N’WIDE: Marc Davis Scores First NASCAR Last-Place Finish In Nationwide Series Return

Marc Davis picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s Federated Auto Parts 300 at the Nashville Superspeedway when his unsponsored #03 R3 Motorsports Chevrolet fell out with alternator problems after completing the first of the race’s 225 laps. The finish came in Davis’ 10th series start.

Davis, a former development driver for Joe Gibbs Racing, was tabbed to be the driver of R3 Motorsports’ part-time “start-and-park” team for the Nashville event. The #03 team Davis joined had competed in five previous races in 2011 with four different drivers, most recently at Kentucky, where Scott Riggs came home 36th. Ironically, Riggs also gave R3 its best finish of the season driving the team’s primary car, #23, at Darlington, where he came home 13th.

Nashville would see the #23 continue its streak of making every Nationwide Series race this season, this time with its fifth different driver, defending LASTCAR Nationwide Series leader Dennis Setzer. Setzer had difficulty finding speed in qualifying and had to rely on Owner Points to make the field in the 41st spot. Davis’ #03 timed in two spots ahead of Setzer in 39th at a speed of 148.971 mph, more than enough to bump three-time 2011 last-placer Brett Rowe out of the field in Key Motorsports’ #46.

Saturday’s race was not only Davis’ first start of the 2011 campaign, but his first NASCAR start since driving R3's primary #23 to a 23rd-place finish at Dover last September. Unfortunately, he did not get to enjoy his return for long as he pulled behind the wall after the opening lap. Teammate Setzer came home 34th, felled by a vibration after just 28 laps.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #03-Marc Davis / 1 lap / alternator
42) #04-Danny O’Quinn, Jr. / 3 laps / brakes
41) #47-Charles Lewandoski / 6 laps / brakes
40) #49-Mark Green / 7 laps / handling
39) #42-Tim Andrews / 8 laps / transmission

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*The #03 had not finished last in a Nationwide Series race since 2005, when David Gilliland’s Rich’s Motorsports / HYPE Chevrolet lost its engine 12 laps into the 2005 Arizona 200 presented by “Walk the Line” at Phoenix. Gilliland was making his series debut with owner Clay Andrews that day, the owner he took to victory lane in a stunning upset at Kentucky the following year.
*This was the first time in NASCAR Nationwide Series history that a driver finished last due to alternator problems.
*This was the first-ever last-place finish for owner Robert Richardson, Sr. and R3 Motorsports. The R3 team’s best-ever finish in the series remains road course specialist Jean Francois Dumoulin’s lone series start at Montreal in 2009, where he came home 7th.

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green (4)
2nd) Brett Rowe (3)
3rd) Kelly Bires, Dennis Setzer (2)
4th) Matt Carter, Johnny Chapman, Kevin Conway, Marc Davis, Mike Harmon, James Hylton, Blake Koch, Justin Marks, Scott Wimmer (1)

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #44-TriStar Motorsports (4)
2nd) #55-Faith Motorsports (3)
3rd) #25-Ed Rensi, #49-Jay Robinson Racing (2)
4th) #0-JD Motorsports, #27-Baker Curb Racing, #47-Key Motorsports, #68-Fleur-De-Lis Motorsports, #74-Mike Harmon, #75-Rick Ware Racing, #82-MacDonald Motorsports, #87-NEMCO Motorsports, #03-R3 Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (15)
2nd) Ford (4)
3rd) Dodge (1)

TRUCKS: Mike Garvey Ties Loni Richardson For 4th In All-Time Truck Series Rankings

Mike Garvey picked up the 8th last-place finish of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career in Friday’s Lucas Deep Clean 200 at the Nashville Superspeedway when his #38 S&W Services Chevrolet fell out with a vibration after 3 of the race’s 150 laps.

Garvey has now tied Loni Richardson for fourth in the all-time LASTCAR Camping World Truck Series rankings. Both drivers stand five finishes from tying all-time series leader Wayne Edwards.

After he and the #38 team skipped last week’s race at Iowa, Garvey qualified 30th in Nashville’s 34-truck field at a speed of 143.316 mph. The speed ranked him fifth among the nine “go-or-go-homers” in the field. With three laps completed under green, Garvey pulled behind the wall, followed by Mike Harmon, who was driving the second Norm Benning truck that debuted with Iowa last-placer Greg Seevers.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Garvey has swept both last-place finishes at Nashville this season, with both finishes coming in the #38. Driver and number have never before finished last in a Truck race at this track, but owner Shane Sieg trailed the field in his #93 back in the 2009 Toyota Tundra 200 at Nashville.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
34) #38-Mike Garvey / 3 laps / vibration
33) #75-Mike Harmon / 6 laps / overheating
32) #07-Johnny Chapman / 12 laps / clutch
31) #89-Chris Lafferty / 16 laps / rear gear
30) #73-Clay Greenfield / 44 laps / handling

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Mike Garvey (3)
2nd) Norm Benning (2)
3rd) James Buescher, Travis Kvapil, Chris Lafferty, Johanna Long, Scott Riggs, Greg Seevers, Brad Sweet (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #38-Shane Sieg (3)
2nd) #57-Norm Benning Racing (2)
3rd) #5-Randy Moss, #10-Jennifer Jo Cobb, #20-Panhandle Motorsports, #31-Turner Motorsports, #32-Turner Motorsports, #75-Norm Benning Racing, #07-SS Green Light Racing (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (9)
2nd) Toyota (3)

CUP: Jeff Green Finishes 43rd In Debut of Front Row Motorsports’ New #55 Team

Special Thanks to Rob Dostie, a LASTCAR fan who provided his photos of Jeff Green's #55 and the rest of the Bottom Five in today's post!

Jeff Green picked up the 5th last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway when his unsponsored #55 Front Row Motorsports Ford fell out with brake problems after completing 11 of the race’s 301 laps.


Bob Jenkins’ Front Row Motorsports (FRM) began 2011 with three teams: the #34 of David Gilliland and the #37 of Robert Richardson, Jr., both locked into the first five races on their 2010 Owner Points rankings, and the #38 of Travis Kvapil, which fell outside the Top 35 following a costly penalty for bleeder valves on his tires at Pocono.

The start of the year saw Gilliland turn in a stunning 3rd-place finish in the Daytona 500 while Richardson and Kvapil were both taken out in separate accidents. As both the #38 and #37 fell outside the Top 35 in this year’s Owner Points, single-car owner Larry Gunselman acquired the #37 at Bristol, still using Fords out of the FRM shop with Tony Raines as driver. Since then, both Raines’ #37 and Kvapil’s #38 teams have struggled with each suffering DNQs while Gilliland’s #34 has made every race this year and remained inside the Top 35.

Earlier this month, FRM was set to enter a new third team, an unsponsored #55 Ford, at Kentucky, but withdrew it before the preliminary entry list for the race could be published. Instead, the team looked to make its first attempt at Loudon the following week, putting Jeff Green behind the wheel. Green, a former Nationwide Series champ, was looking to make his first Cup race since driving for Larry Gunselman’s old #64 team at Charlotte last October. Green may have been selected to drive the #55 into the show for scoring his career-best Cup finish, a 2nd, in the 2002 running of the July race.

Sure enough, Green qualified for Sunday’s race at a speed of 131.175 mph, putting him 36th on the grid and fourth-ranked among the day’s eleven “go-or-go-homers.” It was a tremendous accomplishment for the team, which had to knock three current teams out of the field after David Stremme and Dennis Setzer joined as last-minute entries. Setzer, driving K-Automotive’s #92, was one of the three who missed the race, joining Scott Riggs in Dusty Whitney’s #81 and Raines in the Gunselman #37.

On race day, Green fell to the rear early, followed soon after by current 2011 LASTCAR Cup leader Michael McDowell, fighting an ill-handling #66 Toyota. During the opening green-flag stretch, Green was the first to go behind the wall, followed six laps later by three-time last-placer Mike Skinner.

Green’s FRM teammates both finished inside the Top 25 with Gilliland’s #34 coming home 25th and J.J. Yeley driving Kvapil’s #38 home 23rd. Yeley had filled-in for Kvapil in anticipation of Kvapil’s running the Truck Series race at Iowa, but some last-minute team changes put Todd Bodine in Kvapil’s ride, leaving him on the sidelines. Truck Series competitor Erik Darnell took over for Yeley in his #46, which has twice finished last in 2011.

In two weeks at Indianapolis, Yeley will take over as driver of the #55 FRM team Green raced for on Sunday, parting ways with Whitney Motorsports, whose #46 and #81 will switch from Chevrolet to Ford starting that weekend.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Jeff Green had not finished last in a Cup race since 2007, when his #66 HAAS Automation Chevrolet was involved in a single-car crash after 13 laps of the 2007 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.
*This was the first last-place finish for FRM since 2009, when Tony Raines’ #37 Long John Silver’s Dodge fell out with electrical problems after 6 laps of the 2009 Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix.
*The #55 had not finished last in a Cup race since last August, when Michael McDowell’s #55 PRISM Motorsports Toyota fell out with engine failure 16 laps into the 2010 Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol.
*The #55 had not finished last in a Cup race at New Hampshire since 2000, when the engine on Kenny Wallace’s Square D Chevrolet blew 39 laps into the 2000 Dura Lube 300 Sponsored by K-Mart at New Hampshire. That race is better-known for being the day outside-polesitter Jeff Burton led all 300 laps after NASCAR instituted restrictor plates at Loudon following the fatal crashes that took the lives of Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin, Jr. earlier that year.
*This was not only Ford’s first last-place finish of 2011, but the manufacturer’s first since 2009, when Bobby Labonte’s #96 DLP Ford fell out with engine trouble after 18 laps of the 2009 CARFAX 400 at Michigan.

UNVERIFIED LASTCAR STATISTIC
*This weekend, three teams that made their series debut in Cup (#55), Nationwide (#47), and Trucks (#75) all finished last in the same weekend. As of this moment, I cannot confirm if this is the first time this has ever happened.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
(click the links to see a photo of their exit)
43) #55-Jeff Green / 11 laps / brakes
42) #60-Mike Skinner / 17 laps / electrical
41) #87-Joe Nemechek / 37 laps / brakes
40) #66-Michael McDowell / 46 laps / brakes
39) #46-Erik Darnell / 72 laps / brakes

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

LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #66-HP Racing LLC (5)
2nd) #60-Germain Racing (4)
3rd) #87-NEMCO Motorsports (3)
4th) #46-Whitney Motorsports, #97-NEMCO Motorsports (2)
5th) #55-Front Row Motorsports, #81-Whitney Motorsports, #77-Robby Gordon Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (14)
2nd) Chevrolet (3)
3rd) Dodge, Ford (1)

N’WIDE: Wimmer’s One Of Three Key Motorsports Chevrolets In Nationwide "Bottom Five" at Loudon

Scott Wimmer picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s New England 200 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway when his unsponsored #47 Key Motorsports Chevrolet fell out with engine problems after 5 of the race’s 206 laps.

Team owner Curtis Key has fielded cars in the Nationwide Series since 1993, when Rodger Sawyer made his lone series start at his home track of Martinsville with a 14th-place run driving a #05 Moen Faucets Chevrolet. In the eighteen years since, Key Motorsports gradually worked its way from a part-time team to running the full schedule in 2010 with Mike Bliss driving the team’s flagship #40 for most of the races that season.

2011 began with Wimmer as Key’s new driver of the #40. Although Wimmer gave the team a season-best finish of 12th at Talladega, three engine failures and struggles to find sponsorship resulted in a driver change with Charles Lewandoski, known by his crew as “The Polish Rocket,” taking over driving duties of the #40 at Iowa in May.

Unfortunately, Iowa also saw Key Motorsports have to bring “start-and-park” teams to the track in order to keep the #40 team going. Tim Andrews debuted Key’s #46 at Iowa with a 39th-place finish, then after the team acquired Chase Miller to help in the effort, Miller took over the #46 and Andrews debuted the #42 at Michigan.

Saturday’s race would see a team record four of Key’s unsponsored white Chevrolets in the starting field, which was still one car short of a full 43 entrants. Fastest of Key’s group was 28th-ranked Lewandoski in the #40, followed by 32nd-place Andrews in the #42 and Miller’s #46 in 33rd. Driving the team’s new #47 “start-and-park” team was Wimmer, slowest of the group in 37th at a speed of 120.972 mph.

Five laps into the race, still under green at that point, Wimmer pulled behind the wall, followed two laps later by Andrews and another two laps by Miller. Lewandoski came home 22nd, which is Key Motorsports’ best finish since Wimmer’s Talladega run.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Wimmer had not finished last in a Nationwide Series race since 2002, when his unsponsored #23 Bill Davis Racing Pontiac fell out with engine failure 20 laps into the 2002 Little Trees 300 at Charlotte.
*Owner Curtis Key’s Nationwide team had not finished last in a Nationwide race since 1995, when Chuck Bown’s #05 Key Motorsports Ford fell out with engine failure 12 laps into the 1995 Autolite 250 at Richmond.
*The #47 had not finished last in a Nationwide Series race since 2009, when Chris Cook’s #47 ConstructionJobs.com Toyota fell out with overheating problems after the opening lap of the 2009 Able Body Labor 200 at Phoenix. This was the first time the #47 has finished last in a Nationwide Series race at New Hampshire.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
42) #47-Scott Wimmer / 5 laps / engine
41) #42-Tim Andrews / 7 laps / rear gear
40) #04-Danny Efland / 7 laps / rear gear
39) #46-Chase Miller / 9 laps / ignition
38) #75-Johnny Chapman / 12 laps / brakes

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green (4)
2nd) Brett Rowe (3)
3rd) Kelly Bires, Dennis Setzer (2)
4th) Matt Carter, Johnny Chapman, Kevin Conway, Mike Harmon, James Hylton, Blake Koch, Justin Marks, Scott Wimmer (1)

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #44-TriStar Motorsports (4)
2nd) #55-Faith Motorsports (3)
3rd) #25-Ed Rensi, #49-Jay Robinson Racing (2)
4th) #0-JD Motorsports, #27-Baker Curb Racing, #47-Key Motorsports, #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 (14)
2nd) Ford (4)
3rd) Dodge (1)

TRUCKS: Greg Seevers Parks For Benning In Truck Series Debut

Greg Seevers picked up the first last-place finish of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career in Saturday’s Coca-Cola 200 presented by Hy-Vee at the Iowa Speedway when his unsponsored #75 Norm Benning Racing Chevrolet fell out with overheating problems after 3 of the race’s 200 laps. The finish came in Seevers’ series debut.

Seevers, a 45-year-old Ohio driver, was enlisted by fellow ARCA competitor Norm Benning to field a second truck, #75, to help fund Benning’s still-unsponsored #57 Chevrolet. Though new to the Truck Series, Seevers had helped Benning raise money in ARCA for years. From 2004 through 2009, Seevers drove Benning’s backup ARCA cars in 20 races, never completing more than two laps of a race with the exception of his most recent start at Kentucky in 2009, where he finished 35th after 13 laps.

Seevers was guaranteed to make his Truck Series debut in this capacity as only 32 trucks were on the entry list at Iowa, even when he joined the field as a late entry. This allowed him to time in 31st at a speed of 97.866 mph, nearly 40 mph slower than polesitter David Mayhew’s lap of 136.482 mph. Benning timed in 30th at 124.104 mph.

Three laps into the race, with the green flag still out, Seevers pulled behind the wall. Benning, who has two ast-place finishes in 2011, went on to finish 26th, seventeen laps down to race winner Matt Crafton.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first time the #75 had finished last in a Truck Series race since 2006, when Aric Almirola picked up his first Truck Series last-place finish in the 2006 Con-Way Freight 200 at Michigan. Almirola, whose Spears Manufacturing Chevrolet was involved in a single-truck accident on Lap 12, finished the race under power 33 laps down to race winner Johnny Benson, Jr.
*Seevers is the fourth first-time last-place finisher in the Truck Series this season, joining Travis Kvapil, Brad Sweet, James Buescher, and, most recently at Kansas, Scott Riggs.
*A Truck Series driver had not finished last due to overheating problems since 2010, when Tim Andrews’ #95 Team Gill Racing Dodge fell out after two laps of last year’s EnjoyIllinois.com 225 at Chicagoland.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
32) #75-Greg Seevers / 3 laps / overheating
31) #96-Todd Peck / 34 laps / brakes
30) #93-Mike Garvey / 46 laps / brakes
29) #63-Jack Smith / 86 laps / crash
28) #66-Justin Marks / 101 laps / crash

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Norm Benning, Mike Garvey (2)
2nd) James Buescher, Travis Kvapil, Chris Lafferty, Johanna Long, Scott Riggs, Greg Seevers, Brad Sweet (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #38-Shane Sieg, #57-Norm Benning Racing (2)
2nd) #5-Randy Moss, #10-Jennifer Jo Cobb, #20-Panhandle Motorsports, #31-Turner Motorsports, #32-Turner Motorsports, #75-Norm Benning Racing, #07-SS Green Light Racing (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (8)
2nd) Toyota (3)