TRUCKS: Jason White Scores First Last-Place Finish In More Than Three Years

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin' Forums

Jason White picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Camping World Series career in Friday’s NextEra Energy Resources 250 at the Daytona International Speedway when his #93 Drinkagame.com Chevrolet lost the engine after 45 of the race’s 100 laps.

The finish was White’s first Truck Series last-place finish since Bristol in the summer of 2010, eighty races ago.

Rain canceled qualifying, so White started 31st in the 36-truck field.  He turned in the 33rd-fastest speed in the first practice, 24th in the second, and 25th in the third.  White had driven RSS Racing’s #93 in the 2013 running of the Daytona event, but came home 30th following a multi-truck crash.

In the race, French rookie Michel Disdier trailed the field early following an unscheduled stop due to a passenger side window that came loose on his Bobby Dotter-owned #07.  He was still running laps down to the field when White slowed in the middle of turn three.  White made it to pit road without bringing out a caution, but after the crew looked under the hood, his day was done.

The rest of the Bottom Five included four of the sixteen trucks involved in a grinding accident on Lap 75: Chris Cockrum in Mike Harmon’s #74, Tyler Young in the #02, Brian Ickler in his first Truck Series start since 2011, and Joey Coulter for Gallagher Motorsports, a new team making the move from the ARCA series.

White’s teammate Ryan Sieg finished 11th after starting 12th in the #39.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first last-place finish for both White and the #93 in a Truck Series race at Daytona.
*The 45 laps completed by White are the most ever completed by a Truck Series last-place finisher at Daytona, beating Boston Reid’s old record of 41 in 2006.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
36) #93-Jason White / 45 laps / engine
35) #74-Chris Cockrum / 73 laps / crash
34) #02-Tyler Young / 73 laps / crash
33) #7-Brian Ickler / 73 laps / crash
32) #21-Joey Coulter / 73 laps / crash

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jason White (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #93-RSS Racing (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (1)

CUP: Blaney’s Rough Week Ends With Withdrawal From First Budweiser Duel

SOURCE: motorsport.com

Dave Blaney finished last in Thursday’s First Budweiser Duel at the Daytona International Speedway when his #77 Plinker Arms Ford was withdrawn from the event on Wednesday.

It was Blaney’s second last-place finish in the event, his first since 2002, when his #77 Jasper Engines & Transmissions Ford crashed after 9 laps of Race 2.  That was also the most recent time the number finished last in this event.

While the #77 car Blaney drove in 2002 was owned by Doug Bawel, the one he entered last week was owned by Randy Humphrey.  Humphrey has co-owned Cup Series teams since 2009, beginning with Phil Parsons’ PRISM Motorsports and continuing through Humphrey-Smith Racing in 2012.  This year, Humphrey came to Daytona as the sole owner of his own team, using Fords purchased from Germain Racing.

Humphrey’s team had just one superspeedway car for SpeedWeeks, likely because Germain’s other machine was destroyed in a wreck on the final lap of last fall’s Talladega race.  This would prove decisive on Blaney’s fortunes for the week.

On Saturday, Blaney timed in 41st and 35th in the opening two practices.  In Sunday’s qualifying session, Blaney trailed all 49 cars when he aborted his run before the green flag.  This meant he would have to not only race his way into the Daytona 500 in Thursday’s Budweiser Duel, but do so from the 25th and final starting spot in Race 1.  This put a premium on race setup for the two practice sessions on Wednesday.

Unfortunately, just a few minutes into the early afternoon practice, Blaney was trapped in the outside lane when Matt Kenseth and Joey Logano tangled in the tri-oval.  Blaney collided with the spinning cars of Ryan Truex and Parker Kligerman, completely destroying the nose of his Ford.

No drivers were injured in the accident, but Blaney was the only victim without a backup car.  He withdrew late Wednesday night, leaving him out of the field for the Budweiser Duel and the Daytona 500.  Blaney had not missed a 500 since 2010.

In the Duel itself, Michael McDowell lost touch with the lead draft early and appeared headed for a costly finish at the back of the field.  Midway through the race, Reed Sorenson had an unscheduled stop for what was originally reported to be a stuck brake pad.  The final results, however, indicate that a wheel bearing came loose.  Regardless, Sorenson was the only retiree from an otherwise uneventful race.

But stealing the next-to-last spot in the field was none other than runner-up Kevin Harvick, whose three-wide battle with winner Matt Kenseth and 3rd-place finisher Kasey Kahne was followed by news Harvick’s car failed post-race inspection for a track bar violation.  This dropped Harvick to the 24th position, moving Sorenson and the others up a spot, but leaving Blaney in the back.

Joe Nemechek and McDowell rounded out the Bottom Five.  Both joined Blaney among the five drivers who failed to qualify for the 500.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Blaney is just the tenth driver to finish last in the Budweiser Duels more than once.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
25) #77-Dave Blaney / 0 laps / did not start
24) #4-Kevin Harvick / 60 laps / disqualified
23) #36-Reed Sorenson / 20 laps / wheel bearing
22) #87-Joe Nemechek / 59 laps / running
21) #95-Michael McDowell / 59 laps / running

CUP: Pit Road and Tire Troubles Keep Keselowski Down In Second Budweiser Duel

SOURCE: motorsport.com

Brad Keselowski finished last in Thursday’s Second Budweiser Duel at the Daytona International Speedway.  Keselowski’s #2 Miller Lite Ford finished under power, three laps down.

It was Keselowski’s first-ever last-place finish in this event.  The #2 had not finished last in the Budweiser Duel since 2003, when Rusty Wallace’s Miller Lite Dodge was disqualified from Race 2 for a carburetor violation, invalidating a 4th-place finish.

Wallace was a part of Keselowski’s start to 2014.  In the wake of Keselowski’s unsuccessful title defense, Wallace helped test the #2 in January in an effort dubbed “One Last Round.”  The effort seemed to help, as both drivers were among the fastest of the session.

Keselowski then stormed into Daytona with a runner-up finish in the Sprint Unlimited, followed by the 11th and 21st-fastest speeds in practice.  He then timed in 6th-fastest in qualifying, locking him into the 500 field on speed.  He did not participate in Wednesday’s abbreviated third practice and was only 33rd in the fourth, so it was anyone’s guess how Keselowski would perform from the 3rd spot in the Second Budweiser Duel.

As it turned out, Keselowski had one of the fastest cars on the track.  He led 34 of the race’s first 35 laps, only to fall back in the pack with a two-tire stop.  Moments later, Keselowski was tagged for speeding off pit road.  Having lost a lap, he fell even further back when he cut down a tire on the backstretch, dropping him a total of three laps behind the leaders.

Though Keselowski finished last in the race, he did however avoid the last-lap crash, preserving his Ford for Sunday, when he’ll start 33rd.

Rounding out the Bottom Five were Eric McClure, whose damaged fender slowed his 6th-fastest car in Wednesday’s practice, keeping him out of the 500 field along with 72-year-old Morgan Shepherd, who came home 22nd.  Rookies Michael Annett for Tommy Baldwin Racing and HScott Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier rounded out the Bottom Five, but both will start the race in 36th and 40th, respectively.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Keselowski’s 34 laps led are second only to Trevor Bayne’s 37 in 2013 for the most laps led by a last-place finisher of the Budweiser Duel.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
24) #2-Brad Keselowski / 57 laps / running / led 34 laps
23) #35-Eric McClure / 57 laps / running
22) #93-Morgan Shepherd / 59 laps / running
21) #7-Michael Annett / 59 laps / running
20) #51-Justin Allgaier / 59 laps / running

PREVIEW: Contenders for the 2014 LASTCAR Cup Series Championship Set To Do Battle In Budweiser Duel Race 1

CREDIT: motorsport.com

This year, Race 1 of Thursday’s Budweiser Duel will feature not only a race to make the Daytona 500, but also a unique battle between four likely competitors for the 2014 LASTCAR Cup Series Championship.  With 49 cars competing for 43 spots, which of these four drivers makes the field and which do not could have a significant effect on this year’s LASTCAR championship battle.

Last year, Randy Humphrey was the co-owner of Humphrey-Smith Motorsports, which campaigned #19 Toyotas from Mark Smith’s TriStar Motorsports shop.  The #19 appeared headed for the 2013 LASTCAR title with drivers Mike Bliss and the late Jason Leffler racking up a combined six last-place finishes in the first nineteen races.  However, the team ceased operations just before the Chase, and they lost the LASTCAR title as a result.

This year, Humphrey returns as the sole owner of his own team.  The #77 Fords Humphrey purchased from Germain Racing after Germain’s switch to Chevrolet will be driven by 2009 LASTCAR Cup Champion Dave Blaney.  Blaney, ousted from his ride at Tommy Baldwin Racing to make way for rookie Michael Annett, carries sponsorship from Plinker Tactical, whose decals have been on Humphrey’s rides during their past “start-and-park” efforts.  Blaney has been off to a difficult start this season as he aborted his qualifying run on Sunday before he could take the green flag.  If Blaney is going to make his fourth consecutive start in the 500, he’ll have to find some speed on Thursday during Budweiser Duel Race 1, where he’ll start in the 25th and final spot.

Joining Blaney in Race 1 in the 21st spot is Michael McDowell, who this year goes for an unprecedented fourth consecutive LASTCAR Cup Series Championship.  McDowell’s three previous championships came while driving for Phil Parsons, including his 2011 run in the #66 HP Racing Toyota co-owned by Randy Humphrey.  In 2012 and 2013, McDowell and team showed marked improvement, thanks in part to Mike Curb taking over Humphrey’s interest in the renumbered #98 team.  This culminated in McDowell’s 9th-place finish in last year’s Daytona 500, followed by a 15th last fall at Talladega.

This year, McDowell and Parsons have parted ways.  The Phoenix driver now comes to Daytona in the #95 Leavine Family Racing Ford, a ride vacated by Reed Sorenson, who now drives the #36 Chevrolet for Tommy Baldwin.  This Sunday, McDowell carries sponsorship from longtime backer K-LOVE, a Christian radio station which followed McDowell from the Parsons team.  K-LOVE will also sponsor McDowell at Sonoma and a third race, possibly Talladega.  Associate sponsorship has also flocked to the Leavine team through both Black Dragon Tools and Wiley-X sunglasses.  Although the team only plans on running 20 races this year, this upward trend in sponsorship could mean we’ll see McDowell parking in fewer races, and finishing last fewer times.  If this is the case, the 2014 LASTCAR title could be anyone’s to win.

One of the favorites for the 2014 LASTCAR championship has to be Josh Wise, who takes over McDowell’s ride in the #98 Phil Parsons Racing entry.  As a rookie in 2012, Wise cruised to an early lead in the LASTCAR standings, scoring three of the season’s first twelve last-place runs, including a weekend sweep at Bristol, while driving Front Row Motorsports’ #26 Ford.  However, like the #19 team last year, Wise lost ground to McDowell and Humphrey-Smith’s driver Reed Sorenson in the final stages of the season, setting up McDowell’s bottom-ten tiebreaker at Homestead after Sorenson’s DNQ.  This year, the union of Wise and the still-unsponsored #98 Ford could mean a fourth consecutive title for Parsons, not McDowell.  On Thursday, Wise will start between McDowell and Blaney - 22nd - in Budweiser Duel Race 1.

But when talking about finishing last at Daytona, one cannot overlook two-time LASTCAR champion Joe Nemechek, who will also compete in Race 1 in the 23rd spot.  Nemechek, who leads all drivers with three last-place finishes in the Daytona 500 (1995, 2010, 2013), enters the 2014 season with yet another adjustment to his self-owned team.  Following his merger with Jay Robinson Racing in 2013, Nemechek will now aid Michael Waltrip Racing in keeping the #66 team up in the owner points for co-drivers Michael Waltrip and Jeff Burton.

While Nemechek will run the #66 in the majority of his races this season, starting next week at Phoenix, he will again field his familiar #87 this weekend.  Perhaps due to his association with Hollywood businessman and part-time racer Tomy Drissi, Nemechek also carries sponsorship from the upcoming film “300: Rise of an Empire.”  Last year, Drissi drove Nemechek’s cars at Sonoma and Watkins Glen with similar schemes for “The Wolverine” and “The Counselor,” respectively.  Whether this funding will be enough to get Nemechek into his fourth consecutive 500 - and if he can prevent another early exit - is anybody’s guess as he, Blaney, McDowell, and Wise will all be fighting to get into the field in Thursday’s first Budweiser Duel.

CUP: Terry Labonte Extends All-Time Lead In Sprint Unlimited Last-Place Finishes

SOURCE: NASCAR Media

Terry Labonte finished last in Saturday’s running of the Sprint Unlimited at the Daytona International Speedway when he parked his #32 C&J Energy Services Ford after he completed 1 of the race’s 75 laps.

The finish was Labonte’s fourth in the event, leading all drivers in that statistic.  In doing so, Labonte finished last in the Unlimited in consecutive years, following his Lap 2 exit in the #32 last year.  Labonte is the only driver to have accomplished this, and in fact he's done it twice: he also trailed the Unlimited in 2005 and 2006.  No other driver has finished last in consecutive runnings of this event.

This season, Labonte has rejoined the #32 team with which he’s competed on a limited basis since 2011, but now with new partial ownership.  Last December, it was announced that team owner Frankie Stoddard would enter into a joint venture, combining the efforts of Stoddard’s FAS Lane Racing team with Go Green Racing, owned by Archie St. Hilaire. Both would continue to campaign the #32 for the full season, using Stoddard’s shop and new crew chief hire Dan Stillman.  The combined team is now known as Go FAS Racing.

FOX Sports 1 reported Saturday that the Go FAS Racing #32 is expected to be shared beween Labonte, Timmy Hill, and Jeffery Earnhardt.  Ken Schrader, who also shared the ride through 2013, retired from Cup competition after last November’s Homestead finale, where he finished 34th in his 763rd career start.

On Friday, during practice for the Unlimited, Labonte was just 17th fastest of the 18 drivers in the first session, then slipped to the slowest of the 15 who ran in Happy Hour with a lap nearly two seconds off the pace.  On Saturday, his Daytona 500 car turned in the 42nd-fastest time of 49 cars during the first session, then improved to 39th in the second session.

For the first time in the history of the Unlimited, the starting lineup to Saturday’s race was determined by a fan vote.  41% of fans selected final practice speeds over two other options: career poles and the 2013 standings.  Thus, Labonte’s 15th-fastest time on Friday put him 15th on the grid.

After just one lap, however, Labonte pulled behind the wall, ending his night.  Rounding out the Bottom Five were Jimmie Johnson, involved in a single-car crash on Lap 28, plus Danica Patrick, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., and Kurt Busch, three of the seven cars eliminated in grinding crash in the tri-oval on Lap 36.  In all, just eight of the eighteen starters finished the race.

This week, Labonte will attempt to make the field for the Daytona 500, a win that has eluded him in 31 previous attempts.  Labonte has twice finished 2nd in the event in 1990 and 1997.  He also  has dark horse potential for next week’s 500: in his three previous runs driving the #32 in the event, he has finished no worse than 20th with a best finish of 15th in 2011.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Labonte is the first last-place finisher of the Unlimited to have the listed reason out as “parked.”  In Labonte’s three other last-place finishes, however, he has either withdrawn before the start of the race or pulled behind the wall in the early stages.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
18) #32-Terry Labonte / 1 lap / parked
17) #48-Jimmie Johnson / 28 laps / crash
16) #10-Danica Patrick / 35 laps / crash
15) #17-Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. / 35 laps / crash
14) #41-Kurt Busch / 35 laps / crash