Saturday’s 2022 BFGoodrich Tires Mint 400 Unlimited race was a test of reliability: even if one was the leader and far ahead of the field, that advantage could disappear in the blink of an eye the moment some sort of mechanical issue flared up. The race saw four different leaders, with the first three all experiencing a problem that lost them the top spot. Behind them, Kyle Jergensen methodically climbed through the order before capitalising on defending winner Rob MacCachren‘s belt breaking on the final lap to win the prestigious off-road race for the first time.
A part of the Unlimited Truck class, Jergensen and co-driver Shawn Shanks started sixth overall while three-time winner Justin Lofton was on the pole. However, Lofton’s hopes of winning a record fourth were dashed before he could even do anything as a flat left-rear tyre minutes in forced him to the side and Ryan Arciero drove by to take the lead. Arciero, seeking his first Mint, was in control for the first half before a flat tyre on lap three allowed MacCachren to decrease the margin. Although Arciero’s crew was able to change the tyre and he easily made up the lost ground with a truck that he described as being “on point all day,” his race ended on the lakebed after the vehicle lost power.
“About three-quarters of the way down the lakebed, all of a sudden, it developed a huge vibration and then I started pulling power out with the throttle and we started losing power,” Arciero told the race broadcast. “Got a little oil pressure light and then everything just turned off. I knew as soon as we had that vibration, we were losing power. I knew it was terminal. I knew it wasn’t something we were going to pull into the pits and fix.
“That was probably one of the most heartbreaking races that I’ve done, for the simple fact is the truck was just on point all day. It didn’t miss a beat.”
Arciero’s retirement shuffled the lead to MacCachren with Jergensen nearly a minute behind when he began the fourth and final lap. Both drivers briefly stopped on track due to flat tyres, which allowed Tim Herbst to shave valuable time off the leaderboard, before the belt problem halted MacCachren’s progress entirely. MacCachren, a twice winner of the Mint 400, commented on Instagram that “[t]hings we’re [sic] going great until they weren’t. But that’s racing right. We had a good run up top, but it just wasn’t our day.”
Jergensen inherited the position from MacCachren, though he had challenges of his own as his truck was running low on oil. While Jergensen’s oil pressure management gave Herbst a chance to slim the margin to a smidge over three minutes, he was unable to catch the #127 truck as Jergensen drove off to the victory with a time of six hours, forty-three minutes, and forty-nine seconds. Herbst and B.J. Baldwin, both Las Vegas natives, followed. MacCachren was able to salvage the matter to place fifth.
“We tried to keep the pressure on Rob, but he was clearly faster,” commented Jergensen on the podium. “He was gaining a little time and time on us, and then attrition played a factor and luckily it wasn’t us. We actually haven’t had good results at the Mint yet, so this is a good start.
“Shawn was doing a great job like he always does. We’re definitely clicking very well in the truck. He’s calm just like me, so it’s always about keeping your cool. Don’t push it 140 (mph) on the dry lakebed. There’s no point. Just being smart about it, keeping the equipment, this Gen 3 (truck), running strong. It’s just crazy strong. I mean, we were beating the shit out of it all day and it never missed a beat.
“The only hiccup is we had low oil pressure last lap and it was actually because we had low oil. They burn oil naturally, so we should have added oil. Luckily, it had the sensor. We had to keep cycling the ignition off and back on to kind of trick it to limp it to Pit B where they put two gallons in. It was low, very, very low. We got really lucky.”
Nick Isenhouer was the highest finishing non-Unlimited Truck as he claimed the Unlimited Truck SPEC class win in sixth overall. The top three UT SPEC drivers finished within nearly ten minutes of each other, with Isenhour beating Thor Herbst by over three minutes and Justin Blower by ten minutes and five seconds.
“I don’t know what to say other than thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything everyone does to help us drive trucks in circles in the dirt,” Isenhouer wrote on Instagram. “This win means so damn much.”
James Dean won the Class 1 pole and ultimately the race itself in his class, and the same occurred in Trophy Truck Legends for Greg Adler. Cade Garcia took the Class 10 crown with a fifty-three-second margin over pole sitter Preston Brigman. Garcia and his AGS Racing team, which primarily competes in MORE (Mojave Off-Road Racing Enthusiasts), have triumphed in their last five off-road starts while his Class 10 buggy is now two-for-two in action after winning its maiden race at the Slash X Duel In the Desert in late February.
, “Nick (Almada, co-driver) and I got this shit done. Winners! […] It was (a) pretty gnarly day. I’m at a loss for words. I don’t know what to say. We just won the Mint. This is my first time racing the Mint, this is our second time racing our brand-new car, we got back-to-back wins, and this is the fifth win in a row for AGS Racing. Like I said before, we’re going to keep this momentum rolling. Now, we’re going to go try and win ourselves upwards of $15 grand in the Class 10 Shootout race in a couple of weeks. We’re going to celebrate tonight in Vegas.”
Many drivers throughout the field were haunted by mechanical gremlins. Lofton ultimately settled for twenty-first overall and tenth of the Unlimited Trucks. Hailie Deegan, who was one of the top stories entering the race as the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regular was making her Mint 400 début, suffered power steering problems on the opening lap that sidelined her for an extended period; though the issue was resolved in time to rejoin the race, she could only complete two laps and was classified thirty-ninth. Carey Chrisman, who sat on the pole for Unlimited Truck SPEC, had to bow out as did Akira Miura. Both Class 7 drivers, Jeff Proctor (the fastest driver in his qualifying group who did not pilot a UT SPEC) and Ikuo Hanawa, retired as well. Miura and Hanawa, who respectively have Dakar Rally and Pikes Peak International Hill Climb experience, represented Japan as part of Toyota Auto Body. Only twenty-nine of the sixty-four entries finished the race; by comparison, the 2021 edition saw forty-one of seventy go the distance.
In the Moto race, Pro Open rider Dalton Shirey and Mint 400 rival-turned-team-mate David Kamo dominated as they won by fifty-one seconds over Jesse Canepa of the Sportsman Open class. Shirey previously beat Kamo for the 2020 overall victory. Eighty-four riders across eighteen classes took part, with only the top six completing all six laps.
Among the youth divisions that raced on a separate course, Taylor Bedoya improved from a runner-up finish in the 570 class in 2021 to win by nearly a minute over Chase Mankin; 2021 winner Jedi Jack Mamelli finished ninth of twelve and a lap down. Declan Shields and Tatum Foerster duelled in Youth 170 with the former claiming it by nine seconds, while Landen De Sousa Dias took the Youth 1000 after Mamelli received a seven-minute time penalty for cutting through the track.
Overall results (top 20)
Unlimited
| Finish | Number | Driver | Class | Time |
| 1 | 127 | Kyle Jergensen | Unlimited Truck | 6:43:49.934 |
| 2 | 19 | Tim Herbst | Unlimited Truck | 6:47:09.740 |
| 3 | 97 | B.J. Baldwin | Unlimited Truck | 6:51:09.755 |
| 4 | 27 | Steve Olliges | Unlimited Truck | 7:00:20.476 |
| 5 | 1 | Rob MacCachren | Unlimited Truck | 7:15:30.979 |
| 6 | 205 | Nick Isenhouer | Unlimited Truck SPEC | 7:19:27.515 |
| 7 | 264 | Thor Herbst | Unlimited Truck SPEC | 7:22:54.260 |
| 8 | 219 | Justin Blower | Unlimited Truck SPEC | 7:29;32.509 |
| 9 | 175 | James Dean | Class 1 | 7:31:29.309 |
| 10 | 255 | Kirk Harkey | Unlimited Truck SPEC | 7:35:14.163 |
| 11 | 8 | Todd Wyllie | Unlimited Truck | 7:39:12.813 |
| 12 | 215 | Bear Nunley | Unlimited Truck SPEC | 7:39:54.308 |
| 13 | L65 | Greg Adler | Unlimited Truck Legends | 7:45:04.336 |
| 14 | 275 | Brent Fox | Unlimited Truck SPEC | 7:53:10.792 |
| 15 | 153 | Ronny Wilson | Class 1 | 7:55:20.968 |
| 16 | 69 | Bernard Steimann | Unlimited Truck | 8:01:42.926 |
| 17 | 37 | Tracy Poole | Unlimited Truck | 8:03:53.553 |
| 18 | 1004 | Cade Garcia | Class 10 | 8:05:48.942 |
| 19 | 167 | Loren Healy | Class 1 | 8:12:51.306 |
| 20 | 77 | Chris Hersch | Unlimited Truck | 8:16:59.673 |
Moto
| Finish | Number | Driver | Rider | Time |
| 1 | P46 | Dalton Shirey | Pro Open | 8:00:21.166 |
| 2 | S55 | Jesse Canepa | Sportsman Open | 8:51:47.532 |
| 3 | P222 | Brock Weisheim | Pro 201–300cc | 8:55:41.402 |
| 4 | S39 | Chad Goodsell | Sportsman Open | 9:07:01.864 |
| 5 | S99 | David Escalante | Sportsman Open | 9:09:10.101 |
| 6 | S66 | Max Shapiro | Sportsman Open | 9:46:46.574 |
| 7 | 314 | Jason Mount | Sportsman Over 30 | 7:59:08.519 |
| 8 | I10 | Slater Skirvin | Sportsman Open Ironman | 8:05:13.440 |
| 9 | 509 | Craig Janett | Sportsman Over 50 | 8:15:21.326 |
| 10 | S3 | Shannon Sawyer | Sportsman Open | 8:28:40.126 (DNF) |
| 11 | I39 | Aaron Richardson | Sportsman Open Ironman | 8:29:38.846 |
| 12 | W1 | Krista Conway | Pro Ladies | 8:30:14.159 |
| 13 | S2 | Trevor Tippetts | Sportsman Open | 8:33:32.300 |
| 14 | I32 | Steven Krug | Sportsman Open Ironman | 8:47:38.770 |
| 15 | I26 | Jeff Pickton | Sportsman Open Ironman | 8:49:18.563 |
| 16 | P256 | Coleton Jaffa | Sportsman 201–300cc | 9:07:37.396 |
| 17 | 525 | Marcus McManus | Sportsman Over 50 | 9:10:11.516 |
| 18 | 502 | Thomas Keating | Sportsman Over 50 | 9:16:13.760 |
| 19 | 389 | Robbie Silvernail | Sportsman Over 30 | 9:21:56.778 |
| 20 | S24 | Tommy Anderson | Sportsman Open | 9:27:11.738 |
Youth 170
| Finish | Number | Driver | Class |
| 1 | O112 | Wyatt Cotter | Youth 170 Open |
| 2 | Y119 | Cole Warner | Youth 170 Production |
| 3 | Y20 | Cash Martinez | Youth 170 Production |
| 4 | Y175 | Connor Power | Youth 170 Production |
| 5 | O114 | Brixton Wirt | Youth 170 Open |
| 6 | Y150 | Kaleb Montes | Youth 170 Production |
| 7 | Y25 | Ella Warner | Youth 170 Production |
| 8 | Y62 | Ryland Gaughan | Youth 170 Production |
| 9 | Y99 | Mason Watkins | Youth 170 Production |
| 10 | Y054 | Clayton Matlock | Youth 170 Production |
| 11 | Y44 | Brody Berhorst | Youth 170 Production |
| 12 | Y171 | Brooks Hopkins | Youth 170 Production |
| 13 | Y14 | Korbin Grinolds | Youth 170 Production |
| 14 | Y13 | Nora Pendergast | Youth 170 Production |
| 15 | O115 | Samuel Gibbs | Youth 170 Open |
| 16 | Y45 | Dexter Warren | Youth 170 Production |
| 17 | O110 | Mason Cotter | Youth 170 Open |
| 18 | Y190 | Brenna Goerke | Youth 170 Production |
| 19 | Y125 | Jennifer Owens | Youth 170 Production |
| 20 | O158 | Declan Shields | Youth 170 Open |
| 21 | O195 | Tatum Ferster | Youth 170 Open |
Youth 570
| Finish | Number | Driver | Class |
| 1 | Y594 | Taylor Bedoya | Youth 570 |
| 2 | Y507 | Chase Mankin | Youth 570 Open |
| 3 | Y517 | Vincent Riccitelli | Youth 570 |
| 4 | Y577 | Reid Aikins | Youth 570 |
| 5 | Y599 | Lake Adler | Youth 570 Open |
| 6 | Y544 | Brody Berhorst | Youth 570 Open |
| 7 | Y511 | Hugh Tarrant | Youth 570 |
| 8 | Y508 | Harper Hughes | Youth 570 |
| 9 | Y500 | Jedi Jack Mamelli | Youth 570 |
| 10 | Y555 | Caden Hall | Youth 570 |
| 11 | Y519 | Cole Warner | Youth 570 |
| 12 | Y845 | Kaylee Kyle | Youth 570 |
Youth 1000
| Finish | Number | Driver |
| 1 | Y1906 | Landen De Sousas Dias |
| 2 | Y1014 | Ryan Bedoya |
| 3 | Y1077 | Brody Aikins |
| 4 | Y1007 | Chase Mankin |
| 5 | Y1669 | Chaden Zane Minder |
| 6 | Y1295 | Michael Burnstein |
| 7 | Y1971 | Wyatt Matlock |
| 8 | Y1001 | Jedi Jack Mamelli |
| 9 | Y1050 | Kaleb Montes |
| 10 | Y1973 | Caden Hall |
| 11 | Y1615 | Ryder Hall |
| 12 | Y1898 | Laryssa Ornelas |
| 13 | Y1019 | Hunter Martinez |
| 14 | Y1147 | Braden Krah |
| 15 | Y1810 | R.J. Tremblay |
| 16 | Y1097 | Jessie Owens |
| 17 | Y1090 | Hannah McClain |
Class winners
Unlimited
| Class | Overall Finish | Number | Driver | Time |
| Class 1 | 9 | 175 | James Dean | 7:31:29.309 |
| Class 7 | 33 | 709 | Jeff Proctor | 5:53:41.416 (DNF) |
| Class 10 | 18 | 1004 | Cade Garcia | 8:05:48.942 |
| Unlimited Truck | 1 | 127 | Kyle Jergensen | 6:43:49.934 |
| Unlimited Truck Legends | 13 | L65 | Greg Adler | 7:45:04.336 |
| Unlimited Truck SPEC | 6 | 205 | Nick Isenhouer | 7:19:27.515 |
Moto
| Class | Overall Finish | Number | Rider | Time |
| Pro 0–200cc | 67 | P346 | Charles Cromwell | 7:56:00.978 |
| Pro 201–300cc | 3 | P222 | Brock Weisheim | 8:55:41.402 |
| Pro Ladies | 12 | W1 | Krista Conway | 8:30:14.159 |
| Pro Open | 1 | P46 | Dalton Shirey | 8:00:21.166 |
| Sportsman 0–200cc | 24 | S383 | Piper Wells | 7:42:24.739 |
| Sportsman 201–300cc | 16 | P256 | Coleton Jaffa | 9:07:37.396 |
| Sportsman 1974 and Down | 78 | V001 | Mark Unice | DNF |
| Sportsman 1975–1982 | 53 | V110 | Taylor Barker | 3:58:40.878 |
| Sportsman 1983–1995 | 57 | V279 | Bradley Turnade | 4:43:28.854 |
| Sportsman Adventure Bike | 66 | A113 | Devon Fitzsimmons | 7:54:43.082 |
| Sportsman Hooligan | 54 | H959 | Tyler Valentik | 5:04:52.136 |
| Sportsman Ladies | 63 | W200 | Rhiannon Kamo | 7:47:03.030 |
| Sportsman Open | 2 | S55 | Jesse Canepa | 8:51:47.532 |
| Sportsman Open Ironman | 8 | I10 | Slater Skirvin | 8:05:13.440 |
| Sportsman Over 30 | 7 | 314 | Jason Mount | 7:59:08.519 |
| Sportsman Over 40 | 25 | 452 | Eric Streich | 7:43:56.319 |
| Sportsman Over 50 | 9 | 509 | Craig Janett | 8:15:21.326 |
| Sportsman Scrambler | 51 | SC100 | Mikey Hill | 3:43:54.122 |
