponsor in NASCAR for the first time since 2014. Sauter’s #16 Aflac / Toyota Tsusho Toyota struggled for speed, ranking 33rd in time trials and thus needing to rely on his Past Champion’s Provisional to complete the grid. The next three trucks ahead of him weren’t credited with a completed lap in qualifying for various reasons. A window net infraction caught 35th-place Daniel Dye in the #43 NAPA Nightvision Chevrolet while unapproved adjustments were performed on 34th-place Tanner Gray in the #15 Dead On Tools Toyota. Layne Riggs was prevented from qualifying after failing to pass inspection three times, placing his #38 Love’s Travel Stops Ford in 33rd. None incurred tail-end penalties.

When the green flag dropped, Dye had climbed to 32nd with Sauter 34th, splitting 27th-place qualifier Jason White, whose #22 Powder Ventures Excavations Ford had dropped back to 33rd. Behind Sauter, who was 3.201 seconds back of the lead, 21st-place starter Clay Greenfield had dropped to 35th, a full two-and-a-half seconds back of Sauter, and 5.692 behind the lead. Even further behind was the new last-place finisher, McGee, who was still getting a feel of Dauzat’s FDNY Racing entry. He crossed the line completely by himself, nearly 14 seconds behind Greenfield and 19.584 back of the lead. By the end of Lap 1, Greenfield was scored in 32nd, back among the leaders, but McGee was still 19.010 seconds back of the lead. The gap grew to 21.591 on Lap 3, just as Ben Rhodes pulled down pit road in his #99 Kubota Ford. Rhodes had incurred a start violation, forcing him to serve a pass-through. But Rhodes then merged too soon in Turn 1, forcing him to serve a second pass-through. Already 35th, 19.010 back of the lead on Lap 4, he took last on Lap 5 and returned to the track 46.111 back of the lead on Lap 6. At that point, Rhodes was nearly 20 seconds behind McGee, and now a lap down by Lap 7.

When Rhodes was lapped, he did manage to find a spot in line, putting him in position to earn his lap back. By Lap 10, the leaders were catching 35th-place McGee, who was still running on his own a full 40.299 back of the lead. Ahead of McGee, 34th-place Spencer Boyd’s #76 Tibbetts Lumber Chevrolet had also lost the draft, 9.133 back of the lead and more than two seconds behind a two-truck draft of Jason White and the #44 Rust-Oleum Chevrolet of Danny Bohn, who had themselves fallen nearly five seconds behind the back of the lead pack. On Lap 11, Sauter made an unscheduled stop in his Aflac machine, then took over last place on Lap 12 as he nearly fell a second lap back. Not far behind Sauter, the lead pack caught and passed McGee, who unlike Rhodes couldn’t latch onto the lead pack, dropping McGee to 35th behind Rhodes, who maintained his “Lucky Dog” spot.

On Lap 19, just before the end of Stage 1, Currey followed Nick Sanchez’ #2 Gainbridge Chevrolet onto pit road. While Sanchez returned to the track, Currey remained in his stall through the end of the stage. By Lap 22, he’d fallen four laps down, taking last from Sauter. The issue first appeared to be the transmission, and the team pushed Currey’s truck backwards to the nearest garage stall to install a replacement. As Currey’s truck was pushed backwards behind the wall, the crew discussed where to find a replacement gear. They didn’t have an uninstalled unit on hand – the only ones were installed on the Niece team’s backup trucks, which were still on the haulers. If they couldn’t get one from another team, they’d have to unload a backup, remove the part, and install it – all with nearly one-quarter of a short race already completed. “Whatever you do, do not put the window net down,” they told Currey.

Soon to join Currey in the garage was the #1 Starkey / Soundgear Toyota of polesitter William Sawalich, who made his superspeedway debut one day after his 18th birthday. Sawalich had also tumbled down the rankings during a lengthy stop of his own. On Lap 30, as he was pushed behind the wall, Sawalich was told he’d return to the track “and learn the rest of the day – that’s what it’s going to be about.” By then, he was seven laps down in 35th, five laps ahead of Currey. But on Lap 39, Currey’s team appeared to declare themselves out of the race. “Hate that,” said someone on the #41 team’s radio, “Sorry, everyone.” He was declared out of the race soon after.

Sawalich returned to the race 18 laps down and managed to climb to 27th by the finish, outlasting others who were involved in accidents. Taking his place in 35th was Ben Rhodes, whose penalty-clogged start to the race turned worse with crash damage suffered during a four-truck accident on Lap 38. Sauter, too, suffered damage, and his “Crash Clock” expired four laps after Rhodes’ day had ended. The next pileup on Lap 62 completed the group, dropping to 33rd upstart Connor Zilisch in the #7 Austin Hatcher Foundation Chevrolet and to 32nd Dean Thompson in the #5 Boot Campaign Toyota.

Norm Benning’s solid performance and Lawless Alan’s bid for the win among many underdog storylines

FDNY Racing’s deal with the Reaume Brothers Racing team didn’t pay off as Keith McGee wrecked hard on Lap 73, leaving the Rosenblum team with their second wrecked truck in as many starts. But escaping the chaos was the day’s other big underdog story: Norm Benning. Finally with sufficient sponsorship from both Pennsylvania Motor Speedway and MDIA to enter the former Henderson Motorsports truck he’d hoped to enter in Daytona, Benning made the field on speed. He remained on the lead lap for nearly the entire afternoon, and spent much of the day in the Top 20 before he crossed the line in 21st – his best finish since his most recent Talladega start three years ago.

The Reaume team also had something to smile about on Friday. Lawless Alan held fast to the 3rd spot in his #33 AUTODockit Ford, waiting to make his move in the sprint to the finish. He attempted to take 2nd, but was stranded in the middle lane, dropping him to 5th at the finish. This became both Alan’s best Truck Series finish and just the second top-five finish for the Reaume team, their first since Mike Marlar’s team-best 4th-place showing at Eldora five years ago. Alan’s best Truck Series finish prior to Friday was this same race last year, when he finished 10th – his only top-ten finish prior to Friday.

Joining Alan in the Top Ten was former Roush-Fenway Racing superspeedway standout Ryan Reed, who took home 7th in a #91 Tandem Diabetes Care Chevrolet that burst into flame after it was swept up in the wreck. This now stands as Reed’s best Truck Series finish, and his first top-ten run since a 9th for David Gilliland’s team in 2019.

Behind Reed in 8th came Stefan Parsons, who was among the leaders for much of the final run in Charlie Henderson’s #75 popsells.com Chevrolet. Despite only running a part-time campaign, this is now Parsons’ third top-ten finish of the 2024 season, joined by Daytona and Texas.

Bret Holmes took home 9th in his #32 Golden Eagle Chevrolet, backing up his 4th-place showing in this year’s Daytona opener and again nearing victory at the track where he crossed the finish line first, but was scored in 3rd back in 2022.

Spencer Boyd, who struggled for pace early, recovered to finish 10th for Freedom Racing Enterprises, his best run since his own impressive Daytona finish where he came home in 5th for his new team’s debut.

Further back, Clay Greenfield, medically cleared to race after breaking one of his feet earlier this year, was still another underdog to bounce back in qualifying. Last year, he didn’t even get to complete a lap at this track due to a mechanical issue on pit road. This time, his #95 Bakcyard Blues Pools Chevrolet made the race and finished 15th, far and away the best performance for the part-time GK Racing effort, which finished last in its only start at Gateway last year.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*This marked Niece Motorsports’ first last-place finish of the 2024 season.

*This was the first last-place finish for the #41 in a Truck Series race at Talladega.

*Currey is the first driver to finish last due to a rear gear failure in a Truck Series race at Talladega. The most recent Truck Series driver to finish last for that reason was on June 24, 2022, when Chase Janes dropped out after 1 lap around the Nashville Superspeedway.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

36) #41-Bayley Currey / 17 laps / rear gear

35) #99-Ben Rhodes / 38 laps / crash

34) #16-Johnny Sauter / 42 laps / dvp

33) #7-Connor Zilisch / 61 laps / crash

32) #5-Dean Thompson / 61 laps / crash

2024 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Young’s Motorsports (4)

2nd) ThorSport Racing, TRICON Garage (2)

3rd) Bret Holmes Racing, Faction 46, Floridian Motorsports, Freedom Racing Enterprises, Front Row Motorsports, Hill Motorsports, McAnally-Hilgemann Racing, Niece Motorsports, Roper Racing, Spire Motorsports, Terry Carroll Motorsports, Trey Hutchens Racing (1)

2024 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Chevrolet (12)

2nd) Ford, Toyota (4)

2024 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP