CUP: Ryan Blaney Last As Tire Issues Fill Texas Bottom Five

SOURCE: NASCAR Media

Ryan Blaney picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway when his #21 Snap-On Tools Ford was involved in a single-car crash that ended his run after 26 of 334 laps.

The finish, which occurred in Blaney’s 17th series start, was his first since Talladega, two races ago.

Texas was Blaney’s first Cup start since the last-place run at Talladega, the Wood Brothers team passing on the race at the Martinsville track near the team’s birthplace near Stuart, Virginia.  While Blaney had finished 2nd, 8th, and 3rd in his three XFINITY Series starts at the 1.5-mile quad-oval, an early engine failure in the Cup race this past spring left him 42nd, when he was edged for last by J.J. Yeley.

In what turned out to be the weekend’s only practice session for the 45 entered Cup drivers, Blaney put up the 7th-fastest time overall, besting half of the Chase field.  Qualifying proved less fruitful, however, as Brian Scott edged him by six-thousandths of a second for the final spot in Round 2.  He would start Sunday’s race 25th with an average speed of 195.525 mph.  Missing the show were Reed Sorenson, his #62 Premium Motorsports entry the slowest to take time, and the #32 ZAK Products / Donate Life Texas Ford of XFINITY Series regular Joey Gase, who was looking to make his first Cup start since Kansas in May.

Starting 43rd on Sunday was Justin Allgaier, whose HScott Motorsports teammate Michael Annett suffered the latest in a series of yet-unexplained hauler fires.  While no one was injured in the fire, Annett’s Texas cars were destroyed, and the Iowa driver rolled out 37th in Allgaier’s backup.  By the end of Lap 1, 42nd-place starter Ryan Preece fell to last in the #98 Xyience Chevrolet.  Preece was still running in the back on Lap 10, when the first caution fell with championship implications.

Joey Logano qualified 4th in his #22 AAA Insurance Ford and was a favorite to lock himself into the Championship Round of the Chase with a win.  In the aftermath of NASCAR’s controversial two-race suspension of Matt Kenseth, who had wrecked Logano at Martinsville in retaliation for his own championship-ending incident at Kansas, the Texas crowd cheered on Lap 11 when Logano’s #22 spun by himself on the apron of Turn 3 with a cut left-rear tire.  The tire shredded away sheet metal and foam from the inside of his car, and after turning one more lap, the Penske Racing crew pulled Logano behind the wall.  Logano was the first driver to lose a lap as he quickly took 43rd from Preece.

The race restarted on Lap 18, but just eight circuits later the caution fell once more.  This time, Blaney was the victim, his #21 contact with the wall off Turn 4 cutting a tre before he slowed with heavy right-front damage in Turn 2.  The Wood Brothers team pulled Blaney’s ride to the garage to join Logano, and soon after his Ford was listed out of the race.  Logano returned to the track on Lap 76, his damaged ride 64 circuits back of the leaders, and on Lap 92, Blaney fell to last in the final change for 43rd.

Logano made it to only 40th at race’s end, and with the other seven Chase drivers finishing inside the Top 10 combined with teammate Brad Keselowski’s narrow loss to Jimmie Johnson, both Penske Racing cars need to win at Phoenix to make the title fight at Homestead.  42nd went to Tony Stewart, who narrowly avoided his first last-place run since Watkins Glen when his #14 Bass Pro Shops / Mobil 1 Chevrolet lost control and dug into the infield grass on Lap 53.  41st went to Alex Bowman, who Logano nipped in the final laps when the LASTCAR runner-up’s #7 Nikko / Road Rippers Chevrolet lost an engine.  39th went to Trevor Bayne, whose #6 AdvoCare Ford was among the many other victims of cut or blown tires, his triggering the eighth yellow on Lap 198.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first last-place finish for the #21 in a Cup Series race at Texas.  The Wood Brothers team also never finished last in any of the eight Cup races held at the old Texas World Speedway in College Station from 1969 through 1981.  The team’s best run at the two-mile track was by A.J. Foyt, whose Purolator Mercury started on pole and came home 2nd on November 12, 1972.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #21-Ryan Blaney / 26 laps / crash
42) #14-Tony Stewart / 52 laps / crash
41) #7-Alex Bowman / 236 laps / engine
40) #22-Joey Logano / 268 laps / running
39) #6-Trevor Bayne / 296 laps / running

LASTCAR CHAMPIONSHIP UPDATE
With two races to go, Landon Cassill’s only challengers mathematically eligible for the 2015 LASTCAR Cup Series Championshp are Alex Bowman, Michael Annett, and J.J. Yeley.

Bowman can only control his destiny by sweeping both last-place finishes at Phoenix and Homestead, thus taking the lead from Cassill outright.  He can also win with just one more last-place finish, but only if Cassill doesn’t finish inside the Bottom Five in either race - Bowman is currently tied with Cassill with 7 Bottom Fives apiece, but trails Cassill in Bottom Ten finishes, 14-10.

Annett and Yeley can claim the title by sweeping the final two last-place runs no matter where Cassill finishes.  Annett already leads Cassill on Bottom Fives, 8-7.  Yeley, who has matched Cassill’s 7 bottom-fives, leads Cassill in Bottom Tens by an insurmountable 21-14.  At least one of these two drivers will be eliminated by not finishing 43rd at Phoenix, and both will fall from contention if they both come up short.

While Ryan Blaney now sits in a five-way tie for third in the LASTCAR standings and can match Cassill’s four finishes with a sweep of the final two 43rd-place runs, he has been mathematically eliminated from title contention along with the remaining two-timers - Aric Almirola and Kasey Kahne.  Almirola and Kahne have only 2 and 3 bottom-five finishes to Cassill’s 7, preventing a successful tiebreaker on Bottom Fives.  Blaney, meanwhile, has 5 Bottom Fives, but due in part to his limited schedule trails Cassill in Bottom Tens 14-5.  Blaney is also not listed to run in next week’s Cup race at Phoenix, making a two-race sweep impossible.

2015 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Landon Cassill (4)
2nd) Alex Bowman (3)
3rd) Aric Almirola, Michael Annett, Ryan Blaney, Kasey Kahne, J.J. Yeley (2)
4th) Justin Allgaier, A.J. Allmendinger, Trevor Bayne, Clint Bowyer, Jeb Burton, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Joey Gase, David Gilliland, Timmy Hill, Sam Hornish, Jr., Bobby Labonte, Brian Scott, Tony Stewart, Cole Whitt, Josh Wise (1)

2015 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Hillman Smith Motorsports (4)
2nd) BK Racing, Hendrick Motorsports, HScott Motorsports, Richard Petty Motorsports, Tommy Baldwin Racing (3)
3rd) Go FAS Racing, Front Row Motorsports, Phil Parsons Racing / Premium Motorsports, Wood Brothers Racing (2)
4th) Joe Gibbs Racing, JTG-Daugherty Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Richard Childress Racing / Circle Sport, Roush-Fenway Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing (1)

2015 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (18)
2nd) Ford (11)
3rd) Toyota (5)

XFINITY: For The Third Time, Jeff Green Scores Four Last-Place Finishes In A Row

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin' Forums

Jeff Green picked up the 81st last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at the Texas Motor Speedway when his #19 Premier Barter Exchange Toyota fell out with transmission issues after he completed 4 of 204 laps.

The finish, which came in Green’s 418th series start, was his 21st of the 2015 season, his fourth in a row, and his sixth in the last eight races.  It is the second four-race last-place streak of Green’s XFINITY Series career, matching the streaks in August 2011 and July-August of this year.

As the XFINITY Series returned to action for the first time in three weeks, Green rejoined a list of 40 entrants for 40 spots in the second event of the Texas race weekend.  Green put his #19 34th in Friday’s lone practice session and remained in that spot for the race after qualifying was cancelled by rain.

During the opening 26 laps of green-flag racing, four drivers pulled behind the wall, led by Green on Lap 5.  Four laps behind him was Canadian owner-driver Mario Gosselin, who started last in his #92 Bucked Up Chevrolet while Martin Roy ran the full race in King Autosport’s #90 Gamache Truck Center / Cote Chevrolet.  38th spot went to T.J. Bell, his fourth-straight bottom-five finish in JGL Racing’s unsponsored #26 Toyota.  37th belonged to Motorsports Business Management with Josh Reaume in Derek White’s #40 Lodestar Guidance / VictoryWeekend.com Dodge - Reaume’s first XFINITY Sries start since last month at Charlotte, when he took a turn for JD Motorsports.

Rounding out the Bottom Five was the #14 Toyota, one of Green’s teammates at TriStar Motorsports.  Through the season’s first 30 races, West Virginian short tracker Cale Conley competed with limited funding for his second season on the tour, carrying logos representing the Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America.  Despite making all the races and finishing a season-best 16th, however, sponsorship woes took Conley out of this ride.  Mike Bliss, who earlier this year at Iowa was similarly excused from TriStar’s #19, found himself back with the team in a now-unsponsored #14.  Bliss ran more laps than any other driver in the Bottom Five, turning 40 in total before officially exiting with transmission issues.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marks Green’s fourth last-place finish in an XFINITY Series race at Texas, but his first in the fall race.  It is also the first time the #19 has trailed an XFINITY Series race at the track.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #19-Jeff Green / 4 laps / transmission
39) #92-Mario Gosselin / 9 laps / vibration
38) #26-T.J. Bell / 12 laps / electrical
37) #40-Josh Reaume / 14 laps / suspension
36) #14-Mike Bliss / 40 laps / transmission

2015 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green (21) - 2015 CHAMPION
2nd) Dexter Bean (2)
3rd) Ryan Ellis, C.J. Faison, Mike Harmon, Blake Koch, Charles Lewandoski, Carl Long, Morgan Shepherd, Derek White (1)

2015 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) TriStar Motorsports (23)
2nd) King Autosport, Motorsports Business Management (2)
3rd) JGL Racing, Mike Harmon Racing, Rick Ware Racing, Shepherd Racing Ventures (1)

2015 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (25)
2nd) Chevrolet (3)
3rd) Dodge (2)
4th) Ford (1)

TRUCKS: Caleb Roark Bids For Second-Straight LASTCAR Title After Close Texas Contest

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin' Forums

Caleb Roark picked up the 7th last-place finish of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career in Friday’s WinStar World Casino & Resort 350 at the Texas Motor Speedway when electrical issues prevented his #0 Driven2Honor.org Chevrolet from completing any of the 147 laps.

The finish, which occurred, in Roark’s 23rd series start, was his first since Pocono, 9 races ago and breaks a three-way tie with Norm Benning and Tyler Tanner for the 2015 LASTCAR Truck Series lead.  With two races to go, Roark is now in position to claim his second-straight LASTCAR title.

Roark’s truck made it an even 32 for as many spots in Friday’s field, and he was guaranteed to make his first series start since last month’s 30th-place finish at Las Vegas.  With just one lap turned in Thursday’s opening practice, Roark was 29th-fastest overall, and in Happy Hour later that day, he failed to complete a lap at all.  One week after engine issues cancelled Brad Foy’s series debut in the truck, electrical issues now reared their ugly head, and the #0 was now having issues starting.  These issues persisted in qualifying, and when time expired on the five-minute clock, he was unable to put up a time and was set to roll off 31st.

With just one caution on the night, Friday’s race was the fastest in series history, and the last-place battle ended just as quickly - Roark’s electrical issues prevented him from completing a lap.  Roark managed to edge fellow LASTCAR contender Tyler Tanner, whose backup #36 Mittler Bros. Machine & Tool Chevrolet for MB Motorsports lost an engine in practice, and the team couldn’t get a functioning backup.

Both Roark and Tanner were six laps behind 30th-place Mike Harmon, who debuted a second unsponsored truck of his own, #49, which he drove in addition to Jordan Anderson’s 21st-place #74 Columbia, South Carolina / Knight Fire Protection Chevrolet.  MAKE Motorsports again had both trucks in the show, and this time former XFINITY Series driver Dexter Stacey pulled the team’s unsponsored #50 Chevrolet behind the wall after 11 laps.  Rounding out the Bottom Five was Todd Peck, who was making his first series start since coming home next-to-last at Michigan in June.  Peck’s family-owned team, which ran the #40 earlier this season, on Friday became the third different program to run the #45 in the series in 2015.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing’s #0 has swept both last-place runs at Texas in 2015 and has trailed in four of the last five Truck Series races held at the track.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
32) #0-Caleb Roark / 0 laps / electrical
31) #36-Tyler Tanner / 0 laps / engine
30) #49-Mike Harmon / 6 laps / engine
29) #50-Dexter Stacey / 11 laps / electrical
28) #45-Todd Peck / 17 laps / suspension

LASTCAR CHAMPIONSHIP UPDATE
With two races to go, four drivers remain in contention for the LASTCAR Truck Series Championship - joining Roark are Tyler Tanner, Norm Benning, and Justin Jennings.

Three-time last-placers Norm Benning and Tyler Tanner can only control their own destiny by finishing last at both Phoenix and Homestead, taking the lead outright.

Benning will be eliminated if he doesn’t finish last at Phoenix - he trails Roark in bottom-fives 8-4 and cannot rely on a tiebreaker.  Tanner can finish last in one race and prevail in a tiebreaker if Roark fails to finish in the Bottom Ten in both races - in that situation, Tanner would match Roark’s 8 Bottom Fives, but prevail by a single Bottom Ten, 9-8.  This will be challenging, however, as Roark’s “start-and-park” ride has not finished outside the Bottom Ten all season.

Two-time last-placer Jennings has a good chance of winning the title, but only if he sweeps the final two last-place finishes of the season.  Jennings currently has 9 bottom-five finishes and 13 in the Bottom Ten, meaning that if he ties Roark, Tanner, or Benning, he will win either tiebreaker no matter where those three drivers finish in both races.  It would be a surprising development after this site prematurely awarded Jennings the title after Phoenix in 2014.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Jo Cobb, who also has two last-place finishes and 11 Bottom Tens, has been eliminated from LASTCAR contention.  Cobb has just 3 Bottom Fives in 2015 and, even with a two-race sweep, cannot win the tiebreaker against Roark’s season total of 8.  Cobb’s two-truck team, however, has now clinched the 2015 LASTCAR Truck Series Owner’s title by three finishes over Mike Mittler and Norm Benning.

2015 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Caleb Roark (4)
2nd) Norm Benning, Tyler Tanner (3)
3rd) Justin Jennings, Jennifer Jo Cobb (2)
4th) Adam Edwards, Joey Gattina, J.J. Haley, Stew Hayward, Travis Kvapil, Justin Marks, Robert Mitten (1)

2015 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing (7)
2nd) MB Motorsports, Norm Benning Racing (4)
3rd) MAKE Motorsports (2)
4th) Braun Motorsports, Mike Harmon Racing, NDS Motorsports, Win-Tron Racing (1)

2015 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (18)
2nd) RAM (2)
3rd) Toyota (1)

CUP: As Chaos Reigns Up Front at Martinsville, Clint Bowyer Finishes In The Back

SOURCE: Motorsport.com

Clint Bowyer picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 at the Martinsville Speedway when his #15 Maxwell House Toyota crashed after he completed 185 of 500 laps.

The finish, which came in Bowyer’s 358th series start, was his first of the season and his first in Cup since last fall at Charlotte, 38 races ago.

2015 has been a season of beginnings and ends for the Kansas veteran.  Bowyer opened his fourth season with Michael Waltrip Racing with a 7th-place run in he Daytona 500, locked in the three-wide battle for position behind race winner Joey Logano.  Just four races later, however, he had dropped to 20th in points with four-straight finishes outside the Top 20.  He steadily improved over the summer, picking up three top-ten runs in June including a season-best 3rd at Sonoma.  But in late July, while in the thick of a battle for a Chase berth, the news broke that MWR had lost its partner, Rob Kauffman, and the two-car team would be ceasing operations at the end of the year.

Without a win, but a 10th-place finish at Richmond in September, Bowyer still secured a berth in the 2015 Chase, his first playoff run since 2013.  He came home 19th in the Chase opener at Chicago - second-worst among the sixteen contenders - but was then docked 25 driver points for an unapproved rear end suspension discovered during pre-qualifying inspection.  The penalty dealt a fatal blow to Bowyer’s title chances, and he was eliminated after the first cutoff race at Dover.  A few days later, it was announced that Bowyer and sponsor 5-Hour Energy would move to HScott Motorsports in 2016 in preparation to replace a retiring Tony Stewart at Stewart-Haas Racing in 2017.  As MWR has continued to wind down operations, the effort has turned to getting as many good finishes as possible.

Bowyer started the Martinsville weekend with the 9th-fastest time in the opening practice session and secured the 17th-fastest time in qualifying, just missing the cut for the final round with a lap of 97.714 mph.  On Saturday, Bowyer was just 22nd in the first session, then climbed to 11th in Happy Hour.

Starting last on Sunday was Alex Kennedy in the black #33 Little Joe’s Auto Chevrolet for Circle Sport, the California driver 33rd in his Martinsville debut in March.  During the opening 7 laps run under a green/yellow start due to rain, Kennedy was joined by Kasey Kahne and Tony Stewart, who both went to backup cars after crashes in qualifying and practice, respectively.  When the race finally went green on Lap 8, Kennedy followed Kahne and Stewart through the field, dropping Timmy Hill to 43rd in Premium Motorsports’ unsponsored #62 Chevrolet.  Around Lap 28, Hill became the first driver to lose a lap, and he held the spot until Lap 82, when Trevor Bayne made an unscheduled green-flag stop in the #6 AdvoCare Ford, costing 3 laps.

Hill’s Chevrolet fought a persistent oil leak in the first quarter of the race, trailing whisps of smoke that soon drew the attention of NASCAR officials.  On Lap 84, Hill retook last from Bayne when he pulled into the garage to allow the team to make repairs.  Joining Hill at the bottom of the field was Brett Moffitt, whose #34 Dockside Logistics Ford came in for a new battery on Lap 85.  On Lap 102, Moffitt returned to the track in 42nd, and on Lap 114, Hill also came back, 33 laps down and still in 43rd.

On Lap 128, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. was struggling with damage to the nose of his #17 Zest Ford suffered in a chain-reaction accident on Lap 114.  On Lap 128, Stenhouse was 5 laps down when the car veered into the wall entering Turn 3, drawing the fifth caution of the afternoon.  The lengthy repairs to Stenhouse’s right-front cost several more laps, and he took last from Hill on Lap 155.  Stenhouse’s girlfriend Danica Patrick, also involved in the Lap 114 accident, lost her temper with David Gilliland and his #38 Jerry Cook Tribute Ford.  The first of these two fender-benders came on Lap 158, and she pulled into the garage on Lap 174 before dropping to 41st on Lap 180.  Stenhouse, still last, returned to the track on Lap 189, followed by Patrick on Lap 192, her #10 GoDaddy Chevrolet just 8 laps from taking 42nd from Timmy Hill.  If things stayed the same, Stenhouse would score his first Cup Series last-place finish with Hill in 42nd and Patrick in 41st.

However, just before Stenhouse and Patrick returned, Bowyer ran into trouble.  On Lap 187, running on the high side of a three-wide battle with Kyle Larson and David Ragan entering Turn 3, the two cars to Bowyer’s inside made contact and sent him spinning into the outside wall.  Though Bowyer managed to get his car rolling again under the ninth caution of the afternoon, he immediately pulled into the garage.  The Michael Waltrip Racing crew found the damage too severe to continue, and the #15 never returned to the track.  On Lap 201, Bowyer fell to 40th and was listed as “out” soon after.  He fell to last on Lap 256, taking the spot from Stenhouse.

Patrick and Stenhouse finished 40th and 39th, respectively.  Patrick tangled with Gilliland a second time on Lap 430 and chased him to the apron, destroying the nose of her Chevrolet.  Although she returned to the track, the damage proved too substantial, and she exited the race with crash damage in the final laps.  Between Bowyer and Patrick in the Bottom Five were 42nd-place Ryan Preece and 41st-place Kyle Fowler, who were both making their second Cup Series starts.  Preece’s #98 Vydox Plus Ford for Premium Motorsports caught air when he ran over the grass entrance to pit road on Lap 137 while Fowler’s pink #32 Keen Parts.com / CorvetteParts.net Ford bashed the wall on Lap 379 following brake failure.  Preece returned to the race in the closing stages, 135 laps back, while Fowler retired.

LASTCAR STATSTICS
*This was the first last-place finish for the #15 in a Cup race at Martinsville since April 26, 1992, when Geoff Bodine’s #15 Motorcraft Ford - fielded by Hall of Famer Bud Moore’s single-car operation - lost the engine after 104 laps of the Hanes 500.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #15-Clint Bowyer / 185 laps / crash
42) #98-Ryan Preece / 365 laps / running
41) #32-Kyle Fowler / 373 laps / brakes
40) #10-Danica Patrick / 391 laps / crash
39) #17-Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. / 423 laps / running

2015 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Landon Cassill (4)
2nd) Alex Bowman (3)
3rd) Aric Almirola, Michael Annett, Kasey Kahne, J.J. Yeley (2)
4th) Justin Allgaier, A.J. Allmendinger, Trevor Bayne, Ryan Blaney, Clint Bowyer, Jeb Burton, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Joey Gase, David Gilliland, Timmy Hill, Sam Hornish, Jr., Bobby Labonte, Brian Scott, Tony Stewart, Cole Whitt, Josh Wise (1)

2015 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Hillman Smith Motorsports (4)
2nd) BK Racing, Hendrick Motorsports, HScott Motorsports, Richard Petty Motorsports, Tommy Baldwin Racing (3)
3rd) Go FAS Racing, Front Row Motorsports, Phil Parsons Racing / Premium Motorsports (2)
4th) Joe Gibbs Racing, JTG-Daugherty Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Richard Childress Racing / Circle Sport, Roush-Fenway Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing, Wood Brothers Racing (1)

2015 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (18)
2nd) Ford (10)
3rd) Toyota (5)

TRUCKS: J.J. Haley Only Retiree From Martinsville Slugfest

SOURCE: jjhaleyracing.com

J.J. Haley picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career in Saturday’s Kroger 200 at the Martinsville Speedway when his #32 Great Clips Chevrolet was involved in a single-truck crash that ended his run after 119 of 200 laps.  The finish came in Haley’s second series start.

A sixteen-year-old development driver for Braun Motorsports, Haley has moved from quarter midgets to a number of sporadic starts in NASCAR.  In 2014, Haley competed in ARCA and both the West and East divisions of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series.  This year, Haley has earned a combined nine top-five finishes across the three divisions and made the move to NASCAR’s top three divisions.  His Truck Series debut came two months ago at Bristol, where he came home a solid 14th.  Martinsville would be his next attempt.

A season-high 39 drivers were on Martinsville’s preliminary entry list - so many, in fact, that three withdrew in the lead-up to qualifying.  On Friday, B.J. McLeod’s #45 Tilted Kilt Chevrolet was pulled along with MB Motorsports’ “start-and-park” #36 entry, which did not have a listed driver.  The withdrawals followed the once-again late entries fielded by MAKE Motorsports, who this week put Camden Murphy in the #1 and Travis Kvapil in the #50.

Late model racer Brad Foy looked to make his NASCAR debut in Jennifer Jo Cobb’s #0 Driven2Honor.org Chevrolet.  Foy entered the race while grieving from a devastating tragedy after the death of his father.  Foy turned in the 31st-fastest time in the opening practice session, outpacing Cobb’s locked-in truck that was 36th, but an engine failure forced the team to pull his entry.

Haley ran 22nd in the opening session and 20th in Happy Hour before he secured the 22nd starting spot with a speed of 94.200 mph.

The four drivers who missed the field were led by Norm Benning, who scored just his second DNQ of the year and his first since New Hampshire.  Benning is still tied for the lead in the 2015 LASTCAR Truck Series Championship, but his four bottom-five finishes trail co-leaders Caleb Roark’s 7 and Tyler Tanner’s 6.  Joining Benning were Brandon Brown, his fourth DNQ of his sophomore season, Chuck Buchanan, Jr., his fourth unsuccessful attempt to make his series debut, and K&N West Series driver Jimmy Weiler, the 42-year-old Sonoma, California driver missing the cut in his first series attempt.

Starting 32nd in Saturday’s race was Cobb, who ran an old Chevrolet body on her #10 Driven2Honor.org-sponsored entry.  Cobb was among the first drivers to lose a lap, and by Lap 100 was joined by only two other lapped machines with drivers making their first series starts:  Louisiana’s Brandon Hightower in MB Motorsports’ #08 St. Jude Children’s Hospital / Operation 2nd Chance Chevrolet and Wisconsin short tracker Paige Decker in Mike Harmon’s #74 Eagle River Derbytrack RAM, returning from a DNQ in the spring race.  Decker and Hightower both spun in the early stages with Decker taking last from Cobb as the trio lost laps.  The #74 was still trailing the field on Lap 120 when trouble broke out in Turn 1.

That time by, J.J. Haley was running on the lead lap in 26th when his brakes failed going into the first corner.  His truck switched ends and backed hard into the outside wall, stopping the machine against the outside wall.  Haley was uninjured, but his truck was too damaged to continue, and he became the first - and only - retiree from the event.

Cobb and Decker finished under power in the next two spots while Hightower climbed to 27th.  29th went to Spencer Gallagher, whose #23 Allegiant Travel Chevrolet briefly entered the Top 5 on old tires only to be involved in his second-straight late-race accident with just six laps to go.  Rounding out the Bottom Five was 17-year-old K&N Pro Series West rookie Dalton Sargeant, who brought out three cautions in the #5 Galt Toyota.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first last-place finish for the #32 in a Truck Series race since March 12, 2011, when Brad Sweet’s own turn in the Great Clips Chevrolet - then fielded by Turner Motorsports - crashed after 13 laps of the Too Tough To Tame 200 at Darlington.  The number had never before finished last in a Truck Series race at Martinsville.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
32) #32-J.J. Haley / 119 laps / crash
31) #10-Jennifer Jo Cobb / 186 laps / running
30) #74-Paige Decker / 193 laps / running
29) #23-Spencer Gallagher / 196 laps / running
28) #5-Dalton Sargeant / 196 laps / running

2015 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Norm Benning, Caleb Roark, Tyler Tanner (3)
2nd) Justin Jennings, Jennifer Jo Cobb (2)
3rd) Adam Edwards, Joey Gattina, J.J. Haley, Stew Hayward, Travis Kvapil, Justin Marks, Robert Mitten (1)

2015 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing (6)
2nd) MB Motorsports, Norm Benning Racing (4)
3rd) MAKE Motorsports (2)
4th) Braun Motorsports, Mike Harmon Racing, NDS Motorsports, Win-Tron Racing (1)

2015 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (17)
2nd) RAM (2)
3rd) Toyota (1)