CUP: Cole Whitt’s Last-Place Finish Is First For #26 At The Glen Since 1995

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin' Forums

Cole Whitt picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s Cheez-It 355 at the Glen at Watkins Glen International when his #26 Bully Hill Vineyards Toyota was involved in a hard single-car crash after he completed 9 of the race’s 90 laps.  The finish came in Whitt’s 36th career start.

The 23-year-old native of Alpine, California is competing in his first full Cup Series season.  He climbed quickly from a full season in the K&N East Series in 2010, one in Trucks in 2011, and one in Nationwide in 2012, finishing top-ten in points each year.  Whitt made his Cup debut at Phoenix in the fall of 2011, looking to drive for Team Red Bull.  However, when the team collapsed, Whitt ran on a part-time basis for Stacy Compton and Joe Falk in 2012 before joining Swan Racing in late 2013.

A single-car effort at the time, Swan Racing had grown steadily from its roots as the start-up Inception Motorsports in 2011.  Veteran driver David Stremme helped transition the team into a full-season effort, following a transition from Chevrolet to Toyota and ownership to Brandon Davis.  However, at the start of the 2013 Chase, Stremme was released so Whitt could share the ride with Kevin Swindell and Parker Kligerman.  Whitt’s best finish of 27th at Dover fell short of Kligerman’s best of 18th at Texas, but both were signed for the team’s expansion to two cars in 2014 - Kligerman in the #30 and Whitt in the new #26.

Unfortunately, a combination of sponsorship troubles and a series of costly crashes forced Swan Racing to shut down heading into Richmond, leaving Kligerman without a ride.  Whitt’s #26 was absorbed by the two-car team BK Racing, a team itself formed from the shutdown of Team Red Bull.  To date, Whitt has yet to improve on his career-best finish of 18th in Swan’s car at Fontana earlier this year.  However, he had failed to finish just two Cup races in 2014 - both due to late-race crashes at Daytona.

Since the Swan-BK merger, Whitt’s car has run nine different primary sponsors.  For Watkins Glen, he carried the bright gold and purple shades of local restaurant Bully Hill Vineyards, a fixture at The Glen since road course specialist Ron Fellows carried the colors in the late 1990s and early 2000s.  Whitt turned in the 35th-fastest speed in Friday’s first practice, improved to 26th in Happy Hour at the end of his last run, then jumped to 18th in qualifying with a lap of 127.715 mph.  The lap made Whitt the second-fastest rookie in the field, trailing only 15th-place Justin Allgiaer, and was his best Cup start since his career-best 17th at Daytona last month.

In the race itself, the 43rd spot on the grid belonged to Danica Patrick, who was having a particularly frustrating weekend.  In the opening practice, Patrick lost the engine, forcing her to start in the back regardless of her timed run.  Then, with less than three minutes left in Happy Hour, she cut a tire and slammed the Turn 9 wall, sending her to a backup which was the slowest car in qualifying.  By the chicane on the first lap, however, she had passed a handful of cars along with Regan Smith, the last-minute replacement of the #14 Stewart-Haas Racing entry following Stewart’s withdrawal after the tragic accident of the night before.

Slipping to 43rd after the moves by Patrick and Smith was Joe Nemechek, making his first Cup start at Watkins Glen in two years.  Then on Lap 4, Nemechek and his #66 Land Castle Title Toyota suddenly found themselves ahead of Kevin Harvick, forced to pit on Lap 4 for bean bags the crew mistakenly left in his #4 after pre-race inspection.  Justin Allgaier pitted with Harvick, putting the two in the final two spots.  The first car to lose a lap, however, was Paul Menard, who on Lap 5 went behind the wall after a lengthy stop for an early brake issue.

Menard’s crew was just finishing repairs when the first caution of the afternoon fell on Lap 10.  Whitt, running 19th at the time, suffered either a brake or throttle failure (or the combination of both) and completely missed the first corner.  His #26 shot off the track, then plowed head-on into the tire barrier separating the track from the grandstands.  Whitt climbed out unhurt, but his half-buried Toyota was done for the afternoon.  Menard returned to the track under the caution, dropping Whitt to last by the restart.

The remainder of the race was a slugfest, featuring several changes in the Bottom Five.  First Kyle Busch, then Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski spent time behind the wall, but all three returned to the track.  Busch suffered the biggest setback of the three.  Frustrated by a pit miscue for taking his gas can out of his stall, he banged doors with Martin Truex, Jr. in Turn 9, forcing more than twenty laps of repairs.  When Busch returned to the race in 42nd, a frightening crash on Lap 56 between Ryan Newman and Michael McDowell forced a nearly 90-minute red flag.  Busch managed to pass Newman and McDowell, but not Ryan Truex, whose #83 Burger King Toyota suffered a suspension failure in the closing laps.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first last-place finish for the #26 in a Cup race since October 7, 2012, when Josh Wise’s MDS Transport Ford overheated after 5 laps of the Good Sam Roadside Assistance 500 at Talladega.  It is the first last-place finish for the #26 in a Cup race at Watkins Glen since 1995, when Hut Stricklin’s Quaker State Ford broke a valve after 20 laps.
*This is the second-straight last-place finish for BK Racing at Watkins Glen.  Last year, David Reutimann’s #83 Burger King Toyota lost the engine after four laps.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #26-Cole Whitt / 9 laps / crash
42) #95-Michael McDowell / 55 laps / crash
41) #31-Ryan Newman / 55 laps / crash
40) #18-Kyle Busch / 69 laps / running
39) #83-Ryan Truex / 69 laps / suspension

LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Dave Blaney (2)
2nd) A.J. Allmendinger, Aric Almirola, Trevor Bayne, Mike Bliss, Clint Bowyer, Landon Cassill, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., David Gilliland, Denny Hamlin, Timmy Hill, Travis Kvapil, Michael McDowell, Joe Nemechek, Johnny Sauter, Morgan Shepherd, Tony Stewart, Martin Truex, Jr., Ryan Truex, Brian Vickers, Cole Whitt (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #77-Randy Humphrey Racing, #93-BK Racing (2)
2nd) #11-Joe Gibbs Racing, #14-Stewart-Haas Racing, #15-Michael Waltrip Racing, #21-Wood Brothers Racing, #26-BK Racing, #32-Go FAS Racing, #33-Circle Sport, #38-Front Row Motorsports, #40-Hillman Racing, #43-Richard Petty Motorsports, #47-JTG-Daugherty Racing, #55-Michael Waltrip Racing, #66-Michael Waltrip Racing / Identity Ventures Racing, #78-Furniture Row Racing, #83-BK Racing, #87-Identity Ventures Racing, #88-Hendrick Motorsports, #95-Leavine Family Racing (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (9)
2nd) Ford (7)
3rd) Chevrolet (6)

N’WIDE: Josh Wise Is Fourth Driver To Finish Last For TMG In 2014

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin' Forums

Josh Wise picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s Zippo 200 at the Glen at Watkins Glen International when his unsponsored #46 The Motorsports Group (TMG) Chevrolet fell out with brake problems after he completed 3 of the race’s 82 laps.

The finish is Wise’s first of the 2014 season and his first in the series since last August at Bristol, thirty-one races ago.  He is the fourth different driver to finish last in TMG’s #46 this season, a team which has scored five last-place runs in 2014.  The team still trails TriStar Motorsports’ #10 Toyota by three finishes.

Wise’s Nationwide effort complements his first full Cup season with Phil Parsons Racing.  Driving the #98 Chevrolets and Fords, Wise has made every race except Phoenix, thanks in part to the grassroots Dogecoin effort started at Reddit.  His best finish of the season was a 20th in the first Dogecoin race at Talladega, and he has just one DNF - a mid-race crash during the Coca-Cola 600.  One week before the crash, Wise earned the Sprint Fan Vote that allowed him to transfer into his first-ever start in the All-Star Race.

Watkins Glen was Wise’s first Nationwide start of the year driving the #46.  This gave teammate Matt DiBenedetto a chance to drive TMG’s primary #40 for the fifth time this season.  Wise’s best finish in sixteen previous starts this year came at Darlington, where he finished 15th.  In five other starts, however, mechanical troubles ended his race, including three engine failures at Fontana, Talladega, and Dover.  With TMG continuing to search for sponsorship, it was now Wise’s duty to park the #46.

Wise and DiBenedetto were among 41 drivers on the preliminary entry list for Saturday’s race.  However, by Friday, the number was cut to 39 following the withdrawals of Morgan Shepherd in his #89 and a third JGL Racing entry, #24, to be driven by road course instructor Chris Cook.  After not practicing in the first session, Wise put up the 35th-fastest time in Happy Hour, then on Saturday qualified 35th with an average speed of 116.060 mph.

Three laps into the race, Wise pulled off the track, followed three green-flag laps later by Blake Koch in TriStar’s #10.  Finishing 37th was road course ringer Kevin O’Connell, the 3rd-place finisher of the Nationwide event at Road America in June, whose #23 50 Campfires Chevrolet was wrecked by Trevor Bayne entering the Inner Loop.  As of this writing, reports indicate O’Connell does not yet have sponsorship for next week’s race at Mid-Ohio.

Joey Gase was four laps down when his Jimmy Means Racing #52 Donate Life / Finger Lakes Donor Recovery Chevrolet stalled entering the Esses during the third caution on Lap 36.  He was pushed behind the wall as J.J. Yeley, another top-five finisher from Road America also wrecked by Bayne, walked away from a destroyed #28 Texas 28 Spirits Stage Dodge fielded by JGL Racing.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first last-place finish for both Wise and the #46 in a Nationwide Series race at Watkins Glen.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
39) #46-Josh Wise / 3 laps / brakes
38) #10-Blake Koch / 6 laps / rear gear
37) #23-Kevin O’Connell / 25 laps / crash
36) #52-Joey Gase / 30 laps / electrical
35) #28-J.J. Yeley / 33 laps / crash

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Blake Koch (7)
2nd) Jeff Green (3)
3rd) Matt DiBenedetto, Kevin Lepage (2)
4th) Tanner Berryhill, Ryan Ellis, Matt Frahm, Robert Richardson, Jr., Tim Schendel, Jimmy Weller, Josh Wise (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #10-TriStar Motorsports (8)
2nd) #46-The Motorsports Group (5)
3rd) #91-TriStar Motorsports (2)
4th) #17-Vision Racing, #23-R3 Motorsports, #55-VIVA Motorsports / SS Green Light Racing, #74-Mike Harmon Racing, #87-Rick Ware Racing, #93-JGL Racing (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (10)
2nd) Chevrolet (8)
3rd) Dodge (3)

CUP: Johnny Sauter Scores First Cup Series Last-Place Finish Since 2010

SOURCE: Jeff Zelevansky, Getty Images

Johnny Sauter picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s GoBowling.com 400 at the Pocono Raceway when his #93 Dr. Pepper Toyota fell out with electrical problems after he completed 11 of the race’s 160 laps.

The finish was Sauter’s first of the 2014 season and his first in a Cup Series race since May 16, 2010, when his race at Dover in Tommy Baldwin’s unsponsored #36 ended with electrical problems after 29 laps.

Since that Dover race, Sauter had made just four Cup Series starts before he was tabbed to drive the “start-and-park” #93 entry at Pocono.  The preliminary entry list had Mike Bliss in the #93, as he had piloted the car in both its starts this season at Kentucky and Loudon.  However, on Friday, it was announced that Sauter would drive the car while Bliss would race for TriStar Motorsports in the Nationwide Series race at Iowa.

BK’s #93 kept Sunday’s field at 43 cars, and with no drivers going home after qualifying, Sauter was guaranteed his first Pocono start in the Cup Series since his 36th-place run driving HAAS-CNC Racing’s #70 (now Stewart-Haas Racing’s #14) on August 5, 2007.

Sauter was slowest in the opening practice session, having turned just one lap at an average speed of 165.896 mph.  He improved to 166.162 mph in qualifying, but still remained the slowest car in the field, guaranteeing him the 43rd starting spot.  Kyle Larson, who earned his first career pole that day, timed in at 183.438 mph.  Sauter was the only driver to not participate in either of Saturday’s practices, and the team prepared for its short run on Sunday.

On Lap 10, Sauter was running 4 seconds behind the next car when the caution flew for the first time for Jimmie Johnson.  Johnson, who twice narrowly averted his first last-place finish in the previous three races, had made contact with the outside wall and cut down a left-rear tire.  Sauter stayed on the track during the caution while Johnson lost a lap and briefly fell to 43rd.  But on the restart, Sauter pulled off the track, and secured his last-place finish.

Johnson clawed his way up to 4th spot on Lap 111 when yet another cut tire ended his day with a hard crash in the tunnel turn.  Between Sauter and Johnson in the Bottom Five were three drivers who were all involved in incidents during the first 52 laps.  42nd-place Kyle Busch lost the engine on his #18 M&M’s Toyota on Lap 24, leaving him with his worst finish since Dover.  Landon Cassill ended up 41st when his #40 Newtown Building Supplies Chevrolet slammed the Turn 2 wall on Lap 30.

40th-place Joe Nemechek, making his first Cup start since Kentucky, crossed paths with Kasey Kahne coming off Turn 3 on Lap 52.  Nemechek fought to maintain control, but made hard contact with the frontstretch wall.  Frustrated with Kahne, who complained on the radio that Nemechek should have been parked, Nemechek returned to the track 34 laps down by Lap 85.  He remained on track until Lap 132, when his Land Castle Title Toyota trailed smoke on the Long Pond stretch, ending his afternoon.

There was so much attrition in Sunday’s race that all of the thirteen drivers involved in the day’s biggest accident on Lap 118 finished outside the Bottom Five.

Dave Blaney, still the 2014 LASTCAR Cup Series leader, made his first Cup start since trailing the field in the June Pocono race.  Driving the #37 Tommy Baldwin Racing entry which debuted with Bobby Labonte last week at Indianapolis, Blaney came home 26th, two laps down.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first last-place finish for the #93 in a Cup Series race at Pocono.  It is the first for BK Racing at Pocono since June 10, 2012, when Landon Cassill’s #83 Burger King Real Fruit Smoothies Toyota crashed after 1 lap.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #93-Johnny Sauter / 11 laps / electrical
42) #18-Kyle Busch / 23 laps / engine
41) #40-Landon Cassill / 28 laps / crash
40) #66-Joe Nemechek / 88 laps / crash
39) #48-Jimmie Johnson / 111 laps / crash

LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Dave Blaney (2)
2nd) A.J. Allmendinger, Aric Almirola, Trevor Bayne, Mike Bliss, Clint Bowyer, Landon Cassill, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., David Gilliland, Denny Hamlin, Timmy Hill, Travis Kvapil, Michael McDowell, Joe Nemechek, Johnny Sauter, Morgan Shepherd, Tony Stewart, Martin Truex, Jr., Ryan Truex, Brian Vickers (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #77-Randy Humphrey Racing, #93-BK Racing (2)
2nd) #11-Joe Gibbs Racing, #14-Stewart-Haas Racing, #15-Michael Waltrip Racing, #21-Wood Brothers Racing, #32-Go FAS Racing, #33-Circle Sport, #38-Front Row Motorsports, #40-Hillman Racing, #43-Richard Petty Motorsports, #47-JTG-Daugherty Racing, #55-Michael Waltrip Racing, #66-Michael Waltrip Racing / Identity Ventures Racing, #78-Furniture Row Racing, #83-BK Racing, #87-Identity Ventures Racing, #88-Hendrick Motorsports, #95-Leavine Family Racing (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (8)
2nd) Ford (7)
3rd) Chevrolet (6)

N’WIDE: Matt Frahm Trails First Nationwide Series Field In Nearly Three Years

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin' Forums

Matt Frahm picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s U.S. Cellular 250 at the Iowa Speedway when his unsponsored #46 The Motorsports Group Chevrolet fell out with ignition trouble after he completed 3 of the race’s 250 laps.

The finish was Frahm’s first of the 2014 season and his first in the series since November 12, 2011, 88 races ago, when he was involved in an opening-lap crash at Phoenix.

Frahm, a 24-year-old driver from North Salem, New Hampshire, was making just his eighth start since the 2011 Phoenix race and his second of the 2014 season.  In his most recent start at Loudon, driving the #44 TriStar Motorsports entry, Frahm matched his career-best 25th-place finish at Lucas Oil Raceway in 2011, when he drove Go Green Racing’s #39.

At Iowa, Frahm would reunite with The Motorsports Group, who fielded a car for him in his only other Iowa start in 2012, finishing 38th in the #42.  This time, he would drive the #46 which had already finished last three times this season with Ryan Ellis and Matt DiBenedetto.

Frahm’s team was originally one of just 38 cars on the preliminary entry list, but two last-minute entries brought the field up to a full 40 starters.  On July 28, Mike Harmon entered his #74 30 Days Foundation Dodge.  Then on August 1, James Carter’s #72 team joined as a post-entry for the second-consecutive week, this time with Scottish driver John Jackson behind the wheel.  While Iowa would be Harmon’s first start since Chicago, two races ago, it would be Jackson’s first Nationwide race since May 20, 2012, also at Iowa.

Frahm, Harmon, and Jackson all ended up in Saturday’s Bottom Five.

Frahm didn’t participate in the opening practice session, then ranked 37th of 38 in Happy Hour, besting Jackson.  He qualified 39th, ahead of Harmon, with a lap of 125.794 mph.

Frahm exited after three laps, followed two circuits later by Harmon.  Current 2014 LASTCAR leader Blake Koch exited after thirteen laps, once again carrying sponsorship from M&W Logistics Group, Inc. on TriStar’s #10.  Jackson left the race ten laps after Koch, followed seven laps later by Morgan Shepherd, making his first Nationwide start since Dover, eight races ago.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*The #46 The Motorsports Group team has swept both last-place finishes at Iowa in 2014.  Both were listed with ignition trouble as the cause.  The team has finished last in half of the last six races at the track, including Chase Miller’s run in the spring of 2012.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #46-Matt Frahm / 3 laps / ignition
39) #74-Mike Harmon / 5 laps / rear gear
38) #10-Blake Koch / 13 laps / vibration
37) #72-John Jackson / 23 laps / brakes
36) #89-Morgan Shepherd / 30 laps / overheating

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Blake Koch (7)
2nd) Jeff Green (3)
3rd) Matt DiBenedetto, Kevin Lepage (2)
4th) Tanner Berryhill, Ryan Ellis, Matt Frahm, Robert Richardson, Jr., Tim Schendel, Jimmy Weller (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #10-TriStar Motorsports (8)
2nd) #46-The Motorsports Group (4)
3rd) #91-TriStar Motorsports (2)
4th) #17-Vision Racing, #23-R3 Motorsports, #55-VIVA Motorsports / SS Green Light Racing, #74-Mike Harmon Racing, #87-Rick Ware Racing, #93-JGL Racing (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (10)
2nd) Chevrolet (7)
3rd) Dodge (3)

TRUCKS: Justin Jennings Exits Early In Second Randy Young Truck

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin' Forums

Justin Jennings picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career in Saturday’s Pocono Mountains 150 at the Pocono Raceway when his #63 Randco / Young’s Building Systems Chevrolet fell out with a vibration after he completed 2 of the race’s 64 laps.

The finish was Jennings’ second of the 2014 season and his first since Gateway, four races ago.  At the halfway point of the season, he is now tied with Ryan Ellis for the lead in the 2014 LASTCAR Truck Series Championship.

For the second time this year, Jennings did not run a full-race entry fielded by Mike Mittler, but instead a “start-and-park” #63 truck fielded by Randy Young to help fund Young’s primary #02 driven by Tyler Young.  In his previous start for Young at Texas, Jennings came home 26th of 27 starters in a Chevrolet driven earlier that year by Charles Lewandoski.  Two races ago at Iowa, Jennings scored a season-best 15th-place finish.  But for Pocono, the objective was different.

Jennings was 28th-fastest of 30 in the opening practice session and did not participate in Happy Hour.  He qualified 31st for Saturday’s race at an average speed of 152.418 mph, one spot ahead of Caleb Roark in Jennifer Jo Cobb’s #0.  Roark was behind the wheel of the #0 after current LASTCAR leader Ryan Ellis returned to Jim Rosenblum’s #28, a team absent since their accident at Charlotte in May.  Ellis finished 19th.

In the race itself, Jennings pulled behind the wall one lap ahead of Roark.  30th-place B.J. McLeod, who relieved an injured John Wes Townley in Friday’s ARCA race, fell out nine laps later in Bobby Dotter’s #07 Thunder Exhaust / American Tactical / JD Squared Chevrolet.  T.J. Bell finished 29th, his #50 Fallen Linemen Organization Chevrolet out with transmission problems after 13 laps.  Rounding out the Bottom Five was Ray Black, Jr., McLeod’s teammate in the #08 ScubaLife / NASE Worldwide Chevrolet, taken out in a single-truck accident that brought out the first caution of the afternoon.

Tyler Young, Jennings’ part-time teammate, ran a solid race until a controversial accident between Tyler Reddick and German Quiroga took him out just two laps from the finish.  Young ended up 26th, retired with crash damage.  Reddick, retaliating after an earlier tangle with Quiroga, was parked for aggressive driving.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first last-place finish for both Jennings and the #63 in a Truck Series race at Pocono.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
32) #63-Justin Jennings / 2 laps / vibration
31) #0-Caleb Roark / 3 laps / engine
30) #07-B.J. McLeod / 12 laps / electrical
29) #50-T.J. Bell / 13 laps / transmission
28) #08-Ray Black, Jr. / 16 laps / crash

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Ryan Ellis, Justin Jennings (2)
2nd) Mike Affarano, Alex Guenette, Blake Koch, Charles Lewandoski, Tommy Regan, Scott Stenzel, Jason White (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #0-Jennifer Jo Cobb, #36-Mike Mittler, #63-Mike Mittler / Randy Young (2)
2nd) #42-Randy Young, #45-Regan Motorsports, #74-Mario Gosselin, #93-RSS Racing, #03-Mike Affarano Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (10)
2nd) RAM (1)