TRUCKS: Keith McGee scores first Truck Series last-place finish for the No. 2 in 30 years
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: David PeQueen, @CarSDS2078
Keith McGee picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career in Saturday’s Fr8 208 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway when his #2 More Core Ford fell out with electrical problems after 43 of 135 laps.
The finish, which came in McGee’s 23rd series start, was his first of the season and first in a Truck Series race since May 26, 2023 at Charlotte, 37 races ago. In the Truck Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 2nd for the #2, the 41st from electrical woes, and the 128th for Ford. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 37th for the #2, the 141st from electrical problems, and the 1,056th for Ford.
When McGee was last featured here, it appeared his career in NASCAR’s national touring series had ended. He’d planned to step away from the sport and return home to his native Alaska. But that changed last year when he not only returned to the Truck Series, but made another 11 starts. His season-best finish of 21st came in this very Atlanta race, when he drove the #22 for Reaume Brothers Racing. McGee had been entered in that truck this week, but those plans soon changed, putting McGee in the #2 and Josh Reaume himself in the #22.
Without no practice scheduled at Atlanta, McGee would turn his first laps in qualifying. But the team had issues on Friday and ended up one of three teams to not take time. Luckily, all 32 entrants would start as the race marked the first short field of the year. McGee ended up 31st on the grid, ranking him behind 30th-place Bayley Currey, who didn’t take time in Al Niece’s #44 Masked Owl Technologies / DQS Chevrolet and ahead of last-place starter Justin S. Carroll, whose team needed to re-wrap the entire driver’s side of his #90 Carroll’s Automotive Toyota following a DNQ in Daytona.
Chandler Smith incurred a pre-race penalty for unapproved adjustments on his #38 QuickTie Ford, a minor penalty as he continued to struggle in qualifying with just the 28th-best lap. Prior to the start, both McGee and teammate Reaume, set to start 29th, dropped to the back voluntarily. NASCAR had them line up at the tail end of the inside line with McGee behind Reaume and to the inside of Smith.
When the green flag dropped, the inside line pulled ahead, moving Smith back to last place, 3.055 seconds back of the lead. By Lap 5, he was already over three seconds back of 31st-place McGee, a full 9.163 seconds back of the lead. That gap grew to 11.077 seconds on Lap 6 and 16.605 on Lap 9. But Carroll managed to stay in the tire tracks of McGee as the two now trailed a four-truck draft that had fallen away from the tail end of the lead draft. This small pack was led by 29th-place Spencer Boyd in the #76 Tohatsu Chevrolet and 30th-place Toni Breidinger in the #5 Women’s Sports Foundation Toyota. On Lap 18, Carroll passed McGee, who passed him back the next time by. The group was lapped on the 24th circuit, by which point the four trucks were separated by open track. Carroll, who said his truck felt too free, still managed to catch and pass Breidinger on Lap 25, putting the #5 in last when Stage 1 ended on Lap 31.
The end of Stage 1 featured a dramatic bid for the lead by Layne Riggs, whose #34 Northside Hospital Ford attempted a three-wide pass on the inside, only to be beaten by Jack Wood’s #91 Adaptive One Calipers Chevrolet for the stage win. But NASCAR deemed Riggs to have made the move out-of-bounds, dropping him to the tail end of the lead lap. There, his truck immediately suffered an electrical issue that required a push down pit road, dropping him off the lead lap and into last place on Lap 34. Riggs’s crew changed the battery and sent him back out.
Riggs remained in 32nd through Lap 40, when Matt Crafton’s #88 Serta / Menards Ford glanced off the backstretch wall, then cut a tire in Turn 3. When Crafton came down pit road, only to incur a pass-through penalty for a commitment cone violation, McGee was already in his stall for an extended stop. His truck had unexpectedly shut off on track. “It was running hard then right in the center of (Turns) 2 and 3, it just fell on its face,” said McGee. On Lap 43, McGee took last from Riggs, and the crew continued their work. He returned to the track on Lap 51, but the truck immediately shut off again, forcing him behind the wall around Lap 53. McGee returned a second time on Lap 58 – just moments before the end of Stage 2 – but once again, the truck lost power. The team was baffled, particularly since McGee’s truck still showed 67 pounds of fuel pressure.
McGee in the garage after his recurring issue at Atlanta. (PHOTO: Steven Taranto, @STaranto92)
Not wanting to block the leaders as they pitted, McGee went behind the wall once again, the crew now looking to replace the ignition. By then, he was now about 16 laps down with no one else in the garage. “I think if it were fuel, it would stutter and not shut straight off,” said the driver, who also said the truck seemed to shut off when he ran over a bump in the high lane between Turns 1 and 2. The Reaume team looked for a replacement fuel pump, but couldn’t find one. They also decided not to use the team’s backup ECU as it was set aside for teammate Frankie Muniz in the #33 Ford-sponsored Ford. On Lap 69, the team had McGee fire the engine, but the issue persisted. “Keith, they can’t fix it,” they said. “So I’m done?” “Yes.” On Lap 71, as the crew retrieved their equipment from pit road, NASCAR declared McGee out of the race.
The rest of the Bottom Five was completed by the day’s biggest incident, which came just moments later. The FS1 broadcast first showed Nathan Byrd’s #02 Sonesta International Hotels Chevrolet slam the outside wall in Turn 1, and NASCAR officials directed him to pull down to the apron. Off-camera, Justin S. Carroll’s #90 was also leaking fluid, which ultimately required a tow behind the wall. Then, coming off Turn 4, Rajah Caruth’s #71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet was in a tight battle for 2nd place when he spun in Carroll’s fluid, collecting both Daniel Hemric’s #19 NAPA Auto Care Chevrolet and Andres Perez de Lara’s #77 Telcel Chevrolet in the high lane, then also collected William Sawalich’s #1 Soundgear Toyota. Byrd, Sawalich, and Caruth were done for the day with Perez only reaching 27th before suspension issues.
Dave Ashley drops out at Mesa Marin, 1995. (SCREENSHOT: ABC, video posted by oldschoolnascar)
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked only the second last-place finish for the #2 in a Truck Series points-paying race. The only other occurred on April 22, 1995 – just the fourth-ever race in series history – when Dave Ashley’s #2 Ultra Custom Wheels Ford lost the engine after 77 laps of the Ford Credit 125 at the Mesa Marin Raceway. His was one of three entries fielded that day by Jim Smith, joined by next-to-last-place finisher Butch Gilliland and Mike Bliss, who came home 3rd.
*This streak without the #2 finishing last in the Truck Series nearly ended on June 12, 2021, when Sheldon Creed wrecked his #2 LiftKits4Less.com Chevrolet after 18 laps around Texas, but the last-place finish went away following Ross Chastain’s disqualification. Curiously, that race was also one of McGee’s first Truck Series starts.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
32) #2-Keith McGee / 43 laps / electrical
31) #02-Nathan Byrd / 73 laps / crash
30) #1-William Sawalich / 74 laps / crash
29) #71-Rajah Caruth / 74 laps / crash
28) #90-Justin S. Carroll / 75 laps / engine
2025 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Henderson Motorsports, Reaume Brothers Racing (1)
2025 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet, Ford (1)
2025 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
