Preliminary Entry List Storylines: Kansas

PHOTO: AutoRacing1.com

CUP SERIES
Go Bowling 400 at Kansas

For just the fourth time this year and the second race in a row, there will be a full Cup Series field this Saturday as 40 drivers are entered to attempt the 40-car field.  Three Talladega entries: Tommy Baldwin Racing’s #7, Gaunt Brothers Racing’s #96, and Beard Motorsports’ #75, are not entered this week and are unlikely to return before July in Daytona.

A short field was averted thanks to the announcement by XFINITY Series team Motorsports Business Management (MBM) attempting its first Cup attempt with a yet-unsponsored #66 Chevrolet.  MBM, started by Derek White in 2014 and now owned by Carl Long, is in its fourth XFINITY season fielding the #13 and #40.  The team’s best finish so far remains a 13th with Brandon Hightower at Daytona.  As of this writing, a driver for MBM’s #66 has yet to be announced.  This is the first brand-new Open team to enter a Cup race since the Daytona 500.

Timmy Hill, who drives for MBM in XFINITY, is once again entered in Rick Ware Racing’s #51 Chevrolet.  Last Friday at Talladega, Hill and Ware had their first withdrawal of the season, leaving Gaunt Brothers Racing’s #96 of D.J. Kennington as the lone DNQ.  Hill’s best Kansas finish was in his track debut in 2012, when he ran 22nd for Go FAS Racing.  He has not made a Cup start there since a 33rd in the fall of 2014.

Back on the entry list is Derrike Cope, who hasn’t made a Cup start at Kansas since October 5, 2003, when he drove the #37 GBROnline.com Chevrolet fielded by his own team, Quest Motor Racing.  Cope will be one of only six drivers in Saturday’s field who also entered the inaugural Cup race at Kansas in 2001, joining Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, and Dale Earnhardt, Jr.  As of this writing, there is no sponsor announced for Cope’s #55 Chevrolet, fielded by Premium Motorsports.

Reed Sorenson returns to Premium’s #15 this week, which last Sunday at Talladega survived to finish 21st with Joey Gase.  It was a career-best Cup run for Gase, besting his 23rd for BK Racing in this year’s Daytona 500, and a strong follow-up to Michael Waltrip’s 8th-place finish in his final start.  Sorenson himself finished last on Sunday as, for the second-straight Talladega race, Premium called their car during the opening laps to make post-qualifying adjustments.  This left Sorenson multiple laps down and with a vibration that soon led to a race-ending crash.  Sorenson has 14 previous Kansas starts, but just one finish better than 26th – a 7th back in 2007.

Cole Whitt and TriStar Motorsports came home 16th at Talladega, both driver and team’s best finish of the season.  Car owner Mark Smith hadn’t finished that well on the superspeedway since April 30, 1995, when Loy Allen, Jr. started outside-pole in the #19 Healthsource Ford, led 18 laps, and finished 10th.  Whitt will also likely improve TriStar’s numbers at Kansas this Saturday – the team’s only runs there were “start-and-park” efforts under the Humphrey-Smith Racing banner in 2012 and 2013, none of them better than 36th.

Matt DiBenedetto’s 18th-place finish at Talladega was his best run since his 9th in the Daytona 500 and one position better than his 19th-place performance last month at Bristol.  In four starts at Kansas, his best finish came last fall for BK Racing, when he ran 24th.  He has yet to score a single DNF at the track.  If past performance is any indication, this should help Go FAS Racing, which since 2012 has run no better than 34th.

Jeffrey Earnhardt, who drove for Go FAS last year, will be making his first Cup start at Kansas in the yet-unsponsored #33 Chevrolet for Circle Sport with The Motorsports Group.


XFINITY SERIES
Next Race: Hisense 300 at Charlotte
Saturday, May 27, 2017


TRUCK SERIES
Toyota Tundra 250 at Kansas

A streak of three consecutive full fields to start the 2017 Truck Series season may be in jeopardy at Kansas as just 31 drivers are thus far entered to attempt the 32-truck field.

The significant omissions from this week’s list are Charlie Henderson’s #75 Food Country USA machine, Joe Nemechek’s #87, and the #23 GMS Racing entry which won Martinsville with Chase Elliott, all of which entered all three of this season’s races.  Richie Wauters’ #5 Toyota, which ran the opening two rounds with Korbin Forrister before withdrawing at Martinsville, has not been entered for the first time this year.  Tim Self’s team isn’t entered either after making Daytona with two trucks, withdrawing Austin Wayne Self’s entry at Atlanta, then a DNQ at Martinsville.  Whether any or all of these trucks joins at the last minute is anyone’s guess.

The superspeedway set – FDNY Racing’s #28, Mark Rette’s #30, Chris Fontaine’s #47, Clay Greenfield’s #68, Mike Harmon’s #74, and Tim Self’s second truck, #32 – have not been entered since Daytona and are also missing from this week’s list.  Based on past performance, Harmon might be a late entry since he DNQ’d here last year.  Greenfield’s part-time schedule has steadily shrunk to just a couple starts per year, but has entered Talladega the last three seasons.  FDNY could return at Charlotte, Pocono, or the fall race at Martinsville, where they were entered in 2016 (Pocono being their only start).

Norm Benning continues to pursue his first Truck Series start of the year.  His DNQ in this race last year marked the first Kansas race he’d missed since 2008, which he didn’t enter.  Benning has not made a Truck Series start since he drove for Mike Mittler at Phoenix last fall, and hasn’t raced his own #6 Chevrolet since last July at Chicago (though Sean Corr and Ryan Ellis qualified his truck earlier that season).  Benning is one of eight drivers on this week’s list whose sponsor is still categorized as “to be determined.”

Bolen Motorsports rolls into Kansas on the heels of back-to-back Top 10 finishes, capped by Ross Chastain’s 7th-place run at Martinsville.  Chastain has just one Kansas start in the Truck Series, when he finished 34th of 36 in 2012 for SS Green Light Racing.  He’s performed much better on the XFINITY side, running 14th in 2015 and 13th last fall.

Todd Peck, the last-place finisher at Atlanta, is again entered in D.J. Copp’s #83 TDS Wraps Chevrolet.  If he qualifies, it will be Peck’s Kansas debut in NASCAR.  Peck’s 18th-place finish in the season opener remains the team’s only finish better than 30th since Copp acquired the assets from Contreras Motorsports.

Also welcome back Travis Miller, who hasn’t run a Truck Series race since November 16, 2012, when he drove for crew chief and former car owner Mike Hillman.  This week, Miller is entered in MDM Motorsports’ #99 Chevrolet, which finished 7th and 5th the last two races with Austin and Ty Dillon.

Jordan Anderson, who entered all three races this year, isn’t entered this week, swapped out for Spencer Boyd in Rick Ware’s #12 GruntStyle.com Chevrolet.  Anderson finished 31st in the rebuilt truck at Martinsville, but without a ride, he will be sitting out for the second-straight week following the withdrawal of his XFINITY Series car at Talladega.  Where could he end up?  Four teams, all campaigning Chevrolets, do not yet have a listed driver: TJL Motorsports’ #1, the Martins Racing / Brandonbilt Motorsports #44, the #50 fielded by Beaver Motorsports, and Mike Mittler’s #63 for MB Motorsports.

CUP: Sorenson’s qualifying setup and flat tire lead to first last-place finish for #55 at Talladega since 1989

PHOTO: NASCAR

Reed Sorenson picked up the 15th last-place finish of his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s GEICO 500 at the Talladega Superspeedway when his #55 Xchange of America Toyota was involved in a single-car crash after 72 of the 191 laps.

The finish, which came in Sorenson’s 271st start, was his first of the season and first in Cup competition since last August at Pocono, 25 races ago.  He now stands tied for the 10th-most last-place finishes in Cup Series history, joining Buddy Arrington, Ward Burton, Richard Petty, Roy Tyner, and J.J. Yeley.

Sorenson rounded out the 2016 season with 28 starts in 36 races.  While his best finish of the season was a 22nd-place run in the July race at Daytona, it was at Talladega that fall where he turned the most heads.  The Premium Motorsports team went all-out in qualifying, securing the top speed in Round 1 before settling on 12th on the grid.  Back with Premium for this season, Sorenson looked to repeat this success at Daytona, but in his Can-Am Duel was wrecked out of the final transfer spot by Corey LaJoie.  A subsequent streak of short fields kept Sorenson in the field for the next eight races, where this time he ran Premium’s primary car, #15, previously driven by a retiring Michael Waltrip to a 8th-place finish in the Daytona 500.

Coming into Talladega, Sorenson’s best run of 2017 was a 28th last month at Bristol.  The team’s second car, #55, had most often been driven by veteran Derrike Cope, who himself has finished no better than 31st in the same Bristol race.  Cope wouldn’t run at Talladega, however, as Premium had already announced that XFINITY Series regular Joey Gase would drive the #15 with sponsorship from Sparks Energy.  This would again move Sorenson from the #15 to the #55.  Sorenson would run a bright blue Toyota with sponsorship from Xchange of America, one of four companies to sponsor the Georgia driver’s car this season.  Xchange last sponsored Sorenson at Texas, where he ran 35th.

Sorenson was one of 42 drivers on the preliminary entry list – a list that contained all 42 teams which attempted the Daytona 500.  By Friday, the effort was made somewhat easier when Rick Ware Racing withdrew their #51 Chevrolet for the first time this season, putting one Open team out of the show.  The goal now for Sorenson was to run faster than one of the remaining four Open teams to make Sunday’s race.  Unfortunately, weather refused to cooperate on Friday, and Daytona rival Corey LaJoie was the only Open car able to turn any laps before rain stopped the session short.  In the end, Sorenson put up the 33rd-fastest lap of 186.119mph, second among the Open teams to Brendan Gaughan and the #75 Beard Oil Distributing Chevrolet.  This time, joining the Ware team on the early ride home was Canadian D.J. Kennington, who ran the fourth-slowest time in the Gaunt Brothers Racing #96 Triad CNC Toyota.

Starting last on Sunday was current 2017 LASTCAR leader Jeffrey Earnhardt in Circle Sport with The Motorsports Group’s #33 Chevrolet, to be joined before green by Gaughan, whose Beard team had to change a flat tire during qualifying.  By the time the green flag dropped, however, both Earnhardt and Gaughan were already in front of Sorenson, who had fallen to the rear of the field.  Just as the leaders poured off Turn 4 to complete the first lap, Sorenson suddenly slowed and turned onto pit road, then turned to the garage area.

Just like his first-round speed last fall, Sorenson’s fast qualifying lap on Saturday was due to a purpose-built qualifying setup used by the Premium Motorsports team.  In order to give their car the best shot at making the field, the #55 was given fluids designed for short runs, but not for 500 miles.  With the cars impounded after qualifying, this meant the fluids had to be changed in the garage after the race started.  LaJoie and his BK Racing team apparently employed the same strategy as he was a couple stalls over in the garage area by Lap 3, the crew anxious over the radio to make the changes as quickly as possible.  Curiously, the strategy did not run afoul of the new “Crash Clock” protocol for 2017, which still allows cars to return from the garage after repairs for mechanical issues.  Purposefully switching over from qualifying to race setup apparently fell under the definition of repairs for “mechanical issues,” and first Sorenson, then LaJoie returned to the race, each 8 laps down, with Sorenson still last.

By the time the two Toyotas returned to competition, two more small teams had also fallen laps behind the leaders.  Both Brendan Gaughan and Jeffrey Earnhardt had rear-ended another car at the start of the race (perhaps each other since Earnhardt qualified 40th and Gaughan was sent to the back for the tire change).  Gaughan lost five laps as the team tried to cool the engine, which was spraying water as #75 sat on pit road.  Earnhardt lost three laps for similar repairs, then lost a fourth from serving an apparent pass-through penalty.  By Lap 17, when Kyle Larson drew the first caution of the day, Earnhardt, Gaughan, LaJoie, and Sorenson were already multiple laps down.  Sorenson was in last, closing within one corner of LaJoie when the yellow fell.

On Lap 41, Sorenson lost a ninth lap when the leaders caught he and Jeffrey Earnhardt running by themselves in Turn 1.  Sometime later, Sorenson reported a vibration on #55.  Then, on Lap 82, Sorenson lost the right-front tire exiting the tri-oval and slammed the outside wall.  Running nearly by himself on the same tires with which he started the race, Sorenson didn’t collect any other drivers and took one final trip to the garage, done for the day.  He had been running in 40th from the very start of the race.

Sorenson’s accident was the only wreck until the final 28 laps, when Ryan Blaney was nudged into another single-car accident by eventual race winner Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.  Blaney, who ended up 39th, was eight laps behind the remaining three members of the Bottom Five, all eliminated in a grinding 16-car pileup triggered by A.J. Allmendinger and Chase Elliott.  38th-place Danica Patrick saw her day end much as it had last year, with her #10 Aspen Dental Ford slamming head-on into the SAFER barrier along the inside backstretch wall.  37th went to Trevor Bayne, who led 5 laps early and was still among the leaders when his #6 AdvoCare Ford piled into the wreck.  Rounding out the group in 36th was to Austin Dillon, his #3 Dow Intellifresh Chevrolet pinned into the outside wall by Michael McDowell and Brad Keselowski.

This same wreck allowed the other teams with early issues to finish outside the Bottom Five in 26th (Gaughan), 27th (LaJoie), and 28th (Jeffrey Earnhardt).  

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #55 in a Cup Series race at Talladega since July 30, 1989, when Phil Parsons’ #55 Crown Petroleum Oldsmobile lost the engine after 6 laps of the Talladega DieHard 500.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #55-Reed Sorenson / 72 laps / crash
39) #21-Ryan Blaney / 160 laps / crash
38) #10-Danica Patrick / 168 laps / crash
37) #6-Trevor Bayne / 168 laps / crash / led 5 laps
36) #3-Austin Dillon / 168 laps / crash

2017 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Circle Sport with The Motorsports Group (3)
2nd) BK Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing, Furniture Row Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing, JTG-Daugherty Racing, Premium Motorsports, Rick Ware Racing (1)

2017 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (6)
2nd) Toyota (4)

2017 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

XFINITY: Ray Black, Jr. out early at Talladega; last-place record holder Jeff Green enjoys fine run

PHOTO: SS Green Light Racing Facebook

Ray Black, Jr. picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Saturday’s Sparks Energy 300 at the Talladega Superspeedway when his #07 Double D Meat Co. Chevrolet fell out with engine trouble after he completed 7 of 113 laps.  The finish came in Black’s 43rd series start.

Ray Black, Jr. is another of the XFINITY Series’ lightly-regarded young guns who is looking to make a name for himself with an underdog team.  The bright red-white-and-blue Chevrolets he’s campaigned for Bobby Dotter in Truck and XFINITY competition in 2014 reflect the driver’s two passions: scuba diving and racing.  The former came about through his youth in Florida, where his father taught him how to dive.  The latter started with video games, then at age 14 a championship in the Florida Mini Cup Racing Association.  Late models came next, then the opportunity to drive for Dotter in the Truck Series in 2014.  Hitting the track at Martinsville, Black finished 24th in a field of 36, six laps down, but under power.  His first Top 5 came the following year in his Daytona debut, where he trailed only Tyler Reddick, Erik Jones, Scott Lagasse, Jr., and Austin Theriault.  Dotter’s team SS Green Light Racing had been active in the Truck Series since 2004, and to date has made a combined 305 starts.  Black’s run at Daytona remains the team’s sixth and most recent Top 5 finish.

On top of an 11th-place finish in the 2015 Truck Series standings, Black made his XFINITY Series debut that year, driving for Rick Ware in the fall race at Texas.  There again Black managed to come home under power, eight laps down, in the 27th spot.  The effort led to Bobby Dotter fielding a full-time XFINITY ride for Black in 2016, marking the first time one of his drivers would run more than five races since 1995, when Dotter himself drove full-time, yielding a 14th-place spot in the standings.  Back in ’95, Dotter earned a pole at Charlotte, two Top Fives, and 6 Top Tens.  Last year, Black finished no better than 14th in the August race at Bristol.

This year, Black returns for a second XFINITY Series season, but has continued to struggle for strong finishes.  Following an 18th-place finish at Daytona, he’d run no better than 25th until just last Saturday at Richmond, where he again took the 18th spot.  Prolific sponsor ScubaLife, which backed nearly all of Black’s XFINITY and Truck efforts, has also appeared to be scaling back its support.  At Texas and Richmond, the red-white-and-blue car was replaced with a black Chevrolet carrying sponsorship from GlobalHBOT.org (whose site is currently under construction).  The black car would return at Talladega, this time with sponsorship from the Double D. Meat Co.

Black was one of 42 drivers to make the preliminary entry list, a list reduced by one when RSS Racing withdrew the #93 “start-and-park” entry which scored the previous five last-place finishes with Jordan Anderson and Jeff Green.  Of the 41 remaining cars, Black ran 35th in Friday’s opening practice, then sat out Happy Hour, where just 20 drivers took laps.  He secured the 34th spot in Saturday’s field, his lap of 176.878mph requiring him to take the first of six positions determined by owner points.

Starting last on Saturday was all-time last-place record holder Jeff Green, who was back aboard B.J. McLeod’s #8.  McLeod, the only driver who failed to qualify, had placed Green in his team’s road course car, an all-white Toyota which closely resembled Green’s prolific “start-and-park” cars from TriStar Motorsports.  Just as in his previous starts for McLeod, however, Green would not be parking.  Carrying McLeod’s sponsorship from Truckwork, Green would actually end up enjoying one of his best performances in years.

Green avoided the early wrecks and found himself leading a second pack of cars near the end of the race.  This put Green in position to inherit first place on Lap 72 when the leaders made green-flag stops.  On Lap 74, Green was still out front, and had led multiple laps in a single XFINITY race for the first time since November 16, 2002, when he won the pole and led five laps at Homestead.  On Lap 78, Green had been out front for six laps, the most laps he’d led in the XFINITY Series since Rockingham on November 2, 2002, when he led 133 laps and came home 6th.  From that race until Sunday, Green had scored 82 of his 90 career XFINITY last-place finishes.  In the end, Green came home 10th, having been out front for 18 green-flag laps – two more than 3rd-place Joey Logano and five more than race winner Aric Almirola.  It was also the best finish for car owner B.J. McLeod, whose previous best was a 17th by David Starr just last week.

Green began his march through the field early.  The first car he passed was Morgan Shepherd in his black-and-gold #89 Racing With Jesus / Visone RV Chevrolet.  By the time Shepherd entered Turn 1, the four cars in front of him were racing four-wide for position.  Shepherd began to lose touch with the pack, running 3.318sec behind the leader on Lap 1, then 4.180 behind on Lap 2.  The third time by, Mike Harmon took the spot in his #74 Dodge and began to fall back even further, trailing by 6.273sec on Lap 3, 10.075sec on Lap 4, and by Lap 5 was back 13.666, nearly four seconds behind 39th-place Shepherd.

Black entered the picture (albeit during the commercial break) on Lap 7.  Running 35th at the time, Black’s car began pouring smoke and took a trip to the garage area.  The caution flew for fluid coming out of his machine.  An engine issue was the listed cause, and Black was done for the afternoon.

The remaining spots in the Bottom Five were filled by a grinding Lap 21 crash.  Contact between cars in the middle of the lead pack triggered a nine-car backstretch melee.  39th-place Spencer Gallagher suffered heavy nose damage to his #23 Allegiant Airlines Chevrolet.  Daniel Hemric ended up 38th with the right-rear heavily battered on his #21 Blue Gate Bank Chevrolet.  37th went to Brandon Jones, the nose of his #33 Nexteer Automotive Chevrolet stoved-in by the inside wall.  Rounding out the group was William Byron in the #9 Liberty University Chevrolet.  Byron managed to return to the track inside the five-minute “Crash Clock,” but with heavy front end damage couldn’t meet minimum speed and was parked after 12 more laps.

For more on Ray Black, Jr., check out his website: http://rayblackjr.com/

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked just the ninth XFINITY Series last-place finish for car #07, the first at Talladega, and the first in any XFINITY race since August 1, 2009, when the PMC Life Chevrolet of Mike Harmon fell out with brake trouble after 6 laps of the U.S. Cellular 250 at Iowa.
*This marked only the second XFINITY last-place finish for SS Green Light Racing.  The other took place at Richmond on April 25, 2014 with Jimmy Weller III.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #07-Ray Black, Jr. / 7 laps / engine
39) #23-Spencer Gallagher / 20 laps / crash
38) #21-Daniel Hemric / 20 laps / crash
37) #33-Brandon Jones / 20 laps / crash
36) #9-William Byron / 32 laps / crash

2017 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) RSS Racing (6)
2nd) B.J. McLeod Motorsports, Kaulig Racing, SS Green Light Racing (1)

2017 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (9)

2017 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP 

9/28/03: Larry Foyt’s rough rookie season culminates in hard Talladega crash

PHOTO: motorsport.com

On September 28, 2003, Larry Foyt picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Winston Cup Series career in the EA Sports 500 at the Talladega Superspeedway when his #14 Harrah’s Dodge was involved in a crash after 9 of 188 laps.  The finish, which came in Foyt’s 17th series start, was his second of the season and first since March 9 at Atlanta, 25 races previous.

The grandson (and adopted son) of four-time Indianapolis 500 winner A.J. Foyt (a three-time last-place finisher in Cup), Larry aspired to race from an early age, cutting his teeth in go-karts.  “I knew when I was just a little kid that racing was what I wanted to do,” he said in 2001.  But when his Larry middle brother Jerry saw his racing career stall out, A.J. said he would only help Larry if he got a college degree.  Larry held up his end of the bargain, earning a communications degree from Texas Christian University, and from there, A.J. lent a helping hand.

From the start, Larry eyed a career in open-wheel racing, competing part-time in the USAC Formula 2000 with dreams of running at Indianapolis.  But a terrible accident while battling for a top-five finish made A.J. steer him elsewhere.  “I was scared,” said A.J. of the crash.  “It looked bad, and he was very lucky.  After that, I started to think about getting Larry into something else.”

So in 2000, it was A.J. who steered Larry toward stock car racing.  That year, A.J. returned as an owner in the Cup Series for the first time since 1994, hiring newcomer Mike Bliss with sponsorship from financial group Conseco.  Bliss made the Daytona 500, finishing 33rd, but failed to qualify for the next three rounds, and the rest of the season didn’t go much better.  Dick Trickle and Rick Mast rounded out the year, missing the cut for four more races and earning just two Top 10s.

Larry was reluctant to compete in stock cars, but soon came around.  In that same 2000 season, A.J. fielded a car for him in the American Speed Association (ASA).  There, the results were noticeably better.  Driving his grandfather’s iconic #14, Larry finished 9th in his debut at the USA International Speedway, won his first pole at Winchester, and finished a season-best 5th in the season finale at Gateway.  Larry also made his ARCA debut at Charlotte, finishing 35th in a race won by Ryan Newman, and got his first taste of Winston Cup by trying to qualify for the 2000 finale at Atlanta, only to be one of 13 drivers who missed the cut.

Prior to the 2001 season, A.J. made a pair of announcements.  On the Winston Cup side, Truck Series veteran Ron Hornaday, Jr. would compete for Rookie of the Year in the Conseco Pontiac.  “We had problems last year right from the start,” said A.J., “We got a late start and we weren’t making races early in the season.  Then we made a lot of personnel changes through the year.  Now we’ve got good people, we’ve got a good driver and we’ve got good cars.”  The team would also debut a Busch Series effort for Larry.  Harrah’s Casino, which backed Larry’s ASA ride, would fund his #14 Chevrolet for the full Busch season.  “He’s got a good head on his shoulders, and he doesn’t do anything stupid,” said A.J. of Larry, “If you watch him this year, I think you’ll see how smooth he is on the racetrack.”

Larry began the 2001 Busch season well enough, finishing 19th at Daytona, leading under caution, and coming home on the lead lap.  His season-best finish came in the next plate race at Talladega, where he ran 12th.  But nine DNFs – eight due to crashes – mired him back in the standings.  The most infamous crash came on September 1, 2001, during the South Carolina 200 at Darlington.  On Lap 20, during a caution for rain, Larry was speeding through Turns 1 and 2, looking to join the lapped cars on the inside line for the restart.  As he came off the second corner, the steering wheel on Steve Park’s #31 Chevrolet suddenly came loose, causing his car to cut left, directly in Larry’s path.  The two cars collided, leaving Park unconscious with injuries that would ultimately cut short his career.  Foyt also sat out the next round at Richmond, handing the wheel to Mark Green, and finished the season 22nd in points.

Larry returned to the Busch Series in 2002 and began to show progress.  He cut his DNFs from nine to three, scored two Top Tens, an 8th at Talladega and a 10th at Rockingham, and ran the full season, earning 20th in points.  At the same time, A.J.’s Winston Cup team was continuing to struggle.  Stacy Compton took over for the first half of the schedule and finished no better than 18th.  Mike Wallace ran the second half and earned just one Top 10 at Bristol.  Ironically, after the team failed to qualify at Sonoma, the year’s best performance came at Watkins Glen, where P.J. Jones steered the Pontiac to a 4th-place finish.

When Conseco didn’t return to sponsor A.J. Foyt Racing’s Cup effort in 2003, the decision was made to move Larry up to Cup full-time, bringing the sponsorship from Harrah’s with him.  Larry would be part of a stacked rookie class that year, matched against Greg Biffle, Jamie McMurray, Casey Mears, Tony Raines, and Jack Sprague, all with extensive experience in NASCAR.  “The rookie class looks really strong with a lot of top young guys that I raced against in (the Grand National series).  I know there’s no lack of talent there,” said Larry.  “For me, I need to get seat time and I want to run up front.  Top 20s for me would almost be like a win.”

Top 20s were in short supply.  Larry was the fastest car to not qualify for the rain-shortened Daytona 500.  He finished 36th in his Cup debut at Rockingham, came home no better than 32nd in the next three races, and finished last at Atlanta with engine trouble.  Qualifying for races continued to be a struggle throughout the year, so much so that by the 19th round at Loudon, the team changed its car number to #50.  Though the team announced the change was simply the team’s choice, speculation was that the number was changed to allow the #14 its one remaining provisional to start at Indianapolis.

Regardless, by the time the series came to Talladega in September, the car number was #14 once more.  Larry had made just 16 of the previous 28 races and failed to qualify 11 times, including the previous four races in a row.  He had yet to finish on the lead lap, and his season-best finish at that point was a 28th at Dover.  Even P.J. Jones wasn’t able to replicate his success at Watkins Glen – the purple and yellow Harrah’s car was too slow for him to qualify at Sonoma, and Larry missed the show at The Glen.

Larry Foyt was one of 50 drivers on the preliminary entry list to attempt the 43-car field for the EA Sports 500 (a list brought down to 49 after Morgan Shepherd withdrew his Ford).  While Larry had missed the show in the spring, he this time had the speed to make it without a provisional, turning a lap of 186.893mph for 35th on the grid.  Joining Shepherd on the early ride home were Kyle Petty’s #45 Georgia-Pacific Dodge for Petty Enterprises; the Morgan-McClure Motorsports #4 Kodak Pontiac for Kevin Lepage; Jason Leffler in the HAAS team’s #0 NetZero Hi Speed Pontiac; Joe Gibbs Racing’s #80 Advair Chevrolet with Mike Bliss; Steve Park in the #30 America Online Chevrolet; and Todd Bodine in Sam Belnavis and Travis Carter’s #54 National Guard Ford.

Starting 43rd in the field was Busch Series veteran Jason Keller.  Earlier that year at Richmond, it was Keller who was tabbed to drive in place of Jerry Nadeau, who suffered his career-ending injury during practice.  This time around, Keller would drive the #1 Pennzoil Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt, Inc., a car whose driver lineup changed frequently once Steve Park was released after that same Richmond race in May.  Joining him at the rear were two drivers sent to the back for engine changes: Ryan Newman in Roger Penske’s #12 Alltel Dodge, and Dale Jarrett’s son Jason, making his Cup debut in a third Yates Racing car, the #98 C.H.I. Overhead Doors Ford.

On the first lap, Jason Jarrett trailed the field, hanging back in the rear along with 42nd-place Keller.  Keller caught the pack on Lap 2 while Jarrett looked to find the right line, swapping lanes between the middle and outside as he started to lose touch with the field, 2.3 seconds back of the leader by Lap 4.  On Lap 6, Larry Foyt was hugging the inside line around 30th as Dale Earnhardt, Jr. moved past him in the middle, looking to make up lost ground after his qualifying time was disallowed.  On Lap 10, Larry was up to 26th and in the outside lane when trouble broke out all around him in Turn 4.

To Larry’s inside, Jeremy Mayfield lost a left-rear tire on his #19 Dodge Dealers / UAW Dodge.  Out of control, Mayfield bounced off Joe Nemechek’s #25 UAW-Delphi Chevrolet on the inside, knocking him to the right – directly in Foyt’s path.  The two collided, pinning Foyt’s car against the outside wall.  Foyt ground his car to a stop against the barrier as Mayfield spun to the inside, collecting four other cars.  Of all the cars involved, only Foyt’s was unable to make it back to pit road.  Crews attended to him at the exit of Turn 4.

Larry was transported to a local hospital with a cracked wrist, though an examination the following Tuesday cleared him to race in Kansas with the aid of a brace on his wrist.  “It was a really hard hit,” he said.  “One of the hardest I’ve ever taken.  But my guys did a great job setting up the safety equipment in the car.  All the equipment, including the LaJoie seat, did its job.”

Two cars involved in Foyt’s accident finished 42nd and 41st – the #7 Sirius Satellite Radio Dodge of Jimmy Spencer and the #10 Valvoline Pontiac of Johnny Benson, Jr.  Benson was actually 43rd for most of the race’s first half until he returned to complete 20 more laps, climbing two spots in the process.  40th went to the #00 Crown Fiber Communications Chevrolet of Roy “Buckshot” Jones, who that day enjoyed perhaps the best run of his Cup career.  Driving an old DEI car owned by Michael Waltrip, Jones was making just his second start of the season and his first at Talladega in two years.  Jones not only qualified 16th, but led 19 green-flag laps before a blown right-front tire tore up the fender short of halfway.  Rounding out the Bottom Five was 39th-place Sterling Marlin, whose #40 Coors Light Dodge was overheating.

This race is more widely known as Michael Waltrip’s fourth and final Cup win, as well as the site of Elliott Sadler’s terrifying flip down the backstretch with seven laps to go.

Larry Foyt finished the 2003 season as best he could, scoring his first lead-lap finish at Phoenix, then a career-best 16th in the finale at Homestead.  When it was done, Larry had made 20 of the 36 races, failing to finish 8 of them, and either did not qualify or withdrew 13 times.  Harrah’s left as a sponsor at season’s end, and Larry made another three starts in a car with piecemeal sponsorship, including an elusive Daytona 500 where he ran 28th.  But following another DNQ at Talladega that spring, A.J. Foyt’s team was done in the Cup Series.

However, 2004 also saw Larry Foyt accomplish his lifelong dream when he started 22nd in his first-ever Indianapolis 500, his first of three consecutive appearances in the event.  Unfortunately, he suffered another injury there in 2005, and though he’d race on occasion over the next five years, he began to transition into a different career.  In 2006, Larry became more involved in the management of A.J. Foyt Enterprises, where today he is the team’s president.  He and his wife Kelly Curran were married November 7, 2015, and they still reside in Texas.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #14 in a Cup Series race at Talladega since May 14, 1978, when Coo Coo Marlin (father of Sterling Marlin) lost the engine on his Cunningham-Kelley Chevrolet after 4 laps of the Winston 500.  The number would not finish last there again until 2014, when Tony Stewart’s Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet crashed out of the Aaron’s 499.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #14-Larry Foyt / 9 laps / crash
42) #7-Jimmy Spencer / 11 laps / crash
41) #10-Johnny Benson, Jr. / 29 laps / crash
40) #00-Buckshot Jones / 88 laps / crash / led 19 laps
39) #40-Sterling Marlin / 103 laps / overheating

SOURCES
*Associated Press. “Another Foyt set to ride,” ESPN.com, January 23, 2001.
*Smith, Marty. “Six-pack: One-on-one with Steve Park,” ESPN.com, October 21, 2010.
*Jayski’s Silly Season Site
*“Larry Foyt medical update 2003-09-30” motorsport.com, October 1, 2003.
*Racing-reference.info
*Utter, Jim. “The Sensational Six: Biffle, McMurray, Sprague lead talented rookie class.” Daily News, February 2, 2003.
*Van Meter, David. “Life in the fast lane,” TCU Magazine, Winter 2003.

Preliminary Entry List Storylines: Talladega

PHOTO: @DJKRacing

CUP SERIES
Geico 500 at Talladega

After seven short fields in the first nine races of the season, there are 42 Cup teams entered in this Sunday’s race – the exact same 42 teams which arrived for the Daytona 500.

Back for the first time since Florida are D.J. Kennington and Brendan Gaughan, the two feel-good stories of SpeedWeeks.  Kennington, the two-time NASCAR Pinty’s Series champion, ran a clean race before he was eliminated in a multi-car wreck not of his doing.  This week, he trades the blue-and-white paint scheme for an all-white Toyota with sponsorship from his engine provider Triad Racing Technologies.  Gaughan finished a strong 11th at Daytona in team owner Mark Beard’s old Richard Childress Racing chassis, the driver’s best finish in the series since he ran 6th in the 2004 finale at Homestead.  Both drivers and teams hope for a sunny weekend as each will be sent home if qualifying is washed out.

Also returning is Tommy Baldwin Racing, who we last saw three rounds ago at Texas.  Back behind the wheel is Elliott Sadler, 20th in Daytona, and sponsor Golden Corral, which Sadler carried to a 7th-place finish in last Saturday’s XFINITY race at Richmond.  If the car makes the cut, Sadler will again run double-duty this weekend, where he arrives as the defending winner of the XFINITY race.

As announced on April 12, Joey Gase is also set to make his first Cup start since Daytona.  After running with BK Racing in Florida, he moves to the #15 at Premium Motorsports, moving its regular driver Reed Sorenson to Derrike Cope’s #55.  When last we saw Sorenson in the #55, he was wrecked out of the transfer spot in his Can-Am Duel by Corey LaJoie, sending Sorenson and team home.  Xchange of America, which sponsored Sorenson at Texas, returns to the #55 this week.  Gase brings with him sponsorship from Sparks Energy, which also backs his XFINITY entry with Jimmy Means Racing and is the title sponsor for the XFINITY race.  Gase finished 23rd in his Daytona Cup debut this February and will be making his first Cup event at Talladega.

As of this writing, three teams do not have a listed primary sponsor: Rick Ware Racing’s #51 Chevrolet for Timmy Hill, Circle Sport with The Motorsports Group’s #33 Chevrolet for Jeffrey Earnhardt, and – surprisingly – Chase Elliott’s #24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports (since Hooters was named his official sponsor on January 23).  Hill looks to make his third Talladega start for a third different team, following a 42nd-place run for Joe Nemechek in 2012 and a 41st-place finish for Premium Motorsports in 2015.  Jeffrey Earnhardt made his Talladega debut last fall (running 34th), where he also first ran his current silver-and-black paint scheme as tribute to his grandfather.

At Daytona, Cole Whitt nearly scored a Top 10 for TriStar Motorsports in his #72 Chevrolet before he ran out of fuel, leaving him 18th.  Since then, Whitt has continued to surprise, giving the team some of its best runs in years.  Sunday at Richmond, he finished 27th, the team’s best finish at the three-quarter-mile oval since March 7, 1993, when the late Bobby Hamilton ran 22nd in the #68 Country Time Ford.  Whitt’s best finish at Talladega came in this race two years ago when he finished 13th, though last year he was again in the Top 10 when a last lap, last turn pileup left him 18th.  RTIC Coolers, who backed his Premium Motorsports entry here last year, serves as Whitt’s primary sponsor for the third time this season.

Leavine Family Racing and driver Michael McDowell are always ones to watch on the superspeedways.  Both driver and team scored their best Cup finish in the rain-shortened Daytona race in July 2014, finishing 7th.  The team is expected to make an announcement this week, which may have something to do with Winn-Dixie sponsoring their red #95 Chevrolet this week.

A dark horse to watch this Sunday will be Ty Dillon, who prior to the pit incident with Clint Bowyer late at Richmond had been riding a streak of seven finishes of 22nd or better, including five Top 20 finishes.  Like LFR, Germain Racing has also been a sleeper at the plate tracks, particularly Talladega, where in the fall of 2012 previous driver Casey Mears was pushing Michael Waltrip to the lead on the final lap when Tony Stewart’s block triggered a wreck that handed the win to Matt Kenseth.  Dillon ran 30th in the Daytona 500 when he was eliminated in a crash on Lap 143.

Also one to watch will be Matt DiBenedetto, who ran a strong 9th during his last plate race in the 500.  DiBenedetto has just one Top 20 finish since then – a 19th two weeks ago at Bristol – and the Go FAS Racing team finished in the same spot in this race last year with Bobby Labonte.

XFINITY SERIES
Sparks Energy 300 at Talladega

42 teams are also listed to attempt Saturday’s XFINITY Series race.  For the second-straight week, neither of Obaika Racing’s cars (#77 or #97) are entered, nor are drivers Stephen Leicht and Josh Bilicki.

Owner-drivers Mike Harmon, Morgan Shepherd, and B.J. McLeod are all entered.  Harmon hasn’t started an XFINITY race at Talladega since 2014, when he ran 28th in his Dodge.  His best finish remains a 17th in 2008.  Shepherd made the show last year, finishing 39th after running 27 laps, which was his first start there since 2013.  His best XFINITY finish stands as an 11th in 2003, but in Cup he’s scored four Top Fives, including a track-best 3rd in 1995.  McLeod made his first Talladega start last year and ran 36th.  Jeff Green returns to McLeod’s #8 after a one-off in Jordan Anderson’s #93 RSS Racing Chevrolet last week.  The switch ended Anderson’s last-place streak at five races, though Anderson could continue the team’s streak to seven races if he qualifies this Saturday.

Back for the first time since the second round at Atlanta is Chris Cockrum and his #25 Advanced Communications Group Chevrolet, which ran 37th here last spring after a hard crash on Lap 31.

Scott Lagasse, Jr., who came home 6th after the dust settled at Daytona, is back in JGL Racing’s #24 Toyota.  Last Saturday at Richmond, the #24 earned its best finish since then with Dylan Lupton, taking 12th on the lead lap.

Martin Roy, known for his dramatic near-miss at Las Vegas, is back in Mario Gosselin’s #90 Chevrolet for the first time since Fontana.  If his #90 Cote / Gamache Truck Center Chevrolet makes the cut, it will be Roy’s first Talladega start.

Richard Childress Racing has also entered Ben Kennedy in their #2 Rheem Chevrolet, giving Kennedy his first XFINITY start since last summer at Iowa.  Kennedy finished 5th in last fall’s Truck Series race at Talladega.

ARCA veteran Mark Thompson is entered in Motorsports Business Management’s #13 Phoenix Air Toyota.  Thompson was withdrawn from February’s race in Daytona, but has made at least one plate race the last two years, running 27th at Talladega in 2015 and 31st at Daytona in July 2016.  Timmy Hill is entered in the second MBM car, the #40 Dodge, and could again be running double-duty.

TRUCK SERIES
Next Race: May 12, 2017
Toyota Tundra 250 at Kansas