Chaos, it turns into absolute chaos. The race which became heavily wreck filled on the opening hours of the race quickly showed its star drivers who maintained their lead foot skills throughout the night. It was clear by the first quarter this race would be Brad Hughes (7) vs. Ryan Deluso (99).

As the race ticked on wreck after wreck and field size shrank and wound to end, we got a great battle for the lead and a trend that would continue on.

Previous threat winners, Douglas (21) and Jones (46) would get into each other often throughout the night and seemed to not be able to avoid each other. I think for Tom Jones' own sanity, we dont return here again.

Douglas (21) jumps into Charlotte with the points lead and back to back pole positions. 80 Laps at 1.5 mile oval makes this the longest race of the year so far. It wouldn't long for trouble to start. 3 separate issues plagued the early portions of the race before the race settled into two long runs with plenty of hard racing and varying strategies. 15 trucks started the race and only 9 made it home on the lead lap with an exciting outcome for the finish.

Around the halfway mark most of the field came in for their routine 4 tire stop. Thomas (6) over drove his box and had to back up. The 21 crew was on it and kept Douglas in the lead.

Radio from Ryan's truck as the 29 and 99 fight incredibly hard for P2

At this point in the race, the Chunks 29 machine woke up and was in clean air, gunning down the 21 in the closing stages of the race. Getting closer and closer every lap until on lap 76, he caught his bumper and they both nearly crashed.

The 21 truck unexplainably lost control in the middle of the back straight right next to Connor (29) going for the lead. The 21 has to snap correct the truck and let off the throttle, surrendering the lead to Mire in order to stay in the race and not be the late race yellow. Douglas would stay with connor within half a second but not be able to challenge for the lead there after.

Connor takes the win and behind him, Thomas (6) was able to pass Ryan (99) for the 5th spot on the final lap as well to retain more points and get to third in the standings.

He only led 9 laps but they were the most important ones, Connor Mire in 5 races becomes the 5th different winner. Him and Douglas are the last trucks to finish top 5 in all races this season. Just 7 points separate them in the standings.

Six trucks started the 60 lap race at Rockingham Speedway and it was Douglas (21) on pole. Brad, the points leaders, has to sit out the double header and loses the points the lead after Aaron's domination.


Connor (29) and Ben (6) naturally found themselves again after Connor Mire spun on cold tires to start the race and Thomas had no where to go.

The lack of late race yellows led to the ultimate battle of tires we've seen in FARCA History! As Ryan (99) and Aaron (21) had to do the entire race on the same set of tires they started it on, leading to the following pit report and images of the tires.

Pit Stop Report:

• Mire: Lap 3 - 4 Tires
  
• Thomas: Lap 46 - 4 Tires
  
• Rest of Field - DNP
  

Aaron Douglas, #21 Trade Authority Truck. Est. 33% tire wear remaining post race.

Ryan Deluso, #99 Exide Batteries Truck, Est. 1% tire wear remaining post race.

UItimately the 21 truck saving tires is what led him to be survive the end of the race having to some major lift and coast at the end. Telemetry shows the 21 lifting at the S/F line and throttling back up in the middle of 1/2 to save as much tires as possible.

4 races in and we have 4 different winners! Next is Charlotte Motor Speedway.

On the third stop of the tour the truck made their way to Charlotte Motor Speedway on the legends course to see just how chaotic a race possibly could be and well, lets just say the trends continued and Tom Jones knows how to be patient. On the opening lap on the outside Douglas (21) immediately lost the back end while Hughes (7) took off on the low side. Connor (29) and Thomas (6) went bumper to bumper early in the race as well.

Handling issues plagued the drivers on the near 0 degree banking track as Ryujin Industries 6 truck was fighting rear end lock ups with his aggressive corner entries trying to stay with the Chunks 29. Ben ultimately ended up retiring early from the race with handling woes.

Immediately the field gunned it for track position leaving Jones (46) vulnerable on the single restart. The 29 of Mire saw what the 21 was doing and moved up on the outside in preparation to capitalize on a pass. On the drop of the green Brad headed into turn 1 seeing 3 trucks go to toe to toe on entry. Fighting cold tires and with the preferred line the 21 shot down to the inside!

Aaron Douglas got the lead on the side off the 7, passing two trucks in one corner for the lead, which he would then maintain for 27 laps (we'll get to that in a moment). Connor fighting the dirty outside lane found himself side by side with Pritchard (44) heading into the next corner. This is where the issues began and the man of Jones was the only one who took it seriously.

Brett spun on the inside of Connor after cooking the corners a bit too much, fighting the rear end of his ebay Motors Chevy. This just a mere omen to what was to come with the rest of the field. Tom Jones got by Hughes and went door to door with Aaron making a mistake in 3/4 only for Aaron to use his cross skills and out brake the 46 to resume his lead until the end portion of the race.

    Choke City!! The 21 truck of Douglas spins from the lead and hands it over to the 7 of Hughes who then ALSO loses the lead from missing the corner and over driving the exit of 2, handing the lead to.. DA DA DA DA... TOM JONES! Who sailed away from 7, 21 & 29 truck to cruise to his first FARCA win, in just 3 starts. A feat no driver has accomplished that soon into their career in this sport. Connor fell back after tire issues and Brett retired the 44 machine. Brad with late race penalty handed 2nd over to Douglas and Jones W'd.

Thus ends the 3rd race of season and it delivered with the 3rd different winner, no repeats to start off the 2023 season. Next week we head to Concord Speedway for a 77 lap race on the short track. The points lead for Brad has shrunk with the late race penalty down to just 3 points over Aaron Douglas. With the win to his name, Jones is now 4th in points just behind Connor Mire.

The Chunks 29 of Connor Mire saw a lot of contact at the lady in black that night as he tango's with outside retaining wall and ran into issues on track once again with long time rival Benjamin Thomas in the 6 machine. Hard blocks and bumper tag played trivial to the truck of Thomas, once he finally got to the inside of the 29, his truck unloaded on the apron and spun ending the battle for this race as Connor finished 5th.

The competition yellow saw the closest battle off pit road in FARCA history as the P1 pit stall paid off for Deluso, allowing him to take the lead on pit road by a splitter, likely thanks to cone placement at the end of pit road put in place by the officials. Definitely was an exciting moment for what was just a routine portion of the race.

Final Restart

Jones (46) passes Douglas (21)

Hughes taking the Checkered

Brad walked away with Jimmie Johnson style burnout to cap off the win at Darlington in style! The #7 Budweiser machine burned it down on the front stretch to a roaring crowd after he successfully managed his tires on the final restart and pulled away from the Exide Machine.

Brad now takes the points lead with Aaron behind him as next week we head to Charlotte Motor Speedway to race on the front stretch legends oval.

*click the links below for detailed results*