SONOMA WEEK: LASTCAR Reporting Trackside at the Sonoma Raceway This Weekend!

The week before the NASCAR race at the Sonoma Raceway is my favorite time of the year.  And this time, I’m even more excited.  Not only will this be my twentieth Toyota / Save Mart 350, dating back to my very first race in 1992, but for the first time, I will be there as a credentialed media member for LASTCAR!

This is a huge step for myself and for this website, and I am thankful to the staff of the Sonoma Raceway for making this happen.  It has been a long journey since LASTCAR started in early 2009.  A lot of long nights assembling my statistics and updating them each week.  It’s been great sharing these stories with you readers, and I hope to give you even more this weekend.

To celebrate this occasion, I’m declaring this week “Sonoma Week.”  From now through Sunday, I will be posting daily articles about the Toyota / Save Mart 350 with a continued focus on NASCAR’s single-car and independent operations.  This will include trackside blog posts on Friday and Saturday in addition to Sunday’s LASTCAR articles for both Sonoma and the Nationwide Series event at Road America.

In addition, I will also be tweeting from the track on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, so be sure to follow me on Twitter @LASTCARonBROCK for insider updates all weekend long!

To kick off Sonoma Week, my first LASTCAR book is now downloadable for FREE from today through Monday, June 23.  To get your copy, click this Smashwords link and enter promo code HG74S.  There, you can also check out free samples of my other three LASTCAR books, which are also available at Amazon, Nook, iTunes, and other participating eBook retailers.

In the meantime, stay tuned to this blog and Twitter @LASTCARonBROCK as we count down to the 26th Annual Toyota / Save Mart 350!

CUP: Opening-Lap Tangle With Vickers Nets Kvapil First Last-Place Finish Since 2011

SOURCE: Twitter - @TravisKvapil

Travis Kvapil picked up the 6th last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400 at the Michigan International Speedway when his #32 Keenparts.com / Corvetteparts.net Ford fell out with crash damage after he completed 23 of the race’s 200 laps.

The finish is Kvapil’s first of the 2014 season and his first in a Cup race since Phoenix on November 13, 2011 - 89 races ago - when his #55 Aloft Hotel Tempe Ford fell out with brake problems after 20 laps of the Kobalt Tools 500.

Following his departure from BK Racing after the 2013 season, Kvapil, the 2003 NASCAR Truck Series Champion, now drives the lion’s share of the races for Go FAS Racing.  Go FAS’ #32 team was founded in 2011 by Frankie Stoddard after the reorganization of the #26 Latitude 43 Motorsports team, and this year has merged with Archie St. Hilaire’s Go Green Racing to continue running the full season.  In eleven starts for Go FAS in 2014, Kvapil’s best finish is a 29th last week at Pocono.

At Michigan, Kvapil trailed both of the first two practice sessions, then improved to 36th in Happy Hour.  In qualifying, he secured the 43rd and final starting spot with an average speed of 194.963 mph.  Locked-in on Owner Points, this allowed Kvapil to bump from the field Ryan Truex, one of his replacements at BK Racing.  Truex was the only driver to miss the show after the withdrawal of last week’s last-place finisher Dave Blaney and the #77 Randy Humphrey Racing team.

On the very first lap of Sunday’s race, 10th-place starter Brian Vickers ran too high in Turn 4 and lost control, sending his car spinning to the inside.  The rest of the field took evasive action, including Kvapil, who clipped the infield grass as he ran to the inside.  Unfortunately for him, Vickers’ Toyota hooked left at the last second and the two collided, shearing all the sheet metal from the passenger side of Kvapil’s Ford.

While Vickers remained stopped on the apron, Kvapil made it to the garage area under his own power and crossed the start-finish line, putting Vickers in a position to finish last without completing a lap for the second time in two years.  However, both Vickers and Kvapil committed to returning to the track.  Vickers returned first, 83 laps down, with duct tape numbers on the door of his #55.  Kvapil returned to the track 112 laps down, just as Brett Moffitt brought out the sixth caution of the afternoon.  Mathematically unable to improve his position unless Vickers fell out, Kvapil pulled behind the wall after running just 22 more laps, ending his day.

Vickers finished under power in 42nd, narrowly averting his second last-place finish in three races despite three consecutive top-ten starts.  41st went to Kyle Busch, who ended up with his second Bottom Five since Dover after he broke a hub on an early restart.  In 40th was rookie Alex Bowman, whose struggles continued with a mid-race accident that made him only the second retiree from the race.  Rounding out the Bottom Five was David Stremme in the Circle Sport #33, his second Bottom Five in five starts this season.

Next week at the Sonoma Raceway, it is likely the #32 will be driven by Boris Said for the fourth straight year as Said’s longtime crew chief Frank Stoddard owns the team.

Speaking of which, this weekend at Sonoma, I will be reporting from the track as a credentialed media member!  Click here for the full details, including a special deal on my LASTCAR eBooks!

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first last-place finish for the #32 in a Cup Series race since September 11, 2010, when the late Jason Leffler’s #32 Braun Racing Toyota fell out with brake problems after 30 laps of the Air Guard 400 at Richmond.
*This is the first last-place finish for the #32 at Michigan since August 21, 1994, when the late Dick Trickle’s #32 Active Trucking Chevrolet was involved in a huge opening-lap accident in Turn 1 during the GM Goodwrench Dealer 400.
*It is Kvapil’s first last-place finish in a Cup race at Michigan.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #32-Travis Kvapil / 23 laps / crash
42) #55-Brian Vickers / 110 laps / running
41) #18-Kyle Busch / 169 laps / running
40) #23-Alex Bowman / 169 laps / crash
39) #33-David Stremme / 195 laps / running

LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Dave Blaney (2)
2nd) Aric Almirola, Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., David Gilliland, Timmy Hill, Travis Kvapil, 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, #32-Go FAS 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 (6)
2nd) Toyota (5)
3rd) Chevrolet (4)

N’WIDE: Tim Schendel Trails First Nationwide Field Since His Series Debut

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin' Forums

Tim Schendel picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s Ollie’s Bargain Outlet 250 at the Michigan International Speedway when his unsponsored #87 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet fell out with engine problems without completing a lap of the 125-lap race.

The finish was Schendel’s first of the 2014 season and his first in the Nationwide Series since his series debut at Memphis on October 28, 2006 - 257 races ago.  That day, his #56 Power Equipment Company / Texpar Inc. Chevrolet crashed after 51 laps of the Sam’s Town 250.

Saturday’s race was the 23rd of Schendel’s career.  In six partial seasons on the tour, his best finish remains a 24th at Indianapolis Raceway Park on July 30, 2011, when he was driving for Jimmy Means.  The majority of Schendel’s starts came with Means that season, when he ran eleven races and finished 42nd in the season’s point standings.  On April 8 of that year, he made the highlight reel when a blown tire at Texas sent him into the wall, collecting 2nd-place driver Kyle Busch.

At Michigan, Schendel would make his second start of 2014 and his first since a 34th at Iowa, three races ago.  The car he would drive was owned by Rick Ware Racing, but his #87 has been fielded by two other teams this season: JD Motorsports, owned by Johnny Davis, and under the NEMCO banner of owner-driver Joe Nemechek.

Nemechek drove the #87 in four races, including its best finish of the season at Talladega, where he came home 6th.  In JD Motorsports’ seven other starts for the #87, the best finish was a 19th by Kevin Lepage at Darlington.  Rick Ware Racing picked up the remaining two starts: Chris Cockrum made his series debut at Charlotte in a backup car following a practice crash, then finished 35th.  Schendel would drive that same backup car (pictured) at Michigan.

Schendel qualified 38th for Saturday’s race at an average speed of just 124.297 mph to make the field based on owner points.  Though ranked 41st and last in the opening practice, he showed much more speed with a lap of 170.794 mph.

At the start of Saturday’s race, Schendel was the first to pull behind the wall without completing a lap.  Series veteran Kevin Lepage took his first turn of the season in TriStar Motorsports’ #10 Toyota and pulled out of the race after 3 laps, finishing 39th.  Tommy Joe Martins failed to qualify his #76, joining Morgan Shepherd and Matt DiBenedetto in The Motorsports Group’s #46, but started the race in teammate Benny Gordon’s #67 only to fall out after five laps.  Matt Carter put John Carter’s Nationwide Series team into its first race since 2012, then fell out after eight laps.  Rounding out the Bottom Five was Charlotte last-place finisher Tanner Berryhill.

Jeff Green and Blake Koch, the current LASTCAR Nationwide Series leaders, both ran the full distance in TriStar’s other cars.  Green once again filled in for Eric McClure in the #14 Hefty Toyota and came home 23rd.  Koch climbed aboard the CompassionRacing.com #44 Toyota and finished right behind Green in 24th.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first last-place finish for the #87 in a Nationwide Series race since March 5, 2011, when Kevin Conway’s NEMCO Motorsports Chevrolet overheated after 2 laps of the Sam’s Town 300.  The number had never before finished last in a Natiowide race at Michigan.
*Schendel is the first Nationwide Series driver to finish last without completing a lap since last summer at Watkins Glen, when Mike Wallace was involved in an early crash.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #87-Tim Schendel / 0 laps / engine
39) #10-Kevin Lepage / 3 laps / vibration
38) #67-Tommy Joe Martins / 5 laps / engine
37) #72-Matt Carter / 8 laps / brakes
36) #17-Tanner Berryhill / 10 laps / vibration

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Blake Koch (6)
2nd) Jeff Green (3)
3rd) Tanner Berryhill, Ryan Ellis, Tim Schendel, 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, #87-Rick Ware Racing (1)

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

TRUCKS: Justin Jennings Gives #63 First Truck Series Last-Place Finish Since 2006

SOURCE: Fox Sports 1, NASCAR.com

Justin Jennings picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career in Saturday’s Drivin’ For Lineman 200 at Gateway Motorsports Park when his #63 LGSds / Mittler Bros. Machine / Ski Soda Chevrolet was involved in a hard single-truck crash after he completed 2 of the race’s 160 laps.  The finish came in Jennings’ 17th series start.

With the sole exception of last week’s run for Randy Young’s second team at Texas, Jennings has only driven for Mike Mittler, the only team owner to have entered at least one Truck Series race every season since its inception in 1995.  This season, he’s improved his career-best finish with a pair of 16th-place runs at Daytona and Kansas, and he entered the weekend a solid 15th in points.

The site of Saturday’s race was Gateway Motorsports Park, a track that had been off the NASCAR schedule since 2010  Thirty-two trucks showed up to qualify, the biggest field since Dover, but the fifth-straight short field for the series guaranteed all would start.

Jennings timed in 19th in the opening practice, 21st in the second, and 21st again in Happy Hour.  He stayed 21st in qualifying with a lap of 132.159 mph, where he would start for Saturday’s race.  It was a solid starting spot given that Jennings was one of at least a half-dozen drivers to run a truck with a pre-2014 body on it, giving him an aerodynamic disadvantage on the track’s long straights.

Just three laps into the race, Jennings tangled with Charles Lewandoski in Turn 4 and slapped the outside wall, then stopped abruptly against the inside retainer.  It was a hard hit, but he climbed out of the truck without serious injury.  During the ensuing caution, Caleb Roark parked the #0 Th Parkway Hotel / Grimes Irrigation & Construction Chevrolet owned by Jennifer Jo Cobb, followed the next lap by Lewandoski.  Adam Edwards, making his first Truck start since 2012, brought back Norm Benning’s second entry #75 and pulled out after 6 laps.  Rounding out the Bottom Five was Kansas last-placer Scott Stenzel in the same Mittler-owned RAM Blake Koch trailed the field with at Dover.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first last-place finish for the #63 in a Truck Series race since July 8, 2006, when while driving for Mittler, Justin Allgaier’s #63 Dave Porter Truck Sales Ford was involved in a three-truck crash with Kraig Kinser and Wayne Edwards after 2 laps of the Built Ford Tough 225 at Kentucky.
*This marks the fourth-consecutive last-place finish by a Chevrolet in a Truck Series race at Gateway, joining Butch Miller (2008), John Jackson (2009), and Johnny Chapman (2010).
*Jennings is the fifth first-time Truck Series last-place finisher in seven races run so far in 2014.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
32) #63-Justin Jennings / 2 laps / crash
31) #0-Caleb Roark / 3 laps / vibration
30) #42-Charles Lewandoski / 4 laps / vibration
29) #75-Adam Edwards / 6 laps / clutch
28) #36-Scott Stenzel / 22 laps / vibration

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Alex Guenette, Ryan Ellis, Justin Jennings, 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, #63-Mike Mittler, #74-Mario Gosselin, #93-RSS Racing (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (6)
2nd) RAM (1)

Donlavey, Ellington, Negre, and DeWitt: A History of Four Single-Car Teams

Clockwise from top-left: Junie Donlavey, Hoss Ellington,
Ray DeWitt, and Ed Negre 

Wesley Christian Donlavey, Jr., better known as “Junie,” passed away Monday in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia.  A veteran in every sense of the word - from his service for the U.S. Navy to his leadership of perhaps the most prolific single-car operation in NASCAR history - Donlavey lived to see 90, the number his Fords, Mercurys, and Chevrolets carried for 45 seasons.

Donlavey is the fourth former NASCAR team owner we have lost in the last twelve days, joining Hoss Ellington, Ray DeWitt, and Ed Negre.

As the news broke, I looked through my statistics, wondering what else these men had in common.  Donlavey, Ellington and Negre were all former drivers, and all ran teams which operated more than seventeen years each.  DeWitt entered cars for less than a decade, but in that time managed to be competitive in both the Cup and Nationwide Series.

What I feel contributed to the longevity of all four of their teams was how few last-place finishes each of received in that time.

It is well-known that Donlavey earned just one win.  Fresh off his successful Rookie of the Year campaign, short-tracker Jody Ridley took the checkered flag at Dover on May 17, 1981, outlasting Bobby Allison and Neil Bonnett in a dramatic finish.  What I was not aware of is that Donlavey’s cars finished last just 21 times in 863 starts.

Donlavey Racing’s first finish took place on July 4, 1958 when Emanuel Zervakis’ 1957 Chevrolet overheated after six laps at the one-mile Raleigh Speedway.  The next didn’t occur until 1971, when Bill Dennis’ Mercury broke the driveshaft at South Boston.  Donlavey’s team went full-time in the 1970s, and in that decade trailed just seven more fields.  His cars finished last in just three races in the 1980s, and in 1985 followed-up Ridley’s Rookie of the Year season with another for future veteran Ken Schrader.  When longtime sponsor Heilig-Meyers left the team in the late 1990s, Donlavey scaled back, but still ran as late as 2004, when Andy Hillenburg fell short of qualifying for the Daytona 500.

Like Donlavey, Raleigh, North Carolina’s Charles Everett “Hoss” Ellington developed young talent with his single-car race team.  Among his drivers were Kyle Petty, Sterling Marlin, and Dale Jarrett.  He also fielded cars for four-time Indianapolis 500 winner A.J. Foyt.

After back-to-back last-place runs at Bowman Gray Stadium and Asheville-Weaverville Speedway in 1969, Ellington stepped out of the driver’s seat after 21 starts to become a full-time owner.  The result was a team that competed in 243 more races as late as 1988.  The team picked up five wins, all of which in the maroon Hawaiian Tropic-sponsored #1: four with Donnie Allison, who was one last-lap crash away from taking Ellington’s car to victory in the 1979 Daytona 500, and one with David Pearson - the 105th and final of “The Silver Fox’s” legendary career.

In those seventeen seasons, Ellington’s cars finished last just four times, each with a different driver.  Donnie Allison had electrical problems at Ontario in 1977.  Buddy Baker broke a flywheel after winning the pole at Darlington in 1982.  Lake Speed lost the engine on the opening lap of the historic 1984 Pepsi Firecracker 400 at Daytona.  And the late Davey Allison ended up with his first last-place finish at Atlanta in 1985 when the engine let go.  Both Speed and the younger Allison would go on to win their first races in the Cup Series.

If you saw the 55 car on the track in the early 1990s, there was a very good chance it was fielded by Ray DeWitt.  DeWitt began a partnership with longtime owner-driver D.K. Ulrich in 1990, looking to give USAC star Rich Vogler a chance to make his Cup Series debut.  However, following Vogler’s tragic death, the team returned in 1991 with future Truck Series champion Ted Musgrave, who narrowly lost Rookie of the Year to Bobby Hamilton.  Musgrave and what became RaDiUs Motorsports enjoyed moderate success for the next two seasons, but despite three 5th-place finishes, couldn’t quite find victory lane.

Other than the withdrawal of Vogler’s entry, it wasn’t until 1994, when Jimmy Hensley replaced Musgrave, that RaDiUs ever finished last in a Cup Series race.  That race was Michigan on June 19, where the #55 lost the engine after two laps.  However, by that point, DeWitt’s Nationwide Series team was starting to gain traction.  Current Cup Series spotter Tim Fedewa finished 10th in the 1994 standings, then jumped to 7th in 1995 after earning his lone series win at Nazareth.  In 106 Nationwide starts, the DeWitt team finished last just three times - all of them at Darlington.  Bobby Dotter finished last in one of the DeWitt team’s final starts in 1996.

Of this list, Kelso, Washington driver Ed Negre ranks the highest in the LASTCAR rankings, scoring ten last-place finishes to be tied for 15th-most in the Cup Series rankings.  Like Ellington, Negre ran as an owner-driver, but for much longer, competing in 338 starts over seventeen seasons between 1955 and 1979.

But as an owner, Negre’s cars finished last just two other times, both of which took place in 1975: Dean Dalton at Martinsville and Dick May at Dover.  The very next week after the Dover race, Negre put a then-unknown Dale Earnhardt in his #8 Dodge, resulting in a 22nd-place finish in the grueling World 600 at Charlotte.  Negre himself turned in a number of strong runs despite limited sponsorship.  Three of Negre’s four career top-five finishes occurred in his first three seasons on the tour during the west coast races at Portland and Eureka.  But as late as 1973, Negre still clawed his way into contention, finishing 5th at Nashville.  Negre’s team made its final start with fellow Mopar loyalist Buddy Arrington in 1981.

In all, Donlavey, Ellington, DeWitt, and Negre entered cars in more than 1,600 races, but finished last only 44 times between them.  In spite of running single-car operations with limited funding, all four still managed to fight for every position on the track, and as a result achieved the kind of longevity all teams still seek to accomplish.