Following a chaotic and wildly controversial end to their 2023 season, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is back, taking on the high banks of the World Center of Racing: Daytona International Speedway! Typically, when the truckers storm into town, their race is the wildest, most action-packed racing you’ll see that weekend and the 2024 season opener did not disappoint. Here’s EVERYTHING that happened in Fast Friday’s truck showdown under the lights at Daytona.
You Need To Know:
It didn’t take long for trouble to strike as, on lap 6, the Big One took its first horde of victims. A total of 12 trucks got caught up in this incident which all started when Matt Crafton got out of shape as he received a massive push from the No. 19 truck of Christain Eckes. With how unstable the Craftsman Trucks are in the draft, Crafton’s No. 88 got squirrely and, in an attempt to save it, he chased his truck down the track, making further contact with Layne Riggs’ No. 38 truck. The 38 went up the track, getting into the No. 15 of Tanner Gray who then tagged the No. 52 of Stewart Friesen. From there, everybody else was just along for the ride.
In the video below provided by NASCAR on FOX, you can see how Ben Rhodes was able to snake his way through the carnage.
Lots of wrecked trucks in the Daytona garage area.
The latest team to join the truck series ranks, Faction46, impressed in qualifying with a top-10 starting position. Unfortunately, he would be wrapped up in the opening Big One. The team would finish 32nd, out of the race. Onto Atlanta!
Other big names caught up in this incident include Ty Dillon, Nick Sanchez, and Rajah Caruth.
Following another short-lived caution after the No. 33 truck of Lawless Alan blew a right rear tire, the pack restarted with one lap to go in the first stage. Johnny Sauter would lead the field around, somehow, without further carnage to win the opening stage.
With 7 laps remaining in the second stage, it was reported that it was sprinkling on pit road. When the race restarted with 3 laps to go, the drivers were told to race like it was the end of the race. Luckily, things didn’t get as crazy as expected. With 2 laps left in the second stage, NASCAR threw the caution flag followed by the red flag. They crossed the start/finish line on pit road, effectively ending the second stage.
For the second year in a row, Tyler Ankrum in the No. 18 Chevy won stage 2 at Daytona, his third career stage win in the series.
Luckily, the delay was not a long one. As reported by Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports, the engines were refired after about a 5-minute delay.
Ben Rhodes had had an amazing night late into the race. Starting in the 34th position, it did not take him long for him to get to the front. He was battling for the lead with under 40 laps to go when Tyler Ankrum, getting an aggressive push from Chase Purdy in the No. 77, body-slammed the side of the No. 99 ThorSport Ford. This would lead to a cut tire, causing Rhodes to pit under green. After he was back out on the track, the pack quickly approached him and he split down the middle when another tire failure ended his night. You can watch the incident in the video below.
Here’s the initial contact that started it all.
In the first overtime restart of the night, the field was somehow able to stay off one another to see the white flag fly. Unfortunately, as the pack ran down the front stretch and Nick Sanchez pulled away, the second Big One of the evening occurred.
This particular crash was triggered as the driver of the No. 71 Spire truck, Rajah Caruth, got into the back of Jack Wood in the No. 91 truck. Wood then collects the No. 17 of Taylor Gray and it’s pretty much on from there. Gray gets hit awkwardly by Daniel Dye in the No. 43 as well as Christian Eckes and becomes airborne. Thankfully, he was able to land safely back down on his wheels to avoid further damage.
Also involved in this wreck was NASCAR Cup Series driver, Corey LaJoie as well as NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series vet, Matt Crafton.
Somehow, Sanchez, Corey Heim (who had a fairly quiet race and was just able to avoid wrecks at the right time), and Caruth escaped virtually unscathed.
Here is a better look at Taylor Gray’s horrific flip.
As the race officially ended under caution, Nick Sanchez scored his first-ever victory in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series! Congratulations to him!
Well, Daily Downforce readers and NASCAR fans, what did you think of that one? It was a wild ride, for sure, certainly a continuation of how the 2023 season ended. What do you make of what the NASCAR Truck Series has become? Are you all here for it or are you in the camp that would consider it an embarrassment of the sport? Let us know all your thoughts and concerns on our various social media platforms. And be sure to keep logging in here at DailyDownforce.com for all the latest breaking news stories and fan discussions in the world of NASCAR and auto racing.
Another race weekend in the books. While Ryan Blaney battled back from several pit road setbacks to win his second straight race at Phoenix, other drivers were much to be desired. It was a big win for Penske but for several others, they leave the first “real” race of the season scratching their head with a lot that they need to figure out. Here are the biggest losers of NASCAR’s Spring 2026 Phoenix race weekend.
I’m afraid that this is starting to be habitual. Another race weekend at RCR for Kyle Busch, another terrible result. Well, the finish wasn’t exactly awful. While 17th is hardly up to Kyle’s standards, it’s about as good as it gets anymore for the two-time champion who hasn’t won a race in nearly a hundred starts.
To start things off, there was a reason to be cautiously optimistic about the future of that RCR No. 8 Chevy. New crew chief. Personnel changes. A new Chevy body. He even scored the pole for the 68th running of the Daytona 500 last month. But, since then, it has been a sharp slope downward. He was mostly a non-factor in the first three races. And, today, it seemed like the No. 8 Chevy was out to lunch. They unloaded slow. They qualified in the back of the pack. And, before Stage 1 even ended, Kyle was running 34th with no apparent issues and went a lap down to leader Ryan Blaney. To add insult to injury, Kyle Bush had a tire go down on him three times today. More than any other driver. It appears to be back to the drawing board for team No. 8.
You could say that the Hendrick No. 48 team had a rough weekend in general. But I think it would be more accurate to say that the entire start to 2026 has been catastrophic. Heading into today’s race, even with Bowman starting the first three races of the season, the No. 48 team was 36th in points, last among all full-time drivers. Even Cody Ware was ahead of him. If that’s not bad, I don’t know what is.
To rub salt in the wound, their driver missed today at Phoenix due to showing symptoms of vertigo. So, Anthony Alfredo was into sub and…it went about as well as you’d expect. He went a lap down early and never recovered. He got caught up in the incident involving Joey Logano and DNF’d. Officially, they scored a 33rd finishing position. This is the worst start Bowman could ever imagine, considering that he’s in a contract year.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that I’ve lost my marbles. “Come on, dude! Penske just swept the weekend! How can they be losers?” Hear me out. Let’s start first with the two other Penske drivers, shall we? Joey Logano caused not one, but two multi-car pileups, one involving his Penske teammate, Austin Cindric. Cars were utterly destroyed. Before that, both Cindric and Logano were running solidly in the top 10.
So, it’s not for a lack of speed that they make our Biggest Losers list. The reason they’re listed here is that a lot of their problems today, if not all of them, were self-inflicted. Logano was driving sloppily and that took out Cindric. And even race winner Ryan Blaney almost lost this race on pit road numerous times. Rookie mistakes by the pit crew constantly had him charging from behind. Pit road penalties. He was like a yo-yo going back and forth throughout the field. What saved him in the end was that, on that last restart, Blaney took two tires and Christopher Bell took 4. If that had not happened, it is extremely possible that Blaney ultimately would have lost the race and it would have been because of their numerous mistakes in the pits.
They got lucky this week. They probably won’t get that lucky again. They need to clean up those nagging, senseless mistakes.
Ole, Danny boy. If Alex Bowman’s seat is the hottest in the series, Daniel Suarez has to be the second hottest in the garage. That No. 7 car has been a revolving door of drivers for the last several years and it looks like Suarez is shaping up to be Spire’s latest victim. It’s the same old story with the team: they show impressive speed in qualifying and even early on in the race. But rarely do they ever put a full race together. That criticism isn’t just for Suarez, it applies to the team across the board.
But Carson Hocevar is the team’s golden child. He’s not going anywhere. And the team seems pretty high on Michael McDowell at the moment. That leaves Suarez looking like the odd man out, a seat-warmer, if you will. He needs to perform. And, he’s done well to start, admittedly. But he qualified 5th for today’s race. He even earned a few stage points in the opening stage. Then, he faltered and left the race with an unceremonious whimper. Ultimately, after he was no longer a factor, he was caught up in a mid-race wreck. He finished 30th. That’s a tough pill to swallow for the Mexican-born driver. If he wants to keep his ride next year, he needs to show stark improvement in the coming weeks. I have a strong feeling that that ride is about to be a highly sought-after commodity once silly season rolls around.
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The first checkered flag of the 2026 rendition of the NASCAR West Coast Swing (as abbreviated as it is) has officially flown. It was an exciting race, full of close, tight-cornered racing, a plethora of tire issues littered throughout, and a couple of heartbreaking, hard hits. Surviving it all was Ryan Blaney, who captured the flag in the Straight Talk 500 at Phoenix Raceway. He survived pit road mishaps and passed a total of 49 cars to win the race today. It marks his 18th career victory, sweeping the weekend for Team Penske. So, for Blaney and Team Penske, the race was the highest of highs. Not everyone escaped unscathed, though. Here are the key takeaways from NASCAR’s spring date at Phoenix.
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Following a relatively clean first stage, Stage number 2 and beyond was littered with cautions. Most of these cautions were a result of tires going down after only about 20 laps or so of use. But the caution on Lao 216 was purely driver error. Joey Logano, who was running 7th at the time, made a move down on the apron approaching the finish line. Chaos ensued. Here’s what happened.
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