N’WIDE: Koch Continues TriStar’s 2014 LASTCAR Dominance

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin' Forums

Blake Koch picked up the 6th last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s Drive to Stop Diabetes 300 at the Bristol Motor Speedway when his #10 SupportMilitary.org Toyota fell out with a vibration after he completed 5 of the race’s 300 laps.

The finish was Koch’s second of the season, his first since Phoenix, two races ago.  It is the ninth consecutive last-place finish for TriStar Motorsports and the third in a row for the TriStar’s #10 team, which scored the last two LASTCAR Nationwide Series titles with teammate Jeff Green.

One week after Green’s last-place run at Las Vegas, Koch took over driving duties in the #10 at Bristol.  Koch timed in 34th in the opening practice, then 39th in the second.  He improved to put up the 24th-fastest time in qualifying with a lap of 121.898 mph, ranking him third of the twelve “go-or-go-homers” behind Cale Conley and Matt DiBenedetto.  Koch’s speed was more than enough to knock Martins Motorsports teammates Tommy Joe Martins and Willie Allen out of the field.

At the start of Saturday’s race, DiBenedetto, who timed in 16th, fell to the rear of the field, preparing for an early exit in The Motorsports Group’s #46 Chevrolet.  However, Koch still beat DiBenedetto to the garage area by a single lap, preventing TMG from scoring its first last-place finish since Richmond last September.

Rounding out the Bottom Five were Carl Long, giving the #93 JGL Racing team its second bottom-five finish in three races, Matt Carter in the first start of the season for Derek White’s  #13 Head Rush Clothing Toyota, and Tanner Berryhill in his family-owned #17 bwp Bats Dodge.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Despite TriStar’s streak, this is actually the team’s first last-place finish at Bristol since August 26, 2011, the night Jeff Green became the first NASCAR driver to score four consecutive last-place finishes in the same division.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #10-Blake Koch / 5 laps / vibration
39) #46-Matt DiBenedetto / 6 laps / electrical
38) #93-Carl Long / 11 laps / electrical
37) #13-Matt Carter / 18 laps / brakes
36) #17-Tanner Berryhill / 144 laps / engine

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green, Blake Koch (2)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #10-TriStar Motorsports (3)
2nd) #91-TriStar Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (4)

CUP: Michael McDowell The Only Retiree From Las Vegas Endurance Race

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin' Forums

Michael McDowell picked up the 28th last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 400 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway when his #95 WRL General Contractors Ford lost an engine after he completed 141 of the race’s 267 laps.

The finish was McDowell’s first of the 2014 season and his first in a Cup race since last November’s finale at Homestead, four races ago.  He is now just four finishes away from tying J.D. McDuffie and Joe Nemechek for the record for the most last-place finishes in Cup Series history.

The Homestead race marked McDowell’s final start for Phil Parsons Racing, a team McDowell helped grow since he made his first Daytona 500 for Parsons in 2010.  The seventh-year driver scored his career-best 9th-place finish with Parsons in the 2013 running of the 500, and looked to build on that success with the Leavine Family Racing team, a single-car operation that had been running a partial schedule since 2011.

McDowell brought sponsor K-LOVE onto the hood of Leavine’s #95, but driver and team faced a setback when they failed to race their way into the 500 field.  The team rebounded by making the show at McDowell’s home track in Phoenix, securing the 26th starting spot, well ahead of the three drivers who missed the show.  He finished 33rd in the race, five laps down but under power, and set his sights on the next race in Las Vegas.

Thursday at the Vegas track, McDowell turned in the 12th-fastest speed in a pre-race testing session, then timed in just 36th in Friday’s opening practice - a rank that would barely earn him a spot in Sunday’s field.  With 48 cars going for 43 spots, McDowell had five other drivers to worry about.  Fortunately, a lap of 188.271 mph was good enough for the 35th starting spot, just inside the all-important Top 36, and well ahead of Blake Koch, Landon Cassill, Dave Blaney, Joe Nemechek, and J.J. Yeley.  The five drivers were the slowest in the first round, and all of them missed the show.

McDowell timed in 30th and 34th in Saturday’s two practice sessions, and looked set to go on Sunday.

In the early stages of the race, McDowell earned some screen time when he pitted in front of Kyle Busch, who had unsuccessfully attempted to score a quick two-tire stop.

McDowell remained toward the tail end of the pack when, on Lap 18, Josh Wise dropped oil on the backstretch, bringing out the first yellow of the day.  Wise, McDowell’s replacement at the Parsons team, was carrying the same Ambient Edge HVAC sponsorship McDowell carried to a last-place finish the year before.  It appeared that Wise would score Parsons’ second-straight last-place finish in the event, but he then returned to the track around Lap 70, fifty laps in arrears.

By the time Wise returned to the race, Parker Kligerman, struggling with a backup car, had slipped to 42nd, around twenty laps behind the leaders.  McDowell was also losing time, and a trip behind the wall sent him to the Bottom Five as well.  Kligerman continued on in the race, joining Wise on the track, while McDowell’s day appeared done.  On Lap 165, McDowell slipped past Kligerman for 42nd, then on Lap 197 passed Wise for 43rd.

Kevin Harvick, running 2nd at the time, suffered a broken hub in the closing stages of the race.  Quick work by the Stewart-Haas Racing crew got him back on the track, albeit thirty laps down in 41st.  With McDowell as the only retiree from the race and Wise just able to keep pace, Harvick narrowly averted his first Cup Series last-place finish in 469 career starts.

Rounding out the Bottom Five was Travis Kvapil for Go FAS Racing.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*McDowell is the first-ever repeat last-place finisher of the Cup Series race at Las Vegas.  Last year, he trailed the field when his #98 Ambient Edge HVAC Ford had a vibration after 21 laps.
*This was the first last-place finish for the #95 Leavine Family Racing Team since last September at New Hampshire, twelve races ago, when Scott Riggs lost the brakes on his SK Hand Tools Ford after 92 laps.  Both number and team had never before finished last in a Cup race at Las Vegas.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #95-Michael McDowell / 141 laps / engine
42) #98-Josh Wise / 212 laps / running
41) #4-Kevin Harvick / 237 laps / running / led 23 laps
40) #30-Parker Kligerman / 240 laps / running
39) #32-Travis Kvapil / 253 laps / running

LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Michael McDowell, Morgan Shepherd, Martin Truex, Jr. (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #78-Furniture Row Racing, #87-NEMCO-JRR Motorsports, #95-Leavine Family Racing (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet, Ford, Toyota (1)

N’WIDE: Jeff Green Scores 60th NASCAR Last-Place Finish

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin' Forums

Jeff Green picked up the 55th last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s Boyd Gaming 300 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway when his #10 SupportMilitary.org Toyota fell out with a vibration after he completed 3 of the race’s 200 laps.

The finish was Green’s second of 2014 and his first since the season opener at Daytona, two races ago.  TriStar Motorsports extends its last-place streak to eight consecutive races, including all three run so far this year.  It is also Green’s 60th last-place finish across all three of NASCAR’s top divisions, a mark reached in just 653 combined starts over 25 years.  Curiously, 653 is the number of Cup starts the late J.D. McDuffie made over 28 years when he set his record of 32 Cup Series last-place finishes.

After a one-week hiatus where teammate Blake Koch put the #10 in the 39th and final spot at Phoenix, Green returned at Las Vegas, where he was guaranteed a starting spot as one of 40 cars on the entry list.  Green timed in 26th in the opening practice, 28th in the second, and in qualifying timed in 32nd at an average speed of 173.371 mph.

Green was the third-slowest of the eleven “go-or-go-homers” in the field.  Ranked behind him were Tommy Joe Martins and Matt DiBenedetto, who joined Green in the Bottom Five, five laps ahead of him, when all three pulled behind the wall in the early laps.  Josh Wise, DiBenedetto’s teammate at The Motorsports Group, fell out after 82 laps, followed after the halfway point by Joey Gase in Jimmy Means’ #52.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first-ever last-place finish for both Green and the #10 in a Nationwide race at Las Vegas.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #10-Jeff Green / 3 laps / vibration
39) #76-Tommy Joe Martins / 8 laps / rear gear
38) #46-Matt DiBenedetto / 8 laps / electrical
37) #40-Josh Wise / 82 laps / suspension
36) #52-Joey Gase / 133 laps / engine

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green (2)
2nd) Blake Koch (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #10-TriStar Motorsports (2)
2nd) #91-TriStar Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (3)

CUP: Morgan Shepherd Becomes Cup Series' Oldest Last-Place Finisher

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin' Forums

Morgan Shepherd picked up the 18th last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s The Profit on CNBC 500 at the Phoenix International Raceway when his #87 SmartBen / Morris Hardwick Schneider Toyota fell out with brake problems after he completed 28 of the race’s 312 laps.

The finish was Shepherd’s first since September 9, 2006, 265 races ago, when his #89 Victory In Jesus Dodge had brake problems after 18 laps of the Chevy Rock ‘n Roll 400 at Richmond.  The finish gives Shepherd sole possession of the sixth spot in the all-time LASTCAR Cup Series rankings and ties him with Derrike Cope for third-most in LASTCAR history - 36 apiece.  Only Joe Nemechek and Jeff Green have more.

At the age of 72 years, 4 months, 18 days, Shepherd is now the oldest last-place finisher in the history of the NASCAR Cup Series.  He beats the previous record of 65 years, 5 months, and 2 days set by Hershel McGriff at Sonoma on May 16, 1993.  However, Shepherd is not the oldest last-place finisher in NASCAR history - that record is still held by James Harvey Hylton, who on May 6, 2011 finished last in a Nationwide race at Darlington at the age of 76 years, 8 months, and 10 days.  These statistics may also be incomplete as the birth dates of all NASCAR last-place finishers have not been recorded.

Shepherd is the 1983 LASTCAR Cup Series Champion and the 2007 LASTCAR Nationwide Series Champion, the only active Cup driver with titles in those two divisions.

Shepherd’s ride at Phoenix was Nemechek’s familiar #87.  In the offseason, Nemechek agreed to assist Michael Waltrip Racing at keeping the #66 higher up in Owner Points.  Waltrip and Jeff Burton would drive the #66 in only a handful of races, so Nemechek would enter his own ride for most of the season, similar to the arrangement between Tommy Baldwin Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing in 2012 that kept Danica Patrick’s #10 in the points.

Shepherd and Nemechek were among the five drivers who failed to make last week’s Daytona 500 as both finished a lap down in each Budweiser Duel.  Shepherd was attempting to make his first Daytona 500 since 1997 and, in so doing, beat Dave Marcis’ 2002 record as the race’s oldest starter by eleven years.  Shepherd already claimed the record for the oldest driver to start a Cup race last July at New Hampshire, where he finished 41st in Bob Keselowski’s #52.

In practice at Phoenix, Shepherd was slowest in the first session.  Nemechek took the wheel of the #87 in the second session, but trailed that session as well.

Despite their struggles in practice, both Shepherd and Nemechek made the field for the race based on Owner Points.  Shepherd qualified 42nd for his 516th start at an average speed of 128.995 mph, slowest overall other than Justin Allgaier, whose qualifying wreck prevented him from putting up a timed lap.  Nemechek timed in 38th, putting both NEMCO-JRR cars into the field for the first time this season.

In Sunday’s race, Shepherd’s was the first car to lose a lap.  Around Lap 20, he pulled behind the wall for four laps, then ran a few more before he exited the race for good just before the competition caution on Lap 30.

Joe Nemechek lost several laps in the early stages as well, but climbed from 42nd to 40th after a series of late mechanical troubles.  Parker Kligerman’s #30 Swan Energy Toyota fell off the pace early, then lost the engine after 226 laps.  Fellow rookie Alex Bowman struggled with brake problems on the #23 Dr. Pepper Toyota for BK Racing, and Kurt Busch brought out the final caution of the day when his #41 Haas Automationa Chevrolet, already on seven cylinders, lost the engine in a plume of smoke.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was Shepherd’s first last-place finish in a Cup race at Phoenix.
*This was the first last-place finish for the #87 in a Cup race at Phoenix since the spring race of 2011, when Joe Nemechek’s unsponsored NEMCO Motorsports Toyota had electrical problems after 22 laps.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #87-Morgan Shepherd / 28 laps / brakes
42) #30-Parker Kligerman / 226 laps / engine
41) #23-Alex Bowman / 230 laps / brakes
40) #66-Joe Nemechek / 292 laps / running
39) #41-Kurt Busch / 292 laps / engine

LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Morgan Shepherd, Martin Truex, Jr. (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #78-Furniture Row Racing, #87-NEMCO-JRR Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet, Toyota (1)

N’WIDE: Blake Koch Extends TriStar’s Last-Place Streak To Seven Races

SOURCE: motorsport.com

Blake Koch picked up the 5th last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s Blue Jeans Go Green 200 at the Phoenix International Raceway when his #10 SupportMilitary.org Toyota fell out with a vibration after he completed 3 of the race’s 168 laps.

The finish was Koch’s first of the season and his first in a Nationwide race since last fall at Atlanta, eleven races ago.  It is also extends TriStar Motorsports’ last-place streak to seven consecutive races, including two in a row at Phoenix.

Koch’s 2014 plans were announced six days before the Daytona 500: he would drive Front Row Motorsports’ #35 Ford in the Cup Series at Phoenix and Las Vegas.  They would be his first Cup starts since he drove for Leavine Family Racing at Charlotte last October.

In addition, Koch was also tabbed as driver of the #10 Nationwide Series entry, the car driven by David Starr at Daytona and for most of the last two seasons by all-time LASTCAR leader Jeff Green.  Green and the #91 TriStar entry weren’t at Phoenix, and Will Kimmel ran the #44 Koch drove to a 22nd-place finish at Daytona, so Koch was tabbed for “start-and-park” duty.

Koch did not practice in the opening session, then timed in 29th of the 39 entrants in final practice.  He then qualified 22nd at an average speed of 129.478 mph, ranking him third among the ten “go-or-go-homers” who attempted the race, trailing only Kevin Harvick and Chris Buescher.  However, just after the start of the race, Koch pulled behind the wall.

Finishing next-to-last was Matt DiBenedetto, who brought back The Motorsports Group’s “start-and-park” #46 and missed the final spot by three laps.  Rounding out the Bottom I’ve were Carl Long in the second JGL Racing Dodge, Daryl Harr, whose JD Motorsports Chevrolet was wrecked by Brad Keselowski on Lap 21, and Tommy Joe Martins, making his Nationwide debut in his family’s #76.

Koch made the field for the Cup Series race and finished 37th.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was Koch’s first last-place finish in a Nationwide race at Phoenix.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
39) #10-Blake Koch / 3 laps / vibration
38) #46-Matt DiBenedetto / 6 laps / electrical
37) #93-Carl Long / 13 laps / brakes
36) #87-Daryl Harr / 18 laps / crash
35) #76-Tommy Joe Martins / 40 laps / electrical

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green, Blake Koch (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #10-TriStar Motorsports, #91-TriStar Motorsports (1)

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