N’WIDE: Jeff Green Has Four Last-Place Finishes At Iowa For Four Different Start-and-Park Teams

SOURCE: NASCAR Media

Jeff Green picked up the 43rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Sunday’s DuPont Pioneer 250 at the Iowa Speedway when his unsponsored #10 TriStar Motorsports Toyota fell out with a vibration after he completed 2 of the race’s 249 laps.

The finish was Green’s fifth of the season and his first in four races, dating back to the Aaron’s 312 at Talladega.  He remains the only repeat last-place finisher in the 2013 Nationwide season and, with a four-finish lead, is well on his way to a fourth LASTCAR Nationwide title and his third in a row.

Green qualified 34th for the race at an average speed of 131.865 mph, besting three “go-or-go-homers” including Morgan Shepherd, the lone driver who failed to qualify.  Green pulled behind the wall just two laps before the first caution of the day when Brad Sweet, Cole Whitt, and Kevin Swindell tangled in turn two.

The Motorsports Group once again fell short of a last-place finish with teammates Jason Bowles in 39th and T.J. Bell in 37th.  Finishing 38th was Carl Long, making just his second Nationwide start of the season and his first for owner Rick Ware.  Rounding out the Bottom Five was Dover last-placer Blake Koch in the #00.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was Jeff Green’s fourth last-place finish in a Nationwide race at Iowa.  All of them have come in different “start-and-park” teams owned by TriStar Motorsports: #36, #44, #91, and #10.  It is, however, Green’s first last-place finish in the spring event at Iowa.  When the series returns to the track on August 3, Green will have a chance to not only pull the season sweep, but also finish last in that race for the fourth-consecutive year.
*This was the first last-place finish for the #10 in a Nationwide race at Iowa.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #10-Jeff Green / 2 laps / vibration
39) #46-Jason Bowles / 5 laps / vibration
38) #15-Carl Long / 5 laps / axle
37) #42-T.J. Bell / 7 laps / electrical
36) #00-Blake Koch / 10 laps / brakes

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green (5)
2nd) Tanner Berryhill, Joey Gase, Blake Koch, Johanna Long, Eric McClure, Michael McDowell, Robert Richardson, Jr. (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #10-TriStar Motorsports (5)
2nd) #14-TriStar Motorsports, #17-Vision Racing, #23-R3 Motorsports, #27-SR2 Motorsports, #52-Jimmy Means Racing, #70-ML Motorsports, #00-SR2 Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (10)
2nd) Chevrolet (2)

TRUCKS: Johnny Chapman Now Has The Most Last-Place Finishes In Truck Series History

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin'

Johnny Chapman picked up the 14th last-place finish of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career in Friday’s WinStar World Casino 400k at the Texas Motor Speedway when his unsponsored #38 RSS Racing Chevrolet fell out with ignition problems after he completed 6 of the race’s 167 laps.

The finish was Chapman’s second of 2013 and his second in a row, and he has a one-finish lead in the LASTCAR Truck Series Championship as the first repeat last-placer this season.  More importantly, he set a new record for the most last-place finishes in Truck Series history, breaking a tie with 2007 LASTCAR Truck Series Champion Wayne Edwards, who held sole possession of the record since his 13th last-place run at Bristol on August 19, 2009.

Just 32 trucks showed up to qualify for the Texas race, creating the shortest Truck Series field since Iowa in 2011, which also had 32 entrants.  Chapman qualified 28th in the field at an average speed of 166.940 mph.  He edged Danny Efland for the record-breaking last-place finish by three laps.  RSS teammate Chris Jones pulled out of the race two laps after Efland while Chris Lafferty and Chris Cockrum rounded out the Bottom Five.

The finish came in Chapman’s 60th Truck Series start.  As of this writing, he also has 117 Nationwide Series starts, including the 2009 LASTCAR Nationwide title with MSRP Motorsports.  He finished 36th in his lone Cup start at Rockingham in 1993 while driving the #64 Bahre Racing Pontiac.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the second-consecutive last-place finish at Texas for the #38 RSS Racing team.  Last November, Chris Jones suffered a vibration after three laps.  During the 2011 running of the fall Texas race, Mike Garvey’s #38 lost the clutch after five laps on the way to his first LASTCAR Truck Series Championship.
*This was Chapman’s first last-place finish in a Truck Series race at Texas since 2005 when his #08 Green Light Racing Chevrolet broke an oil line after he completed 28 laps of the Chex 400K.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
32) #38-Johnny Chapman / 6 laps / ignition
31) #84-Danny Efland / 9 laps / rear gear
30) #93-Chris Jones / 11 laps / rear gear
29) #99-Chris Lafferty / 14 laps / electrical
28) #07-Chris Cockrum / 1 laps / ignition

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Johnny Chapman (2)
2nd) Mike Harmon, Jennifer Jo Cobb, Chris Jones, Scott Riggs, Scott Saunders (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #38-RSS Racing (2)
2nd) #0-Jennifer Jo Cobb, #10-Jennifer Jo Cobb, #84-Chris Fontaine, #92-Ricky Benton, #93-RSS Racing (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (4)
2nd) RAM (2)
3rd) Ford (1)

CUP: Scott Riggs Rounds Out Dover Field In First Cup Start Since April

SOURCE: TheHotLap.com

Scott Riggs picked up the 8th last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s FedEx 400 Benefiting Autism Speaks at the Dover International Speedway when his #44 No Label Watches Ford lost the transmission after he completed 16 of the race’s 400 laps.

The finish was Riggs’ second of 2013, his first since March, when he was taken out in a single-car crash at Phoenix after 19 laps.

Riggs was making just his fourth Cup Series points race in 2013, all of them for start-up team Xxxtreme Motorsports.  Following the last-place run at Phoenix, the team parked in consecutive races at Fontana and Martinsville, finishing 41st and 42nd, respectively.  After the team’s second DNQ at Texas, Xxxtreme’s distinctive-looking #44 Fords were noticeably absent from the track, save for an appearance in the Sprint Showdown.  Unconfirmed rumors indicated Riggs would be replaced by Mike Bliss starting that week, but Riggs remained and turned in a 22nd-place finish.

Riggs was back in the car at Dover, and better yet, locked into the field.  All three of NASCAR’s top divisions had just enough entries to fill the field, so no teams failed to qualify, and Riggs’ lap of 150.710 mph scored him the 43rd and final starting spot.

Mike Bliss held the 43rd spot early in Sunday’s race, apparently headed to extend his one-finish lead over Michael McDowell in the LASTCAR standings.  However, it was Riggs who pulled out first, besting McDowell by nearly forty laps.  Bliss fell out of the race five laps after McDowell.  Matt Kenseth, who led 29 laps, lost an engine while running 2nd and tumbled to a 40th-place finish.  Travis Kvapil in BK Racing’s #93 rounded out the Bottom Five.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was Riggs’ first-ever last-place finish in a Cup Series race at Dover.  He does, however, have two last-place runs at Pocono (June 2011, August 2012), where the series heads next week.
*This was the first last-place finish for the #44 in a Cup Series race at Dover since 2007, when Dale Jarrett’s UPS Toyota lost the engine after 241 laps of the Autism Speaks 400 presented by VISA.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #44-Scott Riggs / 16 laps / transmission
42) #98-Michael McDowell / 54 laps / overheating
41) #19-Mike Bliss / 59 laps / rear gear
40) #20-Matt Kenseth / 159 laps / engine / led 29 laps
39) #93-Travis Kvapil / 161 laps / engine

LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Mike Bliss (4)
2nd) Michael McDowell (3)
3rd) Scott Riggs (2)
4th) Trevor Bayne, Dave Blaney, Joe Nemechek, Scott Speed (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #19-Humphrey-Smith Motorsports (4)
2nd) #98-Phil Parsons Racing (3)
3rd) #44-Xxxtreme Motorsports (2)
4th) #7-Tommy Baldwin Racing, #21-Wood Brothers Racing, #87-NEMCO Motorsports, #95-Leavine Family Racing (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Ford (7)
2nd) Toyota (5)
3rd) Chevrolet (1)

N’WIDE: Blake Koch’s Run At Dover Ends With First Last-Place Finish In Two Years

SOURCE: TheHotLap.com

Blake Koch picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s 5-Hour Energy 200 at the Dover International Speedway when his #00 SupportMilitary.org Toyota fell out with brake problems after he completed 4 of the race’s 200 laps.

The finish was Koch’s first of the year and his first since this same race in 2011, when his #82 Daystar.com Dodge was involved in a three-car crash on the opening lap of the 5-Hour Energy 200.

Koch was competing in his tenth start of the 2013 season, his fifth on the Nationwide Series tour.  Driving for Jason Sciavicco’s SR2 Motorsports, Koch began the year driving the team’s primary #24 car and scored a season-best 16th at Phoenix in March.  Ironically, when he switched teams to SR2’s #00 at Talladega, he performed even better, challenging for the lead in the middle stages of the race before he was taken out by Justin Allgaier on Lap 89.  Heading into Dover, he finished a respectable 22nd at Darlington, his third-best finish of the year.

Koch was one of just 38 cars on the preliminary entry list, a field fleshed-out by a pair of “start-and-park” entries: J.J. Yeley in The Motorsports Group’s prolific #46, and Vision Racing’s new #37 with Matt DiBenedetto aboard, a “start-and-park” team car to Darlington last-placer Tanner Berryhill.  Koch qualified behind both new entries in the 39th spot with a lap of 137.357 mph.  40th-place starter Tony Raines in the ML Motorsports #70 Toyota qualified even slower at 115.961 mph, his lap more than seven seconds slower than that of polesitter Austin Dillon.

In the race itself, Koch pulled behind the wall on the opening green-flag run, followed two laps later by DiBenedetto.  Yeley’s TMG car was edged by two laps for 38th by teammate Josh Wise in the #42, while the distinctive purple #89 of 2007 LASTCAR Nationwide Series Champion Morgan Shepherd rounded out the Bottom Five.

One week after selling his spot to Steven Wallace at Charlotte, Jeff Green finished 35th in his #10 TriStar Motorsports Toyota.  Other than the Charlotte race, it is the first time this season he has not finished in the Bottom Five.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first last-place finish for the #00 in a Nationwide Series race since last fall at Charlotte, when Angela Cope’s ride for SR2 in the Dollar General 300 ended with an opening-lap crash coming to the green flag that disabled her #00 Highland Wealth Advisors / Highway 55 Toyota.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #00-Blake Koch / 4 laps / brakes
39) #37-Matt DiBenedetto / 6 laps / handling
38) #42-Josh Wise / 9 laps / electrical
37) #46-J.J. Yeley / 11 laps / overheating
36) #89-Morgan Shepherd / 14 laps / engine

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green (4)
2nd) Tanner Berryhill, Joey Gase, Blake Koch, Johanna Long, Eric McClure, Michael McDowell, Robert Richardson, Jr. (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #10-TriStar Motorsports (4)
2nd) #14-TriStar Motorsports, #17-Vision Racing, #23-R3 Motorsports, #27-SR2 Motorsports, #52-Jimmy Means Racing, #70-ML Motorsports, #00-SR2 Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (9)
2nd) Chevrolet (2)

TRUCKS: Johnny Chapman Ties Wayne Edwards For Most Last-Place Finishes In Truck Series History

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin'

Johnny Chapman picked up the 13th last-place finish of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career in Friday’s Lucas Oil 200 at the Dover International Speedway when his unsponsored #38 RSS Racing Chevrolet fell out with an oil leak after he completed 4 of the race’s 200 laps.

The finish was Chapman’s first of the year and his first in the series since last summer at Bristol, fifteen races ago.  He is now tied with Wayne Edwards for the most last-place finishes in Truck Series history.  Edwards, the 2007 LASTCAR Truck Series Champion, has had sole possession of the record since he broke a tie with 1999 LASTCAR champ Phil Bonifield in 2009.

Chapman, the 2009 LASTCAR Nationwide Series Champion, was making his second start of the season following a 28th-place showing at Rockingham, where he drove the #07 for SS Green Light Racing.  For Dover, Chapman was tabbed to drive the #38 for RSS Racing, a “start-and-park” team which scored the last two consecutive LASTCAR titles with drivers Mike Garvey and Dennis Setzer.  Like Chapman, the #38 only ran one other time this year, when J.J. Yeley finished 35th at Kansas.

Only 36 trucks showed up to qualify for the race, so Chapman secured the 34th starting spot with a lap of 139.800 mph.  He pulled behind the wall during the opening laps, followed five laps later by Charlotte last-placer Chris Jones in RSS Racing’s other “start-and-park” entry, #93.  Jones was edged for the 35th spot by Chris Lafferty, who pulled out on the same lap driving the #0, a second truck for Jennifer Jo Cobb.  The #0 was the same team with which Blake Koch, Saturday’s Nationwide last-placer, nearly upset RSS’ Dennis Setzer for last year’s LASTCAR Truck Series title by forcing a bottom-five tiebreaker.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first last-place finish for the #38 in a Truck Series race since last fall at Texas, eight races ago, when Chris Jones pulled the same truck out of the WinStar World Casino 350 after 3 laps due to a vibration.  It is also the second-straight year RSS’ #38 has finished last in this race - Dennis Setzer was stopped by a vibration after 2 laps in 2012.
*Chapman is the first Truck Series driver to finish last due to an oil leak since 2010, when Chris Lafferty fell out of that year’s Dover race after he completed the opening lap.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
36) #38-Johnny Chapman / 4 laps / oil leak
35) #0-Chris Lafferty / 9 laps / rear gear
34) #93-Chris Jones / 9 laps / overheating
33) #50-Danny Efland /14 laps / electrical
32) #84-Mike Harmon / 18 laps / transmission

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Johnny Chapman, Mike Harmon, Jennifer Jo Cobb, Chris Jones, Scott Riggs, Scott Saunders (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #0-Jennifer Jo Cobb, #10-Jennifer Jo Cobb, #38-RSS Racing, #84-Chris Fontaine, #92-Ricky Benton, #93-RSS Racing (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (3)
2nd) RAM (2)
3rd) Ford (1)