CUP: Kahne Narrowly Avoids First Last-Place Finish; Blaney Repeats at Pocono

SOURCE: Chris Trotman, Getty Images

Dave Blaney picked up the 23rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s Pocono 400 at the Pocono Raceway when his #77 Amy R. Fochler Veterans Law Attorney Ford finished under power, 18 laps down, having completed 142 of 160 laps.

The finish is Blaney’s second of the 2014 season and his first since Darlington, six races ago.  Blaney is the first repeat last-place finisher this Cup season, ending the streak at thirteen consecutive races.  He takes the lead in the LASTCAR Cup Championship, a lead previously held by Ryan Truex over Joe Nemechek by a single bottom-fifteen finish.

For the first time this season, the Humphrey Racing #77 carried a paint job other than all-white or the white-and-blue colors of the Germain Racing team where Humphrey acquired some of his cars.  With continued sponsorship from Amy Fochler’s Charlotte law firm that joined the team during the Sprint Showdown, Blaney’s #77 now had a bright red-white-and-blue scheme representing Fochler’s work with veterans.  With 43 cars showing up for as many spots, Blaney was guaranteed a starting spot in the field.

In Friday’s opening practice, Blaney timed in 40th, but he ended up 43rd on the grid after he spun out during qualifying.  He returned to the track on Saturday to run 43rd in the second practice and 42nd in Happy Hour.

At the start of Sunday’s race, Blaney remained in 43rd and was the first to lose a lap.  For much of the early stages, he exchanged the spot with Timmy Hill, making his fourth start of the season and his first for NEMCO-JRR / Identity Ventures Racing in the #66 Land Castle Title Toyota, and Alex Kennedy, making his first start since last summer at Watkins Glen in the #33 Dream Factory Chevrolet for Circle Sport.

On Lap 73, the third caution of the day fell for what looked to be rubber debris from the back of the #44 All City Leasing & Warehousing Chevrolet of J.J. Yeley.  Yeley spent a couple laps behind the wall, but returned to the track for the restart, taking 43rd in the process.  On Lap 81, Blaney spun exiting the first corner and stalled his #77, bringing out the fourth caution.  Although Blaney dropped the window net and spent several laps behind the wall, he also returned to the track in 43rd, sixteen laps down.

Blaney had lost two more laps when the final caution flew with 18 laps to go.  Kyle Busch slid into Kasey Kahne exiting the first corner, triggering a grinding wreck between Kahne and Carl Edwards.  While Busch and Edwards made it to the garage area, Kahne did not, ending his day.  With Blaney 18 laps down at the time of Kahne’s accident, there was an outside chance that Kahne would score his first last-place finish in his 374th Cup start.  However, Kahne came just one lap short.  With both Blaney and Kahne completing 142 laps, Blaney retained the 43rd spot.

Kahne left Pocono with fifth 42nd-place finish, one lap ahead of Edwards.  All-Star Race last-place finisher Joey Logano slowed on the Lap 149 restart and lost the engine soon after, dropping him to 40th.  Kennedy rounded out the Bottom Five, four laps behind the leaders and one lap behind 38th-place Yeley.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is Blaney’s first last-place finish at Pocono since June 10, 2007, when Blaney’s #22 Caterpillar Toyota crashed after 55 laps of the rain-shortened Pocono 500.  It is the first last-place finish for the #77 in a Cup Series race at this track.
*It is the first last-place finish for a Ford at Pocono since August 7, 2011, when J.J. Yeley’s #55 Front Row Motorsports Ford overheated after 7 laps of the Good Sam RV Insurance 500.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #77-Dave Blaney / 142 laps / running
42) #5-Kasey Kahne / 142 laps / crash
41) #99-Carl Edwards / 143 laps / crash
40) #22-Joey Logano / 150 laps / engine
39) #33-Alex Kennedy / 156 / running

LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Dave Blaney (2)
2nd) Aric Almirola, Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., David Gilliland, Timmy Hill, Michael McDowell, Joe Nemechek, Morgan Shepherd, Tony Stewart, Martin Truex, Jr., Ryan Truex, Brian Vickers (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #77-Randy Humphrey Racing (2)
2nd) #14-Stewart-Haas Racing, #15-Michael Waltrip Racing, #33-Circle Sport, #38-Front Row Motorsports, #43-Richard Petty Motorsports, #55-Michael Waltrip Racing, #66-Michael Waltrip Racing / NEMCO-JRR Motorsports, #78-Furniture Row Racing, #83-BK Racing, #87-NEMCO-JRR Motorsports, #88-Hendrick Motorsports, #95-Leavine Family Racing (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Ford, Toyota (5)
2nd) Chevrolet (4)

TRUCKS: Ellis Trails Seventh-Shortest Field In Truck Series History

SOURCE: Twitter - @ryanellisracing

Ryan Ellis picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career in Friday’s WinStar World Casino 400 at the Texas Motor Speedway when his #0 Grimes Irrigation & Construction Chevrolet fell out with a vibration after he completed 2 of the race’s 167 laps.  The finish came in Ellis’ 5th series start.

With the finish, Ellis joined Blake Koch as the only two drivers to finish last in both a Nationwide and Truck Series race in 2014.  Koch trailed both fields last weekend at Dover.  Ellis’ Nationwide finish came last month at Iowa.

Friday’s race at Texas had just 27 trucks in the starting lineup - the shortest Truck Series field since last fall’s 29-truck field at Las Vegas and the seventh-shortest field for a points race in series history.  The record remains 24, which occurred twice in 1995: at Saugus on April 15 (a race where two drivers failed to qualify) and at Louisville on June 3.  The season’s other small fields came at Flemington (25), Sonoma (26), Portland (26), and I-70 (26).

With the short field, Ellis was guaranteed a starting spot in his third drive of the season for Jennifer Jo Cobb.  Ellis had finished 28th for Cobb at Kansas and 34th last week at Dover, where he was edged by Blake Koch for the last-place finish.  His best finish of the season remains an 18th in the Daytona season opener, driving the #28 for longtime team owner Jim Rosenblum.

Ellis was one of three drivers who did not participate in the opening practice session, and he timed in 25th of 26 during Happy Hour.  In qualifying, he took the 27th and final starting spot with an average speed of 162.778 mph.

Jennings' and Lewandoski's trucks at Kansas (top),
Jennings' Texas truck (bottom)
SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin' Forums

At the start of Friday’s race, Ellis pulled behind the wall after two laps, followed the next circuit by Justin Jennings.  Jennings, who all season had driven the #63 for owner Mike Mittler, was behind this time behind the wheel of the #42 Randco / Young’s Building Systems Chevrolet driven by Charles Lewandoski.  Just like at Daytona, where Lewandoski carried “60” numbers on the doors, the “42” decals were this time covered with tall “63” roof numbers from Mittler’s team.  B.J. McLeod, named the driver of Bobby Dotter’s #07 after the entry list was published, finished 25th, exiting ten laps after Jennings.

Rounding out the Bottom Five were two members of Red Horse Racing, including point leader Timothy Peters, who suffered at least two right-front tire problems before a crash took him out of the event.  At the moment Peters’ run ended, teammate German Quiroga lost an engine entering the first corner, bringing out the third caution of the night.

The short field also provided a number of surprising runs in the Top 5.  Runner-up Justin Lofton won the ole for Bob Newberry’s NTS Motorsports, then scored his best Truck Series finish since his lone win at Charlotte in 2012.  In his 11th series start, one week after his son’s career-best 6th-place finish, Cup Series veteran Joe Nemechek finished 3rd.  It was Joe’s best Truck Series finish since August 25, 1996, when he won the pole and finished 2nd to Ron Hornaday, Jr. in his series debut at Watkins Glen.  And 5th-place finisher John Wes Townley came just one spot short of besting his career-best 4th last month at Charlotte.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the second consecutive last-place finish for Jennifer Jo Cobb’s #0 in a Truck Series race at Texas.  Last fall, defending LASTCAR Truck Series Champion Chris Lafferty lost the transmission after 4 laps.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
27) #0-Ryan Ellis / 2 laps / vibration
26) #63-Justin Jennings / 3 laps / vibration
25) #07-B.J. McLeod / 13 laps / engine
24) #17-Timothy Peters / 51 laps / crash
23) #77-German Quiroga / 53 laps / engine

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Alex Guenette, Ryan Ellis, Blake Koch, Charles Lewandoski, Scott Stenzel, Jason White (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #36-Mike Mittler (2)
2nd) #0-Jennifer Jo Cobb, #42-Randy Young, #74-Mario Gosselin, #93-RSS Racing (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (5)
2nd) RAM (1)

CUP: Brian Vickers’ Engine Expires, Blake Koch Denied LASTCAR Three-Peat

SOURCE: motorsport.com, Action Sports Photography

Brian Vickers picked up the 8th last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s FedEx 400 Benefitting Autism Speaks at the Dover International Speedway when his #55 Aaron’s Dream Machine lost an engine after he completed 73 of the race’s 400 laps.

The finish is Vickers’ first of the 2014 season and his first in a Cup Series race since Watkins Glen in 2012, 61 races ago.

In his first full season with Michael Waltrip Racing, Vickers has very quietly had a strong season.  Following a disastrous SpeedWeeks where he wrecked his primary car in practice and finished 30th in the Daytona 500, he finished outside the Top 15 just three other times in the next eleven races.  His best finishes of the season are a pair of 4th-place runs at Texas and Talladega, and he had completed all but 12 of the season’s laps without a single DNF.  Fresh off a 6th-place run at Charlotte, Vickers was 8th in points, 67 points out of the lead.

At Dover, Vickers timed in 14th in the opening practice session, then jumped to 9th in qualifying with an average speed of 162.411 mph.  The team continued to find speed through Saturday’s final two practice sessions, where he ranked 4th in the second and 8th in the third.  Hopes were high for another good finish in the 400-miler.

Coming into Sunday’s race, Blake Koch had a chance to make LASTCAR history.  Since the inception of the Camping World Truck Series in 1995, no driver had ever finished last in the Cup, Nationwide, and Truck Series races at the same track on the same weekend.  In fact, it was not until 2011 that a driver finished last in all three series in the same season (accomplished by J.J. Yeley).  But after Koch edged Ryan Ellis on Friday, then beat Matt DiBenedetto by two laps on Saturday, Koch would start last in the #32 SupportMilitary.org Ford in his third Cup start of the season.

Koch held the 43rd spot early, and was the first to lose a lap around Lap 14.  Running ahead of him in 42nd was the #77 Humphrey Racing entry of Dave Blaney, who was making his first start in a points race since his last-place run at Darlington.  Both continued to lose laps to the leaders through the first round of pit stops, but both remained on track for the rest of the afternoon.  Koch would come home 30th, 12 laps down.  Blaney, celebrating his election to the 2014 National Sprint Car Hall of Fame with a special hood decal, finished 33rd, 17 laps down.

With two LASTCAR contenders still in the race, the afternoon resulted in yet another surprising Bottom Five.

Not long after the Lap 71 restart following the first of several hard hits for rookie Alex Bowman and his #23 Dr. Pepper Toyota, Vickers suddenly slowed with smoke trailing from his Toyota.  He pulled behind the wall, done for the day with engine failure.  Outside-polesitter Kyle Busch, going for a three-peat of his own, led 81 of the race’s first 125 laps only to tangle with Clint Bowyer in Turn 4 while running in the Top 5, ending his day.

The next restart sent another two contenders to the Bottom Five.  Exiting Turn 2 on Lap 135, A.J. Allmendinger made contact with Roush-Fenway teammate Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Greg Biffle, sending both cars hard into the wall.  Stenhouse plummeted to 41st, the sheetmetal shorn from the side of his #17 Nationwide Ford.  Biffle managed to return to the track more than 100 laps down, creeping out of the Bottom Five and extending his streak of consecutive races without a DNF to 85 - barely - to break the all-time record set by Herman "Turtle" Beam in 1963.  The two cars Biffle passed were Alex Bowman, finally K.O.’d by another mid-race hit to the wall, and J.J. Yeley, who lost the engine on his #44 Phoenix Warehouse Chevrolet.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first last-place finish for the #55 in a Cup Series race at Dover since October 2, 2011, when Travis Kvapil’s Front Row Motorsports Ford had ignition trouble after 12 laps.
*This is Michael Waltrip Racing’s first last-place finish in a Cup Series race at Dover since June 4, 2007, when Dale Jarrett’s #44 UPS Toyota lost an engine after 241 laps.
*This is Vickers’ first last-place finish in a Cup Series race at Dover.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #55-Brian Vickers / 73 laps / engine
42) #18-Kyle Busch / 125 laps / crash / led 81 laps
41) #17-Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. / 131 laps / crash
40) #23-Alex Bowman / 208 laps / crash
39) #44-J.J. Yeley / 232 laps / engine

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

LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #14-Stewart-Haas Racing, #15-Michael Waltrip Racing, #33-Circle Sport, #38-Front Row Motorsports, #43-Richard Petty Motorsports, #55-Michael Waltrip Racing, #66-Michael Waltrip Racing / NEMCO-JRR Motorsports, #77-Randy Humphrey Racing, #78-Furniture Row Racing, #83-BK Racing, #87-NEMCO-JRR Motorsports, #88-Hendrick Motorsports, #95-Leavine Family Racing (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (5)
2nd) Chevrolet, Ford (4)

N’WIDE: Blake Koch The First To Sweep Nationwide and Truck Last-Place Finishes Since 2007

SOURCE: Twitter @TriStarRaceTeam

Blake Koch picked up the 10th last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s Buckle Up 200 at the Dover International Speedway when his #10 Heroes Behind The Camo / SupportMilitary.org Toyota fell out with a vibration after he completed 8 of the race’s 200 laps.

The finish is Koch’s sixth of the 2014 season and his first since Talladega, three races ago.  Koch now holds a three-finish lead over TriStar Motorsports teammate Jeff Green in the LASTCAR Nationwide Series standings.

In doing so, Koch also became the first driver to sweep the Nationwide and Truck Series last-place finishes at the same track on the same weekend since February 23 and 24, 2007, when Morgan Shepherd matched Koch’s feat at Fontana driving for Curtis Key and Johnny Davis, respectively.  Shepherd made his first Nationwide Series start of the season on Saturday, coming home 37th after early engine trouble in his black-and-silver #89 King’s Tire Chevrolet.

Koch qualified 34th for Saturday’s race at an average speed of 145.974 mph, fifth-fastest of the ten “go-or-go-homers.”  He didn’t participate in the opening practice session and timed in 30th of 39 drivers in Happy Hour, but with just 40 drivers on the entry list, everyone made the starting lineup.

Following their withdrawal from last Saturday’s race at Charlotte, Koch and Matt DiBenedetto finished in the final two positions for the fourth time in 2014.  This time, Koch edged DiBenedetto’s #46 The Motorsports Group entry by two laps.  Ryan Ellis, who trailed the Iowa field in TMG’s #46, climbed back inside the #15 Rick Ware Racing entry withdrawn that weekend to finish 38th, citing wheel bearing trouble.  Rounding out the Bottom Five behind Ellis and Morgan Shepherd was Todd Bodine, making his first Nationwide start since his 28th-place run with the SS-Green Light Racing team at Darlington.  Bodine’s engine failure brought out the first caution on Lap 18.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is Koch’s third last-place finish in this event.  The previous two finishes occurred with two different teams.  On May 14, 2011, his #82 Daystar.com Dodge crashed with MacDonald Motorsports teammate Donnie Neuenberger on the second lap of the race.  On June 1, 2013, his SR2 Motorsports-owned #00 SuportMilitary.org Toyota had brake trouble after 4 laps.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #10-Blake Koch / 8 laps / vibration
39) #46-Matt DiBenedetto / 10 laps / vibration
38) #15-Ryan Ellis / 13 laps / wheel bearing
37) #89-Morgan Shepherd / 13 laps / engine
36) #55-Todd Bodine / 15 laps / engine

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Blake Koch (6)
2nd) Jeff Green (3)
3rd) Tanner Berryhill, Ryan Ellis, Jimmy Weller (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #10-TriStar Motorsports (7)
2nd) #91-TriStar Motorsports (2)
3rd) #17-Vision Racing, #46-The Motorsports Group, #55-VIVA Motorsports / SS Green Light Racing (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (9)
2nd) Chevrolet (2)
3rd) Dodge (1)

TRUCKS: Blake Koch Finishes Last As Bottom Five Fills Fast At Dover

SOURCE: Twitter @nitrorubi

Blake Koch picked up the 4th 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 #36 MB Motorsports RAM fell out with a vibration after he completed 2 of the race’s 200 laps.

The finish was Koch’s first of the season and his first in the series since the 2012 season finale at Homestead, 27 races ago.

Koch, who last week finished 30th in his only other Truck Series start this season, was set to pull triple duty at the Dover track.  On Saturday, he would drive the #10 TriStar Motorsports entry which had earned six of the season’s first nine last-place finishes.  And on Sunday, he would return for his third start in Go FAS Racing’s #32 Ford.

For the Truck race, Koch was set to run a black #36 truck.  Although official results list the truck as owned by Mike Mittler (just like Scott Stenzel’s ride at Kansas), unconfirmed reports indicate the truck may have been entered by Mike Allgaier’s team, which has not run a Truck Series race since 2011.  Mittler usually campaigns Chevrolets while the standings list this truck as a RAM.

For the third-consecutive Truck Series race, fewer than 36 trucks showed up to qualify, so Koch locked himself into the 33rd spot in the 35-truck field after qualifying was canceled by rain.  He had completed just one lap in the weekend’s two practice sessions, running just 115.737 mph in Happy Hour.  Eventual race winner Kyle Busch ran more than eight seconds faster in the session.

On Lap 3 of Friday’s race, Koch followed Ryan Ellis’ #0 Grimes Irrigation & Construction Chevrolet into the garage area by way of the backstretch entrance.  It seemed a risky maneuver as both were nearly stopped on the apron as the leaders passed by.  The next lap, Charles Lewandoski, the Charlotte last-place finisher, entered pit road from Turn 4.  He was edged for the 33rd spot by Todd Peck, who made his first Truck Series start of the year in his family-owned #40 Arthritis.org Chevrolet.  The Bottom Five was filled just eleven laps later by Raymond Terczak, Jr., making his first series start since Martinsville in his #56 RM Motorsports Chevrolet.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*A Dodge (now RAM) had not finished last in a Truck Series race at Dover since June 4, 2005, when Steve Park’s #62 Orleans Hotel & Casino Dodge was involved in a multi-truck crash after the opening lap.
*This is the first last-place finish for both Koch and the #36 in a Truck Series race at Dover.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
35) #36-Blake Koch / 2 laps / vibration
34) #0-Ryan Ellis / 2 laps / vibration
33) #40-Todd Peck / 3 laps / overheating
32) #42-Charles Lewandoski / 3 laps / electrical
31) #56-Raymond Terczak, Jr. / 14 laps / rear gear

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

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #36-Mike Mittler (2)
2nd) #42-Randy Young, #74-Mario Gosselin, #93-RSS Racing (1)

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