#JD70: J.D. McDuffie's Career at Michigan

Based in nearby Jackson, Michigan, Bailey Excavating supported
McDuffie's #70 for much of his career.
PHOTO: source unknown

J.D. McDuffie made 33 starts at the Michigan International Speedway and, like Pocono, was there for the inaugural event. What’s more, he enjoyed a strong run. The date was June 15, 1969, and the race length was 500 miles. Driving his two-year-old Buick, McDuffie qualified 20th in the 38-car field and climbed to 13th by the finish. Heavy attrition that day meant that only 17 cars finished under power. Most of those DNFs were due to engine failure, and included polesitter Donnie Allison, brother Bobby Allison, and 1970 Cup Series champion Bobby Isaac.

McDuffie himself didn’t fail to finish a Michigan race until June 16, 1974, when his own engine let go after 135 of 180 laps. Even then, he had outlasted much of the competition, climbing from 34th on the grid to 17th.

With the exception of a second engine failure on August 24, 1975 that left him 28th, McDuffie finished inside the Top 20 in 14 of 15 consecutive Michigan races without a single DNF. The streak began with his first of four career Top Tens on June 24, 1973, when he rallied from 26th to finish 10th, 8 laps down to David Pearson. It also included his track-best 7th-place run on August 20, 1978. That particular running of the Champion Spark Plug 400 was one of his best overall weekends. He qualified 9th that day – his only starting spot there better than 15th – led his first three circuits from Laps 39 to 41, and was this time within three laps of Pearson’s winning Mercury. The streak ended on June 21, 1981, the first Michigan race after NASCAR downsized from full-sized race cars. McDuffie’s his Pontiac Grand Prix ran 22nd.

McDuffie finished last at Michigan only once, during the following year’s Gabriel 400 on June 20, 1982. The #70 Bailey Excavating Pontiac lined up 32nd in the 37-car field, but drew the first caution after the engine let go on Lap 10. The driver then struggled to qualify in 1984, missing both races that year, but made both rounds there in 1985 and 1986. On June 15, 1986, he led Lap 22 – his fourth and final lap led at the track – but dropped a valve for a 35th-place finish. The year after, he ended a streak of six consecutive DNFs at Michigan with a 22nd-place finish on August 16, 1987.

McDuffie’s final start at Michigan came on June 24, 1990, during the Miller Genuine Draft 400. The entry list saw 44 drivers entered for 40 spots, and the Sanford native earned 37th on the grid. Missing the field were David Ragan’s father Ken Ragan, series veteran Charlie Glotzbach, Mickey Gibbs, and Rich Vogler, who one month later would lose his life in a USAC race at the Salem Speedway. The #70 ended up finishing in 37th, out with a broken rocker arm after 57 laps.

It was also at Michigan, one week after the tragedy at Watkins Glen, where fans and drivers alike paid tribute to the fallen driver. This tribute aired on ESPN during the third caution of the Champion Spark Plug 400, scene of Dale Jarrett’s first Cup victory.

Reserve your copy of "J.D.: The Life and Death of a Forgotten NASCAR Legend" at Waldorf Publishing, coming July 15, 2018. Click here for more details.

K&N WEST: Spencer Davis leads laps, then falls out late at Memphis

PHOTO: NASCAR Home Tracks

by William Soquet
LASTCAR.info Guest Contributor

Spencer Davis finished last for the first time in his NASCAR K&N Pro Series East career in Saturday night’s Memphis 150 presented by AutoZone at the Memphis International Raceway when his #82 Horton Avenue Materials LLC / Danny Watts Racing Chevrolet fell out with electrical issues after 139 of the race’s 150 laps. The finish came in Davis’ 25th series start.

Davis has emerged as one of a number of prospects jostling for seat time in a crowded field of Toyota development drivers. He started racing karts at the age of six, winning multiple championships in his home state in Georgia, and eventually progressed to pro trucks at eleven, then pro late models at twelve. A year later, he ran his first All American 400 as an independent. He continued running big-ticket late model races until 2015, where he debuted in both the K&N Pro Series East and West. A year later started out with a promising deal to run the K&N East schedule with Ranier Racing with MDM, but that fell apart mid-season due to funding issues. Davis spent the rest of the year bouncing between teams, including his family team, Jefferson Pitts Racing and Hattori Racing Enterprises.

In 2017, Davis found himself in the ARCA Racing Series, running seven races with four top tens for Venturini Motorsports. He also traveled around the country as a Toyota super late model driver. He stepped up this year to run a few Truck races for Kyle Busch Motorsports, joining a multitude of Toyota drivers getting limited seat time, sharing the #51 truck with Harrison Burton, Brandon Jones, Riley Herbst, David Gilliland and Kyle Busch. Less publicized, however, is Davis’ effort in the K&N Pro Series East, a part-time deal with Danny Watts Racing in the #82 car. The team, prior to Memphis, had finished between fifth and eighth in all four of its 2018 starts.

Memphis’ entry list yielded 19 cars and was heavy on part-time returns. Armani Williams was the only driver to make a debut, driving with Calabrese Motorsports, a team which had previously entered cars for Joe Graf Jr. and Eddie MacDonald earlier in the season. Also returning were all three of the Bill McAnally Racing cars, with Derek Kraus, Hailie Deegan and Cole Rouse back for the first time since Bristol. Trey Hutchens returned to the series for the first time in 2018 after running nearly half the schedule last year. Colin Garrett and his Hunt-Sellers Racing team returned after a rough set of Twin 100s and J.P. Morgan made his first start in the #23 machine since New Smyrna. Missing from the entry list again was Salvatore Iovino, whose full-season effort was apparently abandoned.

Last in practice on Saturday was the aforementioned Williams. The practice session was one of the closest of the season, as Williams’ fastest lap was only a second slower than leader Tyler Dippel. The 43 car again anchored the charts in the next event of the weekend, qualifying, this time slipping to almost two seconds behind leader Tyler Ankrum.

In the race, Williams held last until about Lap 35, when Juan Manuel Gonzalez dropped to last and became the first to fall a circuit behind on Lap 39. After the first mid-race break, Williams dropped to last again, only for it to be re-claimed by Gonzalez on Lap 65. He didn’t stay there long, however, as Cole Rouse pitted on Lap 70 to diagnose an engine issue and spent eight circuits on pit road, dropping the #99 to last. Rouse held that spot until around Lap 145, when Davis dropped to last. After the second mid-race break, electrical problems hampered the team, and a steady fall through the running order ended after 139 laps.

Rouse finished eighteenth, the last car running. Gonzalez finished four laps down, Williams three in arrears, and Trey Hutchens was the last car one lap down to round out the Bottom Five.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
19) #82-Spencer Davis / 139 laps / electrical
18) #99-Cole Rouse / 142 laps / running
17) #5-Juan Manuel Gonzalez / 146 laps / running
16) #43-Armani Williams / 147 laps / running
15) #14-Trey Hutchens / 149 laps / running

2018 LASTCAR K&N EAST MANUFACTURERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota, Chevrolet (3)

2018 LASTCAR K&N EAST OWNERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Bill McAnally Racing, Ronald Bassett Jr., Charles Buchanan Jr., Carroll Motorsports, Hunt-Sellers Racing, Danny Watts Racing (1)

2018 LASTCAR K&N EAST DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP

CUP: One year after his Cup debut, Bubba Wallace becomes first African American to finish last in series since 1970

PHOTO: Matthew T. Thacker / NKP / LAT Images

Bubba Wallace picked up the 1st last-place finish of his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s Pocono 400 at the Pocono Raceway when his #43 Weis Chevrolet fell out with engine problems after 108 of 200 laps.

The finish came in Wallace’s 18th start. In the Cup Series last-place rankings, it’s the 37th for car #43, the 680th by reason of engine failure, and the 746th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it’s the 48th for the #43, the 1,056th by reason of engine failure, and the 1,600th for Chevrolet.

It was in this same race, just under a year ago, that Wallace arrived on the Cup Series scene. At the time, the up-and-coming racer from Mobile, Alabama had worked his way through the Truck Series and XFINITY rankings, earning a full-time ride in Roush-Fenway Racing’s #6 Ford Mustang. The 2017 had been his third season in the car, and he sat 4th in the series standings after a strong start. But sponsorship issues led to the closure of the #6 team, leaving Wallace with an uncertain future. But another opportunity came just as quickly. So quickly, in fact, that Wallace’s final XFINITY start for Roush-Fenway would be followed the next day by his Cup debut.

Following Aric Almirola’s back injury suffered in a terrible crash at Kansas, Richard Petty Motorsports was without their lead driver for two months. After a couple decent finishes by series veteran Regan Smith, RPM decided to try something different at Pocono, and tabbed Wallace to drive. He would become the first African American to start a Cup Series race since June 18, 2006, when Bill Lester took the green at Michigan. Wallace finished 26th that day, and soon after celebrated with friend and fellow competitor Ryan Blaney, who had just claimed his first Cup Series win. It was a poignant moment of the past meeting the future: Blaney drove the Wood Brothers’ #21 Ford, a ride just as iconic as Wallace’s #43.

Wallace made three more Cup starts that year, each time improving on the previous finish. He ran 19th at Michigan, 15th at Daytona, then 11th at Kentucky before Almirola returned the next week at Loudon. When news broke of a falling-out between RPM and sponsor Smithfield, and that Almirola would be taking the sponsor to Stewart-Haas Racing to replace Danica Patrick, the ride once again became vacant. The team signed Wallace, who once again would have to cobble together sponsorship to fund his ride. Click ‘n Close Mortgages joined the team’s Daytona 500 effort, where RPM would debut their new Chevrolet Camaro, thanks to a new technical partnership with Richard Childress Racing. For the fifth time in as many starts, Wallace again improved. He finished a close 2nd to Austin Dillon, banging doors with Denny Hamlin across the finish line. Wallace’s Chevrolet was later sold at auction.

Coming into Sunday’s one-year anniversary, Wallace sat 23rd in the point standings. While he hadn’t scored a DNF, he’d endured several difficult runs, including a late-race crash at Atlanta and a mechanical failure at Martinsville. But there were also flashes of brilliance: an 8th-place showing at Texas, a green-flag pass on Kyle Busch to lead six laps at Bristol, then another five laps out front at Talladega. New sponsorships arrived, from first-time backers like World Wide Technology to a returning Food Lion, plus several blue-and-red throwbacks to the STP machines of old. Pocono would see another of the former – Weis Markets – whose logos also adorned the 2.5-mile track’s scoring pylon.

Wallace began the weekend 23rd in Friday’s opening practice. In qualifying, he made it to Round 2 with the 18th-fastest time, then ranked 19th in Round 2 with a lap of 173.708mph (51.811 seconds). He was then 23rd again in Happy Hour. With 38 cars entered for 40 spots, no teams were sent home after time trials.

Starting last in Sunday’s race was Derrike Cope, who was making his 23rd Cup start at Pocono. The race would also see the return of his StarCom Racing’s second team, the #99 StarCom Fiber Chevrolet, which was wrecked midway through last month’s round in Dover. No teams incurred pre-race penalties sending them to the rear, nor did any other teams fall back voluntarily. This meant that Cope would line up next to 37th-place starter J.J. Yeley. Yeley, tabbed to drive in Johnathan Cohen’s return to Cup team ownership, was again behind the wheel of the team’s #7 Steakhouse Elite Chevrolet. During the week, however, the car had been withdrawn by Cohen and re-entered under the team’s partners at Premium Motorsports, meaning that Premium’s owner Jay Robinson would earn Yeley’s Owner Points.

When the green flag fell, Cope inched ahead of Yeley heading into the first corner, but Yeley pulled back to his inside in Turn 1. Yeley then got the drive off and began to work his way past Cope through the tunnel turn before finally clearing him in Turn 3. Cope then fell into line, where he could see Yeley work his way past Cole Whitt in TriStar Motorsports’ #72 Chevrolet.

Cope would stay in the last position for most of the afternoon. On Lap 4, he was 15.8 seconds back of the leader. He reported the car was tight, but was trying not to overuse the brakes. By Lap 8, Cope’s car had turned loose both on entrance and exit, and he continued to lose ground to the rest of the field. By Lap 12, he was entering Turn 1 as the leaders came off Turn 3. Four circuits later, Cope pulled to the inside off Turn 3 as race leader Kevin Harvick motored by to his outside, the #99 now the first car one lap down. At this moment, just as Ryan Blaney began a sequence of off-cycle green-flag pit stops, Cope’s crew discussed how they were going to keep their driver hydrated. The #99 didn’t have a cupholder in it, so the crew would have to hand him a water bottle with a straw in it, then instruct the driver to toss it out at the end of his stop.

During these stops, Cole Custer took last on Lap 22. Custer was making his first Cup start since his series debut at Las Vegas in March, again driving a Stewart-Haas Racing prepared #51 Ford entered by Rick Ware Racing. Cope retook 38th by Lap 25, then lost a second lap after his own stop for tires, fuel, and water. Cope lost his third circuit on the 44th lap, which allowed Martin Truex, Jr. to use him as a pick in order to pass leader Harvick.

Cope finished Stage 1 three laps down and had planned to fall to the tail end of the field for the start of Stage 2. However, when the green flag fell, Cope was surrounded on all sides by several drivers, including Cole Whitt, Kasey Kahne, and teammate Landon Cassill. J.J. Yeley was also having difficulty finding a clear place to run, and on Lap 60 pulled his car close to the grass in Turn 1 to let the leaders pass. Through it all, Cope said his car was “definitely better” and that he could “definitely drive it harder.” But the overall pace was still not there. He lost a fourth lap by Lap 61, then a fifth after his next stop on Lap 78. Cope lost a sixth circuit by the time Stage 2 ended.

As Cope prepared his adjustments for Stage 3, Darrell Wallace, Jr. was having an up-and-down day. The variety of pit strategies allowed Wallace to stay out longer during Stage 2, and he paced the field for four laps. Once he made his stop, Wallace was then caught speeding off pit road, and NASCAR waved the black flag with the white cross, indicating he would no longer be scored if he didn’t serve the pass-through. Wallace served the penalty on Lap 89, and lost a lap in the exchange. In Stage 3, he was working his way back through the field, and was running in 27th when a rookie mistake ended his day. On Lap 108, he shifted down from third to second on a straightaway, blowing the engine. Wallace limped down the short chute and made it to pit road, then pulled behind the wall. He took last from Cope on Lap 116.

Finishing 37th was Matt DiBenedetto, whose right-front wheel on the #32 Zynga Poker Ford erupted in flames, forcing an abrupt turn to the garage on Lap 117. Unable to find a replacement brake caliper in time, the Go FAS Racing team called it an afternoon. It marked the second-straight Pocono race where the #43 and #32 finished in the bottom two positions, following both cars’ involvement in a first-lap fracas that led to a scoring issue last July.

36th fell to Kasey Kahne, whose #95 FDNY Foundation Chevrolet tore out the transmission moments after DiBenedetto’s exit, forcing a hard left turn at pit exit and into the garage area. 35th-place Denny Hamlin was the only driver eliminated in a crash, the result of a tangle with Alex Bowman in the first corner on Lap 148. Rounding out the field was Derrike Cope, eight laps down to the leaders – no thanks to contact from Kyle Larson that sent him into a spin off Turn 3 on Lap 126. Unlike Dover, Cope managed to leave the track with his car intact.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Wallace is the first African American to finish last in a Cup Series race since September 20, 1970, when Hall of Fame driver Wendell Scott lost an engine on his #34 1969 Ford after 1 lap of the Mason-Dixon 300 at Dover. It was the 12th and final last-place run of Scott’s career.
*This marks the first streak of three consecutive first-time last-place finishers since Races 2 through 4 of 2017: Cody Ware (Atlanta), Corey LaJoie (Las Vegas), and Jeffrey Earnhardt (Phoenix).
*Wallace is just the third Cup Series driver to lead at least one lap at Pocono, then finish last. The other two were Todd Bodine on July 29, 2001 (2 laps led) and Michael Waltrip on August 3, 2008 (1 lap led). Wallace’s four laps led are the most by any driver in this category.
*Wallace’s 108 laps are the most completed by a first-time last-placer at Pocono since June 12, 1983, when Bobby Gerhart ran 44 laps of the Van Scoy Diamond Mine 500 before engine trouble. It’s the sixth-most laps complete of any Cup Series last-placer at Pocono.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
38) #43-Bubba Wallace / 108 laps / engine
37) #32-Matt DiBenedetto / 113 laps / brakes
36) #95-Kasey Kahne / 120 laps / transmission
35) #11-Denny Hamlin / 146 laps / crash
34) #99-Derrike Cope / 152 laps / running

2018 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) TriStar Motorsports (3)
2nd) Premium Motorsports (2)
3rd) BK Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing, Front Row Motorsports, Furniture Row Racing, Germain Racing, Richard Petty Motorsports, Roush-Fenway Racing, StarCom Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing (1)

2018 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (9)
2nd) Ford (3)
3rd) Toyota (2)

2018 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

XFINITY: Jeff Green builds on another last-place streak at Pocono

Jeff Green (left) next to Timmy Hill's
"FilterTime.com" Dodge (right)
PHOTO: @LarrySpencer21

Jeff Green picked up the 108th last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Saturday’s Pocono Green 250 Recycled by JP Mascaro & Sons at the Pocono Raceway when his unsponsored #93 RSS Racing Chevrolet fell out with brake issues after 4 of 100 laps.

The finish came in Green’s 492nd series start. In the NASCAR XFINITY Series last-place rankings, it’s the 33rd for car #93, the 53rd by reason of brake trouble, and the 504th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it’s the 83rd for the #93, the 151st by reason of brake trouble, and the 1,599th for Chevrolet.

Green reprised his role as the third teammate at RSS Racing, joining Ryan Sieg in the #39 KMB Plumbing & Electrical Chevrolet and J.J. Yeley in the unsponsored #38. Green ranked 30th of 38 in Friday’s opening session, then was the only driver who didn’t take laps in Happy Hour. He then turned in the 33rd-best lap in qualifying with a lap of 151.914mph (59.244 seconds). This was just good enough for Green to make the field on speed instead of relying on the Past Champion’s Provisional.

The only driver to miss the field was Morgan Shepherd, who Green bested by just under seven-tenths of a second for the final spot on speed. As the lowest-ranked in Owner Points of the drivers needing provisionals, Shepherd was bumped from the field by Mike Harmon, whose #74 Horizon Transport Chevrolet was just under a second slower than Shepherd. Incidentally, the composite body on Shepherd’s #89 VisOne RV Chevrolet carried a slightly different variation on its paint scheme. It was all black without a gold roof or its red stripe along the bottom of the car.

Joining 40th-place starter Harmon for the start of Saturday’s race was rookie Alex Labbe, whose #36 Can-Am  / Wholey / Cyclops Gear Chevrolet had serious splitter issues in qualifying. Adjustments to the nose of the car constituted unapproved adjustments, and Labbe was sent to the rear prior to the start by NASCAR rules.

Also falling back were Jeff Green, who along with Timmy Hill voluntarily fell to the back before the start. Hill qualified alongside Green in 34th, driving the #66 OCR Gaz Bar Dodge fielded by Motorsports Business Management. Hill added an additional “sponsor” to his car on Friday from FilterTime.com, an air filter delivery business started by released XFINITY Series driver Blake Koch. Looking to help a friend, Hill put Filter Time’s name on a strip of orange tape near the front edge of the hood.

At the end of the first lap, Mike Harmon retook the 40th spot, four-tenths of a second behind new 39th-place Matt Mills, returning to JD Motorsports’ #15 Chevrolet, and 9.306 seconds back of the leader. The gap widened to 12.713 back of the lead at the end of Lap 2. At the end of Lap 3, Matt Mills had passed Brandon Hightower, who was steadily losing positions after his #55 Timmons Truck Center Toyota was lifted from 38th by the three cars that fell to the rear. Harmon still held 40th that time by, now 16.756 seconds back of the race lead.

At the conclusion of Lap 4, MRN Radio reported that Green, who had climbed to 29th, was now running “a snail’s pace” as he pulled onto the access road heading to the pits. Green made it there under power without drawing a caution, and became the first driver to pull behind the wall. He inherited last from Harmon, who continued on, now 22.143 seconds back of the leader. Seven laps later, Timmy Hill pulled his Dodge behind the wall, citing overheating issues. Hill slipped to 39th past Alex Labbe, who lost a lap after an apparent unscheduled pit stop. Labbe recovered nicely to finish on the lead lap in 18th.

The rest of the Bottom Five was filled by two of the only three cautions for on-track incidents. 38th fell to Chase Briscoe, whose turn in the #60 Nutri Chomps Ford ended after Michael Annett broke loose, body-slamming the #60 into the outside wall off Turn 2. 37th-place Justin Allgaier was eliminated in a crash on the ensuing restart when his #7 Breyers 2 in 1 Chevrolet lost control down the Long Pond Straight, collecting the passing Christopher Bell in the #20 Ruud-Meier Supply Toyota. Contact between the two cars knocked both out of the race, handing Bell the 36th position.

Jeremy Clements earned a strong 15th-place finish on Saturday, his best performance since an 8th at Richmond, and tied with another 15th at Fontana for his second-best all season. Fellow underdogs Kaz Grala, Ryan Sieg, Joey Gase, and David Starr joined 18th-place Alex Labbe in filling out the Top 20. 19th-place Gase now has three consecutive top-twenty finishes for Go FAS Racing. Starr has back-to-back 20th-place finishes for Jimmy Means Racing. Grala’s new ride at Fury Race Cars has run no worse than his 16th on Saturday. And 17th-place Ryan Sieg has just one finish outside the Top 20 since Phoenix.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Green continues still another impressive last-place streak, having trailed every other XFINITY Series race since last fall at Homestead. He now stands at 7-of-13.
*Green has now finished last in two of the three XFINITY races held at Pocono. The inaugural 2016 event was trailed by Matt DiBenedetto.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #93-Jeff Green / 4 laps / brakes
39) #66-Timmy Hill / 10 laps / overheating
38) #60-Chase Briscoe / 57 laps / crash
37) #7-Justin Allgaier / 60 laps / crash
36) #20-Christopher Bell / 61 laps / crash

2018 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) RSS Racing (6)
2nd) B.J. McLeod Motorsports, Jeremy Clements Racing, JGL Racing, Mike Harmon Racing, Roush-Fenway Racing, SS-Green Light Racing (1)

2018 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (10)
2nd) Ford (2)

2018 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

PREVIEW: The withdrawal, then re-entry of Yeley's new ride an intriguing Pocono storyline

PHOTO: @teamBJMcLeod

Saturday, June 2, 2018
XFINITY Race 12 of 33
Pocono Green 250 at Pocono
2017 Last-Place Finisher: Jeff Green

ENTRY LIST
There are 41 drivers entered for the 40-car field, meaning that one driver will miss the race.

DRIVER CHANGE: #3-Richard Childress Racing
Shane Lee returns for his third XFINITY Series start, following a 14th-place run at Bristol and a 15th at Talladega. He takes the place of Ty Dillon, who ran 4th last week. Lee has four ARCA starts at Pocono with a best finish of 4th for former Truck Series driver Kevin Cywinski on July 29, 2016. He finished 28th and 13th in the two ARCA races last year, driving for Kerry Scherer.

DRIVER CHANGE: #15-JD Motorsports
Matt Mills eyes his fifth start of 2018, his first attempt since his DNQ at Texas brought to an end a four-race stint for Johnny Davis’ JD Motorsports. He takes the place of Joe Nemechek, who has run the #15 in the five races since with a best finish of 18th just last Saturday in Charlotte. Mills’ only previous start at Pocono was July 29, 2017, when he finished 27th in Jennifer Jo Cobb’s second Truck Series entry.

DRIVER CHANGE: #22-Penske Racing
Current Wood Brothers Racing driver Paul Menard returns for his first XFINITY Series start since last September at Richmond. This time around, he takes the place of Charlotte winner Brad Keselowski in the #22 LTi Printing Ford. Menard finished 31st in this race last year, when he was driving for Richard Childress. Menard joins Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott as the three Cup regulars in the field.

DRIVER CHANGE: #42-Chip Ganassi Racing
Pocono marks the seventh start of 2018 for John Hunter Nemechek, his first in the XFINITY Series since a 14th-place showing at Dover. He takes the place of Jamie McMurray, who was eliminated in a crash at Charlotte for a 31st-place showing. Nemechek has three Pocono starts in the Truck Series, improving each time: a 13th in 2015, 9th in 2016, and 4th last year.

DRIVER CHANGE: #60-Roush-Fenway Racing
With the #98 team not entered this week (see below), Chase Briscoe returns to the #60 team, taking the place of Ty Majeski, 22nd at Charlotte. It will be Briscoe’s seventh start of 2018, and his first in the #60 since a 26th-place showing in Richmond. Briscoe ran 11th last week in Charlotte.

DRIVER CHANGE: #78-B.J. McLeod Motorsports
B.J. McLeod scales back from three cars to only two, and retakes the seat of the #78 Chevrolet from Ray Black, Jr., who isn’t entered this week. Tommy Joe Martins remains in the other McLeod entry, the #8 Chevrolet, but this week runs a steel-bodied car after his composite ride was damaged at Charlotte. McLeod finished 22nd and 26th in his last two runs here. Martins finished 29th in the #78 here last year.

MISSING: #98-Stewart-Haas Racing with Biagi-DenBeste
After running four of the last six races, the Biagi-DenBeste #98 isn’t entered this week. Chase Briscoe, who finished 11th with the team in Charlotte, will drive Roush-Fenway Racing’s #60.

MISSING: #99-B.J. McLeod Motorsports
B.J. McLeod parked this #99 car at Charlotte when a vibration made him concerned he would wreck this newest car in his fleet. The team is not entered this week, but McLeod is, returning to his #78 in place of Ray Black, Jr.

CUP INVADERS: #18-Kyle Busch, #22-Paul Menard, #23-Chase Elliott

Sunday, June 3, 2018
CUP Race 14 of 36
Pocono 400 at Pocono
2017 Last-Place Finisher: Cody Ware

ENTRY LIST
For the first time in two races, but for the 11th time in 14 rounds, the Cup Series field falls short of a “full” 40.

WITHDREW: #7-NY Racing Team
RETURNING: #7-Premium Motorsports
In a bizarre turn of events, on Thursday Jonathan Cohen withdrew J.J. Yeley's #7, which made its season debut last week in the Coca-Cola 600. The driver and sponsor were immediately re-entered, but with Premium Motorsports as the owner. The car's manufacturer changed from Chevrolet to Toyota, perhaps indicating that Yeley will drive the withdrawn #55 (see below) rather than Cohen's Chevrolet. While this is a lateral move since Cohen's NY Racing Team has re-started in-house at Premium, this also means that Premium team owner Jay Robinson - not Cohen - will recieve Yeley's Owner Points at Pocono. These points will be in addition to Danica Patrick's run for Premium in the Daytona 500, when Premium last entered the #7. As part of the change, a Premium crew will service the car, including crew chief Todd Parrott, who takes the place of Cohen's Jeff Spraker. UPDATE: The #7 is a Chevrolet, not a Toyota. As part of it being a Premium car, the #7 mow carries some of the team's associate sponsors, including the Low T Center and Champion Machinery.

DRIVER CHANGE: #51-Rick Ware Racing
In place of B.J. McLeod, 33rd in Charlotte, another XFINITY Series regular will pull double-duty this weekend. Welcome back Cole Custer, who made his Cup debut with the Ware team in Las Vegas, finishing 25th. The car will again be a Ford sponsored by HAAS-CNC as well as recent Ware sponsor Prefund Capital.

WITHDREW: #55-Premium Motorsports
Reed Sorenson was slated to return for his eighth start of 2018, and his first since a season-best 27th-place showing in Kansas. He was set to take the place of Jeffrey Earnhardt, who returned to action in the Coca-Cola 600 and served up a 30th-place finish. However, Sorenson's Toyota was withdrawn on Thursday. TheRacingExperts reported Earnhardt will run the #55 again in future races to be determined.

MISSING: #66-Motorsports Business Management
Carl Long’s Motorsports Business Management will not enter the #66 Toyota that Timmy Hill drove to 32nd-place finish in last week’s Coca-Cola 600. Instead, the team will focus on their XFINITY Series effort, where Hill will drive the #66 Toyota in Saturday’s race alongside Chad Finchum in the #40.

DRIVER CHANGE: #72-TriStar Motorsports
Cole Whitt gears up for his first Cup start since Talladega, four rounds ago, as he again trades off with Corey LaJoie in the #72 Chevrolet. Whitt has finished under power in all seven of his previous starts this season with a best of 19th in Texas, and a 21st his last time out in Alabama. The team finished 26th last Sunday with LaJoie.

MISSING: #96-Gaunt Brothers Racing
The Gaunt Brothers Racing team will not be making the trip north to Pennsylvania, even after they left Charlotte with their car intact and Parker Kligerman 27th in his return to Cup competition. The team appears to still be expanding their part-time effort despite a lack of primary sponsorship.

RETURNING: #99-StarCom Racing
StarCom Racing returns to a two-car operation for the first time since Dover as Derrike Cope returns to action in the #99 StarCom Fiber Chevrolet, alongside Landon Cassill in the #00. This will be Cope’s 29th Cup start at Pocono, tied with Charlotte for his second-most at any track (his most is 33 at Michigan). His best finish at the track were a pair of 10th-place runs in 1991 and 1996. His 33rd-place showing in this race last year was his best at this track since 1998.

Friday, June 8, 2018
TRUCKS Race 8 of 23
Rattlesnake 400 at Texas
2017 Last-Place Finisher: Tommy Regan

One more week until the Truck Series returns to action in Texas. The Trucks will also run Pocono, but not until July 28.

LASTCAR STAT OF THE WEEK
Unlike other forms of motorsports, spinning out doesn’t by itself end your day in NASCAR. Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Larson both recovered from spins last Sunday in the Coca-Cola 600. But, delineated from “crash,” there are three occasions in Cup Series history where a spin by itself caused someone to become the first retiree. Another layer to the mystery was that two of these are categorized as “spin out,” and the other as “spin.”

On top of this, both the lone “spin” and one of the “spin outs” occurred at the Bridgehampton Raceway, a second road course in upstate New York. On July 21, 1963, Jimmy Pardue started 16th in a field of 17, and made it 24 laps before his #54 Pontiac lost control. The same thing happened on Lap 2 of the July 12, 1964 race to Doug Moore, this time on the second lap. Whether or not both cars became stuck in a run-off area or damaged their only tires has been lost to history.

The other “spin out” occurred to Al Terrell on Lap 5 of his qualifier for the 1963 Daytona 500. Terrell actually spun with Frank Graham, and both drivers pulled out of the race for merely spinning. Whether this was done to save both cars for the 500 isn’t clear. While Graham qualified for the 500 and finished 34th (out of 50), Terrell failed to make the field. Those four laps, ended in a spin, turned out to be the only ones Terrell competed in competition. He never made another start.