TRUCKS: Scott Stenzel Scores First Last-Place Finish Seconds Before Multi-Truck Wreck at Kansas

SOURCE: Twitter @ScottStenzel

Scott Stenzel picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career in Friday’s SFP 250 at the Kansas Speedway when his #36 Mittler Bros. Machine & Tool Chevrolet fell out with electrical problems after he failed to complete a lap of the 167-lap race.  The finish came in Stenzel’s fourth series start.

Stenzel, the 33-year-old founder of an advertising and marketing company, has been making his way from go-karts and dirt tracks into the elite divisions of stock car racing.  He’s made a pair of starts in ARCA, finishing 7th in his series debut at Talladega, and finished 21st at Loudon running the K&N Pro Series East.  Stenzel made the move to the Truck Series in 2012, where he finished 23rd in his series debut at Kansas.

Then, as on Friday, Stenzel would drove for Mike Mittler, the only owner whose trucks have qualified for at least one race in every Truck Series season since 1995.  In a combined 169 starts over that time, several Cup drivers cut their teeth in Mittler’s trucks including Jamie McMurray, Regan Smith, Justin Allgaier, Brad Keselowski, and Carl Edwards, who scored Mittler’s only top-ten finish with an 8th at the Kansas track on July 6, 2002.  Edwards also earned one of Mittler’s fourteen previous last-place finishes in the series, which came at Las Vegas later that year.

Friday, Stenzel drove a second entry for Mittler, a #36 that was making its season debut alongside teammate Justin Jennings in the #63.  Stenzel did not participate in the opening practice, but came in 28th of 29 drivers in the second session.  Just 31 trucks showed up to qualify, so Stenzel made the field along with everyone else, scoring the 31st starting spot without posting a qualifying speed.

In Friday’s race, Stenzel pulled behind the wall with electrical problems as the listed issue.  At the exact same time, Ron Hornaday spun exiting Turn 4, triggering a multi-truck accident that involved Timothy Peters, German Quiroga, and Spencer Gallagher.  Gallagher’s #23 Allegiant Travel Chevrolet received the most severe damage, and his night was done as well.

The two trucks finishing ahead of Gallagher were two more team trucks like Stenzel’s: Charles Lewandoski made his first Truck Series start since 2009 driving the #42, a team truck to Tyler Young’s #02, and Ryan Ellis brought back the #0, the LASTCAR-contending teammate to Jennifer Jo Cobb’s #10.  Rounding out the Bottom Five was 4th-place starter Brian Ickler, who suffered crash damage in the night’s second caution after 9 laps.

For more on Scott Stenzel, check out his website and follow him on Twitter @ScottStenzel.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is just the second last-place finish by the #36 in a points-paying Truck Series race.  The only other finish was earned by Lonnie Cox, who on May 25, 1996 lost the engine on his #36 DuPont Thompson PBE Chevrolet after 64 laps of the NAPA 200 at the Tucson Raceway Park in Arizona.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
31) #36-Scott Stenzel / 0 laps / electrical
30) #23-Spencer Gallagher / 0 laps / crash
29) #42-Charles Lewandoski / 3 laps / vibration
28) #0-Ryan Ellis / 8 laps / vibration
27) #7-Brian Ickler / 9 laps / crash

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Alex Guenette, Scott Stenzel, Jason White (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #36-Mike Mittler, #74-Mario Gosselin, #93-RSS Racing (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (3)

CUP: Tony Stewart Scores First Last-Place Finish Since 2008

SOURCE: NASCAR Media

Tony Stewart picked up the 5th last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 at the Talladega Superspeedway when his #14 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet was involved in a multi-car crash after he completed 136 of the race’s 188 laps.

The finish was Stewart’s first of the 2014 season and his first in a Sprint Cup race since March 2, 2008 - 223 races ago - when his #20 Home Depot Toyota crashed after 107 laps of the UAW-Dodge 400 at Las Vegas.  Three of Stewart’s Cup Series last-place finishes have now come in restrictor-plate races - Sunday’s joins the 2002 and 2007 runnings of the Daytona 500.  The fifth finish came at Fontana in 2006.

In those 223 races since his most recent last-place finish, Stewart, the three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion, has prevailed over many challenges.  He founded Stewart-Haas Racing in 2009, gave the team its first race that season, then the team’s first championship in dramatic fashion two years later.  He suffered serious injuries in a sprint car crash last August, then returned this February to a newly-expanded four-car operation whose two brand-new teams have already won this year with Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch.

Coming into Talladega, Stewart has fought for consistency while balancing his duties as owner.  Last month at Texas, he claimed his first pole since 2012 and finished 10th, one of his four top-ten finises in the first nine races.  With the lion’s share of his 48 Cup Series wins taking place after the month of May, it was not unusual that Stewart came to Talladega without a win so far this season.  But Stewart’s last-place finish was a surprise.

Stewart qualified 12th for Sunday’s race, having made his way into the final qualifying round.  Left without a drafting partner for that final five-minute session, he managed a lap of only 188.958 mph, more than a second off the pace of 11th-place Jeff Gordon.  He was 31st-fastest in the opening practice and 3rd out of the 27 who took part in Happy Hour.

Most importantly, as Sunday’s race began, Stewart kept his nose clean while running mid-pack.  Such could not be said of Brad Keselowski, who on Lap 14 took the 43rd spot from Kyle Busch when he crossed the nose of Danica Patrick during a bid for the lead in Turn 1.  Keselowski managed to avoid contact with the wall and other cars, but a sliced radiator hose required repairs that left him six laps down.

When Keselowski returned to the track, he was one of only two cars not on the lead lap.  The other was Jamie McMurray, who had damaged his splitter driving through the grass to avoid Keselowski’s spinning car.  Both held the final two positions all the way until Lap 138, when Keselowski broke loose while running among the leaders in Turn 4, triggering a fourteen-car pileup.

As Keselowski spun up the track, rookie drivers Cole Whitt and Brian Scott veered left, directly into the path of Tony Stewart.  All three cars collided and slid into the inside wall.  No drivers were injured, but Stewart, Scott, and Trevor Bayne were all done for the day due to crash damage.  Stewart, who crossed the stripe last of that group, slipped to 42nd with Scott and Bayne right in front of him.

When Keselowski managed to return to the track, Stewart dropped to 43rd.  Keselowski ended up 38th.  He has yet to finish last in any of his 171 Sprint Cup starts.  McMurray, the beneficiary of six “Lucky Dogs,” got all but one of his laps back for a 29th-place run.

Rounding out the Bottom Five were David Gilliland, last April’s runner-up finisher, who lost the engine on his #38 Love’s Travel Stop Ford after 150 laps, and the lapped machine of Jeff Gordon, also involved in the Lap 138 wreck.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first last-place finish for the #14 in a NASCAR Cup Series race since June 24, 2007, when Sterling Marlin’s #14 Wiley X Chevrolet lost the engine after he completed 12 laps of the Toyota / Save Mart 350 at the Sonoma Raceway.
*This is just the second last-place finish for Stewart-Haas Racing, joining last October’s finish by Danica Patrick after her first-lap crash at Kansas.
*This is Stewart’s first last-place finish in a NASCAR race at Talladega.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #14-Tony Stewart / 136 laps / crash
42) #33-Brian Scott / 136 laps / crash
41) #21-Trevor Bayne / 136 laps / crash / led 6 laps
40) #38-David Gililand / 150 laps / engine / led 1 lap
39) #24-Jeff Gordon / 156 laps / running / led 1 lap

LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Aric Almirola, Dave Blaney, Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Timmy Hill, Michael McDowell, Joe Nemechek, Morgan Shepherd, Tony Stewart, Martin Truex, Jr. (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #14-Stewart-Haas Racing, #15-Michael Waltrip Racing, #33-Circle Sport, #43-Richard Petty Motorsports, #66-Michael Waltrip Racing / NEMCO-JRR Motorsports, #77-Randy Humphrey Racing, #78-Furniture Row Racing, #87-NEMCO-JRR Motorsports, #88-Hendrick Motorsports, #95-Leavine Family Racing (1)

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

N’WIDE: Koch Finishes Last, But Several Nationwide Series Underdogs Steal The Show At Talladega

SOURCE: TriStar Motorsports Twitter

Blake Koch picked up the 9th last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s Aaron’s 312 at the Talladega Superspeedway when his #10 Heroes Behind the Camo / SupportMilitary.org Toyota fell out with a vibration after he completed 1 of the race’s 117 laps.

The finish was Koch’s fifth of the 2014 season and his first since Darlington, two races ago.  Koch, who has finished last in three of the previous four Nationwide races, now has a two-finish lead on TriStar Motorsports teammate Jeff Green in the LASTCAR Championship.

Koch and Green both entered and qualified for Saturday’s race, securing the 14th and 25th starting spots, respectively.  Koch, 33rd-fastest in the opening practice, improved to 14th of 29 drivers in Happy Hour, then in qualifying narrowly missed the cut for the run for the pole with a speed of 185.830 mph.  Even more impressive was TriStar’s LASTCAR rival Matt DiBenedetto, who was third-fastest in the opening round of qualifying in his #46 for The Motorsports Group.

DiBenedetto settled for the 23rd starting spot, and at the start of Saturday’s race, was again just a couple laps short of finishing last.  Koch exited the race after the opening lap, followed by DiBenedetto and Green.  Rounding out the Bottom Five were Carl Long, whose JGL Racing Dodge fell nearly thirty seconds behind the 36th-place car before he pulled behind the wall, and Bobby Gerhart, who nearly took the victory in that morning’s 200-mile ARCA race.

Restrictor-plate racing has always had its share of surprises, and Saturday was no exception:

David Starr, who at Daytona drove Koch’s #10 to a 25th-place finish, jumped into TriStar’s #44, led five laps in the closing stages, and came home 9th.  It was Starr’s first Top Ten in the series - and the first for a TriStar car this season.

David Ragan drove Fred Biagi’s #98 to a 5th-place finish, the first Top Five for a Biagi-owned car since July 2, 2004, when the team scored its most recent win with Mike Wallace at Daytona.

Joe Nemechek bounced back from his DNQ for Sunday’s Cup race by finishing 6th in his #87.  It was Nemechek’s first top-ten finish in the series since an 8th at Richmond on September 7, 2012.

The day before his impressive 11th-place finish for Circle Sport and Hillman Racing in the Cup race, Landon Cassill earned an 8th-place finish in Johnny Davis’ #01 Flex Seal Chevrolet.  It was Cassill’s best finish in the series since his career-best 3rd-place run at Daytona on February 19, 2011.

Gregg Mixon and Jimmy Means have been fielding Nationwide Series teams since 2001, and Saturday saw both teams score their best-ever finish in the series.  J.J. Yeley brought home Mixon’s unsponsored #28 Dodge in the 7th spot, Yeley’s best finish since coming home 2nd to David Gilliland at Kentucky in 2006.  Joey Gase scored an 11th-place run in Means’ #52 Donate Life Chevrolet, beating the team’s previous best of 14th set by Donnie Neunberger at Talladega in 2008.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the second-straight last-place finish for TriStar’s #10 in this event, joining Jeff Green’s run last year.  It is Koch’s first last-place finish in a Nationwide race at Talladega.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #10-Blake Koch / 1 lap / vibration
39) #46-Matt DiBenedetto / 3 laps / vibration
38) #91-Jeff Green / 4 laps / vibration
37) #93-Carl Long / 14 laps / electrical
36) #85-Bobby Gerhart / 31 laps / engine

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Blake Koch (5)
2nd) Jeff Green (3)
3rd) Jimmy Weller (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #10-TriStar Motorsports (6)
2nd) #91-TriStar Motorsports (2)
3rd) #55-VIVA Motorsports / SS Green Light Racing (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (8)
2nd) Chevrolet (1)

CUP: Clint Bowyer Scores First NASCAR Last-Place Finish During Fiery Night At Richmond

SOURCE: FOX Sports

Clint Bowyer picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Saturday’s Toyota Owners 400 at the Richmond International Raceway when his #15 AAA Insurance Toyota fell out with suspension troubles after he completed 159 of the race’s 400 laps.  The finish came in Bowyer’s 298th Cup start.

It is not only Bowyer’s first last-place finish in Cup, but also his first last-place finish in a combined 490 Cup, Nationwide, and Truck Series starts dating back to his Nationwide debut at Texas on April 3, 2004.  Among all active drivers who have raced full-time in Cup since Bowyer's Nationwide debut, only Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, and Kasey Kahne have yet to finish last in a single Cup Series points race.  Harvick’s streak is the longest: 475 Cup starts with three 42nd-place finishes in 43-car fields.  Johnson has finished 42nd twice in 444 Cup races.  Kahne has finished 42nd four times in 369 Cup starts, all while starting in the top twenty.

Bowyer began the 2014 season, his third with Michael Waltrip Racing, with high hopes.  In his first season with the team in 2012, he scored three wins and a career-best runner-up finish in the point standings behind Brad Keselowski.  Last year, however, Bowyer went winless, and was the subject of controversy last September at Richmond when he allegedly spun on purpose to help then-teammate Martin Truex, Jr. qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup.  Truex lost his Chase berth - and his ride - while Bowyer picked up just two more Top Fives before season’s end.

At Daytona this past February, Bowyer had a fast car for the Daytona 500, but it was destroyed in a spectacular flip on the last lap of his Budweiser Duel.  Following a 42nd-place finish for an engine failure in the 500 itself, he scored just two top-ten finishes in the season’s first eight races: a 9th at Martinsville and an 8th at Texas.  After an off week following his 12th-place run at Darlington, Richmond once again came up on the calendar.

On Friday, Bowyer put up the 3rd-fastest time in the opening practice and was 25th in Happy Hour.  A huge evening storm washed out qualifying, so Bowyer’s 3rd-fastest run netted him the 3rd spot on the starting grid.  Darlington last-place finisher Dave Blaney and Las Vegas last-place finisher Michael McDowell missed the field as a result.

In the race, Bowyer would carry sponsorship from AAA Insurance for the first time.  By the time the field reached the backstretch for the first time, polesitter Kyle Larson had a claim to file.  Going into the first corner, Bowyer looked to make a three-wide move on the inside of Larson and outside-polesitter Brad Keselowski.  Bowyer made contact with Larson, spinning him into the outside wall, and giving the lead to Keselowski.

On the restart, Larson sliced through the field quickly, dropping Joe Nemechek and the #66 Virginia Farm Bureau Toyota to the 43rd spot.  Nemechek was the first car to lose a lap to Keselowski, but Josh Wise lost four laps before the competition caution by pitting his #98 Phil Parsons Racing Chevrolet.  Wise, who had made contact with Kevin Harvick as Harvick tried to lap him, remained at the tail end of the field until a series of strange events bumped him up the field.

On Lap 159, Cole Whitt, his #26 now fielded by BK Racing following the off-week disbandment of Swan Racing, suddenly had smoke pouring from his Scorpyd Toyota.  He made it safely to pit road, but the caution came out when Bowyer found he had the exact same problem.  Whitt returned to the track, only to find his right-front hub was on fire, and when Bowyer followed him, his own hub ignited with such intensity that it began to melt the front valence of his Toyota.  Both Whitt and Bowyer pulled behind the wall.  Whitt held 43rd at that point, having logged five fewer laps than Bowyer.  But while Whitt returned to the track around Lap 190, Bowyer’s team found the damage too severe, and Bowyer fell to 43rd before the halfway mark.

Whitt ended up 41st at the end of the night.  Finishing 42nd was Reed Sorenson, who fell victim to a car fire even more severe than those of Whitt and Bowyer.  Sorenson’s #36 Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet had thick black smoke in the cockpit when it pulled onto pit road, and swift work by a member of Kasey Kahne’s pit crew allowed him to get out quickly.

Finishing ahead of Whitt in 40th was J.J. Yeley, making his first start of the year for Xxxtreme Motorsports.  Xxxtreme’s #44 had sponsorship, but struggled to find speed.  Yeley missed the races at Las Vegas and Texas and the team withdrew from Bristol to re-organize.  But when Swan Racing folded for lack of sponsorship, the points for Parker Kligerman’s #30 were sold to Xxxtreme, putting Yeley into the field on points while leaving Kligerman without a ride.  The team will switch from the #30 to the #44 next week at Talladega.

Josh Wise finished 39th in the Phil Parsons Racing #98, just the fourth time in eight races he has finished in the bottom five.  Next week at Talladega, Wise and the #98 will be sponsored by internet cryptocurrency DogeCoin in an effort to which I have also contributed.  As of this writing, it appears Wise will be running the same Ford with which he finished 5th in February’s Budweiser Duel and last year Michael McDowell finished 9th in the Daytona 500 and 15th at Talladega.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*The #15 has not finished last in a Cup Series race since April 29, 2007, when Paul Menard’s Menards Chevrolet fielded by DEI lost an engine after 22 laps of the Aaron’s 499.  The number has not finished last in a Cup race at Richmond since March 3, 1996, when Wally Dallenbach, Jr.’s Hayes Modems Ford, fielded by Hall of Fame owner Bud Moore, crashed after 19 laps of the Pontiac Excitement 400.
*This is the first last-place finish for Michael Waltrip Racing in a Cup race since November 11, 2012, when Martin Truex, Jr.’s #56 NAPA Toyota lost an engine after 10 laps of the AdvoCare 500 at Phoenix.
*A Cup Series driver had never before finished last at Richmond due to suspension trouble.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #15-Clint Bowyer / 159 laps / suspension
42) #36-Reed Sorenson / 225 laps / electrical
41) #26-Cole Whitt / 367 laps / running
40) #30-J.J. Yeley / 380 laps / engine
39) #98-Josh Wise / 390 laps / running

LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Aric Almirola, Dave Blaney, Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Timmy Hill, Michael McDowell, Joe Nemechek, Morgan Shepherd, Martin Truex, Jr. (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #15-Michael Waltrip Racing, #33-Circle Sport, #43-Richard Petty Motorsports, #66-Michael Waltrip Racing / NEMCO-JRR Motorsports, #77-Randy Humphrey Racing, #78-Furniture Row Racing, #87-NEMCO-JRR Motorsports, #88-Hendrick Motorsports, #95-Leavine Family Racing (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet, Ford, Toyota (3)

N’WIDE: Jimmy Weller Stops TriStar’s Last-Place Streak At Twelve

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin' Forums

Jimmy Weller picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Friday’s ToyotaCare 250 at the Richmond International Raceway when his #55 Genmak Geneva Liberty Steel Chevrolet fell out with engine trouble after he completed 1 of the race’s 250 laps.  The finish came in Weller’s Nationwide Series debut.

Weller’s finish, the first for VIVA Motorsports, proved a surprising LASTCAR upset.  It ended TriStar Motorsports’ record-setting streak of twelve consecutive last-place finishes, among them Jeff Green and Blake Koch’s finishes in the first seven races of 2014.  However, TriStar still holds an equally-incredible streak of twenty-nine consecutive bottom-five finishes.  A TriStar car hasn’t missed the Bottom Five since last July’s Subway Firecracker 250 at Daytona.

Last year, Weller made his first five starts in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, where he scored his first last-place finish last fall at Martinsville.  This year, he drove for Bobby Dotter’s SS Green Light Racing in the season-opening race at Daytona, where he picked up a career-best 9th-place finish.

Meanwhile, VIVA Motorsports, a part-time Nationwide Series team driven by car owner Jamie Dick, was entering its fourth season on the tour.  Dick had finished a career-best 12th at Talladega last spring, but endured a difficult start to 2014 with no finishes better than a 23rd at Bristol.  Heading into Darlington, VIVA formed an alliance with SS Green Light Racing, which had also fielded trucks for Dick in 2009.  The merged team came to Darlington with a flat white Chevrolet and, with Todd Bodine behind the wheel, came home 28th.

For Richmond, Weller was tabbed to drive the #55 for his first NASCAR start since the Truck Series season opener.  In the opening practice, Weller was 37th-fastest of 38 cars.  He improved to 36th of 40 in Happy Hour, then timed in 34th for the race itself with a lap of 118.146 mph.  Forty drivers showed up for as many spots, so no drivers were sent home.

After completing just one lap of Saturday night’s rain-delayed race, however, Weller pulled behind the wall.

Seconds later, on Lap 3, Kevin Lepage checked-up to avoid the slowing Tanner Berryhill on the backstretch.  When the rest of the field moved low, Lepage’s #87 JD Motorsports Chevrolet was turned head-on into the inside wall by one of the yellow JGL Racing Dodges.  Only under the ensuing caution did both Jeff Green in TriStar’s #10 and Matt DiBenedetto in The Motorsports Group’s #46 both pull behind the wall on consecutive laps.  Rounding out the Bottom Five was rookie Tommy Joe Martins, picking up his third bottom-five finish in five starts.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first last-place finish for the #55 in a Nationwide Series race since June 25, 2011, when Brett Rowe’s Imperial Bedding Company Chevrolet fell out with brake problems after 2 laps of the Bucyrus 200 at Road America.  The number had never before finished last in a Nationwide race at Richmond.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #55-Jimmy Weller / 1 lap / engine
39) #87-Kevin Lepage / 2 laps / crash
38) #10-Jeff Green / 5 laps / vibration
37) #46-Matt DiBenedetto / 6 laps / electrical
36) #76-Tommy Joe Martins / 11 laps / suspension

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Blake Koch (4)
2nd) Jeff Green (3)
3rd) Jimmy Weller (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #10-TriStar Motorsports (5)
2nd) #91-TriStar Motorsports (2)
3rd) #55-VIVA Motorsports / SS Green Light Racing (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (7)
2nd) Chevrolet (1)