Adam Householder’s Mint 400 defense got off to a rough start when he and Nic Whetstone tangled just moments after taking the green flag. Things seemed to get worse from there when he suffered a flat.

Fortunately, the Mint is a long race where anything can happen. After co-driver Trevor Ellingham quickly got the tire changed, Householder went on a tear with a perfect run the rest of the way to secure his second straight Unlimited Race win.

“We took off the line, we got a little rubbing bumpers with Nic Whetstone, which is pretty fun, made it interesting,” said Householder. Fittingly, Whetstone had been the fastest qualifier in 2024.

The two started next to each other, Whetstone having qualified second ahead of Householder’s third. As they navigated through the hairpins, Householder went to the outside but clipped Whetstone, causing them to briefly get stuck. Householder then ran wide in the ensuing hairpin while Whetstone cut the turn.

“I was going to take the outside and he came sweeping up into me and it just kind of turned him,” Householder explained.

His woes seemed to continue when the tire puncture struck while chasing Whetstone. The hood on Householder’s #24 also come off and lost him further time to leader Ryan Arciero.

“Right off the bat, it was not going good,” he recalled. “I was a little nervous like, ‘Man, this is how our day is going to go…’”

Fortunately, the Mint is infamous for its high attrition rate. Whetstone only completed a lap before retiring with a power steering failure. Arciero took the lead from Whetstone and had a comfortable advantage through the first lap before suffering a flat. Householder passed him while he was getting it changed, then tried to pursue the new leader before the right rear axle broke 79 miles into Lap #2.

Despite being one of the best desert racers in America, especially as the reigning Vegas to Reno winner, Arciero has had the Mint victory elude him in what has frankly become a comically cruel losing streak. He was leading in 2022 before losing power on the third lap, then retired in 2023 with a broken transmission U-joint. 2024 was probably the most painful, having lost the alternator while leading then clawing his way up to second before the driveline broke.

With Arciero also out of the picture, Householder just needed to keep pushing.

“I didn’t know how I was going to survive, but you can’t let him run away. He pulled over with a flat, we got up in front, and we just put it in a pace mode to get it to the finish line,” Householder commented about his strategy.

“That’s how I try to do it. If I can get a buffer, we always look at if we can get a three-minute buffer in between the guy behind us, we can do a tire change, get back up in front. I tried to race to that and set it at that pace and that’s what we were going for.”

The approach paid off tremendously as he was the only driver to set a time below seven hours. Dave Mason Jr., who finished second in Unlimited Truck 2WD behind Householder, was over 24 minutes back while overall runner-up Conner McMullen trailed by 14 minutes. Householder is the second driver to win the overall in back-to-back years since the Mint’s revival in 2008, joining Justin Lofton in 2015 and 2016.

Although McMullen won Unlimited Truck SPEC, he feels Brent Fox was the true victor among them. Despite starting 12th, Fox surged and took the lead after McMullen suffered a flat on Lap #2. Save for extended pit stops that lost him the lead, one of which was because his team applied more fuel than usual so he wouldn’t have to to pit again later, he ran an otherwise lightning fast race that impressed McMullen.

Fox initially finished second in class to McMullen by six minutes, but was relegated to fourth due to 14 minutes and 46 seconds of speeding penalties. McMullen also had 2:59 slapped onto his time for the same reason.

“We won by time but fair and square, the Fox guys won this race,” McMullen admitted. “They ran an unbelievable job. For those guys to go through the field, catch me in my dust, pass me, and still be leapfrogging and still finish up front like that with no flats and no issues, that’s a team who’s committed and who can actually put it down. They put down a heater today and they caught a lot of people. I think they started like 12th or 14th and those two did an unbelievable job.

“First place here at the Mint but truthfully, I give it to Fox. I give them the race win and I would take second any day to those guys.”

Class 1 saw a duel between Brad Wilson and Jack Grabowski. The former had the upper hand early on but Wilson’s car, which he shared with Kyle Quinn, was “flawless” and pulled ahead to beat him by 52 seconds.

Arciero and Whetstone were far from the only victims on Saturday. 2023 winner Eric Hardin’s race ended after a single lap because of a damaged right front suspension. Dale Dondel, who was the fastest in qualifying, was also a one-and-done.

Nate Martino and Jason Coleman were among the SPEC truck rollovers. Coleman went over while chasing Michael Scafuto; although he took responsibility for the accident, Coleman added he would not have driven so aggressively had Scafuto not moved out of the way sooner as Coleman was stalking him for over 40 miles. Ironically, Scafuto won the 4WD class.

Travis Williams’ SPEC truck nearly ran the distance but the mechanical gremlins proved to be too much. He was stopped for some time with an electrical issue before getting it fixed, only for the throttle body to break. On the final lap, the driveshaft broke and ended his race.

Thor Herbst’s #19 2WD Unlimited Truck, which he shared with his uncle Tim, was also the victim of a rollover. Terrible Herbst teammates Pierce and EJ Herbst tried to pull it back onto its wheels with their SPEC trucks to no avail, forcing the #19 out for an hour before rejoining with repairs.

The Honda Baja Passport, an SUV competing in Unlimited Truck 2WD, showed promise in its competition debut as Ethan Ebert ran top three in class. However, an engine issue knocked him out nine miles into Lap #3.

Class winners

Class	Overall Finish	Number	Driver of Record	Laps	Total Time
Class 1	9	153	Brad Wilson	4	7:39:12.907
Ultra4 4400 (Unlimited)	28	4406	Brent Burton	3	8:07:48.260
Unlimited Truck 2WD	1	24	Adam Householder	4	6:59:06.138
Unlimited Truck 4WD	15	3	Michael Scafuto	4	8:05:34.860
Unlimited Truck Legends	21	L99	Shawn Runyon	4	8:35:31.308
Unlimited Truck SPEC	2	240	Conner McMullen	4	7:13:25.990

Featured image credit: Mint 400