After a thrilling standoff with Ryan Arciero that lasted almost all afternoon, Adam Householder is your 2024 BFGoodrich Tires Mint 400 Unlimited Race champion. Householder’s #24 Unlimited Truck completed 400 miles of intense racing in the Nevada desert in 6:46:59.4, defeating his closest competition by almost 11 minutes when the dust finally settled at the finish line in Primm.

“We had a flawless day—no issues, no anything, we never had to get out,” Householder said at the finish. “We had a fantastic day. We just ran with everyone at the beginning to see what pace they were doing and kind of set up from there. Everyone just kept dropping out like flies, and we proceeded to go to the front. This is incredible. We won!”

Each year, the BFGoodrich Tires Mint 400 Unlimited Race is responsible for seven of the most dramatic hours in off-road racing, and 2024 was no exception. Top qualifier Nic Whetstone got the festivities going at 10:45AM, but brief first-lap downtime would hand off the top spot to Arciero, who would lead most of the first half of the race. Attrition set in early as defending champion Eric Hardin, multi-time winner Rob MacCachren, and former Dakar Rally winner Casey Currie would all fail to complete a single lap, while first-half downtime would also take BJ Baldwin and Tim Herbst out of the running to return to the podium.

But Householder, already on a two-race class win streak in UNLTD Off-Road Racing action, would keep Arciero honest early on. He cut Arciero’s lead down to just 6.5 seconds at the first timing loop on Lap 2, and only gave back 12 seconds at the second sector. Then came the moment that changed the entire race: in the main pit in Primm, just shy of the halfway point, Arciero’s team would pull off the hood for an alternator change.

When Arciero returned to action, he had fallen to third, with Householder and fellow 2023 podium finisher Christian Sourapas ahead of him. Sourapas would eventually yield the spot after a last-lap stop of his own and rear brake issues, but Arciero’s mad dash to make up more than 12 minutes on Householder would have further consequences. He’d have to make another extended stop on the final lap, and without the benefit of stopping in the pits this time, the #32 Unlimited Truck went from second to outside of the overall top 10.

That left the door open for the stars of the Unlimited Truck SPEC class, Kyle Jergensen and the Grabowski Brothers, to claw their way onto the overall podium. Jergensen, who won this race overall two years ago, and the Grabowskis, who won the inaugural California 300 overall in 2022, had their own battle for glory, but even a late tire change for Jergensen wouldn’t deny the #222 Camburg Racing driver. Their fight for a class win, combined with the heavy attrition in the Unlimited Truck class, would get them all the way up to second and third and overall.

After rolling his truck in Friday qualifying, Cole Potts struck back with a vengeance to win the Unlimited Truck 4WD class with a fourth place finish overall, while Sourapas rebounded from his brake issues to take fifth overall. The Class 1 victory went to Mario Fuentes Zaragoza, who ran in the overall top five for most of the day before facing late-race repairs of his own.

Top finishers in the 2024 BFGoodrich Tires Mint 400 Unlimited Race were as follows:
#24 Adam Householder, Unlimited Truck, 6:46:59.4
#222 Kyle Jergensen, Unlimited Truck SPEC, 6:57:45.9
#272 Troy Grabowski, Unlimited Truck SPEC, 7:03:16.7
#60 Cole Potts, Unlimited Truck 4WD, 7:05:11.2
#6 Christian Sourapas, Unlimited Truck, 7:11:38.7
#263 EJ Herbst, Unlimited Truck SPEC, 7:16:28.5
#205 Trey Dylan Gibbs, Unlimited Truck SPEC, 7:17:46.4
#246 James Scully, Unlimited Truck SPEC, 7:22:53.4
#273 Jordan Brenthel, Unlimited Truck SPEC, 7:32:17.2
#34 Brett Comiskey, Unlimited Truck 4WD, 7:36:09.1

To follow along with the 2024 BFGoodrich Tires Mint 400, visit themint400.com or follow @themint400 on all social media platforms. To watch the live stream and follow along with live timing and tracking, visit themint400.com/live.

Source: Unlimited Offroad Racing