TRUCKS: Timmy Hill scores first Truck Series last-place run for the #56, and his first in series since 2018
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
Timmy Hill’s truck in the garage after his early exit. (PHOTO: E.J. O’Rourke, @ejorourke41)
Timmy Hill picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career in Friday’s Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 presented by Westgate Resorts at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway when his #56 Coble Enterprises / UNITS Toyota fell out with electrical issues after 75 of 134 laps.
The finish, which came in Hill’s 92nd series start, was his first of the season and first since August 18, 2018 at Michigan, 125 races ago. In the Truck Series last-place rankings, it was the 1st ever for the #56, the 40th from electrical issues, and the 54th for Toyota. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 15th for the #56, the 139th from electrical problems, and the 404th for Toyota.
When Hill was last featured in a Truck Series article nearly six years ago, he was on the verge of starting a team of his own. After years of competing across all three of NASCAR’s top series for programs like Motorsports Business Management, Go FAS Racing, and Team XTREME Racing (now NY Racing Team), Timmy and his brother Tyler Hill formed Hill Motorsports. The team would run the #56, which their father Jerry Hill raced in both ARCA and a few Winston Cup Series races in the early 1990s. On March 23, 2019, the team made its debut at Martinsville with Timmy finishing 21st.
Timmy and Tyler have shared driving duties ever since, briefly expanding to two entries in 2022 after their switch from Chevrolet to Toyota. Tyler achieved the team’s best ever result in dramatic fashion at Talladega in 2021 when he and fellow second-generation racer Tate Fogleman locked fenders all the way to the finish line the pair separated by just 0.52 second. Timmy scored the team’s first top-five finish – their only other Top Five coming into this year – when he claimed 5th in their second Martinsville start on October 16, 2019.
This year, for the first time, Timmy Hill will drive the #56 Toyota full-time, thanks to the support of his longtime sponsor Coble Enterprises and former StarCom Racing backer UNITS. Driver and team enjoyed a solid start to the year in back-to-back superspeedway races, surviving the backstretch pileup in Daytona to finish 8th, then coming home 18th in Atlanta.
On Friday, the Las Vegas track proved particularly treacherous with wind gusts up to 20mph blowing directly at the spotter’s stand on the frontstretch. This would not play a factor in qualifying, however, as only 32 trucks made the trip west, meaning all would make the cut. Hill ran 27th-fastest in the session, then maintained the 27th spot in qualifying, securing the rank with a lap of 173.332mph (31.154 seconds).
Securing the 32nd and final starting spot was Spencer Boyd, whose #76 Nor-Cal Equipment Rentals Chevrolet was also slowest in practice. He’d be joined by 21st-place qualifier and Atlanta last-place finisher Layne Riggs, who has continued to encounter bad luck in his first full-time campaign for Front Row Motorsports. This time, it was unapproved adjustments stemming from a spoiler issue on his #38 Love’s RV Stops Ford, which had originally secured 21st on the grid.
Riggs would take the green to the inside of Boyd, crossing the stripe 2.896 seconds back of the leader to Boyd’s 2.885. The two remained side-by-side into Turn 1, when Boyd’s spotter alerted him to a truck slowing in the high lane. This was the #42 J.F. Electric / Utilitra Chevrolet, which was stuck in the high lane and falling back from 22nd on the grid. An issue caused Mills to take over last at the end of Lap 1, at which point he was already 7.009 seconds back of the lead and 2.487 behind Boyd. Mills began to catch up to Boyd on Lap 3, when the first caution fell for Bayley Currey spun from the low lane of a three-wide battle in Turn 2.
Currey backed his #41 Niece Chevrolet into the outside wall and took over last place as he came down pit road. He completed his third lap on his way to his stall, and the crew set to work applying both bear-bond and duct tape to his loose rear decklid. “Give him a big hammer,” said someone on Currey’s crew. “Beat that bitch down.” On Lap 6, the crew chief said, “Tap the official, ask him if we're good - tell him to look at me. Tell him to look at me.” The NASCAR official responded, and Currey returned to the track three laps down. During the caution, Spencer Boyd pitted the #76 on Lap 6 followed by Lawless Alan’s #33 AUTOChargit Mobile Ford on Lap 7.
The race restarted on Lap 8, at which point Thad Moffitt slipped to 31st place in Faction 46’s #46 South Point Hotel & Casino Chevrolet. On Lap 12, Moffitt was 0.898 second behind the now 30th-place Boyd, a gap that increased quickly to 3.441 seconds on Lap 14 and 5.383 on Lap 16. By Lap 24, Moffitt hugged the inside line as the leaders rocketed past on his outside through Turns 1 and 2, putting him one lap down. By the 27th circuit, Boyd lost a lap in 30th, and along with Moffitt lost a second lap by the end of Stage 1 on Lap 31. The rankings didn’t change through Stage 2’s conclusion on Lap 61, when Currey was still three laps down, and all 32 trucks were still under power.
The race restarted on Lap 67, but just one lap later, 11th-place Dean Thompson’s loose #5 Thompson Pipe Group Toyota slapped the wall running the high lane off Turn 4, drawing the fourth and final caution of the race. “Just wicked free,” said Thompson over the radio. “It just did its own thing. He made it to pit road for repairs to both the right-front fender and right-rear panels. He returned to the track on Lap 69, was told to stop behind the pace car, and made a second stop to replace the transponder. When scoring reset, Thompson had fallen to 31st, three laps down, and on the Lap 73 restart, he was passed on track by the 32nd-place Currey. Thompson cleared the “Crash Clock” on Lap 75, the same moment Matt Mills slowed for a second time after slapping the wall, dropping him to 28th.
Still under green on Lap 77, Thompson reported his truck was still smoking, and Timmy Hill’s #56 slowed coming down pit road. Hill went behind the wall for what was originally reported to be a steering and brake issue, allowing him to take last from Thompson on Lap 80. Mills’ wall contact dropped him to 31st on Lap 83. On the 85th lap, Hill radioed that he had no pressure in the brake pedal. The crew called for more brake fluid while searching for the leak. That lap also saw Thompson slow entering Turn 3, but not come down pit road, keeping him four laps down. On Lap 100, NASCAR’s official in the garage radioed the tower, but was told to wait due to a series of pit road penalties that ensnared Kyle Busch, Ty Majeski, Layne Riggs, and Nick Sanchez. The report then came on Lap 116, declaring Hill as the only truck out of the race. The team tweeted that it was a broken right-front hub, though the results indicated “electrical” as the official reason cited.
Thompson ultimately passed Mills by the finish, both nine laps down to first-time winner Rajah Caruth, who claimed the checkered flag in the #71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet on the same day as longtime #71 Cup Series driver Dave Marcis’ 83rd birthday. Runner-up Tyler Ankrum in the #18 LiUNA! Chevrolet nearly won for the first time since 2019, earning his best series finish since June 13, 2020 at Homestead. Boyd took home 29th, three laps ahead of Thompson and Mills, with Currey’s damaged truck another lap ahead of Boyd in 28th.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #56 in the history of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
*This was the first time a Truck Series last-place finisher fell out with electrical issues at Las Vegas since March 1, 2019 – exactly five years ago to the day – when Scott Stenzel’s #63 Personal Comfort Chevrolet fell out after 34 laps.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
32) #56-Timmy Hill / 75 laps / electrical
31) #42-Matt Mills / 125 laps / running
30) #5-Dean Thompson / 125 laps / running
29) #76-Spencer Boyd / 128 laps / running
28) #41-Bayley Currey / 129 laps / running
2024 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Faction 46, Front Row Motorsports, Hill Motorsports (1)
2024 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet, Ford, Toyota (1)
2024 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
