Justin Lofton‘s quest to become the winningest Mint 400 victor continues into its fourth year, but his 2023 attempt is off to a good start as he beat defending winner Kyle Jergensen by nearly six seconds in qualifying on Friday.
Lofton, the 2015, 2016, and 2019 winner, set a time of 3:41.420 that was 5.8 seconds ahead of Jergensen. Although Lofton was the fastest in qualifying for the 2022 race as well, he was knocked out of contention almost immediately with a tyre puncture, foreshadowing a race that eliminated other leaders upon which Jergensen capitalised.
While Lofton was ahead of Jergensen by six seconds and the latter led Dale Dondel by nearly four, the margins from third onwards was much closer as Dondel held off Ryan Arciero for third by just .017 of a second. Arciero is looking to rebound after leading much of 2022 before his truck lost power.
The Class 1 of James Dean was the highest qualifying non-Unlimited Truck in fifth overall. Christian Sourapas, filling in for his father Steve Sourapas due to a late medical development, qualified fourteenth in his first time racing a traditional Trophy Truck since 2020. Multiple drivers rolled on their qualifying laps, especially due to a jump at the start that prompted others to be urged to avoid it; Kevin Adler‘s flip in front oh him forced Lofton to redo a lap.
In the Limited race that began four hours prior to Unlimited qualifying and subsequently ran concurrently, 22-year-old Joe Terrana won over Bruce Binnquist by just a minute and twelve seconds. Last year’s winner Dustin Jones was twenty-ninth.
The Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team, a week removed from racing and winning the T3 category at the World Rally-Raid Championship’s Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, contested the Mint with mixed results. Mitch Guthrie contended with Terrana early on and finished sixth overall, while Dakar Rally winner Austin Jones and Abu Dhabi victor Seth Quintero struggled with mechanical problems
Robby Gordon and his son Max Gordon brought their nascent SPEED UTV brand to the Mint, with the younger scoring a top ten in UTV Pro Unlimited in eighth. Classified three spots behind the elder Gordon, Robert Campbell retired after a bizarre crash in which he landed on his rear bumper, with his UTV facing upwards.
The Limited classes, due to their diversity in vehicles, draws a much bigger crowd than the premier trucks and buggies of the Unlimited event; as such, there were multiple drivers in the field with backgrounds outside racing. For example, Doug Lawler, former CEO of the Chesapeake Energy oil company who currently serves the role at Continental Resources, competed in the Open Sportsman class alongside his brother David Lawler and was fifth in class.
MMA fighter and occasional off-roader Donald Cerrone was twenty-ninth, a day before his five-year-old son Danger Cerrone, the youngest competitor in the field, enters the youth race. Colleagues Chuck Liddell and Cain Velasquez, the former having helped popularise the Ultimate Fighting Championship while latter was a two-time Ultimate Fighting Champion and WWE wrestler, teamed up with John Lynch in Class 5500; Lynch’s team struggled with mechanical issues throughout the day.
For 2023, the Mint introduced Gambler classes for unusual modified vehicles that would ordinarily never see off-road competition. Emme Hall won her Gambler class in a 2001 Mazda Miata nicknamed “Buddy”, while Jim York‘s fan favourite 1999 Lincoln Town Car limousine retired. Gambler entries were only required to complete one lap versus the four for the main categories. Giovanni Niccoli also had a souped-up sports vehicle with a 2005 Porsche Cayenne Turbo nicknamed the “Minted Cayenne” that competed in Open Sportsman but retired after the upright broke and damaged the passenger coil-over and bypass shock.
Two other Limited categories were intended for military vehicles and personnel, with the best finisher overall being Michael McCloskey of the United States Army’s 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) in a Flyer 72 Ground Mobility Vehicle.
Unlimited qualifying results (top 5 per class)
Unlimited Truck
| Position | Number | Driver | Time | Margin |
| 1 | 41 | Justin Lofton | 3:41.420 | Leader |
| 2 | 127 | Kyle Jergensen | 3:47.237 | + 5.817 |
| 3 | 100 | Dale Dondel | 3:50.646 | + 9.227 |
| 4 | 32 | Ryan Arciero | 3:50.664 | + 9.244 |
| 5 | 19 | Tim Herbst | 3:51.195 | + 9.775 |
Unlimited Truck Legends
| Position | Number | Driver | Time | Margin |
| 1 | L65 | Thomas Fichter | 4:03.933 | Leader |
| 2 | L65 | David Payne | 4:26.020 | + 22.087 |
| 3 | L22 | Robert Malone | DNS | N/A |
Class 1
| Position | Number | Driver | Time | Margin |
| 1 | 175 | James Dean | 3:50.733 | Leader |
| 2 | 172 | Cole Barbieri | 3:52.720 | + 1.987 |
| 3 | 174 | Brian Barackman | 4:26.264 | + 35.531 |
| 4 | 113 | Michael Frye | 4:32.622 | + 41.889 |
Unlimited Truck SPEC
| Position | Number | Driver | Time | Margin |
| 1 | 282 | Brent Fox | 4:09.342 | Leader |
| 2 | 205 | Nick Isenhouer | 4:10.598 | + 1.256 |
| 3 | 223 | RJ Merritt | 4:11.880 | + 2.537 |
| 4 | 272 | Dustin Grabowski | 4:12.011 | + 2.669 |
| 5 | 6173 | Conner McMullen | 4:14.295 | + 4.953 |
Class 7
| Position | Number | Driver | Time | Margin |
| 1 | 708 | Ethan Ebert | 4:14.046 | Leader |
Class 10
| Position | Number | Driver | Time | Margin |
| 1 | 1012 | Abraham Gutierrez | 4:20.746 | Leader |
| 2 | 1003 | Nick May | 4:30.177 | + 9.431 |
| 3 | 1082 | Eric Everly | 4:32.561 | + 11.815 |
| 4 | 1097 | Hank Winter | 4:33.499 | + 12.753 |
| 5 | 1035 | Mike Coulter | 4:33.969 | + 13.223 |
Limited class winners
| Class | Overall Finish | Number | Driver | Time |
| Class 1/2 1600 | 11 | 1627 | Fernie Padilla | 8:31:56.609 |
| Class 11 | 107 | 1108 | Rodriquez Tsosie | 10:35:57.222* |
| Class 12 | 9 | 1238 | Bradley Wilson | 8:27:22.295 |
| Class 1450 | 7 | 1494 | Vincent Muñoz | 8:19:00.075 |
| Class 2000 | 90 | 2055 | Kyle Thomas | 7:35:38.896* |
| Class 3000 | 60 | 3013 | Bailey Cole | 11:03:32.824 |
| Class 5 Unlimited | 25 | 501 | Trey Hernquist | 9:00:19.491 |
| Class 5-1600 | 44 | 550 | Daniel Ledezma | 9:54:10.379 |
| Class 5500 | 99 | 5510 | Tim Montana | 8:50:38.510* |
| Class 7S | 201 | 7189 | Kendall Glines | 11:13:19.653* |
| Class 9 Challenger | 163 | 924 | Karissa Veenstra | 8:01:15.266* |
| Gambler 500/Hooptie X Modified | 219 | G069 | Jim York | DNF |
| Gambler 500/Hooptie X Modified | 197 | G140 | Emme Hall | 4:19:52.900* |
| Jeepspeed Cup | 181 | 2723 | John Williams | 11:12:39.016* |
| Jeepspeed Trophy | 106 | 4742 | Savanah Parker | 10:23:29.388* |
| Modern Military | 152 | M501 | Michael McCloskey | 6:29:47.983* |
| Modern Vintage | 173 | V344 | Jose Pereyra | 13:01:04.027* |
| Open Sportsman | 84 | 8168 | Colin Guinn | 6:56:49.421* |
| Stock Production Truck Full-Size | 161 | 851 | Austin Hall | 7:31:41.611* |
| Stock Production Truck Mini/Mid-Size | 154 | 7330 | Chad Hall | 6:39:19.509* |
| TrophyLite | 39 | 6005 | Scott Whipple | 9:33:08.347 |
| UTV PR-100 | 3 | PR915 | Ryan Piplic | 7:50:30.371 |
| UTV PR-100 Production | 14 | PRP1 | Wes Miller | 8:38:38.266 |
| UTV Pro Big Engine | DNF | BE920 | Travis Zollinger | 6:48:51.440* |
| UTV Pro NA | 17 | 1925 | Zach Sizelove | 8:39:22.304 |
| UTV Pro Open | 6 | PR951 | Mitch Guthrie | 8:16:16.858 |
| UTV Pro Super Stock NA | 166 | K46 | Charles Cromwell | 8:54:41.879* |
| UTV Pro Super Stock Turbo | 13 | KT78 | Sara Price | 8:34:15.869 |
| UTV Pro Turbo | 1 | T898 | Joe Terrana | 7:47:09.673 |
| UTV Pro Unlimited | 4 | 2924 | Garrick Lastra | 8:00:03.562 |
| UTV Rally Modified | 85 | UM974 | Justin Von Metal | 7:22:55.279* |
| UTV Sportsman | 96 | S968 | Dean Okonsky | 8:23:17.441* |
| UTV Stock | 87 | U946 | Landon Phillips | 7:323:55.678* |
| Vintage | 150 | V128 | Jon Schweers | 5:50:56.090* |
| Vintage Military | 170 | M22 | Danny Novoa | 10:14:21.871* |
| Vintage Open | 148 | V201 | Rick Freschet | 4:57:41.541* |
