N’WIDE: Jeff Green Tied For Fifth In All-Time LASTCAR Standings

Jeff Green picked up the 20th last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Friday’s Subway Jalapeno 250 at the Daytona International Speedway when his #44 East Central Florida View / HURT Chevrolet fell out with a vibration after 3 of the race’s 100 laps.

Green now has 23 last-place finishes across NASCAR’s top-three divisions, tying him with Dave Blaney for fifth-most all-time. He remains second in the Nationwide Series standings, four finishes behind all-time series leader Jeff Fuller’s mark of 24.

Green qualified 28th for the race at a speed of 176.374 mph, besting five “go-or-go-homers” including Chase Miller, whose Key Motorsports #46 was the only team that failed to qualify. Soon after the green flag dropped, Green pulled behind the wall along with Fontana last-placer Mike Harmon and his #74.

Harmon held 43rd for much of the race, but returned to the track in the closing stages to complete a total of 29 laps. This shuffled Harmon up to 41st, moving Green down to last and Carl Long to 42nd.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is Green’s first-ever last-place finish in a Nationwide Series race at Daytona.
*The #44 had never before finished last in a Nationwide Series race at Daytona.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #44-Jeff Green / 3 laps / vibration
42) #68-Carl Long / 4 laps / overheating
41) #74-Mike Harmon / 29 laps / running
40) #40-Charles Lewandoski / 29 laps / engine
39) #30-Ricky Carmichael / 34 laps / crash

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
The finish in Saturday’s race moved Green back into the 2011 LASTCAR Nationwide Series lead, breaking a tie with Brett Rowe, who came home last in the previous race at Road America.
1st) Jeff Green (4)
2nd) Brett Rowe (3)
3rd) Kelly Bires (2)
4th) Matt Carter, Johnny Chapman, Kevin Conway, Mike Harmon, James Hylton, Blake Koch, Justin Marks, Dennis Setzer (1)

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #44-TriStar Motorsports (4)
2nd) #55-Faith Motorsports (3)
3rd) #25-Ed Rensi (2)
4th) #0-JD Motorsports, #27-Baker Curb Racing, #49-Jay Robinson Racing, #68-Fleur-De-Lis Motorsports, #74-Mike Harmon, #75-Rick Ware Racing, #82-MacDonald Motorsports, #87-NEMCO Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (12)
2nd) Ford (4)
3rd) Dodge (1)

CUP: P.J. Jones Gets Dodge Its First Cup Last-Place Finish of 2011 at Infineon

P.J. Jones picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup career in Sunday’s Toyota / Save Mart 350 at the Infineon Raceway when his #77 Speed Energy / GNC Dodge fell out with suspension problems after five of the race’s 110 laps.

For the third consecutive year, Jones was tabbed by Cup Series regular Robby Gordon to drive a second car for him at Sonoma. On Friday, Jones made it three-for-three when he timed in 35th at a speed of 91.223 mph, ranking him second behind only Joe Nemechek among the day’s “go-or-go-homers.” Missing the race was fellow road racer Tony Ave, driving Travis Kvapil’s #38 for Front Row Motorsports.

Before the start of Sunday’s race, Mike Skinner pulled out of his 37th starting spot and fell to the rear of the field, apparently set to give the #60 team its fourth last-place finish of 2011. However, Jones pulled out of the race after the first five green-flag laps, and Skinner followed five circuits after that.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. busted his radiator after an early tangle with Brian Vickers in Turn 11, ultimately ending his day with a 41st-place finish. Only Jones and Skinner’s early departure kept Earnhardt, Jr. from scoring his 7th last-place finish and his first since Phoenix in the fall of 2007.

Robby Gordon, Jones’ car owner, started 28th and finished 18th, the #7 team’s best run since Gordon came home 16th in the season-opening Daytona 500. Gordon successfully recovered from an incident in Turn 11 and ran the final laps on tires lent from fellow Dodge driver Brad Keselowski.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*The #77 had not finished last in a Cup race since 2008, when Sam Hornish, Jr.’s Mobil 1 Dodge was involved in a fiery crash with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Casey Mears 20 laps into the 2008 Auto Club 500 at the Auto Club Speedway of Southern California.
*The #77 had never before finished last in a Cup, Nationwide, or Truck Series road race.
*This was P.J.’s second last-place finish at Infineon in the last three years. In his first run with Gordon in 2009, he fell out after two laps with power steering problems driving a #04 Menards / Jim Beam Toyota. That race was the scene of P.J.’s most recent last-place showing.
*It’s Dodge’s first last-place finish in the 2011 Cup season. Dodge had not finished last in a Cup race since last September’s Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire, where Michael McDowell’s #46 Cash America Dodge fell out with engine failure after 29 laps.  Ford has yet to finish last in a Cup race this season.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #77-P.J. Jones / 5 laps / suspension
42) #60-Mike Skinner / 10 laps / ignition
41) #88-Dale Earnhardt, Jr. / 45 laps / overheating
40) #87-Joe Nemechek / 66 laps / transmission
39) #14-Tony Stewart / 88 laps / crash / led 3 laps

LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Michael McDowell (5)
2nd) Joe Nemechek (3)
3rd) Mike Skinner, J.J. Yeley (2)
4th) Landon Cassill, Kevin Conway, P.J. Jones, Scott Riggs (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #66-HP Racing LLC (5)
2nd) #60-Germain Racing, #87-NEMCO Motorsports (3)
3rd) #46-Whitney Motorsports (2)
4th) #77-Robby Gordon Motorsports, #81-Whitney Motorsports, #97-NEMCO Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (12)
2nd) Chevrolet (3)
3rd) Dodge (1)

CORRECTION: The original details about Joe Nemechek’s exit from the race have been omitted in light of conflicting scanner communications provided by a reader. My apologies for any confusion.

N’WIDE: Rowe Ties Green For LASTCAR Nationwide Series Lead at Road America

Brett Rowe picked up the 5th last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s Bucyrus 200 presented by Menards at Road America when his #55 Imperial Bedding Chevrolet fell out with brake problems after 2 of the race’s 57 laps.

All 42 cars on the entry list qualified for the series’ first road race of the year, and Rowe placed 37th in qualifying at a speed of 150.671 mph. Two laps into the race, Rowe followed Key Motorsports teammates Tim Andrews and Chase Miller to the garage area, all three of them listed as out due to brake failure.

Morgan Shepherd, Rowe’s owner and teammate, started 35th and came home in the same position due to handling woes 11 laps into the event.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was Rowe’s first-ever last-place finish on a road course.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
42) #55-Brett Rowe / 2 laps / brakes
41) #42-Tim Andrews / 2 laps / brakes
40) #46-Chase Miller / 2 laps / brakes
39) #03-Scott Wimmer / 3 laps / brakes
38) #44-Jeff Green / 3 laps / vibration

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green, Brett Rowe (3)
2nd) Kelly Bires (2)
3rd) Matt Carter, Johnny Chapman, Kevin Conway, Mike Harmon, James Hylton, Blake Koch, Justin Marks, Dennis Setzer (1)

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #44-TriStar Motorsports, #55-Faith Motorsports (3)
2nd) #25-Ed Rensi (2)
3rd) #0-JD Motorsports, #27-Baker Curb Racing, #49-Jay Robinson Racing, #68-Fleur-De-Lis Motorsports, #74-Mike Harmon, #75-Rick Ware Racing, #82-MacDonald Motorsports, #87-NEMCO Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (11)
2nd) Ford (4)
3rd) Dodge (1)

CUP: McDowell, Fellow Underdogs Keep Jimmie Johnson From First Cup Last-Place Finish

Michael McDowell picked up the 12th last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400 at the Michigan International Speedway when his unsponsored #66 HP Racing LLC Toyota fell out with electrical problems after 28 of the race’s 200 laps.

Happy Hour at Michigan brought HP Racing and other underfunded Sprint Cup teams some much-needed TV time as several of them topped the speed charts. McDowell himself put up the 11th-best time in a session that was led by David Stremme in start-up team Inception Motorsports’ #30. Also among the Top 10 that session were J.J. Yeley’s Dusty Whitney-owned Chevrolet (2nd), Travis Kvapil for Front Row Motorsports (3rd), Joe Nemechek (7th), and Robby Gordon (10th).

On Saturday, McDowell qualified 38th for the race at a speed of 184.573 mph, ranking him second-slowest among the “go-or-go-homers” who qualified (ahead of last week’s last-place finisher Scott Riggs in the #81), but more importantly ahead of Tony Raines, Brian Keselowski, and Mike Skinner, who failed to qualify.

Joe Nemechek, who timed-in 29th, fell to the rear before the green flag to join Joey Logano, sent to the rear after an engine change in Happy Hour. By Lap 8, all 43 cars were still running, but McDowell had fallen to 41st with Scott Riggs holding onto 43rd.

On that same lap, Jimmie Johnson spun off turn two, resulting in a broken front sway bar that put him a lap down. With McDowell, Riggs, and the other teams remaining on track and on the same lap as the leaders, this dropped Johnson back to 43rd, a position he was trapped in when he lost two laps making repairs under a subsequent caution on Lap 27.

However, McDowell pulled his unsponsored Toyota behind the wall under that yellow, ultimately sparing Johnson of what could have been his first-ever last-place finish in a Sprint Cup points-paying race. Johnson, who went on to finish 27th in the 200-lapper, did finish last in Race 1 of the 2002 Gatorade Twin 125s at Daytona when he left the race nine laps from the finish with ignition troubles.

Joining Johnson as drivers who have yet to finish last in a Sprint Cup points-paying race are Kasey Kahne, Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, and Boris Said.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first time the #66 had ever finished last in a Cup Series race at Michigan.
*A Cup driver had not finished last at Michigan due to electrical problems since 2009, when Tony Raines’ #37 Long John Silvers Dodge fell out 17 laps into the 2009 Lifelock 400.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #66-Michael McDowell / 28 laps / electrical
42) #81-Scott Riggs / 30 laps / brakes
41) #30-David Stremme / 39 laps / clutch
40) #87-Joe Nemechek / 44 laps / vibration
39) #46-J.J. Yeley / 47 laps / brakes

LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Michael McDowell (5)
2nd) Joe Nemechek (3)
3rd) Mike Skinner, J.J. Yeley (2)
4th) Landon Cassill, Kevin Conway, Scott Riggs (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #66-HP Racing LLC (5)
2nd) #60-Germain Racing, #87-NEMCO Motorsports (3)
3rd) #46-Whitney Motorsports (2)
4th) #81-Whitney Motorsports, #97-NEMCO Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (12)
2nd) Chevrolet (3)

N’WIDE: Setzer Tied For Third-Most Nationwide Series Last-Place Finishes

Dennis Setzer picked up the 13th last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s Alliance Truck Parts 250 at the Michigan International Speedway when his unsponsored #49 Jay Robinson Racing Chevrolet fell out with a vibration after completing 1 of the race’s 125 laps.

The finish moved Setzer up to 3rd in the LASTCAR Nationwide Series standings, putting him into a tie with Ed Berrier and Johnny Chapman. Setzer also sits 11th all-time.
This week’s team, Jay Robinson Racing, has fielded cars in the Nationwide Series for eleven seasons, dating back to Rodney Childers’ lone series start at Myrtle Beach in 2000 (today, Childers is the crew chief for David Reutimann’s #00 Cup team). The Robinson team’s best finish came in 2008, when Kenny Wallace drove their #28 to a 3rd-place finish at Memphis.

Today, the team still runs both the #28 and #49, now with 1990 Daytona 500 champion Derrike Cope as driver of the #28. Cope has so far made all but one race this season with a best finish of 23rd on three occasions. However, with sponsorship woes continuing to plague teams on the circuit, Robinson’s #49 has been delegated to “start-and-park” status with Dennis Setzer behind the wheel in five of nine starts. Two weeks ago at Chicago, Setzer gave the #49 its best finish of the year when he came home 35th.

Setzer, who scored the most last-place finishes of any Nationwide Series driver in 2010 (10), timed in 24th for the 43-car field at a speed of 176.406 mph, ranking him fifth among the field’s “go-or-go-home” drivers. Brett Rowe, who has two last-place finishes in 2011, missed the race in Morgan Shepherd’s #55 along with Chase Miller in Curtis Key’s #46.

After the opening lap of the race, Setzer pulled behind the wall under green. Cope, again in the #28, finished 28th, four laps down.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*The #49 had not finished last in a Nationwide Series race since 2010, when Mark Green’s Jay Robinson Inc. Chevrolet fell out with electrical problems two laps into the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 at Gateway.
*The #49 had not finished last in a Nationwide Series race at Michigan since 2002, when the radiator on Dan Shaver’s #49 Blitz Motorsports Ford failed after 17 laps of the 2002 Cabela’s 250 at Michigan. Shaver brought out the first caution of the race four laps earlier with a spin in turn four.
*It is Setzer’s first-ever Nationwide Series last-place finish at Michigan.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #49-Dennis Setzer / 1 lap / vibration
42) #52-Tony Raines / 2 laps / electrical
41) #44-Jeff Green / 2 laps / vibration
40) #42-Tim Andrews / 2 laps / brakes
39) #74-J.J. Yeley / 5 laps / vibration

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green (3)
2nd) Kelly Bires, Brett Rowe (2)
3rd) Matt Carter, Johnny Chapman, Kevin Conway, Mike Harmon, James Hylton, Blake Koch, Justin Marks, Dennis Setzer (1)

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #44-TriStar Motorsports (3)
2nd) #25-Ed Rensi, #55-Faith Motorsports (2)
3rd) #0-JD Motorsports, #27-Baker Curb Racing, #49-Jay Robinson Racing, #68-Fleur-De-Lis Motorsports, #74-Mike Harmon, #75-Rick Ware Racing, #82-MacDonald Motorsports, #87-NEMCO Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (10)
2nd) Ford (4)
3rd) Dodge (1)