How’s it going, NASCAR fans? We sat through both Daytona 500 qualifying and then two duel races Thursday night. Now, it’s the trucker’s turn to take center stage. That’s right, tonight was the kickoff for the 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season with the Fresh From Florida 250 at Daytona International Speedway! How did the truckers react to their first time in a truck in months? Who was able to dust off their cobwebs and who still had a little rust showing? Let’s talk about it. Here’s everything that went down in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at the World Center of Racing.
Following post-race inspection on late Friday night, it was revealed that Parker Kligerman’s 75 Chevy was too low. As a result, he was disqualified and credited with a last place finish. This means that Corey Heim was awarded the victory along with the points and purse money for winning the race.
As reported by Bob Pockrass, the format for tonight’s truck race at Daytona was as follows:
The teams were given 4 sets of tires and the fuel run was expected to be around 50-55 laps. 3 trucks had to go to the rear: Connor Mosack, Jake Garcia, and Giovanni Ruggiero.
The race went green with Ben Rhodes immediately jumping in front of teammate Ty Majeski and the two started working together. After a couple of times around this massive 2.5 mile oval, Chandler Smith in his Front Row Racing Ford F-150 started to duke it out for the lead. They raced green for about four laps when the first incident of the race transpired.
The first incident of the night occurred on Lap-5 with Kaden Honeycutt getting loose coming out of turn-4. As you can see in the video below, air just sucked his truck around and he spun down towards the infield. No other trucks were involved in the incident but he did make fairly significant contact with the wall. This ended his night, unfortunately. Check out the wreck in the clip below.
During the caution, the top-8 trucks stayed out with the rest of the pack coming down for service. Matt Crafton radioed his team warning of a potential power issue. Two penalties were issued during these stops: Crafton for too many crew members over the wall. William Sawalich suffered the same. The field went back green a short time later with Ben Rhodes taking the lead on the outside from Tanner Gray. With 5-laps to go in the first stage, we got our second caution of the night.
In her rookie start, the trouble for Toni Breidinger started in the second half of the opening stage. The incident in question wasn’t her fault as she was violently tagged from behind by Giovanni Ruggiero. She spun to the inside, making light contact with the wall. She was able to continue but ended up going a lap down as her Tricon crew went to work on pit road.
Ben Rhodes flexed his superspeedway muscles early tonight. He started the race from the pole and ended the first stage in the first position. With this stage win, he earned 10 points to go towards the regular season points standings as well as 1 playoff point.
Immediately taking the green and white checkered flag to win the first stage of the 2025 season, Ben Rhodes pitted and his team started to take a look under the hood. No issue was reported but it didn’t seem that there was a major issue with the 99 machine.
Despite pitting and having to start the second stage from the rear of the field, it didn’t take long for Ben Rhodes to work his way back up to the front. In just a handful of laps, he found himself in the race lead once again, showing Dale Jr.-level Daytona speed. He ultimately finished second in the stage.
Unlike the first stage, the second stage went flag to flag without incident. There was a lot of exciting racing at the front of the pack and despite Ben Rhodes apparent dominance, it was Matt Crafton who took his ill-handling truck to the race lead. The seasoned truck veteran won the second stage, earning 10 points and 1 playoff point. Rhodes finished behind him in second. Ty Majeski also finished in third, making for a 1-2-3 finish for ThorSport. The Fords were clearly bad fast tonight.
Following the caution for the stage break, Matt Crafton relinquished the lead and came down pit road for adjustments.
To start the final stage, the two Front Row teams of Layne Riggs and Chandler Smith made it to the front in a hurry, overtaking the Chevys of Daniel Hemric and Grant Enfinger. They raced a few laps before the caution flag flew on Lap-49.
The caution on Lap-49 was a result of an engine failure for Tyler Ankrum and his McAnally-Hilgermann Racing. As a result for the pack checking up, Dawson Sutton went around. He sustained only minimal damage while Ankrum retired from the race. Toni Breidinger received the free-pass and suddenly, she was right back in the fight.
The race continued on relatively cleanly as Chandler Smith led the field with teammate Layne Riggs tucked in behind him took the Craftsman 20 to go. Shortly after that point, however, the Big One went down, causing chaos and carnage.
After taking 18-laps-to-go, all hell broke loose as the Big One claimed eight trucks. The wreck started with unstable juking and jiving out front. Trucks checked up and subsequently got rammed from behind. The 91 of Jack Wood got turned by Ben Rhodes, sending him into the outside wall. This led to Toni Breidinger getting taken out and then the innocent bystanders of Matt Crafton and Rajah Caruth were just along for the ride. Check out the carnage with the link below.
The race restarted and Chandler Smith got into the back of another truck which killed his speed. Despite being hooked up with Layne Riggs, the two Front Row trucks that were in prime position to win fell through the field like a brick. As a result, the outside line, led by Giovanni Ruggiero, Tanner Gray, and Corey Heim, prevailed. They formed a single-file line and were able to outrun the inside line for several laps. That said, as they took 5 laps to go, the inside line started to come back, led by Bayley Currey and Ben Rhodes.
Seeing the front out of his windshield, Ben Rhodes once again took the lead with Parker Kligerman and Layne Riggs behind him. As they took the white flag, Ben Rhodes on the inside just barely edged out Klingerman at the one. Going down the backstretch, Kligerman shot out to the lead. A big wreck happened going into turn-3 and all around through turn-4. The caution flag flew and Parker Kligerman, who retired from full-time racing last year, won his fourth career Truck race.
In a thrilling and relatively clean race, Parker Kligerman prevailed. The semi-retired driver-turned full-time broadcaster earned his fourth career start tonight. What a way to kick off retirement! Congratulations to Kligerman and this little team that could!
With Kligerman’s disqualification, Corey Heim was awarded the victory. Meanwhile, Kligerman is credited with a last-place finish.
All-in-all, that was a fun and fairly clean but still very competitive Truck race at Daytona. Of course, there were crashes but they were few and far between which was really impressive considering how hard the truckers were racing all race long. So, what did you think of this race, Daily Downforce readers? Let us know! And be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, and all our other socials to keep up to speed as to what’s going on in the NASCAR garage.
