CUP: David Reutimann Continues Streak Of Rare Last-Place Finishers In Cup

SOURCE: NASCAR Media

David Reutimann picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s Cheez-It 355 at the Glen at Watkins Glen International when his #83 Burger King / Dr. Pepper Toyota lost the engine after he completed 4 of the race’s 90 laps.

The finish was Reutimann’s first of the year and his first in 205 races, dating back to his rookie season in 2007.  The finish came on November 4 of that year when his other Burger King-sponsored Toyota, the #00 fielded by Michael Waltrip Racing, lost the engine after 90 laps of the Dickies 500 at Texas.

Following his release from Michael Waltrip Racing after the 2011 season, Reutimann moved to the two-car BK Racing team that sprung up after Red Bull Racing closed its doors.  Driving the #93, Reutimann finished 26th in the 2012 Daytona 500, then ceded the ride to Travis Kvapil for most of the year, save for a handful of starts in BK's third #73 team.  The rest of that time, Reutimann drove for Tommy Baldwin Racing in the #10, a team designed to keep Danica Patrick’s Stewart-Haas Racing program in the now-defunct Top 35 in points.  This done, Reutimann gave Xxxtreme Motorsports its Cup debut at Phoenix, then returned to BK Racing to replace Landon Cassill in BK's other team, #83, for 2013.

This year, Reutimann improved to finish 16th in the Daytona 500, but he has not finished inside the Top Twenty ever since.  Four DNFs in the first eleven races, combined with the equal struggles of teammate Travis Kvapil in the #93, have hampered the team’s progress.  Kvapil was himself set for a solid run in the Daytona 500 before a last-lap crash left him 25th, and his season-best 18th-place finish in the night race at Daytona was followed by two wrecks caused by Danica Patrick at New Hampshire and Pocono.

At Watkins Glen, scene of his terrifying flip in 2011, Reutimann qualified 36th at an average speed of 123.708 mph.  Kvapil timed in 38th.  Just 43 cars showed up to fill that many spots, so every driver in qualifying made the show.

At the start of the race, last-place starter Brian Keselowski, making his Cup road race debut in his family-owned #52 Star Coach Race Tours Toyota, held onto the 43rd spot.  The spot was then taken by road race ace Boris Said, whose #32 U.S. Chrome Ford suddenly slipped out of the Top 30 in the early laps.  Then, on Lap 4, Reutimann’s car slowed entering the final two corners, then stopped at the entrance of Turn 6, bringing out the first yellow of the day.  Engine failure was to blame, and Reutimann was done for the day.

Four-time Watkins Glen winner Jeff Gordon brought out the next yellow when he suddenly lost control exiting the Esses on Lap 15 and tagged the outside wall.  He remained in 42nd for much of the race while repairs were made.

The next victim was defending LASTCAR Cup Champion Michael McDowell.  With Phil Parsons Racing skipping the race, McDowell took a turn in the #35 Dockside Logistics Ford for Front Row Motorsports.  He was 14th and 2nd in the two practice sessions and turned in a 12th-fastest driving qualifying time that was the fastest of a group that included Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch.  While running inside the Top 15 just before pit stops, McDowell broke a track bar, then cut down a tire, bringing out the next yellow on Lap 36.

McDowell and Gordon returned to the track around the time that a four-car accident in The Esses took out Kvapil along with “road ringers” Ron Fellows (#33), Victor Gonzalez, Jr. (#36), and Tomy Drissi (#87).  After the ensuing red flag, Kvapil, Gonzalez, and Drissi slipped down past Gordon and McDowell to join Reutimann at the bottom of the field.  Keselowski, who spun in Turn 5 during both practice and qualifying, spun out again in Turn 6 on race day, then pulled behind the wall with brake trouble after 47 laps.  His #52 rounded out the Bottom Five.    

Gordon finished 36th, his second-worst finish at this track (the worst being 37th in 2009).  McDowell came home 38th.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first last-place finish for the #83 BK Racing team since last June at Pocono when Landon Cassill’s #83 Burger King Real Fruit Smoothies Toyota was involved in a Lap 1 crash with Martin Truex, Jr. and A.J. Allmendinger during the Pocono 400 presented by #NASCAR.
*Neither Reutimann nor the #83 had ever before finished last in a Cup Series race at Watkins Glen.
*Toyota is now tied with Plymouth for the sixth-most last-place finishes in Cup Series history (107 each).

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #83-David Reutimann / 4 laps / engine
42) #87-Tomy Drissi / 39 laps / crash
41) #36-Victor Gonzalez, Jr. / 39 laps / crash
40) #93-Travis Kvapil / 41 laps / crash
39) #52-Brian Keselowski / 47 laps / brakes

LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Mike Bliss (5)
2nd) Michael McDowell, Scott Riggs (3)
3rd) Bobby Labonte (2)
4th) Trevor Bayne, Dave Blaney, Jeff Burton, Denny Hamlin, Jason Leffler, Paul Menard, Joe Nemechek, David Reutimann, Scott Speed (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #19-Humphrey-Smith Racing (6)
2nd) #44-Xxxtreme Motorsports, #98-Phil Parsons Racing (3)
3rd) #7-Tommy Baldwin Racing, #11-Joe Gibbs Racing, #21-Wood Brothers Racing, #27-Richard Childress Racing, #31-Richard Childress Racing, #47-JTG Daugherty Racing, #51-Phoenix Racing, #83-BK Racing, #87-NEMCO Motorsports, #95-Leavine Family Racing (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (10)
2nd) Ford (8)
3rd) Chevrolet (4)

N’WIDE: Mike Wallace Scores First Nationwide Last-Place Finish In Nearly Thirteen Years

SOURCE: ESPN

Mike Wallace picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s Zippo 200 at the Glen at Watkins Glen International when his unsponsored #01 teamjdmotorsports.com Chevrolet was involved in a two-car crash and failed to complete a lap of the 82-lap race.

The finish was Wallace’s first of 2013 and his first in a Nationwide race since the All Prop Bumper to Bumper 300 at Charlotte on October 7, 2000, 404 races ago.  That day, Wallace’s #77 Lear Corporation / UAW Ford was involved in a twelve-car crash and fell out after he completed two laps.  The race was won by Matt Kenseth.  Jeff Green, the current LASTCAR leader, finished 4th in that race.  It was the 21st of Green’s 25 top-five finishes en route to the 2000 NASCAR Nationwide Series title.

Wallace, the middle racing brother of Rusty and Kenny, was making his 470th Nationwide start on Saturday.  Since his series debut at Martinsville in 1990, he has competed in all three of NASCAR’s top divisions, scoring four wins in Nationwide and five in the Truck Series.  A steady competitor at the plate tracks, Wallace scored his most recent NASCAR victory at Talladega in the fall of 2011 when, at the age of 52, he led teammate Ron Hornaday, Jr. across the line in the Coca-Cola 250.  Wallace hasn’t competed in the Cup Series since 2009, when he ran a pair of races for Larry Gunselman.  That same year, he joined JD Motorsports, a smaller team owned by Johnny Davis.

Davis joined the Nationwide Series in 2002 with drivers Kertus Davis and Brad Teague.  The single-car team expanded to two cars the following year, but has still struggled to find consistency.  In 517 combined starts, Davis’ team has just seven Top Tens and one Top Five.  The top-five finish came with Wallace during the chaotic finish at Road America in 2011, where Wallace’s #01 Cowboys & Aliens Chevrolet finished fifth.

In 2013, Wallace has continued to run Davis’ flagship #01 alongside a team car, #4, which has been driven by relative newcomers Landon Cassill, Danny Efland, and Darryl Harr.  Coming into Watkins Glen, Wallace’s best finish of the year has been a 7th at Talladega.  That race saw the #4 team’s best run of the year, a 17th despite a hard final-lap crash in the tri-oval.

At Watkins Glen, Wallace qualified 23rd at an average speed of 119.104 mph.  He would start alongside teammate Landon Cassill in the #4.  Cassill went on to equal his season-best 17th during Saturday’s race at the Glen.

Missing the start of Saturday’s race was Bayonne, France native Anthony Gandon, who was making his series debut in the #23 Qolix Ford fielded by R3 Motorsports and Rick Ware Racing.  One of the few “road ringers” in the field, Gandon lost his primary car in a vicious practice crash and ended up driving a flat black-colored backup in the race.  Since both he and Morgan Shepherd did not complete a lap in qualifying, Gandon may have missed the start so the team could finish preparing the car, although as of this writing, I do not have any information to confirm this.

While Gandon’s team struggled, the green flag flew.  Suddenly, 2nd-place driver Kyle Busch lost control entering the first corner, sending his #54 Monster Energy Toyota into the inside wall.  The car didn’t suffer much damage until Wallace, who was attempting a three-wide pass in the corner, found himself unable to collide with Busch’s left-front.  Both cars suffered extensive sheetmetal and suspension damage.  While Busch was able to return to the track with Gandon, who finally made it on track around Lap 19, Wallace did not, and the #01 ended up in the 40th spot.

During the ensuing caution, The Motorsports Group teammates Josh Wise (#42) and T.J. Bell (46) both pulled behind the wall along with 2013 LASTCAR leader Jeff Green in th #10 TriStar Motorsports Toyota.  All three finished in positions 37th through 39th.  Rounding out the Bottom Five was Blake Koch in the #00 Compassion Racing Toyota, the team’s fifth consecutive Bottom Five.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first last-place finish for both Wallace and the #01 in a Nationwide Series race at Watkins Glen.
*This was the first time a Nationwide Series driver failed to complete a lap of a race at Watkins Glen since 2008, when Chris Cook’s turn in the #90 MSRP Motorsports Chevrolet ended due to suspension problems at the start of the Zippo 200 at the Glen.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #01-Mike Wallace / 0 laps / crash
39) #42-Josh Wise / 1 lap / brakes
38) #46-T.J. Bell / 2 laps / electrical
37) #10-Jeff Green / 4 laps / vibration
36) #00-Blake Koch / 7 laps / overheating

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green (10)
2nd) Joey Gase (2)
3rd) Tanner Berryhill, Blake Koch, Johanna Long, Eric McClure, Michael McDowell, Robert Richardson, Jr., Morgan Shepherd, Dexter Stacey, Mike Wallace (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #10-TriStar Motorsports (10)
2nd) #52-Jimmy Means Racing (2)
3rd) #14-TriStar Motorsports, #17-Vision Racing, #23-R3 Motorsports, #27-SR2 Motorsports, #70-ML Motorsports, #89-Shepherd Racing Ventures, #92-KH Motorsports, #00-SR2 Motorsports, #01-JD Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (16)
2nd) Chevrolet (3)
3rd) Dodge, Ford (1)

CUP: Hard Luck Hamlin Suffers First Last-Place Finish In Nearly Three Years

SOURCE: zimbio.com

Denny Hamlin picked up the 5th last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s GoBowling.com 400 at the Pocono Raceway when his #11 FedEx Office Toyota was involved in a single-car crash after he completed 14 of the race’s 160 laps.

The finish was Hamlin’s first of 2013 and his first in a Cup race since 2010, when he won the pole for the Emory Healthcare 500 at Atlanta, but lost the engine after he competed 143 laps.  The 74 laps Hamlin led in that race were the second-most by any NASCAR Cup Series last-place finisher, trailing only the 95 led by Greg Biffle in the 2008 Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington.

Since his first full Cup Series season in 2006, Hamlin has never once missed the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship, and he has twice finished Top Three in the points.  However, in 2013, he has endured what easily been the worst season of his career.  He began the year with a 14th-place finish in the Daytona 500 followed by a hard-fought 3rd-place run at Phoenix.  A scuffle with Joey Logano at Bristol left him 23rd, but he looked poised for victory the next week at Fontana.  Unfortunately, he again tangled with Logano while battling for the lead on the final lap, resulting in a back injury that sidelined Hamlin for the next four races.

Hamlin started to climb back into contention with an inspiring runner-up finish at Darlington, followed by a 4th-place run in the equally-grueling Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, but in the nine races since, he has finished inside the Top Ten just once - an 8th at Pocono.  Mired well outside the Top Twenty in points heading back to the Tricky Triangle, Hamlin hoped for a good result at the track he swept as a rookie in 2006 and won two more times since.

Unfortunately, it was not meant to be.

Hamlin qualified 9th for Sunday’s race at an average speed 179.144 mph.  This allowed him to miss the chaos of a grinding first-lap crash in Turn 1 when Juan Pablo Montoya slid into Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., sending both cars into the outside wall.  Matt Kenseth received some damage to his fender in the melee, as did Joe Nemechek, who ran through the grass to avoid the wreck.  Stenhouse suffered the most severe damage, and for several laps, he remained in the 43rd spot.

Then, on Lap 14, Hamlin’s ill-handling car suddenly broke loose entering Turn 3, sending his #11 hard into the outside wall.  The car suffered significant damage to the right-front, nearly pulling the wheel underneath the car as it spun around.  Although Hamlin was not injured in the wreck, the car turned out to be so badly damaged that it never returned to the track.  Stenhouse returned to the track on Lap 48, then passed Hamlin for last on Lap 62.

Finishing 42nd on Sunday was Alex Kennedy, who was making his first Cup start since Sonoma in the #19 Plinker Tactical Toyota fielded by Humphrey-Smith Racing.  Kennedy complained of a severe vibration in the rear of the car that required several trips to the garage area before he finally pulled behind the wall.  Radio communications indicated Kennedy would again be in the car next week at Watkins Glen.

Josh Wise lost two laps early in the race, then ultimately fell out of the race along with Michael McDowell.  Both didn’t fall into the Bottom Five until Lap 81, when the damaged Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Joe Nemechek finally passed them both.  David Gilliland, one of at least four drivers to suffer a tire failure on Sunday, rounded out the Bottom Five after his hard crash on Lap 54.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was Hamlin’s first-ever last-place finish in a Cup race at Pocono.  Its just the fourth time he’s finished outside the Top 20 in sixteen career starts at the track.
*Hamlin’s 9th-place start is the best starting spot by a Pocono last-place finisher in the Cup Series since July 29, 2001 when polesitter Todd Bodine led two laps of the Pennsylvania 500, then fell out with handling woes on his #66 K-Mart Blue Light Special Ford after 128 laps.
*This was the first time the #11 has finished last in a Cup race at Pocono since June 8, 1986, when Darrell Waltrip also started 9th in the Miller High Life 500, only to lose the engine on his #11 Budweiser Chevrolet after seven laps.  It was one of two last-place finishes Waltrip scored in his final season driving for Junior Johnson, the other coming at Richmond that September.  The Pocono race was won by the late Tim Richmond, the first of seven wins he scored that year on the way to a career-best 3rd-place finish in points.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #11-Denny Hamlin / 14 laps / crash
42) #19-Alex Kennedy / 22 laps / vibration
41) #35-Josh Wise / 44 laps / brakes
40) #98-Michael McDowell / 44 laps / brakes
39) #38-David Gilliland / 51 laps / crash

LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Mike Bliss (5)
2nd) Michael McDowell, Scott Riggs (3)
3rd) Bobby Labonte (2)
4th) Trevor Bayne, Dave Blaney, Jeff Burton, Denny Hamlin, Jason Leffler, Paul Menard, Joe Nemechek, Scott Speed (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #19-Humphrey-Smith Racing (6)
2nd) #44-Xxxtreme Motorsports, #98-Phil Parsons Racing (3)
3rd) #7-Tommy Baldwin Racing, #11-Joe Gibbs Racing, #21-Wood Brothers Racing, #27-Richard Childress Racing, #31-Richard Childress Racing, #47-JTG Daugherty Racing, #51-Phoenix Racing, #87-NEMCO Motorsports, #95-Leavine Family Racing (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (9)
2nd) Ford (8)
3rd) Chevrolet (4)

N’WIDE: Jeff Green Now Has Twice As Many Last-Place Finishes As Any Other Nationwide Series Driver

SOURCE: NASCAR Media

Jeff Green picked up the 48th last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s U.S. Cellular 250 at the Iowa Speedway when his unsponsored #10 TriStar Motorsports Toyota fell out with a vibration after he completed 3 of the race’s 250 laps.

The finish was Green’s tenth of 2013 and his second in a row.  He now has twice as many last-place finishes in the series as second-ranked Jeff Fuller’s 24.  It’s his 52nd across all three of NASCAR’s top divisions, fifteen more than second-ranked Joe Nemechek’s 37.  With thirteen races to go in 2013, Green needs just three more last-place finishes to break the single-season record he set last year.

Green qualified 29th for Saturday’s race at an average speed of 129.587 mph, ranking him third among the field’s ten “go-or-go-homers” behind 12th-place Kenny Wallace and 27th-place Joey Gase, who now trails Green by eight last-place finishes in the 2013 LASTCAR Nationwide Series standings.

Green was the first car behind the wall, followed one lap later by Jason Bowles in The Motorsports Group’s #46.  Blake Koch returned to SR2 Motorsports’ #00 for the first time since Loudon and came home 38th, giving the team its fifth bottom-five finish in the last seven races.  T.J. Bell finished 37th in The Motorsports Group’s other “start-and-park” entry, #42, followed by Carl Long in the Rick Ware-prepared #15.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was Green’s fifth last-place finish in a Nationwide Series race at Iowa and his fourth in a row in the August event, all four coming with different “start-and-park” teams for TriStar Motorsports.  However, it is the first time he’s swept both Iowa last-place finishes in the same season.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #10-Jeff Green / 3 laps / vibration
39) #46-Jason Bowles / 4 laps / vibration
38) #00-Blake Koch / 5 laps / brakes
37) #42-T.J. Bell / 6 laps / vibration
36) #15-Carl Long / 13 laps / handling

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green (10)
2nd) Joey Gase (2)
3rd) Tanner Berryhill, Blake Koch, Johanna Long, Eric McClure, Michael McDowell, Robert Richardson, Jr., Morgan Shepherd, Dexter Stacey (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #10-TriStar Motorsports (10)
2nd) #52-Jimmy Means Racing (2)
3rd) #14-TriStar Motorsports, #17-Vision Racing, #23-R3 Motorsports, #27-SR2 Motorsports, #70-ML Motorsports, #89-Shepherd Racing Ventures, #92-KH Motorsports, #00-SR2 Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (16)
2nd) Chevrolet (2)
3rd) Dodge, Ford (1)

TRUCKS: Ricky Ehrgott Becomes Second Straight Truck Driver To Finish Last In Series Debut

SOURCE: SPEED Channel

Ricky Ehrgott picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career in Saturday’s Pocono Mountains 125 at the Pocono Raceway when his #81 Platinum Wealth Partners / Rev1 Power Services Toyota was involved in a single-truck crash after he completed 2 of the race’s 54 laps.

The finish came in Ehrgott’s series debut, the third time a Truck Series first-timer has finished last this season (joining Scott Saunders at Kansas and Jeff Babcock last week at Eldora).  It’s the first time that two consecutive Truck Series races had last-place finishers who were making their series debuts since June of 2001, when the same thing happened to two owner-drivers: Gene Christensen’s #07 Racing For Kids Chevrolet had a vibration at Texas followed by an opening-lap fuel pump issue for Bobby Coffey’s #74 Bo-Co Performance Chevrolet at Memphis.

The 25-year-old Ehrgott made his Truck Series debut for longtime stock car racer and team owner Bobby Dotter.  Since Dotter’s team debuted in the series in 2004, they’ve scored four Top Fives and 18 Top Tens in 212 starts.  The team’s best finish was a pair of 3rd-place runs with David Starr at Indianapolis Raceway Park in 2011 and with Ross Chastain at Bristol last August.

Starr remained with the team for the first part of this season, scoring their best runs of the year at Martinsville and Kansas, where the #81 came home 13th both times.  In the four races since Kentucky, however, four different drivers have climbed behind the wheel, including Cup veteran Kenny Wallace, who gave the team its best qualifying run in seven years - a 4th at Eldora.  Ehrgott was tabbed to run the truck in the next race at Pocono.

Qualifying at Pocono was rained out, so Ehrgott secured the 26th starting spot based on practice speeds.  With thirty-six trucks appearing for as many spots, including two added to the short field at the last minute, no one failed to qualify.

Running near the back of the field at the start, his #81 suddenly washed up the track entering Turn 1, then lost control, switching ends before it smacked the outside wall with the driver’s side.  Ehrgott was uninjured in the crash, and though he was able to get the truck rolling again, his day was done.

Finishing next-to-last on Saturday was Tony Raines, who was making his first Truck Series start since 2004 when he drove Gene Christensen’s #08 1-800-4-A-Phone Chevrolet to a 17th-place finish.  Raines climbed aboard the frequently-featured #38 RSS Racing Chevrolet and pulled out after three laps.  Rounding out the Bottom Five were Chris Lafferty in Jennifer Jo Cobb’s second truck, #0, J.J. Yeley in the SS Green Light Racing #07, and Jo Cobb herself in the #10.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first last-place finish for the #81 in a Truck Series race since June 29, 2002, when Owen Sound, Ontario driver Jason Thom’s #81 Ware Racing Enterprises Dodge suffered a vibration after three laps of the GNC Live Well 200 at Milwaukee.  It was Thom’s sixth and final series start.
*This was the first last-place finish for Toyota in a Truck Series race since last summer at Chicagoland, twenty-four races ago.  That day, Johnny Chapman suffered a vibration on his #07 Wear Your Gear / bobber.info Toyota and fell out two laps into the American Ethanol 225.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
36) #81-Ricky Ehrgott / 2 laps / crash
35) #38-Tony Raines / 3 laps / engine
34) #0-Chris Lafferty / 4 laps / electrical
33) #07-J.J. Yeley / 9 laps / vibration
32) #10-Jennifer Jo Cobb / 13 laps / engine

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

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #0-Jennifer Jo Cobb (3)
2nd) #38-RSS Racing, #84-Chris Fontaine (2)
3rd) #10-Jennifer Jo Cobb, #81-Bobby Dotter, #92-Ricky Benton, #93-RSS Racing (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (5)
2nd) Ford (3)
3rd) RAM (2)
4th) Toyota (1)