XFINITY: Jeff Green secures seventh LASTCAR title; Shepherd enjoys strong run early at Indianapolis

PHOTO: Dominic Aragon, TheRacingExperts.com

Jeff Green picked up the 113th last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Monday’s Lilly Diabetes 250 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway when his unsponsored #93 RSS Racing Chevrolet fell out with a vibration after 8 of 100 laps.

The finish, which occurred in Green’s 505th series start, was his 11th of the season and first since Road America, two races ago. With eight races to go, Green holds an eight-finish lead over two-time finishers J.J. Yeley, Josh Bilicki, and Austin Cindric. Since Yeley, Bilicki, and Cindric cannot beat Green’s 19 bottom-five finishes, Green has secured his record seventh LASTCAR XFINITY Series Championship, his second in a row, and third in four years.

In the XFINITY Series last-place rankings, Monday was the 40th for car #93, the 136th because of a vibration, and the 511th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 90th for the #93, the 209th for a vibration, and the 1,624th for Chevrolet.

Green rejoined his RSS Racing teammates J.J. Yeley and Ryan Sieg at Indianapolis, where persistent rain kept the entire field off the track for two entire days. Without any practice or qualifying, Green secured the 33rd starting spot by virtue of his Past Champions Provisional. That provisional ranked Green behind 30 teams on 2018 Owner Points, the #12 Penske Racing entry with Darlington last-placer Austin Cindric, and Kaulig Racing’s new second team driven by Michigan winner Austin Dillon.

Trailing the final seven spots ranked by 2018 Owner Attempts was 40th-place Morgan Shepherd. Shepherd earned the spot by attempting 23 of the first 24 races this year, sending home Timmy Hill, whose #13 Motorsports Business Management had only attempted 8. Joining Shepherd at the back of the pack were Chad Finchum, whose #40 Smithbilt Homes Toyota dropped from 36th to the back for unapproved adjustments, and 25th-place Josh Williams, who came in for a pit stop before the start, dropping his #90 Sleep Well Chevrolet to the back.

During the pace laps, over the radio, 23rd-place starter Garrett Smithley in the #0 FAME-USA.com Chevrolet was told by his crew to fall to the rear out of concern of an early crash. Smithley’s JD Motorsports teammates Vinnie Miller in the #01 and B.J. McLeod in the #15 did the same, Miller dropping from 30th to 37th and McLeod from 28th to 35th by the start. Green followed suit, dropping one spot from 33rd to 34th.

Despite all these changes, when the race began, the bottom three positions stayed the same with Shepherd holding down last, 6.029 seconds back of the lead. He followed 39th-place Bayley Currey, once again swapped into JP Motorsports’ #55 Prevagen Toyota and Mike Harmon in the #74 Shadow Warriors Project Chevrolet. Shepherd remained last at the end of the first lap, losing another five seconds to the leaders. Currey took it briefly after the second lap, moments before 26th-place starter Caesar Bacarella made an unscheduled stop in the #8 MAXIM / Alpha Prime Chevrolet.

Bacarella returned to action two laps down, and lost a third when the competition caution fell on Lap 10. By that point, Green had pulled into the garage, and was three laps down in the 39th spot. On Lap 11, Green took the last spot from Bacarella, securing the spot and the championship. Yeley, Green’s closest title contender, stayed out to lead Lap 12 under caution before he pitted.

JP Motorsports took the next two spots in the Bottom Five. Currey took 39th, six laps after Green, with Josh Bilicki exiting in the #45 Prevagen Toyota five laps after his teammates. 37th went to Brandon Hightower, whose #66 OCR Gaz Bar Dodge suffered heavy right-front damage after he spun off the second corner. Hightower returned to the track, but when the splitter continued to drag on his car, the team called him to the garage, done for the day. Rounding out the Bottom Five was Spencer Boyd, whose #76 Grunt Style Chevrolet lost a lap before the competition caution, then destroyed the nose of his car in the wet grass while trying to avoid a Turn 3 tangle between Ty Dillon and Elliott Sadler.

After starting last, Morgan Shepherd enjoyed a fine run through the first 34 laps, staying on the lead lap and working his way up as high as 17th. Shepherd, who as LASTCAR reader Walt Reed pointed out never finished off the lead lap in four Brickyard 400s including a race-best 5th in 1996, ended up exiting after Stage 1. Despite this, Shepherd finished 32nd, his best finish in the XFINITY event at Indianapolis.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked Green’s fourth last-place finish in this event and his second in a row in the RSS Racing #93. His previous three last-place runs occurred in 2013, 2015, and 2017.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #93-Jeff Green / 8 laps / vibration
39) #55-Bayley Currey / 14 laps / vibration
38) #45-Josh Bilicki / 19 laps / vibration
37) #66-Brandon Hightower / 20 laps / crash
36) #76-Spencer Boyd / 22 laps / crash

2018 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) RSS Racing (13)
2nd) JP Motorsports (3)
3rd) B.J. McLeod Motorsports, Roush-Fenway Racing (2)
4th) Fury Race Cars LLC, Jeremy Clements Racing, JGL Racing, Mike Harmon Racing, SS-Green Light Racing (1)

2018 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (17)
2nd) Ford, Toyota (4)

2018 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

PREVIEW: A handful of team updates at the Brickyard under shadow of Denver bombshell

PHOTO: The Decal Source (TDS)

Saturday, September 8, 2018
XFINITY Race 25 of 33
Lilly Diabetes 250 at Indianapolis
2017 Last-Place Finisher: Jeff Green

ENTRY LIST
There are 41 drivers entered for 40 spots, meaning that one team will be sent home. Time will tell as to if this will be the third-consecutive XFINITY Series race where that 41st team withdrew prior to qualifying.

DRIVER SWAP: #0-JD Motorsports
DRIVER SWAP: #01-JD Motorsports
DRIVER SWAP: #4-JD Motorsports
DRIVER SWAP: #42-Chip Ganassi Racing
One week after a near-perfect run in his very first start with Chip Ganassi Racing, winning the pole and the first two stages at Darlington, Ross Chastain returns to JD Motorsports at Indianapolis, making way for John Hunter Nemechek and sponsorship from Fire Alarm Services, Inc. Chastain reclaims his #4 ride from Garrett Smithley, who returns to the #0, moving Vinnie Miller back to the #01 in place of Cup driver Landon Cassill, who isn’t entered in Saturday’s race.

DRIVER CHANGE: #8-B.J. McLeod Motorsports
DRIVER SWAP: #78-B.J. McLeod Motorsports
Tommy Joe Martins moves from McLeod’s #8 to the #78 this week, taking the place of Cody Ware, who isn’t entered in Saturday’s race. Taking Martins’ place in the #8 is Caesar Bacarella, back on the circuit for the first time since Daytona in July, looking to make his fourth start of 2018. Bacarella has crashed out of his last two starts, but before that ran 13th in this year’s Daytona opener.

NEW TEAM: #10-Kaulig Racing
Matt Kaulig’s single-car team expands to a two-car operation for the first time, fielding a second Chevrolet alongside full-timer Ryan Truex in the #11 Leaf Filter Gutter Protection Chevrolet. Driving this new #10 car is Cup regular Austin Dillon, who brings with him sponsorship from Phone Skope and Berry’s Bullets.

RETURNING: #12-Penske Racing
DRIVER SWAP: #60-Roush-Fenway Racing
After he wrecked out in the opening laps of Saturday’s race in Darlington, Austin Cindric has finished driving the #60 for the year. This week, Cindric moves to the #12, which last ran three rounds ago at Bristol, and has yet to finish worse than 16th all season. Climbing aboard the #60 this week is Chase Briscoe with returning sponsorship from Nuti-Chomps. It will be Briscoe’s 12th XFINITY start of the season and first since the same Bristol night race.

RETURNING: #13-Motorsports Business Management
DRIVER CHANGE: #66-Motorsports Business Management
MISSING: #72-Motorsports Business Management
The third car from the MBM stables changes back to the #13 after Timmy Hill ran the #72 Benny Parsons tribute at Darlington. Hill will drive the #13 Dodge after Carl Long was originally listed. The #66 Dodge goes to Brandon Hightower, his first start since Iowa. It will be the third different team Hightower has driven for in 2018, following JP Motorsports and JD Motorsports.

DRIVER CHANGE: #18-Joe Gibbs Racing
Ryan Preece rejoins the JGR bunch at Indianapolis with returning sponsorship from Rheem. Preece, set to make his seventh XFINITY start of the season and first since Watkins Glen, will be making his first Indy start since 2016, when he finished 25th for JD Motorsports.

DRIVER CHANGE: #22-Penske Racing
Ryan Blaney steps in for Brad Keselowski, who swept the weekend at Darlington. The #22 will carry sponsorship from Menards and their Richmond brand, which most recently appeared on the car during their bizarre engine failure at Road America. It will be Blaney’s first start in this race since 2015, when he was passed on the final lap by Kyle Busch. Busch is not entered in this race.

TEAM UPDATE: #55-JP Motorsports
Stephen Leicht was the listed driver for JP Motorsports’ second car, but has often been the listed placeholder since he parted ways with the team earlier this year. This week’s driver is Bayley Currey, who ran last week as well as assisting with the Rick Ware team on Sunday.

DRIVER CHANGE: #90-DGM Racing
Josh Williams, whose #92 entry was withdrawn last week in Darlington, returns to Mario Gosselin’s #90 this week, taking the place of Brandon Brown. It will be Williams’ first XFINITY start at Indianapolis.

MISSING: #92-DGM Racing
The aforementioned #92 withdrawn last week at Darlington is not entered this week.

LASTCAR UPDATE: #93-RSS Racing
If J.J. Yeley does not finish last in Saturday’s race, Jeff Green will secure his seventh LASTCAR XFINITY Series Championship with eight races to go. Green enters Saturday with 112 career last-place runs in the series, including ten this year. Green is entered in the “start-and-park” #93 this week with Yeley still in the #38.

MISSING: #98-Stewart-Haas Racing with Biagi DenBeste
Also missing this week is the Biagi #98, which Kevin Harvick drove in his controversial incident battling Ross Chastain for the lead at Darlington. Harvick is also not entered, and on Wednesday said he may be done with the series altogether, except for a race "here and there."

CUP INVADERS: #3-Ty Dillon, #10-Austin Dillon, #22-Ryan Blaney, #23-Chase Elliott

Sunday, September 9, 2018
CUP Race 26 of 36
Big Machine Vodka Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis
2017 Last-Place Finisher: Corey LaJoie

ENTRY LIST
There are 41 drivers entered for 40 spots, meaning that one car will be sent home after qualifying. The result will be the fourth-consecutive full field in 2018, and just the ninth in 26 races in 2018. UPDATE: Now just 40 cars after StarCom withdrew the #99 on Thursday.

RETURNING: #7-Premium Motorsports
Reed Sorenson and the #7 team are entered this week after both withdrew prior to Darlington.

DRIVER SWAP: #23-Front Row Motorsports
DRIVER CHANGE: #51-Rick Ware Racing
DRIVER SWAP: #52-Rick Ware Racing
The former BK Racing entry returns this week with J.J. Yeley, who moves from Rick Ware Racing’s #52 to take the place of Joey Gase, who finished last at Darlington and isn’t entered this Sunday. Expect Steakhouse Elite, Yeley’s backer for most of his Cup races this year, to return as sponsor. Taking Yeley’s place in Rick Ware’s #52 is B.J. McLeod, who last week drove Ware’s Russ Wheeler throwback car in the #51. Taking McLeod’s place in the Ware #51 will be David Starr, who will pull double-duty along with his XFINITY Series ride with Jimmy Means Racing. It will be Starr’s first Cup start since last fall’s Homestead finale, where he ran 36th for Motorsports Business Management. Jacob Companies, which backed the #51 last week, is listed as the primary sponsor for both Ware cars this week, and both cars will be Chevrolets (despite the preliminary list showing the #51 as a Ford).

TEAM UPDATE: #32-Go FAS Racing
News broke at Indianapolis on Friday that Matt DiBenedetto will part ways with Archie St. Hilaire's #32 team at the end of this year, closing out his second season in the Go FAS Racing Fords. As of this writing, DiBenedetto's future plans are unknown, adding more fuel to an intensifying Silly Season.

SPONSOR UPDATE: #34-Front Row Motorsports
One week after Darlington, Front Row Motorsports will run another “throwback” scheme of their own, decorating Michael McDowell’s #34 in the Window World scheme driven by John Andretti in 2009. Andretti, who continues to battle cancer, was instrumental in turning FRM from a part-time to a full-time operation that year, running 34 of the season’s 36 races. The paint scheme is also in celebration of the 22nd year of the Kroger Race for Riley, a charity Andretti has supported since it started in 1997.

TEAM UPDATE: #78-Furniture Row Racing
One of the most sport’s most shocking rumors was confirmed early Tuesday when it was announced that Furniture Row Racing, the defending Cup Series Champions, would close their doors at the end of 2018. Martin Truex, Jr. currently sits third seed in the Playoff standings with four wins this year.

DRIVER CHANGE: #95-Leavine Family Racing
On Thursday afternoon came news that Kasey Kahne will not have a chance to defend his 2017 win at the Brickyard due to lingering effects of heat exhaustion from last Sunday in Darlington. Regan Smith has been tabbed as his replacement. It will be Smith's first Cup start since last summer at Dover, when he relieved an injured Aric Almirola, and his first start in the Brickyard 400 since 2016, when he finished 26th for Tommy Baldwin Racing.

WITHDREW: #99-StarCom Racing
Last year, Gray Gaulding survived the chaos at Indianapolis to finish 24th for Premium Motorsports. This week, he was set to return to StarCom Racing for the first time since his last-place run at Bristol to take team owner Derrike Cope’s place in the #99 Chevrolet. However, the team wihdrew on Thursday.

NEW TEAM (SOON): #??-Obaika Racing
Overshadowed by the news of Furniture Row Racing’s impending closure was the announcement Tuesday that Victor Obaika will open a Cup team later this year. Word is they will also return to XFINITY competition, where they debuted in 2015, sometime late in 2018 with eyes on a full 2019 campaign. News of the team’s return came once it was reported that Obaika had acquired some of BK Racing’s assets along with Front Row Motorsports.

Friday, September 14, 2018
TRUCKS Race 18 of 23
World of Westgate 200 at Las Vegas
2017 Last-Place Finisher: Todd Peck

One more week until the Truck Series returns in Sin City.

LASTCAR STAT OF THE WEEK
Looking over the last-place statistics since 1949 reveals some interesting variables among listed reasons out. For example, an “oil leak” was the listed cause 46 times across all three of NASCAR’s top series. However, there was also exactly one instance of simply a “leak.” That incident occurred on September 23, 1956 on the Portland (Oregon) Speedway, in a combination race with the Pacific Coast Late Model Division (now the K&N Pro Series West). It happened to Portland native Wally Gervais, who was driving his #22N 1956 Oldsmobile. The leak, whatever it was, stopped him after just 6 of the 250 laps, putting him last in the 19-car field. It was Gervais’ third and final Cup Series start. The Portland oval (separate from the road course where IndyCar returned last Sunday) would continue to host K&N Pro Series, NASAR Northwest Series, and Truck Series events into 2000.

OPINION: The fall of Furniture Row a terrible reckoning for Charter supporters

PHOTO: MRN.com

On Tuesday came stunning news that Furniture Row Racing, the defending Cup Series champions, will be closing their doors at the end of this season.

The outrage over this news isn’t simply that a team is closing. Teams have risen and fallen in the sport at about the same rate as many of their drivers. Curiously, Blue Max Racing, the subject of Brad Keselowski’s winning throwback Sunday night, ran that black-and-gold scheme in their own final season in 1990, just one year after Rusty Wallace scored team owner Raymond Beadle’s only championship.

No. The outrage should be aimed squarely at the unmistakable failure of the Charter system, which was enacted in 2016 to prevent this very thing from happening.

I. THE SYSTEM

The Charter system, as created by the Race Team Alliance (RTA) and enacted by NASCAR, was an effort to give full-time Cup Series teams the same benefits as franchises in stick-and-ball sports. A team with a Charter was guaranteed a starting spot in each of the 36 points-paying races, guaranteeing that any sponsor which signed with that team would be seen in every race. Of the 51 teams which attempted at least one Cup Series race in 2015, 40 attempted all the races run that year, but only 36 were afforded Charters for the first year of the nine-year agreement in 2016.

Under this model, those 36 teams could keep their Charter so long as they finished ahead of at least three other Chartered teams for three consecutive seasons. A team that failed to reach this “good standing” requirement wouldn’t be prohibited from competing in the Cup Series, but would be demoted to the status of an “open team.” With the RTA also reducing field sizes from 43 to 40 cars, only the four fastest “open teams” could qualify each week. “Open teams” could join the Top 36 by buying or leasing a Charter. But since a Chartered team would only do this if the team was selling all its assets, “open teams” had to wait those three years and hope a Top 36 team would lose their Charter by not running well enough.

The end of the Charter system’s third year will come with the fall of the checkered flag this November at Homestead. At that point, Furniture Row Racing – 11th, 1st, and so far 3rd in the standings those seasons – will not only have lost their Charter, but will be gone altogether.

The closure of the defending series champion’s team may seem like it came out of nowhere. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

II. THE WARNINGS

I have been unambiguous in my dislike and distrust of the Charter system. In January 2016, I pointed out that the Charters were nothing more than a re-branded Top 35 Rule with unnecessary benefits for big teams in no danger of missing races. In February 2016, I said the system created a perverse battle royale among the sport's small teams. In March 2016, I pointed out many of the 36 teams “start-and-parked” to get their programs going, and now sought to slam the door on anyone else trying to do the same. And last year, through the example of the "Crash Clock," I predicted a move by some in the sport to pare the field down to only a few cars.

Consider, if you will, the Cup Series teams that have already closed since the 2016 Daytona 500:

First came HScott Motorsports, formerly Phoenix Racing. In 2016, the two-car team had received a Charter for their #51 team inherited from Phoenix to guarantee Clint Bowyer a full-season ride. HScott also leased a second Charter from Premium Motorsports’ #62 team for their second car, driven by Michael Annett. Annett was one of the bottom three Chartered teams that year, 36th in the standings, with Bowyer only managing 28th. When Bowyer left to join Stewart-Haas Racing, both teams closed, sending Annett back to the XFINITY Series.

Next came Tommy Baldwin Racing (TBR), which had come together after the recession of 2008, eventually growing to a three-car operation in 2014. When the program was introduced, TBR’s flagship #7 Chevrolet was awarded a Charter with Regan Smith driving. The team ended up 32nd in Owner Points, but ahead of four other Chartered teams. Regardless, the team closed its doors, selling their Charter to Leavine Family Racing (LFR)’s #95. LFR had been in the market for a Charter in 2017 because they had reached the end of their lease of the Charter from Circle Sport.

The Motorsports Group (TMG) wasn’t one of the original Chartered 36, but was the first to acquire a Charter, then close soon after. Prior to the system’s introduction, TMG had “start-and-parked” multiple cars in the XFINITY Series in order to get their Cup program going in 2015. In 2016, TMG attempted all but one race as an “open team,” then merged with Circle Sport after the end of their lease to LFR. With Jeffrey Earnhardt behind the wheel in every race but the road courses, TMG ran the full season but managed just 37th in the final standings, last among the 36 Chartered teams. Like HScott, TMG still had two more years to stay in “good standing.” But at season’s end, they were done, their Charter going to the #32 of Go FAS Racing.

BK Racing has faced public criticism for their business practices, but their fall followed a similar trajectory. The team scaled back from three teams to two prior to the 2016 season, and was awarded Charters for both their #23 and #83 Toyotas. The #83 was highest of the bottom three Chartered teams in Owner Points – 35th overall – with the #23 just on the other side in 34th. In 2017, BK sold the Charter for the #83 to Front Row Motorsports, who then leased it to fellow XFINITY Series export TriStar Motorsports and their new #72 team. That year, the #23 took its turn in the bottom three, finishing 35th overall, two spots ahead of TMG. The #23 retained its Charter this season – still with two years to turn things around – then just last month liquidated its assets with the #23 Charter also going to Front Row Motorsports.

In between, multi-car Chartered teams have closed their second and third teams, each unable to adjust after a driver left the team. Richard Petty Motorsports scrapped the #44 after Brian Scott retired. Roush-Fenway Racing did the same to the #16 after Greg Biffle left. Richard Childress Racing eliminated the #27 when Paul Menard took his sponsor to the Wood Brothers.

Such sponsorship issues preceded Furniture Row Racing’s downfall. Furniture Row had two Charters last year, one of them purchased from Premium Motorsports after HScott’s #46 closed. That team closed just this past offseason, its Charter sold to JTG-Daugherty Racing. 5-hour Energy, Jones’ sponsor, was absorbed into the #78 team. Perhaps that should’ve been a sign that something even bigger was to come. Perhaps something could have been done to stop it.

Even today, there’s ongoing issues with sponsorship among Chartered teams. Teams representing all three manufacturers have seen the manufacturers themselves as the listed sponsor, a traditional placeholder for a full-scale backer. Chevrolet has been the primary backer for Ryan Newman’s #31 in two races, Toyota for Erik Jones’ #20 for another two, and Ford for Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.’s #17 in four. If things don’t change, who knows what the future holds for any of them.

III. THE FAILURE

The tragedy of the Charter system was it had surface appeal to those who didn’t care about the sport’s underfunded teams. If you only looked at the front of the field, at who was contending for wins, everything seemed like it was fine. Teams like Gibbs, Hendrick, and Stewart-Haas Racing would still be out there with the same drivers fighting week after week. If that was the entirety of your NASCAR experience, your world just kept spinning. Much like those first moments after the Titanic struck the iceberg, it was only when you went to the lower decks in Third Class that you would know something terrible was happening.

If you said the Charter program was a great idea because “who cares about the small teams,” the fall of Furniture Row Racing is your reckoning.

If there’s anything positive to come from the fact that someone in First Class didn’t reach a lifeboat in time, perhaps as in 1912 it will be a moment for us all to take a step back and realize the mistake that’s been made, the terrible harm it’s done, and work together on what can be done to fix it.

For the best interests of professional stock car racing, the Charter program needs to be rescinded. Attention must turn to a transparent and fair distribution of purse and TV money, and above all, a way to reduce costs. And NASCAR must play a more active role in encouraging sponsors to back race teams, rather than grabbing them up to be “an official product of NASCAR.”

It won’t fix everything, and it won’t bring back the teams we’ve lost, but it would be a good start.

CUP: Joey Gase gives car #23 its first Darlington last-place finish since 1951

PHOTO: Nigel Kinrade Photography

Joey Gase picked up the 4th last-place finish of his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 at the Darlington Raceway when his #23 Agri Supply / Sparks Energy Inc. Toyota was eliminated in a crash after he completed 120 of 367 laps.

The finish, which came in Gase’s 26th series start, was his first of the season and first since last November’s Homestead finale, 25 races ago. In the Cup Series last-place rankings, it was the 36th for car #23, the 149th for Toyota, and the 572nd because of a crash. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 65th for the #23, the 301st for Toyota, and the 1,161st because of a crash.

When we last featured Joey Gase, he was closing out a phase of his racing career. Homestead was his final XFINITY weekend with Jimmy Means Racing, who hired him in 2012. This past January, Gase announced he would reunite with team owner Archie St. Hilaire, who got him his start in both XFINITY and Cup competition. Hilaire, whose Cup driver Matt DiBenedetto now drives his #32 Fords, revealed that he was returning to XFINITY competition for the first time in five years. Gase would drive the new #35 Chevrolet with sponsorship from Alabama-based power line service company Sparks Energy, Inc. Gase’s best XFINITY finish so far this year was at Fontana, where he ran 16th. This year also saw Gase make his first two Truck Series starts, a pair of 31st-place showings at Atlanta and Kansas in Jennifer Jo Cobb’s second “start-and-park” #0 Chevrolet.

On top of this, Gase has continued to maintain a part-time presence in the Cup Series. Coming into Darlington, Gase had made three Cup starts in 2018 with two different teams. He began the year at Las Vegas, driving Premium Motorsports’ #55 Chevrolet, backed by Gase’s continued support for organ and tissue donation through the Nevada branch of Donate Life. Following a 32nd-place run there, he made a pair of starts on the plate tracks in StarCom Racing’s #00 Chevrolet, running 27th at Talladega and flirting with a Top 20 at Daytona in July before a wreck left him 25th.

Curiously, Gase’s ride for the Southern 500 was BK Racing, the struggling team whose sale effectively closed its doors after last week’s race in Bristol. Five of Gase’s 24 previous Cup starts came with BK Racing, including his first Daytona 500 in 2017. This time around, Gase would drive for the team in name only as Bob Jenkins, owner of Front Row Motorsports, beat GMS Racing’s bid for the team’s Charter and most of its assets. When the #23 hauler arrived at the track on August 30, the trailer still carried the BK team’s recognizable car number font, but the BK Racing logo was blacked-out.

Both the #23 Cup car and #35 XFINITY car would participate in Darlington’s “Throwback Weekend.” Each car was decorated identically to the black-and-purple #5 modified that Gase’s father Bob drove to the 2003 track championship at Hawkeye Downs Speedway. The scheme was chosen by a fan poll in June, where it prevailed over a different blue-and-white late model that Bob Gase ran in 1994. Bob's name appeared on the roof rails of the car, along with his title. Agri Supply Company and Sparks Energy, Inc. would back both efforts with associate backing from Eternal Fan, Franklin Signs, and Jester Apparel. The Cup car also featured Carolina Cooker on the quarter-panels in place of two of the Sparks logos.

Darlington originally saw 41 cars entered, but like the XFINITY race, one “open” team withdrew. This time, it was Premium Motorsports’ #7 Chevrolet, which was to be driven by Reed Sorenson. There were no reports as to if that car was going to run a “throwback” paint scheme prior to the team’s cancellation on Wednesday. This was a moot point for Gase, as Front Row had purchased BK Racing’s Charter as part of the August sale, securing the #23 its spot in the field.

Gase began the weekend 37th of the remaining 40 drivers in opening practice, then anchored the charts in Happy Hour. He turned the slowest completed lap in qualifying with a speed of 154.734mph (31.781 seconds), just over 1.1 seconds slower than 38th-place Derrike Cope in his 1993 Bojangles’ Chevrolet throwback and 3.4 seconds off the pole lap by Denny Hamlin’s 1997 short track throwback Toyota. Things went somewhat better on the XFINITY side, turning 28th of the 33 drivers in the first session, 25th of 37 in the second. He then made it to Round 2 in qualifying, securing the 19th spot on the grid, and finished a respectable 21st. It was then time for Gase’s first-ever Cup start at Darlington.

Jeffrey Earnhardt (left) and Gase (right) rolling off pit road.
PHOTO: Michael Harvey, @MrLester88

Starting 40th on Sunday was Jeffrey Earnhardt, who for the third time in as many years honored his late grandfather Dale with one of his many famous paint schemes. Since Jeffrey was returning to Gaunt Brothers Racing, which campaigns the #96, the team elected to run the patriotic Cardinal Tractor Company scheme that Earnhardt drove in 1978. A near-identical version of the scheme was run in last year’s XFINITY race at Darlington, when Ben Kennedy drove for GMS Racing. Earnhardt’s car was sponsored by Nine Line Apparel, which has backed Earnhardt’s Cup efforts this season, and participated in an unveiling earlier this summer.

Earnhardt faced a setback in qualifying on Saturday when, on his first timed lap, his Toyota broke loose off the second corner and smacked into the inside wall with the right-front, then the right-rear. Earnhardt was uninjured, but unable to turn a lap and settled into the 40th spot. The team elected to repair the primary car, working right up until mid-day on Sunday, when the team’s Twitter feed showed the last Nine Line decal applied to the bent and battered right-rear quarter-panel. Among those who helped piece the car back together was Will Cronkrite, the original car owner of the #96 in 1978, who was invited to the track by the team.

The repairs to the Earnhardt car forced him to incur a redundant tail-end penalty, again a similarity to Saturday’s XFINITY race. Also sent to the rear were 31st-place starter Jamie McMurray, who blew the engine on his gold #1 McDonald’s 50 Years of Big Mac Chevrolet on his first practice lap, then changed another engine before the race, 20th-place Jimmie Johnson, whose 2012 Lowe’s Throwback Chevrolet was docked for unapproved adjustments.

As it turned out, Gase joined these drivers at the back of the field after an engine change of his own, perhaps accounting for his slow pace in practice and qualifying. On the pace laps, Gase lagged back as Johnson fell to the next-to-last row. Joining Johnson in that row was 37th-place starter B.J. McLeod, whose #51 Jacob Companies Chevrolet from the Rick Ware stables was decorated to resemble the radical gold-and-blue scheme Cary Elwes’ character Russ Wheeler drove in “Days of Thunder.”

On the break, Gase remained in last and trailed the leader by seven seconds at the end of the first lap. On Lap 2, he caught Derrike Cope and ran to his outside in Turns 3 and 4 until Cope got away from him off Turn 2. By Lap 5, Gase was trailing a pack of four cars that had lost touch with the lead pack – McLeod’s #51, Cope’s #99, and Timmy Hill, who honored Darrell Waltrip’s 2000 “Victory Tour” team on his #66 Rewards.com Toyota. At that time, Hill was losing ground fast, having been passed by Cope, and dropped behind Gase for 40th on Lap 6.

Hill, in turn, continued to struggle to kepe pace, and was the first to be lapped on the 11th circuit as race leaders Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson raced to his inside entering Turn 3. This same pass allowed Larson to catch and pass Hamlin for the lead, pacing his first of 284 laps that night. Larson lapped Hill a second time on Lap 23, then a third time on Lap 34 when Hill pitted for tires. Hill returned to the track on Lap 36, still 40th, and now four circuits behind.

McLeod took last for the first time on Lap 51, and was five laps down by the 63rd circuit. Hill retook the spot on Lap 60, and was seven laps behind by Lap 86. At the end of Stage 1, Cope took the 40th spot for the first time, followed by McLeod again under the ensuing yellow on Lap 105. Hill retook last from McLeod on Lap 107, and had fallen an eighth lap behind on Lap 118. The #66 was still trailing the field when Gase’s misfortune finally ended the last-place battle.

Now a number of laps down himself, Gase was fighting to keep pace when Kyle Busch’s #18 Skittles Toyota, decorated like Ernie Irvan’s Pontiac from 1998, caught him coming off the corner. Busch made contact with the rear of Gase’s car, steering the #23 head-on into the inside wall. Just like Austin Cindric the day before, Gase’s car clobbered the fence, and the driver climbed out, ending their night. The crew wondered what happened over the radio, asking if it was simply because they were running too slow. Next week at Indianapolis, Gase will make his 200th XFINITY Series start.

The rest of the Bottom Five wasn’t settled until the final moments of Stage 3. The 39th spot fell to Jimmie Johnson, whose difficult night took an even worse turn when his oil pump failed around Lap 230, forcing the crew to push him behind the wall. With not enough laps left to replace the pump, the team called it a night. Finishing 38th was Matt DiBenedetto, Archie St. Hilaire’s Cup driver, whose #32 Keen Parts / CorvetteParts.net Ford, carrying DiBenedetto’s favorite childhood paint scheme Jeff Burton ran in 2000, retired with rear end trouble after 254 laps. In 37th was Timmy Hill, who dropped a cylinder then retired with engine trouble, followed by Clint Bowyer, who had a hard Turn 4 crash on Lap 309 when he rammed a slowing Ryan Newman, who was trying to get to pit road under green.

Frank "Rebel" Mundy's last-place Studebaker at Darlington, 1951
PHOTO: Legends of NASCAR

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for car #23 in a cup race at Darlington since September 3, 1951, when Frank “Rebel” Mundy won the pole for the second-ever Southern 500, but finished last after his Studebaker lost oil pressure. The exit dropped him all the way to the rear of an 82-car field. For more on the finish, check out our LASTCAR feature from 2016.
*Gase has now finished last in exactly one Cup race for four consecutive years.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #23-Joey Gase / 120 laps / crash
39) #48-Jimmie Johnson / 227 laps / oil pump
38) #32-Matt DiBenedetto / 254 laps / rear end
37) #66-Timmy Hill / 268 laps / engine
36) #14-Clint Bowyer / 309 laps / crash

2018 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) StarCom Racing, TriStar Motorsports (4)
2nd) BK Racing, Penske Racing, Premium Motorsports (2)
3rd) Chip Ganassi Racing, Front Row Motorsports, Furniture Row Racing, Germain Racing, Hendrick Motorsports, JTG-Daugherty Racing, Motorsports Business Management, Richard Petty Motorsports, Rick Ware Racing, Roush-Fenway Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing (1)

2018 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (16)
2nd) Ford (5)
3rd) Toyota (4)

2018 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

XFINITY: Austin Cindric’s career in the Roush-Fenway #60 bookended by last-place finishes

PHOTO: @RaceChaserMedia

Austin Cindric picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Saturday’s VFW Sport Clips Help A Hero 200 at the Darlington Raceway when his #60 Ford Hall of Fans Ford was involved in a single-car accident after he completed just 2 of the 147 laps.

The finish, which came in Cindric’s 25th series start, was his second of the season and first since this year’s Daytona opener, 23 races ago. In the XFINITY Series last-place rankings, it was the 12th for car #60, the 156th for Ford, and the 319th because of a crash. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 33rd for the #60, the 942nd for Ford, and the 1,160th because of a crash.

Darlington marked Cindric’s last start in the #60 from Roush-Fenway Racing, a car he’s shared this year with fellow development drivers Chase Briscoe and Ty Majeski. His debut in the car was rough, a last-place run in this year’s Daytona opener after an early crash. In the 22 races since, Cindric has run every race, filling out his schedule driving for Penske Racing. In that time, he’s earned three Top Fives and seven Top Tens with a career-best runner-up finish to Justin Allgaier at Mid-Ohio. None of those finishes came in the #60, a car which has been involved in more than its fair share of accidents this season with all three of its drivers. Cindric’s best finish in the car was a 13th at Watkins Glen.

Cindric and the #60 team looked for a turnaround as they participated in Darlington’s “Throwback Weekend.” With sponsorship from the Ford Hall of Fans, the Roush-Fenway team paid homage to the paint scheme run on Ford’s first front-engine Mustang GTP which made its debut in an IMSA race at Road America, scene of last week’s XFINITY race, in 1983. “Back in the 80’s Ford made an American racing manufacturers first foray in sports car racing with a pretty unique car and program,” said Cindric in Roush-Fenway’s press release, “Pretty similar to what we are doing this year. We have a unique car and driver lineup and a unique program. The paint scheme on this car is really cool and has a bit of Ford history to go with our Ford paint scheme.”

At Darlington, Cindric was among the 41 cars on the preliminary entry list for Saturday’s race, but the list shrank by one when Mario Gosselin’s DGM Racing pulled their second entry, the #92 Chevrolet to be driven by Josh Williams, on Friday morning. Cindric ran 20th in opening practice and 16th in Happy Hour. In qualifying, he ran 11th in Round 1, improved to 9th in Round 2, then didn’t turn a lap in Round 3, picking up a “Darlington Stripe” on the right-rear along the way. Since both he and Ty Dillon didn’t put up a time in Round 3, Cindric would line up 11th with Dillon 12th.

Starting 40th was Josh Bilicki in the #45 Prevagen Toyota for JP Motorsports. Bilicki and 39th-place starter Brandon Jones in the #19 Hope For The Warriors Toyota were the only drivers who didn’t turn a lap in Round 1 of qualifying, and both incurred redundant tail-end penalties – Bilicki because of an engine change and Jones because he failed pre-qualifying inspection four times.

Also sent to the rear were Vinnie Miller, sent to a backup car after an incident in JD Motorsports’ #0 Flex Glue Chevrolet, and Chase Elliott, who broke loose in Turn 4 and called off his qualifying lap, forcing the team to change the rear tires. Curiously, the clock for Elliott’s #23 GMS Fabrication Chevrolet ended up counting more than 14 minutes – not seconds – yielding a lap averaging just under 6mph.

By the time the race started, two other drivers fell to the back of the field – 34th-place starter Carl Long in his #66 CrashClaimsR.Us Dodge and 36th-place starter Jeff Green in the #93 RSS Racing Chevrolet. At the break, Long was 4.534 seconds back of the leader with Green another 1.1 seconds back of Long.

As Green and Long negotiated Turns 3 and 4, 39th-place Brandon Jones pulled down pit road. As yet another penalty for his inspection infraction, Jones had to make a green-flag pass-through penalty. Jones returned to the track in the last spot and one lap down. A year earlier, the #19 finished in this same race with Matt Tifft wrecking off the fourth corner. Ironically, Jones’ salvation would see history repeat itself.

As the field negotiated Turn 4 to complete Lap 2, Cindric was running the high lane as Ryan Truex closed from behind. At corner exit, the right-front of Truex’s #11 Leaf Filter Chevrolet made contact with the left-rear of Cindric’s Ford, sending the #60 sliding head-on into the inside wall. The car made heavy contact with the right-front and right-rear, sending the car spinning to a stop across the start / finish line. Spencer Boyd, who started 31st in the #76 Grunt Style Chevrolet, received right-front damage in the incident, and B.J. McLeod narrowly avoided the #60 as he cut his #15 Flex Tape Chevrolet to the low side on the frontstretch.

Cindric was uninjured, but visibly upset from the on-board camera. Checked and released from the infield care center, he gave an emotional interview. “Just to be not able to experience this race, and my last race with this team, it really bothers me.” Cindric will close out the 2018 season with both Penske Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing with Biagi DenBeste. With two races until the start of the Playoffs, he stands 11th in the standings, 60 points ahead of 13th-place Michael Annett.

Jeff Green secured the 39th finishing position, pulling off the track after the race restarted following Cindric’s accident. Green can lock-up his seventh LASTCAR XFINITY Series championship next Saturday in Indianapolis if teammate J.J. Yeley does not finish last.

During the ensuing 37-lap green-flag run, engine problems sent both Spencer Boyd’s damaged #76 and Chad Finchum in the #40 MBM Motorsports / TLC Resorts Chevrolet behind the wall – Boyd after completing 19 laps and Finchum after turning 24. The two held 38th and 37th but ultimately returned to the track by the end of Stage 2 to finish 31st and 32nd. Finchum handed over the wheel to Timmy Hill, whose Benny Parsons throwback on MBM’s #72 CrashClaimsR.Us Toyota exited after 54 laps with a vibration.

The return of both Boyd and Finchum changed the complexion of the Bottom Five. The 38th spot fell to Morgan Shepherd, who ran 24 laps before handling woes stopped his #89 Visone RV Chevrolet. He dropped from 36th to 38th by the checkered flag. Vinnie Miller’s backup car turned 32 laps before suspension issues put him 37th, followed by an engine failure that sent Jimmy Means’ #52 Steely Lumber Chevrolet to the garage.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first XFINITY Series last-place finish for car #60 at Darlington since May 9, 2008, when Carl Edwards’ Scotts Water Smart Ford won the pole, then crashed out after 3 laps of the Diamond Hill Plywood 200. As you may recall, this was the most recent last-place run for that number in this series before Cindric’s crash at Daytona. Edwards’ last-place run was the first for the #60 in this event since August 31, 1985, when Ed Berrier’s #60 Horton Distributing Pontiac crashed after 4 laps of the Pontiac Winners Circle 200.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #60-Austin Cindric / 2 laps / crash
39) #93-Jeff Green / 13 laps / transmission
38) #89-Morgan Shepherd / 24 laps / suspension
37) #0-Vinnie Miller / 32 laps / suspension
36) #52-David Starr / 40 laps / engine

2018 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) RSS Racing (12)
2nd) JP Motorsports (3)
3rd) B.J. McLeod Motorsports, Roush-Fenway Racing (2)
4th) Fury Race Cars LLC, Jeremy Clements Racing, JGL Racing, Mike Harmon Racing, SS-Green Light Racing (1)

2018 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (16)
2nd) Ford, Toyota (4)

2018 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP