What. A. Blockbuster.
Friday night's Navy 250 was the first ever NASCAR race on an active naval base, kicking off a weekend of high octane action to celebrate 250 years of the US Navy.
It was also an absolute classic – the longest race in Truck Series history, at 2:48:13, beating the 2023 O'Reilly Auto Parts 150 at Mid-Ohio (2:46:44) – and saw more lead changes (16) than any other street/road race in Truck history.
Layne Riggs, struggling for fuel as the race went into overtime, took the lead at the penultimate corner on the final lap when Tyler Reif made an error, handing the No. 34 the win in dramatic fashion.
So, what did we learn from seeing cars actually fight on this brand new track for the first time?
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Gear up for a long race on Sunday
Friday was an absolute bloodbath from start to finish, with at most five trucks getting through the whole day from practice to chequered flag without picking up some damage.
In the evening's main event, drivers wrecked themselves, wrecked each other, or were forced out of the race by their cars just quitting on them. The barriers at Turn 16 needed repairing twice – once under red flags – after Jamie McMurray and Tyler Ankrum drove a ton and a half of truck each into them. The barriers came off better than the trucks.
Friday night's race clocked in at nearly three hours, and...well, remember. Sunday's Cup Series race is scheduled for 50 per cent more laps.
Jimmie Johnson's still got it!
This was awesome. The seven-time Cup Series champion was running his first Truck Series race since 2008, and raised a few eyebrows when he set the fourth fastest time in qualifying.
The 50-year-old then fought his way up the timing tower instead of sliding down it, leading the race twice and looking in true contention for the lead before getting caught up in the midfield after a round of pitstops, getting spun out and losing places before his car gave out.
On another day, with a bit more luck, Johnson could've actually won a NASCAR race for the first time since 2017. It is so, so cool to get to see that.
How did he find his Friday night? Asked for advice ahead of the Cup race, he said: “Yes, maybe the Cup Series has changed, but there’s so much carnage and so little respect. I’ve never experienced anything like that.”
Dang kids.
Hammer the under on SVG's victory margin
You know what make it really hard to build and keep a big lead at the front of a NASCAR race? Cautions.
You know what it looks like we might see a lot of throughout the weekend's races? That's right, cautions.
The nature of this track, and of street circuit racing in NASCAR, means that there's a fairly good chance of at least one late-race caution – and who knows how many more once the pack's all restarting together. On talent alone, the winning margin could be anything. In context...knock your expectations down a notch.
Also, sorry SVG, we know you don't necessarily like your road course races being framed like this. However, even Kyle Busch was saying exactly this when the course was revealed, and...we're pretty sure he knew better than us.
The rest of this weekend is going to rule...unless you're a mechanic
At this point, it's worth repeating a stat from earlier. At least 30 of the 35 Truck Series entries suffered damage at some point on Friday, and four had to go to backup trucks for the race – with six others headed to the back for repairs.
More trucks lost fights with the barriers around the edge of the track in the race too, and while the spectacle and racing were both great...oof, it's a rough one for the people responsible for making sure those cars can still run.
Kaden Honeycutt, yikes
The No. 11 clearly had the pace to take victory on Friday night, but it wasn't to be.
Unfortunately, while others can blame bad luck or other drivers, all of the blame for the No. 11's disappointing result lies between the steering wheel and the seat.
Pushing the limit and getting wildly out of shape can be a risk worth taking at a road course, with generous runoff areas, but Coronado isn't that. If you mess up your turn, you hit the wall – as Honeycutt did in Turn 2 despite already nearly losing it at the same spot earlier.
His truck's pace meant that he recovered from that to be near the front at a late-race restart, when he got another warning. On the exit of Turn 1, he ran wide and clipped the wall. At the next restart, in overtime, what did he do when restarting from the front row? That's right, ran wide at Turn 1, clouted the wall again, and wrecked potential race winner Chandler Smith.
It's not immediately clear what happened after that, thanks to the FS1 coverage just...never addressing it, but while Smith managed to get going again and finish the race, Honeycutt parked up somewhere and failed to finish.
To get away with a mistake once and then make it again a few laps later is a poor, poor quality in a racing driver. To do that twice in one race, ruining your day and someone else's, is a very bad outing indeed.
READ MORE: 6 burning questions about this weekend's NASCAR races at Coronado Naval Base
