The organizing group behind the annual BFGoodrich Mint 400 takes great pride in communicating the race’s motto — “Respect is earned one mile at a time.” That underlying theme is at the heart of the “Great American Off-Road Race,” and Saturday’s exceptionally grueling four lap endurance for unlimited truck and open-wheel cars proved the powers behind the Mint met their expectations.
For the second year in a row, 2024 UNLTD Off-Road Racing series Unlimited Truck champion Adam Householder came out on top of the Mint 400. The 40-year-old desert veteran from Anaheim, California used up as much of his 1Nine Industries-built two-wheel drive truck could offer, completing the event an entire front hood and fender assembly.
Almost from the onset, this year’s Mint 400 course chewed up and spit out top racers in all three Unlimited classes with abandon. Pole sitter Dale Dondel’s all-wheel drive Unlimited Truck showed early pace, but his effort came to a halt with engine issues. By the end of the first lap, it was Ryan Arciero, Householder and then Ethan Ebert debuting his new Team Honda V6 turbo-powered Ridgeline.
Arciero and Householder would renew the battle that made last year’s Unlimited Race so compelling, with Arciero controlling the pace and Householder looking to make up time. But a broke axle in his 1Nine Industries built two-wheel drive machine would take Arciero from first to out of the race completely, once again denying the sentimental favorite his first Mint 400 win.
Ebert would temporarily inherit second before an engine issue would put an end to his promising debut. The continued attrition opened the door for Dave Mason Jr. to take over second on course and in Unlimited Truck 2WD, and he’d hold that spot behind Householder for the duration. Mason’s performance was a major milestone in the development of Yokohama in Unlimited Truck racing, as the updated 40 inch tires proved tough enough to tame the Mint 400 course.
As most of his top competition fell out early, Householder recovered from adversity of his own in the form of multiple tire changes on course to become the only driver to complete all four laps in under seven hours.
“I’m whooped; that was brutal,” a tired Householder explained after crossing the finish line. “The pace we were running was so fast and we were pushing. It was basically go until somebody breaks, and then the last two laps we were in conservative mode. Even in that, the rocks would come out of nowhere, and trying to avoid them was very difficult, but all we had to do was be smooth and make it to the finish line.”
As expected, the attrition within the Unlimited Truck category left the opportunity wide open for a gaggle of Unlimited Truck SPEC racers. Now one of the sport’s most popular categories, the trucks are essentially modern two-wheel drive Unlimited chassis and suspension but limited to lower horsepower spec LS engines (good for about 500 – 550 horsepower) and automatic transmissions.
For much of the race it was a tight battle between last year’s winner Brent Fox, Conner McMullen, Jason Coleman and Troy Grabowski. At the halfway point, the lead trucks were separated by just 40s. Coleman rolled his truck and was out, letting Fox and McMullen engage in a tight battle until the end. Fox stopped the clocks first, but speeding penalties dropped him to fifth and handed the win to McMullen. The top four Unlimited Truck SPEC enjoyed performance fast enough to fill out the race’s top five overall.
The Wilson Motorsports Jimco Chevy claimed the Class 1 unlimited race car victory, giving title sponsor BFGoodrich a clean sweep of all three Unlimited categories as well as the overall win on Friday’s Limited Class race.
2025 BFGoodrich Tires Mint 400 Unlimited race results:
#24 Adam Householder, Unlimited Truck 2WD 6:59:06.138
#240 Conner McMullen, Unlimited Truck SPEC 7:13:25.990
#272 Troy Grabowski, Unlimited Truck SPEC 7:16:18.649
#273 Jordan Brenthel, Unlimited Truck SPEC 7:19:29.160
#200 Brent Fox, Unlimited Truck SPEC 7:22:12.776
#65 Dave Mason, Unlimited Truck 2WD 7:23:42.616
#224 Terry Householder, Unlimited Truck SPEC 7:28:04.270
#263 EJ Herbst, Unlimited Truck SPEC 7:35:04.879
#153 Brad Wilson, Class 1 7:39:12.907
#172 Jack Grabowski, Class 1 7:40:04.709
