Early Big One Takes Out Deegan And Other Hopefuls

What’s Happening?

After some false starts in the beginning due to scattered sprinkles, and a fairly uneventful first stage, a massive wreck in stage two on lap 30 took out some major contenders. The wreck began as the No. 84 truck of Clay Greenfield got loose and spun, collecting Dean Thompson in the 5, Hailie Deegan in the 13, Tanner Gray in the 15, Matt Dibenedetto in the 25, Brett Holmes in the 32, and Daniel Dye in the 43.

You need to know

• The incident took out a couple of really fast trucks including Hailie Deegan in the 13 and Matt Dibenedetto in the 25.
• This was Hailie Deegan’s first race with Thorsport, which she viewed as a refresh on her career. She raced the last two seasons for DGR which was rebranded as Tricon Garage and switched to Toyota after the departure of KBM at the end of the 2022 season. Deegan being a Ford contracted driver, she signed with Thorsport as they switched back to the blue oval manufacturer.
• Deegan has a decent sized following on the social media platforms TicTok and YouTube. She is also a key part of NASCAR’s Drive For Diversity Program.

Deegan was showing some speed early on in the race, drafting with her teammates, and she ended the first stage in 5th position to collect six bonus points towards the overall season championship. This was not the start of a season she was looking for but she had some speed tonight and, unlike the last two years, she was some stable and veteran teammates to lean on. We will see what kind of juice the No. 13 Thorsport entry has at the next race in Vegas.

The Main Characters

Dean Thompson (No. 5) was emotional after such a hard hit. Here, he speaks to Matt Weaver:

Hailie Deegan (No. 13) ends her debut with Thorsport in the garage. She spoke to Matt Weaver:

Tanner Gray (No. 15) and Daniel Dye were both able to continue the race.

Clay Greenfiled (No. 84) with Matt Weaver on the crash chaos:

Some torn up race trucks:

Around The Garage

This was the first of a couple of incidents which collected Matt DiBenedetto. He came home in 20th and the team, Rickley W.A.R., commented on their “wild night”:

Thorsport was feeling hopeful as stage 1 came to a close. Hailie Deegan finished the stage in 5th place but would end the night in 35th.

The newly rebranded Tricon Garage commented on Dean Thompson getting caught up in the carnage:

Dean Thompson himself took to Twitter after retiring from the event:

In The Stands

Brett in a reply to the NASCAR Truck Series Twitter page dubs Hailie Deegan one of the unluckiest drivers in NASCAR history:

This fan feels also feels that Hailie Deegan is a bit accident prone. Could they have a point?

Haterade H2O states there was no sense in running three-wide and questions the drivers talent and/or experience. This has been a criticism of both the Trucks and Arca series over the last several years now.

There has also been some speculation that it was raining at the time of the crash, though that was never confirmed.

Some encouraging words from Twitter user Richard Lawler:

Timothy Meyers was more critical of Deegan’s failures to meet his expectations. He criticized her as, essentially, a “paid driver”:

Lucus Shirley, however, was quick to come to her defense:

A few fans gave Dean Thompson some encouraging words following the incident:

It was a rough start for the newly rebranded Tricon Garage and their supporters.

On Your Screen

Daily Downforce partner, Eric Estep, had some questions of his own about the incident:

In Your Ear

NASCAR Sirius XM also commented on the incident collecting Deegan:

At the end of the day, a lot a really fast trucks were taken out in that wreck. The only thing these drivers and teams can do is pack it up and give it another shot next week.