CUP: Michael McDowell’s pit road fight with Suarez followed by hard crash on Sunday

PHOTO: Dominic Aragon, TheRacingExperts.com

Michael McDowell picked up the 32nd last-place finish of his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s Ticket Guardian 500 at the ISM Raceway when his #34 Dockside Logistics Ford was involved in a single-car crash after 157 of 312 laps.

The finish, which came in McDowell’s 289th series start, was his second of the season and first since Atlanta, two rounds ago. In the Cup Series last-place rankings, it was the 33rd for car #34, the 576th from a crash, and the 688th for Ford. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 45th for the #34, the 947th for Ford, and the 1,173rd from a crash.

The finish not only extended McDowell's lead in the 2019 LASTCAR Cup Series Championship, but tied him with the late J.D. McDuffie for the second-most last-place finishes in Cup history. Both drivers remain one finish behind current series leader Joe Nemechek with 33.

Following a 30th-place finish in Las Vegas, McDowell arrived at his home track and promptly made headlines in Friday’s Cup Series qualifying. In the closing moments of Round 1, Daniel Suarez was among the dozens of drivers trying to turn in a fast lap at the last second. Suarez argued that McDowell blocked his #41 Ruckus Ford during a hot lap, costing him valuable time. McDowell’s version was Suarez was trying to wreck him. The result was the same – both drivers missed Round 2.

Moments later, a fight broke out when an angry Suarez confronted McDowell on pit road. McDowell shoved Suarez, who responded with a leg sweep that knocked McDowell to the ground. McDowell got up again and grabbed at Suarez’ leg before the crews broke up the pair. A media circus ensued, after which both met with NASCAR officials to go over the situation. And since both qualified in Row 14, the two would have to share a ride in the same truck during driver introductions.

McDowell outpaced Suarez for the 27th spot, turning a lap of 136.514mph (26.371 seconds). He’d also run 24th and 23rd in the weekend’s two practice sessions. With just 36 drivers entered for the 40-car field, no drivers were sent home. The result was the smallest-ever Cup field at Phoenix, and the first without a single “open” team since Atlanta in 2018.

Starting 36th on Sunday was Bayley Currey, one of two drivers in the field making their first Cup Series debut. Driving Rick Ware Racing’s #52 Mtel-One Ford, Currey had a rough start to the weekend. He secured the last spot on the grid as the only Cup driver to not turn a lap in Round 1, and on Saturday crashed out while driving Ware’s #17 Port of Tucson Chevrolet.

Currey would fill out Row 18, starting to the outside of fellow XFINITY Series part-timer Quin Houff. Houff, driving Spire Motorsports’ #77 Rim Ryderz Chevrolet, was forced to change his left-rear tire when the crew discovered a hole after qualifying. The tail-end penalty proved redundant as he would remain in the last row on the grid, joining Currey as the field took the green flag.

On the break, Currey drew away from Houff. But on Lap 2, Houff caught both Currey and his Rick Ware teammate Cody Ware in the #51 Jacob Companies Chevrolet. Ware and Currey waged a spirited battle for 34th before Ware drew away, leaving Houff to deal with Currey.

Moments later, outside-polesitter Chase Elliott was black-flagged for jumping the initial start, and on Lap 4 incurred a pass-through penalty. Elliott’s fleet #9 Hooters Chevrolet returned to the track just in front of the leaders – 22.945 seconds back of the lead – and by Lap 7 was a full straightaway behind the now 35th-place Houff. Elliott closed the gap quickly, catching Houff on Lap 10, then passing him off Turn 2 on the 11th circuit. Two laps later on the 13th, race leader and polesitter Ryan Blaney caught Houff in the same spot, making the #77 the first car one lap down.

Next to join the last-place battle was 10th-place starter Erik Jones. On Lap 38, Jones lost control in Turn 2 with a flat right-rear tire. Jones made mild contact with the outside wall, damaging the right-rear corner, and nearly collecting a sideways Ryan Preece in the #47 Kroger Chevrolet. Jones darted down the nearby entrance to a closed pit road, incurring two penalties for his unorthodox entrance. When the crew discovered damage to the suspension on Jones’ #20 Reser’s Fine Foods Toyota, he was forced to pit a second time and lost three laps by Lap 42. That third lap dropped Jones behind Houff, taking the last spot.

Jones returned to the track on Lap 43, but would hold the 36th spot for much of the afternoon. The Lap 45 restart revealed how badly his car was damaged: “I don't know, man,” said the driver soon after the green, “I'm just trying to make minimum speed, but I don't know if I'll be able to. . .There’s something that’s really broke, or something in the front that’s really bent. . .It's hard to even go straight on the straightaway.” Further communications revealed the Joe Gibbs crew had put another wheel spacer on the right-rear. While intended to make sure the wheel held, it reduced the threads on the lug bolts, causing a vibration. This cost Jones a fourth lap on the 55th circuit.

Flat tires and mechanical issues continued to plague many of the front runners, including Brad Keselowski’s #2 Alliance Truck Parts Ford and the #88 Nationwide Chevrolet of Alex Bowman, who both wrecked in nearly the same spot as Jones. Keselowski slipped to 32nd, raced his way up to the Lucky Dog, then went laps down again following a two-minute pit stop to repair his car. Bowman suffered two flat right-front tires, the second breaking the suspension so badly that he fell out of the race. Daniel Suarez, McDowell’s foil on Friday, accidentally shut off his engine while trying to keep it cool under caution, costing him a lap he would never get back.

McDowell’s role in the last-place battle didn’t come until Lap 159. Locked in his own race for the Lucky Dog with Chris Buescher’s #37 Kroger Flavor Fill Up Chevrolet, McDowell was running a solid 22nd when he suddenly slowed entering Turn 3. As the driver revealed later, the throttle hung, and he locked the brakes in futility as he struck the outside wall. McDowell climbed out uninjured, but his car was destroyed, out of the race. Crews towed his #34 behind the wall using the infield entrance at the dog leg. McDowell officially took last from Jones on Lap 160, and the #20 would ultimately climb to 29th by the finish. Bowman’s second tire failure came on the ensuing green-flag run, leaving him 35th. Bowman was the only driver to earn his first bottom-five finish of 2019 on Sunday.

Finishing 34th on Sunday was Preece, who was collected in the day’s final two accidents, ultimately retiring with heavy damage to the front end. Finishing 33rd was Landon Cassill, who ended up 45 laps back of the leaders in StarCom Racing’s #00 Iron Mountain Data Centers Chevrolet. Cody Ware rounded out the Bottom Five, 12 laps back of the lead in the #51. Currey and Houff finished in the next two spots, both within a lap of each other.

Chad Chaffin's #34 at Phoenix in 2005
PHOTO: Motorsport.com

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first Cup Series last-place finish for car #34 at the ISM Raceway since November 13, 2005, when Chad Chaffin’s #34 Fiesta Inn Resort Chevrolet fell out with overheating issues. That race turned out to be the 35th and final Cup start for team owner William Edwards, whose two-year-old single-car program Mach 1 Motorsports was merged into Front Row Motorsports in 2006.
*The 157 laps completed by McDowell were the fifth-most of a last-place finisher in a Cup race at Phoenix. The record remains with Martin Truex, Jr., who turned 258 laps before a crash on November 13, 2016.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
36) #34-Michael McDowell / 157 laps / crash
35) #88-Alex Bowman / 191 laps / crash
34) #47-Ryan Preece / 229 laps / crash
33) #00-Landon Cassill / 267 laps / running
32) #51-Cody Ware / 300 laps / running

2019 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Front Row Motorsports (2)
2nd) Germain Racing, Motorsports Business Management (1)

2019 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Ford (2)
2nd) Chevrolet, Toyota (1)

2019 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

XFINITY: Bayley Currey’s wreck hands car #17 its first last-place finish in more than three years

PHOTO: @BayleyCurrey

Bayley Currey picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Saturday’s iK9 Service Dog 200 at the ISM Raceway when his #17 Port of Tucson Chevrolet was involved in a single-car accident after 30 of 200 laps.

The finish came in Currey’s 14th series start. In XFINITY Series last-place rankings, it was the 12th for car #17, the 322nd from a crash, and the 521st for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 46th for the #17, the 1,172nd from a crash, and the 1,645th for Chevrolet.

The finish also put Currey in the lead for the 2019 LASTCAR XFINITY Series Championship as the first series last-place finisher to score more than one Bottom Five.

The ISM Raceway has held special significance in the young Texan’s career. It was there in 2017 that Currey finished 10th in just his second Truck Series start, the first Top Ten earned by team owner D.J. Copp. Now, just over a year later, the mechanical engineering student at the University of North Carolina Charlotte would make his Cup Series debut. He would drive for Rick Ware Racing, taking B.J. McLeod’s place in the #52 Mtel-One Ford Mustang. And he would also be running double-duty at the Arizona oval, driving Ware’s #17 Chevrolet in Saturday’s XFINITY race.

Following finishes of 22nd in Atlanta and 34th in Las Vegas, Currey’s XFINITY car had sponsorship for the first time in 2019, carrying logos for the Port of Tucson on the hood, quarter-panels, and TV panel with additional backing from Baja.

Currey didn’t participate in the weekend’s opening XFINITY Series practice, then ran 24th of 35 drivers in Happy Hour. He accomplished this speed despite running just four laps – second-fewest in the session ahead of the three turned by Vinnie Miller in B.J. McLeod’s #78 Chevrolet. This speed carried directly into qualifying, where Currey bested McLeod by six-tenths of a second for the 24th spot in Round 1, clocking in at 128.223mph (28.076 seconds). Currey settled on 24th in Round 2, joining 23rd-place Jeff Green’s #38 Chevrolet in not running a lap during that round.

Qualifying last in the 37-car field (for 38 spots) was Stan Mullis, who acquired sponsorship from Street Toys and LasVegas.net on Carl Long’s #13 Toyota. Like Currey, Mullis wasn't on the preliminary entry list, and it wasn't until late in the week that Currey and Mullis were listed in the #13 and #17. Following teammate Joey Gase’s hard wreck last Saturday in Vegas, all three Motorsports Business Management entries of Gase, Mullis, and Tyler Hill would run “Zombie” Toyota Camry models in place of the new Toyota Supra. Gase’s blue-and-white paint scheme indicated it was likely one of Chad Finchum’s Smithbilt Homes cars.

Mullis was joined at the rear by Ronnie Basset, Jr., who was making his series debut in the #90 Basset Gutters & More Chevrolet fielded by DGM Racing – a backup car following an incident during Happy Hour.

At the end of Lap 1, both Bassett and Mullis were already ahead of Morgan Shepherd, whose #89 Visone RV Chevrolet was 7.248 seconds back of the lead and just under a tenth of a second back of Mullis. Shepherd then closed the gap, drawing within eight-tenths at the end of two laps, then passing Mullis and gapping him by 1.1 seconds at the end of three. By that point, Mullis was now 10.007 seconds back of the lead, and still dropping. At the start of the 10th circuit, Mullis was the first to be lapped, and Shepherd had climbed to 35th ahead of Bassett.

Under green (and under commercial) on Lap 12, Mullis came down pit road, where he incurred a penalty for his crew members coming over the wall too soon. The #13 became the first to make the left turn into the garage area, but the crew eventually managed to get him back onto the track. This proved critical when the first caution fell on Lap 32.

Heading through Turns 3 and 4, Currey blew an oil line and slammed the outside wall just short of the start / finish line. A similar issue in Cup practice caused Cody Ware’s accident in nearly the same spot the previous fall. The accident flattened the right side of the #17 and sent him behind the wall, out of the race under the Crash Clock. When Mullis returned to action, he ultimately passed Currey for the spot, then retired five circuits later to secure 36th.

Finishing 35th was the #99 Diamond Gusset Jeans Toyota of Tommy Joe Martins, whose engine went sour following a fuel pump issue at the end of Stage 1. Martins was the only driver to earn his first Bottom Five of the season on Saturday.

Morgan Shepherd finished 34th, completing 56 laps to finish 34th. Though still without a finish under power in 2019, the veteran has never turned fewer than 45 laps in all three of his starts. Rounding out the group was Jeff Green, who after starting next to Currey retired three laps after Shepherd due to a vibration. Green, the all-time last-place leader, has yet to finish last once in 2019.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first XFINITY Series last-place finish for car #17 in an XFINITY Series race at Phoenix. The number hadn’t trailed in the series since September 5, 2015, when Ryan Ellis’ #17 Navy Seals vs. Zombies Ford fell out with suspension issues after 1 lap of the VFW Sport Clips Help a Hero 200 at Darlington. The finish put an end to Jeff Green’s streak of eight last-place finishes in a row, still a NASCAR record.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
37) #17-Bayley Currey / 30 laps / crash
36) #13-Stan Mullis / 35 laps / carburetor
35) #99-Tommy Joe Martins / 49 laps / fuel pump
34) #89-Morgan Shepherd / 56 laps / brakes
33) #38-Jeff Green / 59 laps / vibration

2019 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Motorsports Business Management (2)
2nd) JD Motorsports, Rick Ware Racing (1)

2019 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet, Toyota (2)

2019 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

PREVIEW: Two Cup Series debuts headline entry lists at the ISM Raceway

PHOTO: The Decal Source, @P1_Houff

Saturday, March 9, 2019
XFINITY Race 4 of 33
iK9 Service Dog 200 at ISM Raceway
2018 Last-Place Finisher: Jeff Green

ENTRY LIST
There are 37 drivers entered for 38 spots this week, down one car from last week in Las Vegas. This would mark the second short field of the 2019 season and first since Atlanta. Both the #13 and #17 did not have a driver named on the preliminary list, but Stan Mullis and Bayley Currey are back to run them, as in Las Vegas.

DRIVER CHANGE: #8-JR Motorsports
Ryan Truex returns to the XFINITY Series for the first time since last fall at Homestead, where he closed out his first full season of series competition driving for Kaulig Racing. This time around, Truex takes Zane Smith’s place in Dale Jr.’s #8 Chevrolet, one week after Smith finished 24th in Las Vegas.

MISSING: #10-Kaulig Racing
Speaking of Kaulig Racing, the team once again leaves the #10 team at the shop, and Austin Dillon is not entered to run double-duty following his 4th-place finish for the team in Vegas.

DRIVER CHANGE: #66-Motorsports Business Management
Tyler Hill returns to the site of his XFINITY Series debut last fall, taking the place of brother Timmy Hill in Carl Long’s #66 Toyota. Tyler recovered from a late spin in 2018 to finish 31st in the next-to-last race run by Long’s “Zombie Dodge.”

DRIVER CHANGE: #90-DGM Racing
Ronnie Bassett, Jr., your winner of the 2017 K&N Pro Series East opener in New Smyrna, will make his NASCAR national touring series debut, taking the place of next-to-last-place finisher Donald Theetge in Mario Gosselin’s #90 Chevrolet. Sponsored by Bassett Gutters and More, Bassett has a single start at the ISM Raceway in 2015, when he finished 10th on the West tour.

DRIVER CHANGE: #99-B.J. McLeod Motorsports
Tommy Joe Martins is back in action this week, taking the place of Jairo Avila, Jr. in the #99 Toyota. Diamond Gusset Jeans returns as sponsor. Martins’ best finish in three series starts at ISM came in this race last year, when he finished 27th.

CUP INVADERS: #18-Kyle Busch

Sunday, March 10, 2019
CUP Race 4 of 36
Ticket Guardian 500 at ISM Raceway
2018 Last-Place Finisher: Corey LaJoie

ENTRY LIST
There are 36 drivers entered for 40 spots, marking not only the third-straight short field in 2019, but the first of the year without a single “open” entry.

DRIVER CHANGE: #52-Rick Ware Racing
Not only will Bayley Currey make his third-straight start in the #17 on the XFINITY Series side, but he will also make his Cup debut in Ware’s #52 Mtel-One Ford, driven to a 37th-place finish last week by B.J. McLeod. Currey, who has volunteered as a pit crew member between driving duties, has a pair of lower series starts at the ISM Raceway: he gave D.J. Copp his first Truck Series top-ten with a 10th in 2017, and last fall ran 30th for JP Motorsports’ XFINITY program.

MISSING: #66-Motorsports Business Management
Engine troubles sidelined Joey Gase after just 10 laps last Sunday in Vegas, and both driver and team aren’t entered on the Cup side this weekend. Radio communications indicated the two will return to action next week in Fontana. Gase will still be in Saturday’s race, running MBM’s #35.

DRIVER CHANGE: #77-Spire Motorsports
Quin Houff makes his previously-announced Cup series debut with Spire Motorsports and returning backing from Rim Ryderz – already the third different car number the sponsor has backed in 2019. Houff has made 10 XFINITY Series starts with a best of 12th at Iowa in 2017, driving for the now-absent Precision Performance Motorsports. He ran 29th here last fall for JD Motorsports.

MISSING: #96-Gaunt Brothers Racing
Parker Kligerman is without a ride this weekend as he and the Gaunt Brothers, the only “open” team to have attempted and started every race in 2019, are not entered in Phoenix.

Saturday, March 23, 2019
TRUCKS Race 4 of 23
Alpha Energy Solutions 250 at Martinsville
2018 Last-Place Finisher: Mike Senica

After three tripleheader weekends, the Truck Series takes the next two weeks off and returns for the first short track weekend of 2019 in Martinsville.

LASTCAR STAT OF THE WEEK
Only once has the last-place finisher of the XFINITY Series race at the ISM Raceway completed more than 24 laps. Curiously, it was also the first series race run at the track. On November 6, 1999, Phil Parsons picked up the 5th last-place finish of his XFINITY career when his #10 Alltel Chevrolet completed 139 of 200 laps of the Outback Steakhouse 200 before engine trouble. He was one of only four retirees of a race slowed by just one caution – a wreck between 42nd-place finisher Bobby Hillin, Jr. and 39th-place Chad Chaffin. The race was won by Jeff Gordon – his first since he left Bill Davis Racing to go full-time Cup at the end of 1992.

CUP / XFINITY: “The Lastover” - missing crew member adds intrigue to Joey Gase’s two-race last-place Las Vegas sweep

PHOTO: Chris Madrid, TheRacingExperts.com

On a weekend that saw Kyle Busch win two of the weekend’s three races at Las Vegas, Joey Gase finished last in two of those races. The sweep concluded on Sunday, where Gase picked up the 5th last-place finish of his NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series career in the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway after his #66 Donate Life Nevada Toyota fell out with engine trouble after 10 of 267 laps.

The finish, which came in Gase’s 31st series start, was his first since September 2, 2018 at Darlington, fourteen races ago. In the Cup Series last-place rankings, it’s the 56th for car #66, the 155th for Toyota, and the 685th from engine trouble. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 66th for the #66, the 311th for Toyota, and the 1,064th from engine woes.

But that’s only the beginning of the story.

The 2019 season marks Gase’s sixth in a row as a full-time XFINITY Series competitor and a part-timer in Cup. Last year, he reunited with team owner Archie St. Hilaire through a technical alliance with SS-Green Light Racing, and tied his career-best 20th in the XFINITY Series point standings. He also drove eight Cup starts for four different team owners, yielding a season-best 18th in the fall Talladega race for Derrike Cope’s StarCom Racing. Through it all, Gase has continued his efforts to spread awareness of the Donate Life program for organ donation, and also brought in new sponsors to the sport like Sparks Energy, Inc.

In January came news that Gase had signed with Carl Long’s team Motorsports Business Management, a team which also announced it would focus more on XFINITY than Cup this season. Nevertheless, Long entered Gase in both series openers at Daytona, fielding the #35 (Gase’s number in 2018) for Saturday’s race, and a #66 for the 500. Both cars carried identical paint schemes with sponsorship from Medic Air Systems, AGRI Supply, and Eternal Fan, the latter two among Gase’s many longtime backers. Gase’s debut in the XFINITY Series’ new Toyota Supra yielded a 16th-place finish, his best in the series since Kansas the previous fall. But he fell short of a starting spot in the 500 despite a spirited side-by-side battle with fellow “open” driver Brendan Gaughan in Duel Race 2.

Las Vegas marked Gase’s first Cup attempt since Daytona, and he would once again run on both Saturday and Sunday. This time around, he was guaranteed a starting spot in Sunday’s main event as just 38 drivers arrived to contest the 40 available spots. Gase ran slowest in both Cup practices, and only climbed to 36th in qualifying when two other drivers didn’t turn a lap. Those two drivers were Ross Chastain, driving Premium Motorsports’ #15 Rim Ryderz Chevrolet, and garage mate Reed Sorenson, making his season debut as driver of Spire Motorsports’ unsponsored #77 Chevrolet.

During the pace laps, two drivers were sent to the rear for unapproved adjustments: 31st-place starter Landon Cassill in StarCom Racing’s #00 Manscaped: Below the Belt Grooming Chevrolet and Ty Dillon, slated to start 14th in Germain Racing’s #13 GEICO Chevrolet. Before the two could fall to the rear, two more cars were slow getting off pit road: Daniel Suarez in the #41 Haas Automation Ford and the #52 Mtel-One Ford of B.J. McLeod. While Suarez regained his 22nd starting spot, McLeod’s Ford, which looked nearly identical to Cody Ware’s #51 Chevrolet, remained behind Chastain and Sorenson, taking the last spot in the high line. As at Atlanta, both Cassill and Dillon didn’t start in the final two spots – Sorenson held the last spot as the field came to the green.

On the break, Sorenson retained the 38th spot, but already had his sights set on the #52 of McLeod. On Lap 3, Sorenson caught and passed McLeod in Turns 1 and 2, dropping the #52 to last. From there, McLeod progressively lost touch with the tail end of the field, falling to 12 seconds back of the leader on Lap 5.

Gase in the garage.
PHOTO: Motorsports Business Management Facebook

Soon after, trouble found Joey Gase. On Lap 9, his #66 had slipped behind Sorenson into the 37th spot, and last-place McLeod was starting to inch closer. The next time by, Gase shut off the motor and coasted onto the apron. He crept onto pit road, losing a lap in the process, and pulled into the first opening to the garage on Lap 13. After pulling into their garage stall, the crew looked over the #66, saying “I think it’s something internal.” Attention soon turned to the engine, specifically the fifth cylinder, and the team grew concerned that their car was running too lean.

It was on Lap 59 that the situation took a bizarre turn – a member of the crew was missing.

“I don’t know how he got away from us,” another crewman said. The first communication indicated the man, named Mark, was still at the hotel, and was between 30 and 40 minutes from getting to the track. Around Lap 67, Carl Long himself broke into the radio and said Mark was 15 minutes away. Still trying to diagnose the issue, Long expressed concern about getting the car back out on the track, saying he didn’t want to risk blowing an engine as the team prepared for Fontana in two weeks, but also wanted to give the car more visibility for the sponsors in attendance. “You’re the team owner,” said the crew.

The wait for Mark continued on for the first third of the race. “Yes,” said Long, exasperated, “he's still in the ten-minute range or so. He’s in the hotel, so by the time this thing happens. I don’t even know why he was in the damned hotel in the first place. I’ve gotta have someone in my pit stall who can look over this stuff until the checkered flag falls.” Long also expressed his concern over their next race in Fontana: “We need him to look at it, because we can't take it to California if something's wrong.”

By the start of Stage 2 on Lap 88, Long and crew considered switching to another radio frequency after I tweeted their communications: “I'd suggest going to Channel 2 because someone on Twitter is broadcasting on our frequency.” Moments later, on Lap 94, another voice broke in. “Mark is here. Mark is here.”

Now 87 laps down, Gase and crew looked to use the rest of the race as a test session. Attention continued to swirl around the engine, specifically the fifth piston. “It’s a burned piston, does that mean it’s too lean?” said a crewman. “Ask him how we’re supposed to go to California and put another motor in it if the computer’s wrong.” Gase joined in the conversation by recalling what he felt on Lap 10, saying, “I’ve had a rocker or a piston go before, and that’s what it felt like.” He also believed the car had been running too lean in qualifying.

On Lap 121, the team pulled the plug, and the car was listed “out” on FOX and “unavailable” on RaceView. Long then relayed a message to the team’s sponsors. “Let his sponsors know, we’ll try and run the same group in California for free. We will promote Nevada in the state of California if they want it.”

Gase turned out to be the only retiree from the race. The only other competitor to spend any time in the garage was McLeod, who lost 37 laps for a vibration, then rejoined the race by Lap 132. McLeod finished 37th, 47 laps down to the leaders.

The rest of the Bottom Five lost laps on the track: Sorenson finished 36th, 15 laps back, and one circuit behind 35th-place Cody Ware in Rick Ware Racing’s flagship #51 Jacob Companies Chevrolet. Rounding out the group was Matt Tifft, who finished 34th, eight laps back, in Front Row Motorsports’ #36 Surface Sunscreen / Tunity Ford.

Gase, McLeod, and Sorenson were handed their first Bottom Fives of 2019. Michael McDowell took the 2019 LASTCAR Cup Series lead with his second bottom-ten finish – a 30th – on Sunday.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first Cup Series last-place finish for car #66 since November 11, 2018, when Timmy Hill had an oil leak after 40 laps of the Can-Am 500 at the ISM Raceway. Neither the number – nor Gase - had ever finished last in a Cup race at Las Vegas.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
38) #66-Joey Gase / 10 laps / engine
37) #52-B.J. McLeod / 220 laps / running
36) #77-Reed Sorenson / 252 laps / running
35) #51-Cody Ware / 253 laps / running
34) #36-Matt Tifft / 259 laps / running

2019 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Front Row Motorsports, Germain Racing, Motorsports Business Management (1)

2019 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet, Ford, Toyota (1)

2019 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

Gase (#35) wrecks with Donald Theetge (#90)
PHOTO: FS1

The day before, Gase picked up the 4th last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in the Boyd Gaming 300 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway when his #35 Nevada Donor Network Toyota was involved in a two-car accident after 1 of 213 laps.

The finish, which came in Gase’s 211th series start, was his first of the season and first in the series since July 21, 2013 at Chicagoland, 183 races ago. In XFINITY Series last-place history, it was the 15th for car #35, the 123rd for Toyota, and the 321st from a crash. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 29th for the #35, the 310th for Toyota, and the 1,171st from a crash.

Gase now takes the early lead in the 2019 LASTCAR XFINITY Series rankings in a tiebreaker with John Jackson, who was not entered in Vegas.

Following a 29th-place run in the XFINITY race at Atlanta, Las Vegas was next on the list. Gase didn’t participate in opening practice, then ranked 27th of 36 drivers in Happy Hour. A rained-out qualifying session left him 33rd on the grid. Curiously, teammate Chad Finchum in the #42 took outside-pole by virtue of the Owners Points inherited from Chip Ganassi’s closed XFINITY program.

Starting 38th and last on Saturday was Morgan Shepherd, assured his second-straight start of the season after exactly 38 drivers arrived to take time. Shepherd’s #89 VisoneRV.com Chevrolet was joined in short order by two other drivers penalized for unapproved adjustments: 30th-place starter Stephen Leicht, the Daytona last-placer, in JD Motorsports’ unsponsored #01 Chevrolet, and 3rd-place starter Christopher Bell, whose #20 Rheem / Smurfit Kappa Toyota was snagged for illegal body modifications.

As the penalized drivers fell to the rear, one car was still sitting on pit road. Bayley Currey turned heads in Atlanta when he finished 22nd in Rick Ware Racing’s #17 Chevrolet, an unsponsored car. Invited back for Vegas, Currey was to start 21st, but his car wouldn’t fire. During Regan Smith’s pre-race report from pit road, the FS1 cameras caught Currey’s car being pushed by a support vehicle. The issue caused Currey to miss the start of the race, which perhaps allowed him to miss a hard crash on Lap 2.

That time by, the penalized Christopher Bell was already racing 23rd-place starter Donald Theetge, making his season debut in DGM Racing’s #90 Mercedes-Benz St-Nicolas / Circuit Acura Chevrolet. As the pair raced into Turn 3, Theetge lost control in the upper lane and slid up the track, narrowly missing another car. Lost in the smoke, Joey Gase found himself barreling toward Theetge’s driver’s side door. The two collided, destroying the nose of Gase’s car and caving in Theetge’s driver’s door just in front of the rear wheels. Theetge made it back to the garage, eliminated under the Crash Clock in 36th place. Gase’s car, unable to be repaired, was also eliminated, placing him 37th.

However, it wasn’t until the end of Stage 1 that last place was finally settled. The Rick Ware team was still hard at work on Bayley Currey’s #17, and managed to get the car fired again during the caution at the end of Stage 1, which came out on Lap 47. By Lap 51, the #17 was back on pit road, and joining the back of the field. When the race went green the next time by, Currey jumped past both Gase and Theetge, dropping the drivers to the final two spots. Currey ended up completing a total of 24 laps before an electrical issue knocked him out of the race just before the end of Stage 2.

Between Currey, Gase and Theetge in the final running order were Josh Bilicki and Stan Mullis, both drivers who were swapped into LASTCAR-contending rides. Bilicki was swapped into teammate Jeff Green’s unsponsored #93 at RSS Racing, and turned just 13 laps. Stan Mullis, driving in place of Atlanta last-placer John Jackson in MBM’s #13 Fluidyne / CarashClaimsR.us Toyota, turned 14 laps before he cited a vibration.

For Gase, Theetge, Mullis, and Currey, Las Vegas marked their first bottom-five finish of 2019.

When the dust settled on Saturday, several drivers enjoyed fine runs. While Bilicki and Green finished outside the Top 30, the flagship RSS Racing car with Ryan Sieg earned its second top-ten of the young season with a 6th-place finish. Sieg now sits in a three-way tie for seventh in the series standings.

In 7th came Ross Chastain, the most recent XFINITY winner at Las Vegas, who came from a lap down to take 7th for JD Motorsports.

And SS-Green Light Racing took the 11th and 12th spots with this time Ray Black, Jr. ahead of Gray Gaulding. Gaulding, who started 35th, continued his strong start to the 2019 season by climbing to 18th at the end of Stage 1, keeping Kyle Busch from taking the Lucky Dog in the process.

Danny O'Quinn, Jr.'s Rensi Motorsports #35 in late 2008
PHOTO: Rubbin's Racin' Forums

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first XFINITY Series last-place finish for car #35 since November 8, 2008, when Danny O’Quinn, Jr. earned his first last-place run following a vibration on his unsponsored Team Rensi Motorsports Ford after 5 laps of the Hefty Odor Block 200 at Phoenix.
*Before O’Quinn’s last-place run, the #35 had finished last in two other XFINITY races at Las Vegas: March 6, 1999 with Lyndon Amick, and March 12, 2005 with Jason Keller.
*This was also the first last-place finish for a Toyota Supra in NASCAR. John Jackson, last week’s last-placer in Atlanta, ran an older Camry model.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
38) #35-Joey Gase / 1 lap / crash
37) #90-Donald Theetge / 1 lap / crash
36) #93-Josh Bilicki / 13 laps / electrical
35) #13-Stan Mullis / 14 laps / vibration
34) #17-Bayley Currey / 24 laps / electrical

2019 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Motorsports Business Management (2)
2nd) JD Motorsports (1)

2019 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (2)
2nd) Chevrolet (1)

2019 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

TRUCKS: Scott Stenzel and Mittler-Copp cooperative trail second-straight Vegas spring race

PHOTO: Scott Stenzel's Facebook

Scott Stenzel picked up the 4th last-place finish of his NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series career in Friday’s Strat 200 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway when his #63 Personal Comfort Chevrolet fell out with electrical issues after 34 of 134 laps.

The finish, which came in Stenzel’s 14th series start, was his first of the season, and his first since this same race last year on March 2, 2018, 23 races ago. In Truck Series last-place history, it was the 23rd for the #63, the 36th from electrical issues, and the 367th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 40th for the #63, the 122nd from electrical issues, and the 1,644th for Chevrolet.

The 2019 season marks D.J. Copp’s third season as a Truck Series team owner, and perhaps his most significant yet. His trucks now carry the #63 in place of Copp’s traditional #83, a change that signals the next step in his ongoing business partnership with longtime team owner Mike Mittler.

Since the Truck Series’ inception in 1995, Mittler’s MB Motorsports team has fielded race trucks from his Missouri shop. Justin Allgaier, Jamie McMurray, and Carl Edwards are just some of the drivers whose successful NASCAR careers began in his equipment. An elusive first victory for the team nearly came at Eldora, where Bobby Pierce dominated back-to-back races on the clay oval. But an ongoing battle with cancer has forced Mittler to scale back his involvement with the team. The “Stand Up To Cancer” initiative saluted Mittler’s fight last fall at Martinsville on the 63rd lap.

Who would drive for Copp this season turned into a strange story. Last November, Copp jokingly tweeted a picture of Jeremy Mayfield standing next to his truck, hinting at a comeback despite Mayfield’s ongoing suspension from NASCAR dating back to 2009. Around the same time, Mike Senica tweeted that he would be driving for Copp, returning to the series for the first time since last spring at Martinsville, where Senica was parked for failing to heed instructions from NASCAR officials. This, too, was debunked by Copp, who later revealed that ARCA veteran Bobby Gerhart would again drive the #63 at Daytona, as he had under Mittler’s ownership.

During that wild season opener, Gerhart managed to avoid nearly all of the night’s multi-truck accidents – nearly, that is, until he crashed out of a Top 5 in overtime following a tangle with Austin Wayne Self and Stewart Friesen. At Atlanta, Timmy Hill ran double-duty with the XFINITY Series on the same afternoon. Hill, swapped in for Gerhart on the preliminary entry list, exited after 53 laps with brake issues. Stenzel was then brought on to make his season debut at Las Vegas, and soon after welcomed new sponsorship from mattress company Personal Comfort.

Stenzel began the weekend slowest of the 29 drivers who turned laps in the opening practice session, having run the fewest circuits of anyone (three). He improved somewhat in Happy Hour, climbing to 28th of 31 that participated. In qualifying, he ranked 30th, settling on Owner Points with a lap of 165.965mph (32.537 seconds). This time, he outpaced both Josh Reaume and last-place starter Norm Benning.

Benning trailed a field of 32 despite some additions and subtractions from the preliminary entry list. Chad Finley’s team was forced to withdraw their #42 Chevrolet following a bizarre incident at Atlanta where the hauler driver attempted to exit through a tunnel that was too small for his truck. Next to pull out was the #49 CMI Installations Chevrolet of Ray Ciccarelli, who like Finley's team had made both of the season’s first two races in his first full season as owner-driver. Taking the place of the two was Korbin Forrister, whose All Out Motorsports team hadn’t been entered in Friday’s race, then joined in to keep the field full. Forrister ultimately finished 14th on Friday, his best finish of the young season.

Another small team made headlines with his qualifying run. Two weeks after being wrecked in a late-race battle for the lead at Daytona, and one week after a solid 16th-place run in Atlanta, Cory Roper put his #04 Preferred Industrial Contractors Ford 4th on the speed charts in Round 1, then held on to take 5th in Round 2. It was far and away Roper’s best qualifying run, supplanting a 17th-place start in his team’s debut at Martinsville last year. Unfortunately, Roper’s night wouldn’t end with him so close to the lead. When the race started, Roper found himself in the middle of a three-wide battle off Turn 2, and was then routed out of the inside groove after a door-banging battle with Stewart Friesen.

Meanwhile, at the back of the pack, Josh Reaume’s unsponsored #33 Chevrolet held down last after trailing the field to the green flag, then conceded the spot to Norm Benning on Lap 3. Reaume and Benning soon had two-second gaps between each other and the rest of the field, and Benning fell four seconds back of Reaume when the first caution came on Lap 7.

It was in this caution that Roper’s night took a turn for the worse. Sheldon Creed, who started 9th in his #2 AM Ortega / United Rentals Chevrolet, spun off the fourth corner, forcing the field to accordion behind him. In the smoke, Roper, running 12th at the time, tangled with the slowing Matt Crafton, shoving in the nose of the #04. Still under power, Roper made it down pit road. Crafton took last on Lap 8, followed by Ben Rhodes on Lap 9, then Roper on the 10th go-round. Extensive repairs on pit road made Roper the first driver to lose a lap to the leaders. He’d lose a second by Lap 26, and by then was on the same lap as Benning in 31st. Roper passed Benning for the spot on Lap 37.

As Benning took the last spot, Stenzel had pulled behind the wall, citing an electrical issue. This dropped the #63 to the final spot on Lap 38, during which time the crew looked under the hood for the problem. Radio communications indicated the team suspected the battery, then the alternator, but found no issues with either of them. On Lap 49, a crewman said “We’re not gonna have anything to gain, guys. Pack it up.” On the 55th lap, the crew determined the battery and alternator were okay, but the issue hadn’t been resolved. The response: “10-4 buddy, let’s load this shit up and get outta here.” A crewman thanked Stenzel and the spotter for their help with the “one-man band” as they called it a night.

Finishing 31st was Stefan Parsons, whose 2019 debut came with Beaver Motorsports’ #1 Phoenix Construction Chevrolet, a truck that had been withdrawn from both Daytona and Atlanta after making the preliminary entry list. After running on the lead lap in Stages 1 and 2, Parsons cited an issue with the transmission, saying it wouldn’t shift from third to fourth on a restart. The crew worked behind the wall, then were unable to push-start the truck to get it fired again, ultimately ending their night. Carburetor problems were the cited cause. “I think it’s toast,” said the crew. The team left disappointed, stating they thought they had a chance at a Top 20.

Daytona winner Austin Hill took 30th, joining all drivers but 28th-place Norm Benning in scoring their first bottom-five finishes of 2019. Hill started 6th in HRE’s #16 A&D Welding Toyota, but a mid-race overheating issue forced the team behind the wall with a blown engine. Spencer Boyd, who also started the year strong at Daytona, fell out soon after with engine issues of his own on the #20 1A Auto Chevrolet.

On his third consecutive weekend of running triple-duty, Ross Chastain ran in the Top 5 for most of the night, his #45 TruNorth Chevrolet running as high as 3rd in the first two stages, then leading on the final exchange of pit stops. Unfortunately, the good run went away on the final pit stop when his truck stalled after a fuel-only stop. The miscue cost Chastain a lap and left him 10th.

One spot ahead of Chastain came the #17 Dexcom Toyota of Ryan Reed, who finished 9th in his first Truck Series start since September 28, 2012, when he ran 17th for Richie Wauters. An XFINITY Series regular until his Roush-Fenway Racing ride closed its doors at the end of 2018, Reed hadn’t even attempted a Truck Series race since the 2016 opener at Daytona, where he failed to qualify.

For more on Copp Motorsports’ efforts with the Mittler team, check out this article by Amanda Vincent of Auto Racing Daily.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Friday’s finish was significant for truck #63, which not only trailed the third of the last four series races at Las Vegas, but also broke a tie with the #93 for the second-most last-place runs in Truck Series history (the lead remains #0 with 46). The number’s most recent last-place run came August 11, 2018, when Timmy Hill’s #63 Fr8Auctions.com Chevrolet had suspension issues after 7 laps of the Corrigan Oil 200.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
32) #63-Scott Stenzel / 34 laps / electrical
31) #1-Stefan Parsons / 67 laps / carburetor
30) #16-Austin Hill / 82 laps / engine
29) #20-Spencer Boyd / 108 laps / engine
28) #6-Norm Benning / 121 laps / running

2019 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Copp Motorsports, DGR-Crosley, NEMCO Motorsports (1)

2019 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (2)
2nd) Toyota (1)

2019 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP