Adam Householder enjoys “flawless day” to win Mint 400 Unlimited

The Mint 400 is one of the toughest off-road races in America, but Adam Householder was more than up for the challenge. In fact, as many of his rivals dropped out or suffered mechanical issues, Householder’s Unlimited Truck was perfect from start to finish.

After chasing down Ryan Arciero for the first of four laps, he took the lead and never had to look back particularly close. Although Arciero and Christian Sourapas provided the biggest challenges, both were hit by truck problems on the final lap that enabled Householder to pull away. Kyle Jergensen, the 2022 Mint 400 winner, inherited second after Arciero was knocked out by a broken driveline and finished almost eleven minutes back.

The reigning Unlimited Off-Road Racing Series champion, Householder began his title defence on a strong note when he finished won the Unlimited overall at the Parker 400 in January. Now two-for-two in the 2024 season, he can complete the clean sweep by taking the California 300 in October.

“We had a flawless day. No issues, nothing. Never had to get out, had a fantastic day,” said Householder. “We just ran with everyone at the beginning to kind of see what their pace was doing and set it from there. Everyone just kept dropping out like flies and we just proceeded to go to the front.

“It’s not easy out there. By the time you get to the last lap, it is brutal. You’re hitting kerbs, I just tried to keep the truck alive and that’s what we did. There’s a lot of rocks out there, and so he was on it, Trevor (Ellingham) did an incredible job all day telling me what to do, where to go, and we made it happen.”

Sourapas started the race alongside Householder but spent most of the day pursuing him after the latter gained the early advantage. Brake wear caused him to fall back slightly before he came to a stop entirely on the final lap while running second. He eventually salvaged a top-five finish.

“It was an eventful day,” Sourapas began. “Had a really clean first lap, lost the holeshot to Adam, so I knew he was going to set a really good pace. We stayed in his dust pretty much the whole lap. Lap two, we started to run into a little bit of brake fade. Still in the hunt for the most part, and then halfway through the last lap, lost the brake pedal entirely. Had to pull over an fix that and did the whole last lap with only front brakes. Trying to stop a six thousand-pound truck with only fronts is a little bit challenging, especially when you’ve been in a truck for seven hours and you’re ready to get the hell out of it.”

Arciero, who led the first lap before losing an alternator, assumed the runner-up position following Sourapas’ brake failure only for the driveline to break an hour later. While he still reached the finish, it was just another addition to a long string of bad luck at the Mint; he was leading the 2022 race late before his truck lost power, then retired in 2023 with a broken transmission.

“I don’t know what it is about the Mint 400, but it kicks my ass every time,” Arciero remarked. “We’ve been second, we’ve been third, we’ve been fourth, we’ve been second again and we’ve been third.

“I need to get this monkey off my back. I don’t know what I need to do to do it. I don’t know if I need some voodoo, some sage, I don’t know what it is. But we’ll get it.”

2023 winner Eric Hardin and twice victor Rob MacCachren failed to complete a lap before bowing out, a fate that also befell nine other drivers including all three in Class 1 Unlimited headlined by Casey Currie. Pole winner Nic Whetstone struggled and finished nineteenth overall, while Parker 400 Class 1 winner Conner McMullen was disqualified for illegal outside assistance.

Troy Grabowski joined Householder and Jergensen on the outright podium. Cole Potts, who rolled in qualifying on Friday, rebounded to win the 4WD truck class. Marco Fuentes Zaragoza finished sixteenth overall and won Class 1, though the former could have been much higher as he ran second at halfway before having to make late repairs.

Unlimited class winners

Class	Overall Finish	Number	Driver of Record	Total Time
4400 Unlimited	40	4482	Cole Johnson	8:37:14.509*
Class 1	16	179	Mario Fuentes Zaragoza	8:04:07.806
Class 1 Unlimited	DNF	N/A	No Finishers	N/A
Unlimited Truck 2WD	1	24	Adam Householder	6:46:59.415
Unlimited Truck 4WD	4	60	Cole Potts	7:05:11.247
Unlimited Truck Legends	20	L22	Robert Malone	8:37:18.210
Unlimited Truck SPEC	2	222	Kyle Jergensen	6:57:45.928

* – Did not complete all four laps

Unlimited overall results

Position	Number	Driver of Record	Class	Laps	Time	Margin
1	24	Adam Householder	Unlimited Truck 2WD	4	6:46:59.415	Leader
2	222	Kyle Jergensen	Unlimited Truck SPEC	4	6:57:45.928	+ 10:46.513
3	272	Troy Grabowski	Unlimited Truck SPEC	4	7:03:16.722	+ 16:17.307
4	60	Cole Potts	Unlimited Truck 4WD	4	7:05:11.247	+ 18:11.832
5	6	Christian Sourapas	Unlimited Truck 2WD	4	7:11:38.709	+ 24:39.294
6	263	EJ Herbst	Unlimited Truck SPEC	4	7:16:28.504	+ 29:29.089
7	205	Trey Gibbs	Unlimited Truck SPEC	4	7:17:46.409	+ 30:46.994
8	246	James Scully	Unlimited Truck SPEC	4	7:22:53.449	+ 35:54.034
9	273	Jordan Brenthel	Unlimited Truck SPEC	4	7:32:17.278	+ 45:17.863
10	34	Brett Comiskey	Unlimited Truck 4WD	4	7:36:09.116	+ 49:49.071
11	279	Cole Hardin	Unlimited Truck SPEC	4	7:37:46.604	+ 50:47.189
12	282	Brent Fox	Unlimited Truck SPEC	4	7:38:24.757	+ 51:25.342
13	9	Ethan Ebert	Unlimited Truck 2WD	4	7:41:46.127	+ 54:46.712
14	250	Nick Isenhouer	Unlimited Truck SPEC	4	7:50:36.766	+ 1:03:37.35
15	91	Alexander Wacker	Unlimited Truck 2WD	4	7:56:03.651	+ 1:09:04.23
16	179	Mario Fuentes Zaragoza	Class 1	4	8:04:07.806	+ 1:17:08.39
17	32	Ryan Arciero	Unlimited Truck 2WD	4	8:06:12.475	+ 1:19:13.06
18	224	Terry Householder	Unlimited Truck SPEC	4	8:23:10.031	+ 1:36:10.61
19	18	Nic Whetstone	Unlimited Truck 2WD	4	8:26:12.389	+ 1:39:12.97
20	L22	Robert Malone	Unlimited Truck Legends	4	8:37:18.210	+ 1:50:18.79
21	204	Maxime Losier	Unlimited Truck SPEC	4	8:39:53.175	+ 1:52:53.76
22	295	Pat Gailey	Unlimited Truck SPEC	4	8:41:38.728	+ 1:54:39.31
23	202	Neal Drickey	Unlimited Truck SPEC	4	8:44:05.194	+ 1:57:05.77
24	233	Josh Horschel	Unlimited Truck SPEC	4	9:11:47.524	+ 2:24:48.10
25	262	Lincoln Day	Unlimited Truck SPEC	4	9:11:52.890	+ 2:24:53.47
26	111	Jay Reichert	Class 1	4	9:14:38.320	+ 2:27:38.90
27	299	Sid Mattila	Unlimited Truck SPEC	4	9:16:28.015	+ 2:29:28.60
28	210	Louis Horschel	Unlimited Truck SPEC	4	9:38:48.473	+ 2:51:49.05
29	288	Andre Laurin	Unlimited Truck SPEC	4	9:42:56.722	+ 2:55:57.30
30	211	Thomas St. Peter	Unlimited Truck SPEC	4	9:45:23.569	+ 2:58:24.15
31	269	CJ Faison	Unlimited Truck SPEC	4	9:51:06.573	+ 3:04:07.15
32	227	Jack Olliges	Unlimited Truck SPEC	4	10:02:58.958	+ 3:15:59.54
33	274	Shane Lewis	Unlimited Truck SPEC	4	10:07:32993	+ 3:20:33.57
34	230	Chad Hall	Unlimited Truck SPEC	4	10:07:32.993	+ 3:35:53.61
35	97	BJ Baldwin	Unlimited Truck 2WD	4	10:22:53.031	+ 3:51:22.01
36	255	Kirk Harkey	Unlimited Truck SPEC	3	10:38:21.428	+ 1 Lap
37	251	Michael Halverson	Unlimited Truck SPEC	3	5:47:52.213*	+ 1 Lap
38	19	Tim Herbst	Unlimited Truck 2WD	3	6:06:59.262*	+ 1 Lap
39	212	Paul Kraus	Unlimited Truck SPEC	3	8:25:26.673*	+ 1 Lap
40	4482	Cole Johnson	4400 Unlimited	3	8:37:14.509	+ 1 Lap
41	4497	Mike Spindler	4400 Unlimited	3	9:10:31.730	+ 1 Lap
42	88	David Bernstein	Unlimited Truck 2WD	3	9:16:27.739	+ 1 Lap
43	127	Drew Norman	Class 1	3	9:22:52.490	+ 1 Lap
44	245	Adam Castaneda	Unlimited Truck SPEC	2	3:40:47.505*	+ 2 Laps
45	44	Bill Apgood	Unlimited Truck 2WD	2	3:55:44.341*	+ 2 Laps
46	31	Michael Frye	Unlimited Truck 2WD	2	4:05:03.625*	+ 2 Laps
47	70	Kevin Thompson	Unlimited Truck 2WD	1	1:40:50.167*	+ 3 Laps
48	201	Jason Coleman	Unlimited Truck SPEC	1	1:44:03.956*	+ 3 Laps
49	219	Thor Herbst	Unlimited Truck SPEC	1	1:45:55.189*	+ 3 Laps
50	267	Bret Jeffers	Unlimited Truck SPEC	1	1:47:39.275*	+ 3 Laps
51	129	Madix Bailey	Class 1	1	1:53:11.715*	+ 3 Laps
52	266	Harrison Weiss	Unlimited Truck SPEC	1	1:55:59.105*	+ 3 Laps
53	214	Donald Cerrone	Unlimited Truck SPEC	1	1:58:59.749*	+ 3 Laps
54	284	Justin “Bean” Smith	Unlimited Truck SPEC	1	2:12:01.378*	+ 3 Laps
55	208	Garrett Gentry	Unlimited Truck SPEC	1	2:22:29.105*	+ 3 Laps
56	79	Eric Hardin	Unlimited Truck 2WD	0	DNF	+ 4 Laps
57	11	Rob MacCachren	Unlimited Truck 2WD	0	DNF	+ 4 Laps
58	26	Jonathan Brenthel	Unlimited Truck 4WD	0	DNF	+ 4 Laps
59	L23	Luis Saenz	Unlimited Truck Legends	0	DNF	+ 4 Laps
60	U103	Keith Basso	Class 1 Unlimited	0	DNF	+ 4 Laps
61	U102	Casey Currie	Class 1 Unlimited	0	DNF	+ 4 Laps
62	U105	Shannon Campbell	Class 1 Unlimited	0	DNF	+ 4 Laps
63	115	Dan Myers	Class 1	0	DNF	+ 4 Laps
64	277	Travis Williams	Unlimited Truck SPEC	0	DNF	+ 4 Laps
65	254	Trevor Brain	Unlimited Truck SPEC	0	DNF	+ 4 Laps
66	271	Chase Barbieri	Unlimited Truck SPEC	0	DNF	+ 4 Laps
DNS	27	Steve Olliges	Unlimited Truck 2WD	0	DNS	N/A
DNS	141	Kyle McMullen	Class 1	0	DNS	N/A
DSQ	140	Conner McMullen	Class 1	2	6:29:44.169*	+ 2 Laps

* – Set a lap time but did not finish