Nemechek Nabs 1998-Present Record With Early Crash At Talladega

Joe Nemechek picked up the 17th last-place finish of his career in Sunday’s AMP Energy 500 at the Talladega Superspeedway when his #87 NEMCO Motorsports Toyota was involved in the first caution of the race: a two-car accident on lap 5 of the 191-lap event.

Qualifying was rained-out on Saturday, so Nemechek secured the 39th starting spot for Sunday’s race. Although he came into the race without a sponsor, Nemechek gained sufficient funding from his fans and planned to run the entire race. Unfortunately, he was unable to defend his 14th-place finish from the spring race. While racing through turns one and two alongside Paul Menard on lap 5, Menard lost a left-rear tire and crossed Nemechek’s nose, slamming both cars into the outside wall. While the two avoided causing a massive multi-car wreck, both were done for the day.

It was Nemechek’s first last-place finish since the NASCAR Banking 500 at Lowe’s two races ago. Nemechek has also broken the four-way tie for the most last-place finishes since 1998, beating Todd Bodine, 2009 last-place leader Dave Blaney, and overall leader Derrike Cope for that mark. Nemechek is also fourth on the all-time list and has tied Jimmy Means and Morgan Shepherd for the 2nd-most last-place finishes since 1972. He is tied with Tony Raines, who withdrew with the #37 team on Saturday, for 2nd in the 2009 rankings. However, both Nemechek and Raines are still four finishes behind leader Dave Blaney, who pulled behind the wall eight laps after Nemechek’s wreck on Sunday.

It is only the second time in NASCAR Sprint Cup history that the #87 has finished last at Talladega: Dick May’s Fast Lane Ltd. Oldsmobile lost oil pressure in the 1979 Talladega 500 without completing a single lap.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #87-Joe Nemechek / 4 laps / crash
42) #98-Paul Menard / 4 laps / crash
41) #66-Dave Blaney / 12 laps / vibration
40) #77-Sam Hornish, Jr. / 44 laps / engine
39) #78-Regan Smith / 99 laps / engine

2009 RANKINGS
1st) Dave Blaney (8)
2nd) Tony Raines, Joe Nemechek (4)
3rd) Mike Bliss (3)
4th) Patrick Carpentier, David Gilliland, Bobby Labonte (2)
5th) Tony Ave, Todd Bodine, P.J. Jones, Matt Kenseth, Travis Kvapil, Joey Logano, Mark Martin, Mike Wallace (1)

Kvapil Edges Cope When Brakes Go Kaput In Martinsville; Blaney Clinches 2009 Title

Travis Kvapil picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his career in Sunday’s Tums Fast Relief 500 at the Martinsville Speedway when his #37 Long John Silver’s Dodge fell out with brake problems after completing 30 of the race’s 501 laps.

Sunday’s race was Kvapil’s first NASCAR Sprint Cup start in seven months. He’d been out of the series since he lost his #28 Yates Racing ride when, following March’s Food City 500 at Bristol, sponsorship woes forced the team to shut down. Coming into the Martinsville race, the #37 had also missed three straight races with three different drivers: Kevin Hamlin at Kansas, Tony Raines at Fontana, and Kvapil himself at Charlotte just last week. Kvapil qualified a solid 25th at Martinsville, however, at a speed of 95.381 mph. Despite hanging tough in the middle of the pack, he pulled behind the wall after 30 laps with brake problems.

It was Kvapil’s first last-place finish since his rookie season when his Penske-backed #77 Kodak Dodge lost an engine in the 2005 USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland. It is the first time the #37 has finished last at Martinsville since John Andretti’s Little Caesar’s Ford fell out with rear end problems in the 1996 Goody’s Headache Powder 500.

Kvapil finished last by completing just one fewer lap than 26-time last-place finisher Derrike Cope, who was making his first NASCAR Sprint Cup start in over three years. In that time, Cope amassed 15 DNQs, including two of the last three runnings of the Daytona 500, where Cope’s stunning first victory came in 1990. Four of these 15 DNQs came when rain washed out qualifying, including both of his last two attempts to qualify at Martinsville. On Friday, with rain again threatening to wash out qualifying and his self-owned #75 team positioned to be the one team “washed out” of the 44-car entry list for the 43-car field, Cope worked out a deal to replace Mike Wallace in Larry Gunselman’s #64 Toyota. Gunselman’s #64 was in position to pull the season sweep at Martinsville, having finished last with Todd Bodine in the spring race. Though the rain did not come, Cope still got the #64 into the show - 43rd at a speed of 93.539 mph.

Interestingly, Cope’s most recent Sprint Cup start was the 2006 UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega, where he finished last for the sixth time in 2006, setting the very single-season last-place record that Dave Blaney beat this year. Cope still has several records of his own: he leads all active drivers in last-place finishes, has the most finishes ever collected in the Modern Era (tracing back to 1972), and is just six last-place finishes away from the all-time lead held by the late J.D. McDuffie. However, in 2009, Dave Blaney, Todd Bodine, and Joe Nemechek have all tied Cope’s record of 13 last-place finishes since 1998.

Speaking of Dave Blaney, the Ohio driver has now successfully clinched the 2009 last-place driver’s championship. Blaney came into the race with a four-finish lead on Tony Raines and a five-finish lead on Mike Bliss and Joe Nemechek. Since neither Raines nor Bliss entered the Martinsville race and only five races remained, only Nemechek was mathematically in a position to tie Blaney’s eight last-place finishes in 2009. But to do this, Nemechek would have to follow up his last-place finish at Charlotte with five more in all five of the final races, starting with Martinsville. Unlike Charlotte, both Blaney and Nemechek qualified for Martinsville: Blaney snagged 39th at 94.689 mph and Nemechek was 28th at 95.304 mph, but both ended up 40th and 38th, respectively.

As I was informed by a reader, three teams also came into Sunday’s race in a three-way tie for the most different drivers finishing last in their cars: Bob Jenkins’ #37 (with drivers Tony Ave and Tony Raines), Kevin Buckler’s #71 (David Gilliland and Bobby Labonte), and Larry Gunselman’s #64 (Todd Bodine and Mike Wallace). While Gilliland still qualified the #71 at Martinsville, both the #37 and the #64 were driven by different drivers (Travis Kvapil and Derrike Cope, respectively), and thus both were in a position to break the tie. Kvapil’s finish has not only broken this tie, but has given the #37 team its fifth last-place finish of 2009. This means that if the #37 finishes last in each of the last four races, Bob Jenkins’ team will have earned more last-place finishes than Phil Parsons’ #66 team (for which Dave Blaney drives).

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #37-Travis Kvapil / 30 laps / brakes
42) #64-Derrike Cope / 31 laps / brakes
41) #36-Michael McDowell / 36 laps / brakes
40) #66-Dave Blaney / 38 laps / overheating
39) #71-David Gilliland / 48 laps / brakes

2009 RANKINGS
1st) Dave Blaney (8)
2nd) Tony Raines (4)
3rd) Mike Bliss, Joe Nemechek (3)
4th) Patrick Carpentier, David Gilliland, Bobby Labonte (2)
5th) Tony Ave, Todd Bodine, P.J. Jones, Matt Kenseth, Travis Kvapil, Joey Logano, Mark Martin, Mike Wallace (1)

Nemechek Joins Battle For The Most Last-Place Finishes Since 1998 When Car’s Rear End Fails at Lowe’s

Joe Nemechek picked up the 16th last-place finish of his career in Saturday’s NASCAR Banking 500 only at Bank of America at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway when his unsponsored #87 NEMCO Motorsports Toyota fell out with rear end problems after completing 26 laps.

The late Thursday night qualifying session for this 500-mile race was particularly tough for this year’s last-place contenders. Despite getting sponsorship from the Denny Hamlin Foundation, last-place leader Dave Blaney failed to qualify for only the second time in 2009, dating back to the Shelby 427 at Las Vegas back in March. Joining Blaney on the DNQ list were three teams with multiple last-place finishes in 2009: Michael McDowell in Tommy Baldwin’s #36 (2 last-place finishes), Sterling Marlin in James Finch’s #09 Dodge (3 last-place finishes), and Travis Kvapil in Bob Jenkins’ #37 Dodge (4 last-place finishes).

Nemechek, on the other hand, qualified 35th for the race at a speed of 187.780 mph. He remained on the track through the race’s first two cautions before his Toyota’s rear end failed 26 laps into the race.

The finish was Nemechek’s third last-place finish of 2009 and first in nearly three months, dating back to this year’s Allstate 400 at the Brickyard in July. 13 of Nemechek’s 16 career last-place finishes have come since the 1998 Daytona 500, tying him with Dave Blaney, Todd Bodine, and Derrike Cope for the most last-place finishes collected since that race. It is only the second time in NASCAR Sprint Cup history that the #87 finished last at Charlotte: Randy Baker’s unsponsored Baker Racing Chevrolet finished last after losing an engine in the 1986 Oakwood Homes 500, the fall Charlotte race of that year.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #87-Joe Nemechek / 26 laps / rear end
42) #11-Denny Hamlin / 192 laps / engine
41) #13-Max Papis / 286 laps / engine
40) #77-Sam Hornish, Jr. / 298 laps / running
39) #99-Carl Edwards / 299 laps / engine

2009 RANKINGS
1st) Dave Blaney (8)
2nd) Tony Raines (4)
3rd) Mike Bliss, Joe Nemechek (3)
4th) Patrick Carpentier, David Gilliland, Bobby Labonte (2)
5th) Tony Ave, Todd Bodine, P.J. Jones, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Mark Martin, Mike Wallace (1)