TRUCKS: Flat tire at Mesa Marin gives Duskwatcher 3rd career last-place finish in Top 3 Series

Chakat Duskwatcher picked up the 1st last place finish of hir SCRL Rainbow Dash Truck Series career in the March 18th Dodge California Truck Stop 300 at the Mesa Marin Raceway when hir #09 AT&T Chevrolet completed 20 of the 25 laps under power.

The occurred in hir 5th career series start. In the Truck Series, it's the 1st for the #09 and the 27th for running at the finish. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 2nd for the #09 and 117th for running at the finish.

Since shi first joined the SCRL back in 2020, Duskwatcher is still trying to find hir paws in the SCRL. Despite having found victory lane four times in hir career, all of them coming in the most recent series, the SCRL Grand National Series, shi has yet to dominate like hir fellow chakat member Whitelion, who has won 7 championships and 40 career wins. For the first time in hir career, Duskwatcher chose to sign up and compete in the truck series, and was looking to get hir first championship. Duskwatcher's season started off with a decent 15th in hir debut at Homestead, and 8th at Phoenix before improving on hir best finish by finishing 4th in the last round at Evergreen.

The entry list for the second race in a row would be the full 36 truck field with none of the teams choosing to run new paint schemes. In qualifying, Sebastian Torres would score his first career series pole, posting a time of 18.594 seconds. Duskwatcher would struggle around the half mile short track, posting a time of 19.002 seconds, 0.408 seconds behind Torres's pole winning time, placing hir in 18th position. The #1 Mopar Performance Dodge of Angel Gutiérrez would be the last to get in on speed, posting a time of 20.338 seconds, who was 1.744 seconds behind Torres's lap time. Two drivers would fail to qualify, two-time last-place finisher the #38 Menards Chevrolet of Ashton Tifft and the #31 Auto Trim Design Ford of Kristian Bracken.

On race day, Gutiérrez would remain in the final spot for the first lap before knocking the #16 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet of Samet Ozkan into last. Ozkan would trail for two circuits before knocking the #24 GMAC Financial Services Chevrolet of Alexander Rowe into the final spot, as Rowe was trailing in last on Lap 5 when the battle for last came to an end. At this point, Duskwatcher had gained no track position and was still running in 18th when entering Turn 1, shi reported a flat tire, pulling to the inside of the track and would actually stall in Turn 2, however no caution would fly. Duskwatcher would be towed back to the pits, losing four laps in the process before being sent back out onto the track, losing another right after, and with no cautions flying during the event, Duskwatcher would remain in the final position as the race leaders took the checkered flag.

The remaining Bottom Five were; 33rd was the #98 Porter-Cable Power Tools Ford of Al Lagasee, 32nd was the aforementioned #24 of Alexander Rowe, 31st was the #43 Dodge Motorsports Dodge of Chris Kyle and 30th was the #16 of Samet Ozkan.

SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first time the #09 has finished last in a Truck Series race as well at Mesa Marin.
*This is not the first time Duskwatcher has trailed the field at Mesa Marin; shi finished last in a ARCA Truck Series race back in 2020 after ironically suffering another flat tire.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
34) #09-Chakat Duskwatcher / 20 laps / running
33) #98-Al Lagasee / 25 laps / running
32) #24-Alexander Rowe / 25 laps / running
31) #43-Chris Kyle / 25 laps / running
30) #16-Samet Ozkan / 25 laps / running

S5 SCRLASTCAR Rainbow Dash Truck Series Driver's Championship