TRUCKS: Matt Mills hospitalized after Conner Jones wrecks him at Homestead
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: Jared Haas, @RealJaredHaas
Matt Mills picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career in Saturday’s Baptist Health 200 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway when his #42 Utilitra / J.F. Electric Chevrolet crashed after 74 of 134 laps.
The finish came in Mills’ 44th series start. In the Truck Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 6th for the #42, the 197th from a crash, and the 452nd for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 42nd for the #42, the 1,399th from a crash, and the 1,967th for Chevrolet.
Though perhaps best known for his years of competing for underfunded teams in the XFINITY Series (where he’s made 123 starts with a lone top-ten finish), it was in the Truck Series where Mills made his NASCAR national series debut in 2016. But he remained a part-time competitor in the series for years, carrying his longtime sponsorship from Thompson Electric and now J.F. Electric of Edwardsville, Illinois. His big break came just last year, when he drove for Kyle Busch Motorsports at Richmond. He both started and finished 5th, ultimately leading to his current full-time effort with Niece Motorsports. Though well short of a Playoff spot, he earned a new career-best finish at Charlotte, taking 4th, and had a spirited run last time out in Talladega, leading 14 laps and winning Stage 1. But a late-race crash left him 31st, his third such DNF in the last five races.
Running a pink variant of his paint scheme for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Mills truck was one of just 34 that arrived to contest Saturday’s field at Homestead, due in part to the closure of Bret Holmes Racing after Holmes’ 9th-place showing in Talladega. Mills ranked 27th in practice, then qualified 24th with a lap of 33.646 seconds (160.496mph). An unapproved adjustments penalty then dropped Mills to the rear along with 13th-place Layne Riggs, whose #38 Love’s RV Stops Ford needed more weight as it was four pounds light in Saturday morning inspection, and 20th-place Tanner Gray for a transmission change. Gray hit the wall in practice, preventing him from taking a lap in qualifying.
With the penalties for Mills, Gray, and Riggs, 34th-place qualifier Spencer Boyd moved to 33rd in his #76 Tenikle Chevrolet and crossed the stripe 2.915 seconds back of the leader to Mills’ 3.075. By the end of Lap 1, Mills was now door-to-door with Frankie Muniz, who had just this week announced his full-time deal with the Reaume Brothers Racing team in 2025. At the line, Muniz’ #22 More Core Ford was just seven-thousandths of a second ahead of Mills. On Lap 3, both drivers dropped Boyd back to last, opening up a gap of 0.134 from the now 33rd-place Muniz. On Lap 4, Muniz began to climb up the rankings, dropping Nathan Byrd to 33rd, his #02 FARA Chevrolet just 0.110 ahead of Boyd.
On Lap 8, Muniz slipped to 32nd, and NASCAR spotters indicated he got into the outside wall. That time by, Boyd’s deficit to the now 33rd-place Justin Mondeik in the #46 El Bandido Yankee Tequila Chevrolet was growing from 0.416 second to 0.448. Muniz radioed that his truck was shutting off, and as he re-cycled the dash, his pit road speeding lights held at an unfamiliar blue signal. He took last on Lap 10 and started to lose laps as the crew looked for a new battery. “I don’t get why I don’t get one chance to prove that I belong in this series,” he said, in this only his third start. As the crew calmed their driver, they sent him back out on Lap 20, ten laps down to the leaders. With 14 volts showing on his dash, Muniz then served a pass-through for too many crew members over the wall. “All right,” they told him. “This is a prelim for next year.”
But on Lap 22, Muniz’ truck shut off again, then kicked back on, forcing him back to pit road. There, the crew first told him to bypass the kill switch, then told him to shut off the engine. With the end of Stage 1 fast approaching, the crew decided to push him back to the garage, where they retrieved the generator cart and reviewed the truck’s onboard data. “It’s turning off on the straightaways when I’m at full throttle,” said Muniz. The team then looked for a replacement switch panel and sent him on track a second time under caution on Lap 36, 23 laps down. When Muniz asked how he should approach the rest of the race, the crew told him to try anything he could, saying, “We’re gonna come back here in March and we’re gonna fucking stomp ‘em.”
On this run, Muniz noticed his truck wasn’t handling as well as it had during the opening laps, feeling as though something was moving around in the back of the truck. The crew wondered if the springs were in their perches. If they were, they planned a major track bar adjustment and fresh tires to “give him his confidence back.” Meanwhile, Talladega last-place finisher Bayley Currey stoved in the nose of his #41 Masked Owl Technologies Chevrolet when another driver threw a late block. This forced at least two extended stops – one for repairs, the other for a flat tire. Currey was six laps down on Lap 49 when he, too, served a pass-through for too many crew members over the wall, dropping him to 33rd ahead of Muniz.
In the final laps of Stage 1, Muniz radioed his truck continued to handle poorly, that it felt “darty, but loose,” especially at corner exit. The crew called for a spring rubber change, but had their driver hang on until the end of the stage. He reached the caution on Lap 61, at which point he was now 26 laps down to the leaders, 19 behind 33rd-place Currey. The adjustments were made on Lap 67, and just before the restart he was told to drop to the tail end of the longest line. Muniz’ lap times were still off, but the crew now had him get out of the gas slower to not upset the truck’s balance. Then, on Lap 75, as Muniz reported his water temperature was at 208 degrees, the caution flew once again.
Heading through Turns 3 and 4, Mills was running the inside line in 19th place when Conner Jones pulled up behind him in his #66 TSport / Breast Cancer Awareness Ford. Jones swiped at Mills’ rear bumper, causing Mills to skate up the track and smash hard into the outside wall with the passenger side. As Jones continued around the track, shouting loudly over the radio about how others raced him, Mills careened down the banking and nosed into an infield tire barrier, flames pouring from the right-front. Mills climbed out with assistance from emergency crews, then appeared to need to catch his breath. Reports indicated he received fluids at the infield care center, then was transported to a local hospital for further evaluation. As of this writing, he is remaining at the hospital overnight.
“Wow, that was pretty intentional - you think NASCAR would do something about that,” said Mills' team. “Yeah, he said it was on the radio.” Under the ensuing caution, Jones was handed an aggressive driving penalty by NASCAR, holding him two laps en route to a 25th-place finish. Jones tweeted an apology during the XFINITY Series race.
Mills was the race’s only DNF. Muniz crossed the finish line 29 laps down behind Mondeik and Currey. Rounding out the Bottom Five was Marco Andretti, whose #04 Group 1001 / CarQuest Chevrolet finished seven laps down to race winner Grant Enfinger.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #42 in a Truck Series race since November 3, 2017, when Tommy Joe Martins crashed his own truck in practice, then drove Mike Harmon’s renumbered #42 Diamond Gusset Jeans Chevrolet before a second crash after 3 laps at Texas.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
34) #42-Matt Mills / 74 laps / crash
33) #22-Frankie Muniz / 105 laps / running
32) #46-Justin Mondeik / 114 laps / running
31) #41-Bayley Currey / 125 laps / running
30) #04-Marco Andretti / 127 laps / running
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
