7/25/65: David Pearson’s first last-place finish comes after early Bristol wreck

SOURCE: NASCAR

On July 25, 1965, David Pearson picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Grand National Series career in the Volunteer 500 at the Bristol International Speedway when his #6 Southeastern Dodge Dealers 1965 Dodge was involved in a multi-car crash after 8 of 500 laps.  The finish occurred in Pearson’s 156th series start.

The career of Pearson, “The Silver Fox,” is well-known.  Second on the all-time wins list with 105 victories, the soft-spoken driver was already a household name in the mid 1960s.  From an owner-driver during his debut in the second Daytona 500 in 1960 through his signing with Ray Fox and, later, Cotton Owens, Pearson had racked up eleven victories in his first five seasons.  Though his first three wins came on superspeedways, the next eight came on short tracks like Bristol: half-mile dirt ovals in Myrtle Beach and Greenville-Pickens and paved bullrings like the third-mile Boyd Speedway on Tennessee’s opposite border.  He finished the 1964 season 3rd in points, and but for circumstances off the track, would have been a likely contender for 1965.

As it turned out, the July 1965 race at Bristol signaled the end of a longstanding feud between NASCAR and Chrysler.  As manufacturers churned out faster cars to compete on the circuit’s new larger and faster superspeedways, drivers became concerned that the racing had become too dangerous.  Their concerns were well-founded: the 1964 season was marred by the on-track deaths of Joe Weatherly, the defending series champion, Glenn “Fireball” Roberts, the sport’s first superstar, and rising talent Jimmy Pardue.  In an effort to reduce speeds, Bill France, Sr. mandated a new rule for the 1965 season that banned the Ford “hi-riser” engine and Chrysler’s dominant “hemi-head.”

While Ford accepted the changes, Ronney Householder, Chrysler’s Director of Competition, was furious.  The new rules would require Chrysler’s factory drivers to run heavy cars with underpowered engines, putting them at a significant disadvantage.  When a compromise wasn’t reached by the start of the 1965 Grand National Season, Chrysler boycotted the series, taking its factory drivers with them.  This included Richard Petty, who turned his attention to a brief and ill-fated run on the drag racing circuit, and David Pearson.

Without the series’ biggest stars and fastest cars, ticket sales dragged through the first part of the 1965 season.  Bill France’s gamble that Chevrolet would gain momentum hadn’t panned out, and Ford was on an unprecedented winning streak on the heels of 1961 series champion Ned Jarrett.  In May, NASCAR reached a compromise with USAC, whose series rules were more forgiving to Chrysler’s “hemi” in an effort to attract NASCAR drivers.  As part of the agreement, Chrysler could run in “hemi” in NASCAR, but only in models where it hadn’t been tested.  Though Buck Baker managed this “impossible” feat, jamming a hemi into son Buddy’s Plymouth Fury at Daytona in July, it wasn’t until Bristol later that month that the Chrysler factory teams - and Pearson - returned.

Pearson started 12th in the 36-car field.  The final starting spot went to independent driver Hollingsworth McMillion, who shortened his name to the much flashier “Worth McMillion.”  The Virginian trailed the field early in his #80 1964 Pontiac until trouble broke out in the early laps.  On Lap 9, Pearson was racing the Wood Brothers #21 1965 Ford of Marvin Panch for the 5th spot when the two made contact in Turn 3 and crashed.  Walking down pit road under caution, Pearson crossed paths with Glen Wood.  The two argued, and Wood threw a punch.  Pearson was about to respond when crew members intervened.

Pearson and Panch occupied the final two spots in the finishing order.  The next retiree was Raymond Carter, who was making the next-to-last start of his career in a backup 1964 Dodge for longtime independent Buddy Arrington.  Carter’s #62 pulled behind the wall after 32 laps.  33rd went to future pace car driver Elmo Langley, then an owner-driver in his twelfth season on the tour.  Langley’s #64 blew a head gasket one lap after Carter’s retirement.  Rounding out the Bottom Five was 27-year-old Bobby Allison, who was making just the 12th start of his NASCAR career.  It turned out to be the final Grand National start for Allison’s team owner Ed Grady, who fielded his #09 Ford.

Richard Petty, who also rejoined the series at Bristol, started outside-pole in his #43 Plymouth and finished 17th with a busted differential.  Ned Jarrett went on to win.

Pearson went on to run 13 of the 1965 season’s final 21 races, winning on the half-mile dirt track in Columbia, South Carolina and at the Richmond Fairgrounds, then secure his first of three series championships in 1966.  Pearson would go on to compete in 574 top-tier NASCAR races and finish last just five more times.  Only three of these last-place runs happened on track: the other two were post-race disqualifications for technical infractions in 1968.  The 1965 last-place run was also his only one at Bristol, a track where he’d win five times in just 20 starts.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first last-place finish for the #6 in a Grand National Series race since April 11, 1965, when Jim Conway’s 1964 Ford lost the clutch after the opening lap of the Atlanta 500 at the Atlanta International Raceway.
*To date, Pearson’s run at Bristol remains the only last-place run by the #6 in a Cup race at that track.  In fact, the #6 wouldn’t finish last in Cup again until September 11, 1977 at Richmond, when Rick Newsom’s unsponsored Chevrolet had an oil leak after 112 laps of the Capital City 400.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
36) #6-David Pearson / 8 laps / crash
35) #21-Marvin Panch / 8 laps / crash
34) #62-Raymond Carter / 32 laps / vibration
33) #64-Elmo Langley / 33 laps / head gasket
32) #09-Bobby Allison / 39 laps / overheating

Special thanks to Greg Fielden’s epic book series “Forty Years of Stock Car Racing” for providing the details behind this race.

CUP: Open Team Roundup - Texas

SOURCE: NASCAR Media

During another 500-mile endurance test under the lights at Texas, the four Open teams found themselves off the lead lap and racing each other for position.

QUALIFIED

#21 Wood Brothers Racing
Driver: Ryan Blaney
Started 7th, Finished 29th

At Texas, Blaney remained stellar in qualifying, matching his season-best 7th from the Daytona 500.  In fact, Blaney has only started worse than 14th once this season: a 23rd at Atlanta.  As in many of those starts, Blaney remained inside the Top 20 for most of the early stages, but just as at Atlanta and Fontana, late-race misfortune knocked him back through the field.  On Lap 106, just moments after a scheduled green-flag stop, Blaney was back on pit road again with a vibration in the rear of the car.  The stop dropped the #21 off the lead lap, and by race’s end, he’d lost three more.  Still, he remained tops among the Open teams - barely - for the fifth time in seven races.


Blaney and the Wood Brothers are no strangers to next week’s venue at Bristol.  Blaney and the #21 finished 22nd there last fall, the best performance by the Woods at the track since Ken Schrader’s 13th-place showing in 2006.  Still, Ricky Rudd’s 4th-place finish in 2005 remains their most recent top-ten finish, and they’ve won at the track once: Elliott Sadler’s surprise triumph in the 2001 Food City 500.

#98 Premium Motorsports
Driver: Cole Whitt
Started 37th, Finished 30th

One lap and one position behind Blaney came Cole Whitt, who only this week ran without a primary sponsor for the first time in 2016.  Just as in many of his starts this year, Whitt fought to stay on the lead lap.  Whitt kept race leader Carl Edwards behind him for the competition caution on Lap 30, and he made up a 30.2-second deficit.  Whitt was finally lapped on the 61st circuit by Martin Truex, Jr. and lost four more by the time the checkered flag fell. The 30th-place showing was just four spots short of a career-best at the 1.5-mile quad-oval.

Whitt’s best finish in four previous Cup starts at Bristol was a 27th in last year’s spring race.

#55 Premium Motorsports
Driver: Reed Sorenson
Started 40th, Finished 36th

Whitt’s new teammate Reed Sorenson returned for his second start of the season in an identically unsponsored #55.  Sorenson was among the slowest cars in practice and started shotgun on the field, briefly trading it with Chase Elliott during the green-yellow start.  Sorenson retook the spot at the green flag and, as at Martinsville, traded it with Josh Wise for most of the first half.  Sorenson went down a lap on the 19th circuit, but lost the Lucky Dog to Jeffery Earnhardt at the competition caution.  Sorenson lost 40th to Wise on Lap 36, and when he regained it on Lap 98, he was five circuits behind.  He climbed to 39th on Lap 110, then proceeded to outlast several Chartered teams in the final laps.  In the end, he passed late-race retirees Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer, and Brian Vickers to come home four laps behind Earnhardt.

Sorenson is set to make his 13th Bristol start and his first in Cup since 2014.  His best series finishes at the track are a pair of 15th-place finishes in the night race: one for Chip Ganassi in 2007 and another for Team Red Bull in 2010.

#30 The Motorsports Group
Driver: Josh Wise
Started 39th, Finished 40th

Wise finished last in Saturday's race, pulling a weekend sweep between the Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series events.  For more, see his LASTCAR.info feature.  Wise’s best finish in eight previous Bristol starts is a 23rd in the 2014 spring race, when he finished four laps down in Phil Parsons’ #98 Chevrolet.

DID NOT QUALIFY

None.

DID NOT ENTER

#26 BK Racing
#35 Front Row Motorsports
#40 Hillman Racing
#59 Leavine Family / Circle Sport Racing
#93 BK Racing

The five teams which last attempted the Daytona 500, six races ago, were again not on the entry list for Texas.

CUP / XFINITY: Josh Wise sweeps both last-place finishes at Texas

Josh Wise swept both last-place finishes in the Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series races at Texas.  Wise accomplished this once more in his career at Bristol in 2012, when he drove for Front Row Motorsports in Cup and The Motorsports Group in XFINITY.

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin' Forums, FS1

On Friday, Wise picked up the 4th last-place finish of his XFINITY Series career in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 at the Texas Motor Speedway when his unsponsored #93 RSS Racing Chevrolet fell out with brake issues after he completed 8 of 200 laps.

The finish, which came in Wise’s 144th series start, was his first since August 9, 2014, when his unsponsored #46 The Motorsports Group Chevrolet fell out with brake issues after 3 laps of the Zippo 200 at The Glen, 51 races ago.

Wise was making just his second XFINITY Series race of the season, following a 39th-place finish in one-off for Motorsports Business Management at Fontana.  RSS Racing’s second team, #93, has so far attempted the full season, but has finished under power only twice, most recently a season-best 19th with Dylan Lupton at Phoenix.  Wise joined an entry list of 42 competitors which was then pared to 41 following the withdrawal of Morgan Shepherd.  With 41 drivers going for 40 spots and the #93 having missed two races, Wise would have to make the field on speed.

Wise didn’t participate in the opening practice session, ran 32nd in Happy Hour, and improved further to the 28th spot in qualifying with an average speed of 183.181 mph.  Surprisingly, the lone DNQ on the day was all-time last-place leader Jeff Green, whose #10 TriStar Motorsports Toyota missed a spot on speed by three-tenths of a second.  It was Green’s first DNQ in the XFINITY Series since last July at Daytona.

Starting 40th on Friday was Todd Peck, once again running the former Rick Ware #15 X-treme pH Sports Water Ford he’d been driving since Phoenix.  The first caution for Daytona last-placer Ryan Preece’s spin on Lap 2 dropped the #01 G&K Services Chevrolet to last.  Soon after the restart, however, Wise pulled behind the wall with brake issues and claimed the last-place finish.

39th went to Carl Long, now without a partner after the indefinite suspension of Motorsports Business Management co-owner Derek White.  Long’s #40 Truxx Outfitters Dodge pulled behind the wall with engine trouble while second-year Cup driver Matt DiBenedetto took the helm of his team car, the #13 Chris Kyle Memorial Benefit / Truxx Toyota, finishing 32nd.  38th went to Jeff Green’s TriStar teammate J.J. Yeley in the #14 ZAK “Official Fuel dditive of NASCAR” Toyota, citing clutch issues after 40 laps.  Peck pulled off the track 2 circuits later.  Rounding out the group was Rick Ware’s #25 Lilly Trucking Chevrolet with which Cody Ware scored his worst finish of the season.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first last-place finish for the #93 in an XFINITY Series race since June 21, 2014, when Kevin Lepage’s unsponsored #93 JGL Racing Dodge broke a rear gear on the opening lap of the Gardner Denver 200 Fired Up By Johnsonville at Road America.
*This is Wise’s first last-place finish in an XFINITY Series race at Texas.
*This is the first XFINITY Series last-place finish for RSS Racing.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #93-Josh Wise / 8 laps / brakes
39) #40-Carl Long / 9 laps / engine
38) #14-J.J. Yeley / 40 laps / clutch
37) #15-Todd Peck / 42 laps / overheating
36) #25-Cody Ware / 85 laps / electrical

2016 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green (3)
2nd) Matt DiBenedetto, Ryan Preece, Josh Wise (1)

2016 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) TriStar Motorsports (4)
2nd) JD Motorsports, RSS Racing (1)

2016 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (4)
2nd) Chevrolet (2)

SOURCE: NASCAR Media

Then on Saturday, Wise picked up the 7th last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in the Duck Commander 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway when his #30 CrawfestNB.com Chevrolet was involved in a single car crash that ended his night after 178 of 334 laps.

The finish, which came in Wise’s 134th series start, is his first since this spring’s race at Atlanta, five races ago.  Wise and The Motorsports Group become the first two-time last-place finishers of the 2016 Cup season.

Thanks in part to 39 and 40-car entry lists since the team’s DNQ for the Daytona 500, The Motorsports Group has made every race since.  The team had also finished under power in every race but last week’s engine failure at Martinsville and earned a season-best 34th at Phoenix.

At Texas, Wise was slowest in both practices, but was 39th in qualifying with an average speed of 184.963 mph.  His car also carried sponsorship on the hood for the first time in 2016: an upcoming crawdad festival in New Braunfels, Texas.

Starting last for the second consecutive week was Reed Sorenson, once again driving Premium Motorsports’ new unsponsored second team.  A lengthy rain delay forced a green-yellow start late Saturday night, during which time Sorenson actually lost the spot to Chase Elliott on Lap 3.  Elliott’s #24 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet had qualified 4th, but a transmission change after qualifying sent him to the rear for the start.  When the green flag finally flew on Lap 5, Elliott disposed of Sorenson, and the #55 was the first to be lapped on Lap 19.

Wise, who was running next-to-last for most of the early stages, first took the 40th spot when Sorenson moved by on Lap 36.  Eleven circuits later, Wise’s #30 was also the first to lose a second lap to the leaders, then a third on Lap 67.  Sorenson retook 40th on Lap 98 as both black Chevrolets continued to gradually lose laps to the leaders.  Around Lap 110, during a round of green-flag stops, Wise clipped the commitment cone and was penalized, costing him another lap and retaking 40th from Sorenson.  Wise then made contact with the outside wall, went to the garage on Lap 172, and came back out more than 10 laps behind on Lap 191.  The damage Wise sustained in his first brush with the wall must have broken something in the right-front, for on Lap 212, the #30 clobbered the Turn 3 wall, ending his night.

Finishing 39th was Greg Biffle, whose #16 Kleen Performance Ford slammed the Turn 2 wall.  38th and 37th went to two of the 13 drivers involved in a backstretch pileup on the restart following the Biffle wreck: Clint Bowyer’s lapped #15 Visine Chevrolet and Brian Vickers’ #14 Tax Act Military Files Free Chevrolet were among the 13 drivers involved in a backstretch pileup.  Rounding out the Bottom Five was Sorenson, who came home under power, 19 laps down.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first last-place finish for both Wise and the #30 in a Cup race at Texas.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #30-Josh Wise / 178 laps / crash
39) #16-Greg Biffle / 286 laps / crash
38) #15-Clint Bowyer / 289 laps / crash
37) #14-Brian Vickers / 290 laps / crash
36) #55-Reed Sorenson / 315 laps / running

2016 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Josh Wise (2)
2nd) Aric Almirola, Matt DiBenedetto, Kyle Larson, Ryan Newman, Cole Whitt (1)

2016 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) The Motorsports Group (2)
2nd) BK Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing, Premium Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing, Richard Petty Motorsports (1)

2016 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (5)
2nd) Ford, Toyota (1)

4/2/2000: Jerry Nadeau tangles with teammate Gordon in Texas

SOURCE: crash.net

On April 2, 2000, Jerry Nadeau picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Winston Cup Series career in the DirecTV 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway when his #25 MichaelHoligan.com Chevrolet was involved in a multi-car crash, ending his race after 110 of 334 laps.

The finish, which came in Nadeau’s 76th series start, was his first since September 5, 1999, when his #36 M&M’s Pontiac crashed after 48 laps of the 50th Annual Pepsi Southern 500 at Darlington, 17 races previous.

Nadeau’s brief and tumultuous NASCAR career began in 1995, when he made his Busch Series debut at the tiny Hickory Motor Speedway.  At the time of his 21st-place finish in Greg Pollex’s #15 Buss Fuses Ford, the Connecticut driver was also honing his road course skills overseas, turning his background in go-karts toward the Formula Opel European Union Series Championship.  By 1997, Nadeau decided to commit to NASCAR full-time, and that year made his Cup debut for Richard Jackson at Michigan, where he finished 36th in the #1 R&L Carriers Pontiac.

In 1998, Nadeau signed on with a new team, Elliott-Marino Motorsports.  Bill Elliott, at the time in his fourth season as owner-driver of the #94 McDonald’s Ford, co-founded the team with Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino.  Nadeau struggled in the dolphin grey and orange #13 FirstPlus Financial Ford, failing to qualify at Las Vegas and Texas with finishes no better than 21st.  That June at Sonoma, Nadeau’s first road course start in Cup, he put the #13 outside-pole next to Jeff Gordon.  Eager to take the lead from Gordon at the start, Nadeau ran off course in Turn 2 and damaged the track bar, eventually smashing into a dirt embankment and finishing last.  Elliott-Marino released Nadeau after the next race in New Hampshire.

Nadeau finished the 1998 season driving for Harry Melling, whose #9 Cartoon Network Ford was also struggling.  The team began the year with veteran Lake Speed, but the Mississippi native unexpectedly retired after the Loudon race.  Nadeau jumped aboard just in time for the next road course at Watkins Glen, where he started 8th and finished a season-best 15th.  Nadeau spent just over a year with the Melling team, scoring his first Top 10 with an 8th at Talladega, before he was released once more in the summer of 1999.  Once again, Nadeau would relieve another retiring driver - Ernie Irvan, whose second serious crash at Michigan forced him to step away from MB2 Motorsports’ #36 M&M’s Pontiac.  But the biggest surprise was still to come.

Hendrick Motorsports’ #25 team was struggling to find victory lane.  Fan favorite Ken Schrader, who came aboard to relieve the ailing Tim Richmond in 1988, hadn’t won a Cup race since 1991 and left the team in 1996.  Ricky Craven signed to drive in 1997, finishing 3rd in a Hendrick sweep of the Daytona 500 podium, but his concussion from a hard crash at Texas lingered for more than a year, ultimately putting him out of the ride in early 1998.  Randy LaJoie, then Wally Dallenbach, Jr. came aboard, but both were unable to find consistency with the team.  On top of it all, longtime sponsor Budweiser was leaving the team after 1999 to fund a youngster who made his Cup debut that year: Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, syndicated home improvement show host Michael Holigan approached Hendrick to sponsor the #25.  The one condition?  Holigan wanted Nadeau in the car.

And so it was.  One article nicknamed Nadeau “The Magician” for securing the top-tier ride after so many struggles with four different teams.  The first six races did little to sway the skeptics.  Nadeau’s dazzling blue-and-white Chevrolet showed speed, never qualifying worse than 22nd, but the tam had yet to come home on the lead lap or finish any better than 19th.  Texas, scene of Craven’s injury and Nadeau’s most recent DNQ, was next.

While Nadeau lined up 8th for the race, the last starting spot in the 43-car field went to Robert Pressley, whose #77 Jasper Engines & Transmissions Ford had carried him to his best Cup finish at that time, a 3rd in 1998.  By Lap 6, Darrell Waltrip, making his final Texas start as part of his “2000 Victory Tour,” had fallen to the rear in his #66 Big K Mart Route 66 Ford.  Waltrip had finished last in the inaugural when he was caught up in the Lap 1 pileup.  By Lap 12, the 43rd spot belonged to Gary Bradberry, who was making his first start of the season after replacing Rick Mast in the Larry Hedrick-owned #41 Big Daddy’s BBQ Sauce Chevrolet.

The first caution of the afternoon came on Lap 18.  Scott Pruett, then a rookie in the Cup Series, had started 3rd and taken the lead in Cal Wells’ #32 Tide Ford.  After Dale Earnhardt, Jr. slid past, Junior’s DEI teammate Steve Park clipped Pruett while racing for 2nd, sending the #32 sliding into the outside wall.  Repairs to the left-rear of the car dropped him two laps down in the 43rd spot, and he started to lose more laps from a likely trip behind the wall on Lap 68.  Joining Pruett in the garage was Stacy Compton, whose #9 Kodiak / Cougar Ford for Melling Racing had smacked the Turn 4 wall on Lap 88.  Pruett returned to the track before Compton, dropping the #9 to last by Lap 104.  Compton was still last when the caution flew again for a multi-car wreck.

Running in the middle of the pack, Nadeau was following rookie Dave Blaney’s #93 Amoco Pontiac through Turns 1 and 2 when Blaney washed up the track, forcing Nadeau to back off.  Unfortunately, Jeff Gordon, Bill Elliott, and Johnny Benson, Jr. were right behind him, causing a chain reaction that sent Nadeau and Gordon spinning.  Nadeau spun backwards into the outside wall while Elliott collided with Gordon, the McDonald’s Ford lifting on two wheels as it rode up on Gordon’s hood.  Benson also suffered damage to the right-front of his #10 Lycos.com Pontiac.  All the cars involved returned to the race except Nadeau, whose entire rear clip was destroyed in the wreck.  When Compton returned to the track, Nadeau took the 43rd spot.

Benson ended up 42nd at the finish after tangling with John Andretti down the backstretch on Lap 146.  41st went to Bradberry’s #41, which backed into the Turn 4 wall on Lap 170.  39th went to rookie driver Elliott Sadler.  Sadler, tabbed by the Wood Brothers to take over for Michael Waltrip in the #21 Citgo Ford, spun in the grass coming off pit road during the pit stops for Pruett’s crash.  Sadler suffered damage tangling with Sterling Marlin on the Lap 120 restart, but returned to the track 113 laps down.

Between Bradberry and Sadler in 40th was to Adam Petty, who became the Cup Series’ first fourth-generation racer when he timed his #45 Sprint Chevrolet into the 33rd spot (unfortunately, father Kyle was one of the five drivers who missed the show, including Robby Gordon, Dave Marcis, Wally Dallenbach, Jr., and Todd Bodine).  The youngest Petty managed to avoid all seven wrecks that started the race, but the engine let go after 215 circuits.  Petty was set to run a handful more races in 2000, but Texas proved to be his only Cup start.  Just over a month later, Petty tragically lost his life in a Busch Series practice crash at Loudon.  He was only 19.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. went on to win the DirecTV 500 for his first Cup Series victory.  He’d claimed his first Busch Series win there just two years earlier.

After the Texas race, Nadeau began to improve.  He scored three-straight Top 20 finishes at Martinsville, Talladega, and Fontana, then broke through at Charlotte in May.  He was one of the biggest stories of The Winston All-Star Race, winning the 25-lap No Bull Sprint to transfer into the main event, where he came home 4th.  The following week in the 600, Nadeau’s patriotic paint scheme honoring the Coast Guard paced the field for 115 of 400 laps and was in position to win a rain-shortened victory.  But when the rain stopped, the engine let go, leaving him a disappointing 38th.  Coming into the season finale at Atlanta, Nadeau had two top-five finishes and four Top Tens with a season-best 4th at Loudon and again in the Brickyard 400.  He started 2nd in the Atlanta race - again next to Jeff Gordon - and this time sealed the deal.  Nadeau paced the NAPA 500 field for 155 of 325 laps, passed Ward Burton on a late-race restart, and held off Dale Earnhardt in the final points race the #3 Goodwrench Chevrolet would finish under power.

In the two seasons that followed, “The Fury From Danbury” continued to show flashes of brilliance with Hendrick.  Atlanta remained one of his best venues - he was leading in the final laps of both 2001 races before Kevin Harvick’s rally in the spring and an empty fuel tank in the fall dropped him back.  He also continued to run strong on the road courses, finishing in the Top Ten at Sonoma in 2000 and Watkins Glen in 2001.  But after the spring race at Richmond in 2002, one week after new teammate Jimmie Johnson scored his inaugural victory at Fontana, Nadeau was released by Hendrick, replaced by Joe Nemechek.  No one knew at the time that Richmond would see the end of Nadeau’s career just one year later.

Once again, Nadeau was called as a relief driver, this time for Johnny Benson, Jr. at Charlotte, reuniting him with MB2 Motorsports for the first time since 1999.  At Sonoma, he was brought in by Petty Enterprises to replace Buckshot Jones on the road course.  That race, the Dodge / Save Mart 350, came to symbolize Nadeau’s career.  The #44 Georgia-Pacific / Brawny Dodge remained mid-pack for much of the day, the left-front fender caved in.  After a spin on Lap 68, the team knew they had to parlay pit strategy to get the best run they could.  When the final caution flew on Lap 85, Nadeau stayed out with a half-dozen others, suddenly placing him 2nd behind his former team owner Bill Elliott.  Three laps later, Nadeau passed Elliott and zipped to a lead of several seconds.  Ricky Rudd and Tony Stewart, both on fresh tires, clawed their way through the others who stayed out, but it seemed neither would catch Nadeau in time.  Then, coming to the white flag, Nadeau’s rear gear seized up in Turn 11, and the #44 stopped, handing the lead and the win to Rudd.

In 2003, Nadeau rejoined MB2 yet again in the team that was once the #36 M&M’s machine of Ken Schrader.  Schrader and M&M’s left at the end of the year, and the U.S. Army signed with the team, renumbering it #01 as part of the “Army of One” campaign.  When the series returned to Texas, the team had started to gel, starting 5th and finishing 4th.  Nadeau also continued to show a flair for the dramatic, pulling a 360 spin out of 2nd at Darlington without hitting the wall or another car.

Nadeau came to Richmond just 34th in points, but in practice, disaster struck.  The #01 spun in Turn 1 and slammed the unprotected concrete wall driver’s side first.  He survived, but only just.  The serious head, lung, and rib injuries he suffered put an abrupt end to his driving career.  Today, Nadeau is involved in the B.R.A.K.E.S. program in North Carolina, and has been a mentor to new racers, including current Sprint Cup rookie Jeffrey Earnhardt.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first last-place finish for the #25 in a Cup Series race since November 2, 1997, when Ricky Craven’s #25 Budweiser Chevrolet crashed after 39 laps of the Dura Lube 500 presented by K-Mart at the Phoenix International Raceway.
*Neither Nadeau nor the #25 had ever before finished last in a Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #25-Jerry Nadeau / 110 laps / crash
42) #10-Johnny Benson, Jr. / 143 laps / crash
41) #41-Gary Bradberry / 165 laps / crash
40) #45-Adam Petty / 215 laps / engine
39) #21-Elliott Sadler / 221 laps / running

CUP: Open Team Roundup - Martinsville

SOURCE: Sean Gardner, Getty Images

After four consecutive races with the same three Open teams, the preliminary entry list for Martinsville showed exactly 40 cars, meaning the short track would host just the second full field of 2016.  When the dust settled, one member remained on the lead lap while the other three fought to keep pace.

QUALIFIED

#21 Wood Brothers Racing
Driver: Ryan Blaney
Started: 12th, Finished: 19th

Top of the class for the fourth time in five races was the Wood Brothers, whose driver Ryan Blaney earned the team its sixth 19th-place finish in 110 Martinsville starts.  For much of the weekend, the statistic seemed like it was going to be even more impressive.  He was 7th-fastest in the opening practice, 12th in the second, 10th in Happy Hour, and locked-up the 12th starting spot for Sunday’s race.  Blaney raced door-to-door with Chase Elliott in the early laps and remained between 10th and 15th for most of the afternoon, keeping all the fenders on his Ford.  Blaney was one of the many takers to pit when Jamie McMurray’s spin drew the final yellow with 15 laps remaining, but a penalty for the crew jumping over the wall too soon sent him to the tail end of the lead lap.  He remained in that position at the finish, but still as the top rookie in the field, one lap ahead of 20th-place Elliott.

Next week’s race at Texas has always been on the Wood Brothers’ schedule, even as a part-time team.  It was here that Trevor Bayne broke through with an impressive 17th-place finish in the fall of 2010, setting the stage for his Daytona 500 triumph.  But Blaney has yet to share the same results.  In his last two Texas tarts, he’s finished 42nd and 43rd, the result of an early engine failure and crash, respectively.  In fact, the Woods haven’t finished inside the Top 10 since - you guessed it - 2005, when Ricky Rudd came home 8th.  

#98 Premium Motorsports
Driver: Cole Whitt
Started: 31st, Finished: 30th

Martinsville looked to be the first weekend where Premium Motorsports did not have a sponsor for its flagship #98.  However, by race morning, Whitt’s black Chevrolet from practice again had logos from RTIC Coolers, the sponsor which funded the team’s Daytona 500 effort.  Unlike the longer tracks on the circuit, it was too difficult for Whitt to fight to stay on the lead lap.  The battle instead became to remain just one lap down, which Whitt managed for much of the race’s first half.  As the intensity picked up, however, Whitt started to slide back through the rankings, eventually ending up five circuits back at the checkered flag.  Still, he remained second among this week’s Open teams and finished ahead of eight Chartered drivers, including Casey Mears, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Denny Hamlin, and last-place finisher Aric Almirola (LINK).  The 30th-place run is also Whitt’s second-best performance of the season behind his 26th-plac showing two weeks ago at Fontana.

Next Saturday at Texas, Whitt is poised to make his fifth career Cup start at Texas, where his best finish was a 26th in the fall of 2014.

#55 Premium Motorsports
Driver: Reed Sorenson
Started: 40th, Finished: 37th

After the team mentioned it briefly over the offseason, Premium Motorsports debuted a second team at Martinsville with veteran Reed Sorenson behind the wheel.  According to the preliminary entry list, Sorenson’s car was to be numbered 49 in a callback to team owner Jay Robinson’s XFINITY and Truck Series entries, but by Friday, it carried a bold white 55 from now-defunct Michael Waltrip Racing.  Sorenson’s first eight laps in the #55 during Friday’s practice ranked him ahead of three Chartered drivers: Joey Gase, Regan Smith, and Michael Annett.  Despite not taking a lap in qualifying, Sorenson also outpaced Gase and Trevor Bayne in Happy Hour.  Sorenson had worked this magic before - in qualifying for the 2012 Martinsville race, when driving for Stacy Compton’s Turn One Racing, Sorenson ranked fifth of eleven “go-or-go-homers."

The race proved to be a struggle.  Sorenson was the second car to be lapped following Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s spin and he would trade the 40th spot with Josh Wise for the first half of the race.  In the end, Sorenson came home with the car 10 laps down - the same lap as Joey Gase’s Chartered #32 - and ahead of The Motorsports Group and Wise.

Premium and Sorenson will return again on this week’s Texas entry list, keeping the field at 40.  Sorenson has made 13 starts at the Fort Worth track with a best finish of 13th in his very first start there, back when he drove for Chip Ganassi Racing in 2006.

#30 The Motorsports Group
Driver: Josh Wise
Started: 39th, Finished: 38th

For the third time in 2016, Josh Wise and The Motorsports Group finished last among the four Open teams - but, unlike Atlanta, did not come home last overall.  Wise showed some moderate speed in Friday’s first practice, outpacing Whitt and Sorenson in the 33rd spot, remained 33rd in the second session, and held 35th in Happy Hour.  Qualifying, which only earned him 39th in a field of 40, proved to be his slowest session overall.  In the race, he traded the 40th spot with Reed Sorenson’s #55 and was often booted to the high lane by faster cars.  On Lap 313, Wise’s unsponsored Chevrolet, then nine laps down, was nudged to the high side of Turn 2 by Martin Truex, Jr.  Wise maintained control and avoided contact with the wall, but NASCAR still threw the caution flag, thus giving Dale Earnhardt, Jr. his lap back.  On Lap 337, FOX’s cameras caught Wise slowing on the backstretch, then making the hard left turn into the garage area.  Reports of electrical issues were followed by the official results showing engine trouble as the official cause.

Wise has eight starts in next week’s race at Texas with a best finish of 30th driving Front Row Motorsports’ #35 MDS Transport Ford in the spring of 2013.

DID NOT QUALIFY

None.

DID NOT ENTER

#26 BK Racing
#35 Front Row Motorsports
#40 Hillman Racing
#59 Leavine Family / Circle Sport Racing
#93 BK Racing

While none of the five Daytona 500 teams showed up at Martinsville, at least one will later this month.  On March 28, it was announced that Ryan Ellis will drive the non-chartered #93 BK Racing entry at Richmond on April 24.  Ellis, who made his Cup debut last fall at Phoenix, is expected to run a number of races this season with returning sponsor ScienceLogic.