Race Recap Elite Truck Season
Darlington Raceway
Sun, Jul 19, 2026Round 3
Ringer Dominates Darlington Raceway: Leads from Pole to Victory
Race at a Glance
Field Size
15
Laps
110
Avg Lap Time
32.706
Cautions
1
Caution Laps
3
Lead Changes
4
Clean Runners
4
Lead Lap Finishers
3
Margin
+28.741s
Winner Spotlight
Tom Ringer
P1 Finish
Tom Ringer put on a commanding performance at Darlington Raceway on Saturday, taking the race win in Round 3 of the RFRL Pro Truck Season from the pole position in the #68 truck. Ringer led 71 of 110 laps around the track nicknamed "The Lady in Black," holding off a hard-charging field through just one caution period that consumed three laps. With four lead changes across the distance, the race was not without its drama, but Ringer remained the central figure all afternoon, crossing the line first for his maiden series victory in his first season with the league.
The story of the race, however, was the charge of #5 Brandon Hinton, who buried the needle as far as it could go on the hard charger award. Starting 13th, Hinton carved through traffic to claim second place at the checkered flag, a gain of 11 positions across 110 laps. Hinton ran a clean race with zero incidents — one of only four drivers in the 15-truck field to do so — and his P2 finish marks his first podium result in the RFRL Pro Truck Series. Third went to #60 Brian Sousa, who similarly charged from 12th on the grid to the final podium step, improving nine positions without collecting a single incident point.
Behind the top three, the race was considerably rougher for several contenders. #13 Cody Deak, who started fourth, fell to eighth by race's end and accumulated 14 incident points in the process. #76 Cameron Gulley and #8 Jamie Howell each posted 10 incident points and finished ninth and 12th respectively. The biggest fall of the day belonged to #48 Chuck Burley, who dropped 10 positions from fifth on the grid to 15th at the flag. Meanwhile, #73 John Crosby in the fourth-place truck led 37 laps before ultimately surrendering ground in the closing stages, finishing two spots behind where he started.
In the standings, Sousa's strong run vaults him to the top of the RFRL Pro Truck points table with 99 points, just two ahead of Crosby's 97. Walton sits third at 91 points, while Hinton's brilliant drive has him fourth at 88 points — just 11 behind the leader. Holloway rounds out the top five at 86 points. With 17 races still remaining on the schedule, the points battle is razor-tight, and Saturday's result demonstrated that any of the top five have the pace to shake up the standings on any given weekend.
Top Movers
Brandon M Hinton5
▲ +11Brian Sousa60
▲ +9Brandon H Yates66
▲ +8Finishing Order
| Finish | Start | +/- | Car # | Driver | Inc | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 68 | Tom Ringer | 0x | — |
| 2 | 13 | +11 | 5 | Brandon M Hinton | 0x | — |
| 3 | 12 | +9 | 60 | Brian Sousa | 0x | — |
| 4 | 2 | -2 | 73 | John W Crosby | 0x | — |
| 5 | 6 | +1 | 69 | Todd Parent | 6x | — |
| 6 | 3 | -3 | 56 | Marc Holloway | 8x | — |
| 7 | 15 | +8 | 66 | Brandon H Yates | 4x | — |
| 8 | 4 | -4 | 13 | Cody Deak | 14x | — |
| 9 | 8 | -1 | 76 | Cameron Gulley | 10x | — |
| 10 | 14 | +4 | 18 | Dylan Hinton | 18x | — |
| 11 | 7 | -4 | 75 | Clover Shepard | 8x | — |
| 12 | 9 | -3 | 8 | Jamie Howell | 10x | — |
| 13 | 10 | -3 | 57 | Robert Walton | 4x | — |
| 14 | 11 | -3 | 92 | David Burcicki | 4x | — |
| 15 | 5 | -10 | ![]() | Chuck Burley | 2x | — |

