Condolences Pour In After NASCAR Team’s Tragic Accident As Fans Fear End of Season

The 2025 ARCA Menards Series has been a roller-coaster ride for both teams and drivers. At the Iowa Speedway, veteran Alex Clubb strapped into the #03 for Clubb Racing Inc., qualifying deeper in the pack and ultimately finishing 20th, 17 laps behind the leader. Rookie Colby Evans made his series debut in the #86 Toyota, coming home 23rd in line with expectations but valuable seat time. Iowa’s 0.875-mile layout is notorious for tight traffic and tire wear, forcing underfunded teams like Clubb Racing to rely on diligence rather than flash to stay competitive. With the #03 sitting 10th in owner points and the #86 currently 19th in points, the team punched just above its weight in challenging circumstances. But while the track action was still unfolding, the real drama would happen later.

Clubb Racing Inc., owned by Alex Clubb and occasionally driven by his father Brian, remains one of the sport’s most modest operations. Racing in part-time schedules with lightweight budgets and minimal staff, the team’s standout result came at Elko Speedway with a solid top 10. Brian Clubb, who helms the #86, holds a best season position of 43rd in owners’ standings in 2024, with no top 10 finishes before this season. The 2025 campaign, meanwhile, sees them split duties across #03 and #86 cars. Given that backdrop, qualifying, track survival, and incremental improvement are victories in themselves. Yet even that modest progress was punched back hard by tragedy on the ride home.

Late Friday night, returning from Iowa, Clubb Racing encountered a catastrophic accident on I-80 in Illinois, barely an hour from home in Morris. The team’s social media delivered the blow, stating, “Really bad night coming home along I‑80 in Illinois. Thankfully, everyone involved is ok. Unfortunately, most, if not all our equipment for the No. 03 is destroyed.” Owner and driver Alex Clubb later confirmed, “My buddy fell asleep driving it [the trailer]. He hit the median, flipped it, and then about five semis kept hitting us. We’re now down one trailer, one truck, and one racecar.” For a small team scraping to stay afloat, those words landed like a freight train.

With Watkins Glen looming on August 8, Clubb’s immediate future is uncertain, as he stated, “I have no idea. We’re not even home yet.” And as their windshield lost all forward-looking clarity, their equipment lay in ruins. Fans have long rooted for independent teams like Clubb Racing, the underdogs whose commitment often exceeds their coffers. Now, with nearly everything they raced packed in wreckage, the social media forum faces a moment of collective heartbreak. For supporters across ARCA and grassroots racing, this incident underscores how fragile the sport can be; a phone call home can pivot on a nod or a blink.

In the high-stakes ARCA landscape, where every part and payroll matter, the roadblock for Clubb Racing Inc. may be long. Fans will be watching to see if grit, community, and raw resolve can bring them back. But for now, all they can do is offer their deepest condolences.

Racing community rallies behind struggling team

One fan sympathized with the team’s plight, writing, “Idk how small they are, but hopefully they come back from this. Hate to see this. Especially to the only full-time Ford team in the series :(” Clubb Racing runs the sole full-time Ford effort in the 2025 ARCA Menards Series, and they do it on a shoestring budget. Alex Clubb and his father Brian Clubb’s #3 Ford Fusion and #86 Ford, respectively, are among the very few independent operations running every race with minimal crew, resources, and support. For fans, seeing them crash out of most races and then lose everything in transit, the above sentiment carries weight and empathy.

Another fan added to the sentiment, writing, “You always hate to see this happen to small teams that bust their asses and pour their hearts out just to race.. True Grit” It is widely noted that Alex Clubb hauls his equipment, performs mechanical work, and co-owns the team while balancing his lawn-care business and local council duties, and so does his father Brian, who doubles as crew chief for the #86 entry. Despite running with perhaps just one-tenth of the budget of lead teams, the pair have managed to stay competitive, earning a top 10 at Daytona in 2024 and a respectable 9th-place points finish in their first full campaign. Their approach echoes that of Mullins Racing, who fight every week in ARCA by pulling off surprising top-5s while juggling daily world jobs and repairs in driveways.

One fan reported what exactly happened to the trailer, writing, “Per Twitter, the driver fell asleep and crashed. I know it’s a shoestring budget, but they have to find a way to stop this. They’re lucky they only lost a race car and equipment since this happened to James Hylton and his son not that long ago.” This incident brings to mind the tragedy that befell NASCAR legends James Hylton and his son, who both died in a truck overturn crash on Insterstate85 in Georgia while returning from an ARCA race at Talladega in 2018. Similarly, in 2022, a David Gilliland Racing transport driver lost their life in a Texas crash while hauling ARCA equipment to Phoenix, and the entire team reeled from the loss of both personal and gear.

Some others let out a sigh of relief, hearing from Alex Clubb in an official statement. The fan wrote, “I’ll be surprised if we see them at all for the rest of the season. This is massive for them. Glad to hear everyone is okay. Could have been prevented.” Small operations simply cannot absorb such shocks. Take Mi ke Harmon Racing, which in 2020 lost its entire #47 trailer, toolbox, and car to theft in a parking lot, forcing them to miss races and unwind the season despite a $400,000 loss. Similarly, Norm Benning Racing missed key Truck Series events after a hauler was stolen from their hostel lot in 2020, cutting into their ability to compete full-time. But this situation could have turned out worse.

With Watkins Glen just around the corner, fans have also been concerned, with one stating, “For a team that can’t afford tires, this is not good.” In March 2024, Alex Clubb reported a tire-and-wheel mishap on the road to Phoenix, where a blown-out chunk of desert asphalt forced emergency repairs and a hefty $6,400 fix. Earlier in 2025, after earning a hard-fought 10th-place at Elko Speedway, Clubb was also fined for a candid post-race rant. According to ARCA, Clubb violated its conduct guidelines with regard to media interactions and posts on social media. For a team that may bypass races just to save wear on equipment, a crash or a fine threatens their ability to even roll to the next race. For now, survival remains the most important race for the team.