TRUCKS: Rare mistake leaves Kyle Busch last in a Truck Series race for the first time
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: Commissioner Tater, @TaterSalad3113
Kyle Busch picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career in Friday’s Buckle Up South Carolina 200 at the Darlington Raceway when his #7 BAMF Enterprises Chevrolet fell out with crash damage after 6 of 150 laps.
The finish came in Busch’s 175th series start. In the Truck Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 6th for the #7, the 192nd from a crash, and the 444th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 57th for the #7, the 1,375th from a crash, and the 1,938th for Chevrolet.
With the finish, Busch becomes the 44th different driver to complete the LASTCAR Triple Crown, scoring at least one last-place finish in a Cup, XFINITY, and Truck Series races. Busch’s first Cup and XFINITY last-place runs both happened at Atlanta around two decades ago. On October 25, 2003, Busch’s #87 ditech.com Chevrolet lost the engine after 2 laps of the XFINITY race. Then on October 31, 2004, Busch’s #84 Carquest Chevrolet had a timing issue after 44 laps of the Cup race. Here are the 44 Triple Crown winners, in order:
Busch’s dominance in the Truck Series is well documented. Though he’s never run the series full-time since his debut in 2001, he’s gone winless only one year since his first series win in 2005. That was in 2012, where an “off-year” still saw him finish 2nd, 4th, and 2nd in his three starts, leading a combined 120 of his 417 attempted laps. By then, Busch’s team, Kyle Busch Motorsports, was fast becoming a juggernaut that soon expanded to multiple entries. That success continued after a switch from Toyota to Chevrolet in 2023, when Busch scored the team’s record-setting 100th win at Pocono. But soon after came the most surprising news – KBM would be no more, sold to another expanding team in Spire Motorsports.
Despite the sale, Busch would run a five-race schedule for a seventh-straight year, this time in the flagship #7 Chevrolet. The change in ownership made no difference. Busch won his season debut in Atlanta, finished 15th the night teammate Rajah Caruth scored his first career win, then finished runner-up to Christian Eckes at Bristol before at Texas securing longtime NASCAR sponsor Realtree their first win – a truck now sitting in Realtree’s trophy room. Through it all, he’d led 263 of 685 completed laps. His victories were his fifth at Bristol and sixth at Texas. But completing the five-race schedule would be a first – his first-ever Truck Series start at Darlington. Even there, Busch was no stranger to victory lane, winning two XFINITY races and in 2008, the 500-mile Cup event.
Busch began the weekend running 25th-fastest of the 32 entrants, then jumped to 4th in qualifying with a lap of 166.766mph (29.488 seconds).
Taking the 32nd and final starting spot was Thad Moffitt for Faction 46, whose #46 Petty 75th Chevrolet was designed to resemble Bobby Hamilton’s STP silver anniversary scheme from 1996. Moffitt would be joined by two others for pre-race issues – Rajah Caruth, who required unapproved adjustments after he bounced off the wall in his #71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, and polesitter Nick Sanchez, whose #2 Drive for Diversity 20th Anniversary Chevrolet required a new rear hub. Coming to the stripe, Sanchez lined up to the inside of Caruth in the final row.
When the green flag dropped, Caruth was last across the stripe, 3.067 seconds back of the lead, but he and Sanchez made quick work of Moffitt, whose spotter said he was ten truck-lengths back of the field at the end of the first lap, 6.224 seconds back of the leader. Meanwhile, up front, Busch had charged to the second spot and had pulled alongside then-leader Corey Heim coming off Turn 2. At that moment, Busch’s truck slid up the track and hooked left, careening head-on into the inside wall. Under the ensuing caution, Busch managed to make it back to pit road, where the crew attempted repairs. He’d taken over last place on Lap 3. The crew had Busch turn the wheel back and forth, then knocked down the hood and repaired the fender. With less than two minutes left on the “Crash Clock,” Busch returned to the track in time for the Lap 6 restart, but the bodywork was still dragging badly on the track. On Lap 8, Busch cleared minimum speed, but was also lapped a fifth time by Heim. Moments later, as he entered Turn 1 on Lap 12, the right-front tire appeared to go down, sending him hard into the outside wall. Busch drove down the unused backstretch pit road and drove behind the wall, done for the night. The location caused some confusion for the team as they tried to bring the truck back to their hauler. Checked and released from the infield care center, Busch was unsure what caused him to lose control, and expressed frustration over returning to the track in a damaged truck.
The rest of the Bottom Five was completed by the biggest pileup of the night. Coming off that same second corner, Dean Thompson in the #5 Thompson Pipe Group Chevrolet while running under Corey Heim’s #11 Safelite Toyota in a tight battle for the 4th spot. Coming off the corner, Thompson broke loose and bumped Heim into the outside wall, triggering a pileup that collected several trucks behind. Eliminated with Thompson and Heim were 31st-place Matt Crafton in the #88 Ford and Caruth’s #71. Heim was the only member of the Bottom Five to return to pit road for repairs, though he ultimately pulled out of the race a few laps later. Escaping the pileup from just behind Thompson and Heim was Ross Chastain, who went on to claim the victory in Al Niece’s #45 Buckle Up South Carolina Chevrolet.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #7 in a Truck Series race since March 29, 2008, when Andy Lally’s #7 TRG Motorsports / Adobe Road Winery Chevrolet crashed after 77 laps around Martinsville. The number had never finished last in a Truck race at Darlington.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
32) #7-Kyle Busch / 6 laps / crash
31) #88-Matt Crafton / 97 laps / crash
30) #71-Rajah Caruth / 97 laps / crash
29) #5-Dean Thompson / 97 laps / crash
28) #11-Corey Heim / 105 laps / crash
2024 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Young’s Motorsports (2)
2nd) Faction 46, Front Row Motorsports, Hill Motorsports, McAnally-Hilgemann Racing, Spire Motorsports, Terry Carroll Motorsports, ThorSport Racing (1)
2024 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (5)
2nd) Ford, Toyota (2)
2024 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
