ARCA: Radiator cap sidelines legacy-engine entry of Con Nicolopoulos at Talladega

PHOTO: @StartAndParkCar

by William Soquet
LASTCAR.info Guest Correspondent

Con Nicolopoulos secured the eighth last-place finish of his ARCA Menards Series career in Saturday’s General Tire 200 at Talladega Superspeedway when engine problems prevented his #0 GreatRailing.com / Wayne Peterson Racing Chevrolet from completing any of the race’s 76 laps.
The finish was Nicolopoulos’ first last-place finish of the season and was his first since the first 2018 race at Pocono, 35 races ago.

Con Nicolopoulos is a 58-year-old engineer for Chrysler in Detroit who has a penchant for thermal dynamics. He got into ARCA at the behest of Chrysler coworker Brad Smith, first spotting for Smith at Talladega and then later testing and driving a second Smith entry at Toledo in 2011. He ran a handful of races for Smith and one race for former team owner Wayne Hixson that year before not driving at all in the 2012 and 2013 seasons.

For the 2014 season, Nicolopoulos aligned with veteran team Wayne Peterson Racing. From 2015 to 2018, he ran over half of the season before taking a step down to only four races in the 2019 season as the Peterson team focused their efforts on rookie driver Tim Richmond. Now, Nicolopoulos has returned in the capacity of a second superspeedway car in 2020. He has also worked as an engineer to produce new healthcare products during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Talladega entry list debuted at 21 cars, and although it briefly bumped up in the middle of the week, 21 cars entered Talladega Superspeedway to race. Ryan Repko was in the Venturini Motorsports #20, Sean Corr returned in the #8, Eric Caudell was back in his #7, Brandon Lynn made his yearly Talladega appearance, this time in the #22; Jason Kitzmiller returned in the #97. Fast Track Racing rolled out four cars: Tommy Vigh Jr. in the 01, Ryan Huff in the 10, Ed Pompa in the 12, and Willie Mullins in the 11. Incidentally, Mullins' business, Crow Wing Recycling, was affected by the coronavirus pandemic and as a result, Mullins teamed up with Andy Hillenburg to get to the track.

Among those notably absent were Our Motorsports, who focused on their Xfinity Series effort; Ken Schrader Racing, which did a one-off with Natalie Decker to start the season at Daytona; and Rette Jones Racing, which had to postpone operations due to a number of team personnel, including owner and driver, residing in Canada. Some independents like J.J. Pack and Dave Mader III also did not make the trip to Talladega.

The lone practice session was held Saturday morning in groups of five cars. Riley Herbst led the field, and at the bottom was Brad Smith, over six seconds back by Herbst. The starting lineup was set by owner points. Ryan Repko was awarded the pole position and Thad Moffitt was set to start shotgun on the field.

Despite not being last in practice, Nicolopoulos still complained of motor issues. The team diagnosed it as a valve cover leak and fixed it before the race. However, the engine on the #0 machine was still running hot during pace laps. Another diagnosis by the team found a missing radiator cap, which they replaced with the one from the van that the team used to get to the racetrack. However, that was not a viable long-term solution, and as such, the #0 car retired without ever running a lap at race pace.

Brad Smith was 20th, falling out with a faulty carburetor (yes, ARCA cars still have those!) after four laps. Also falling out in the early stages of the race were Vigh, Mullins and Richmond, all citing a mechanical issue of some kind as the reason out. This meant that the Bottom Five was filled with all mechanical issues – a rare showing for a superspeedway known for multi-car accidents.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
21) #0-Con Nicolopoulos / 0 laps / engine
20) #48-Brad Smith / 4 laps / carburetor
19) #01-Tommy Vigh Jr. / 7 laps / vibration
18) #11-Willie Mullins / 24 laps / oil pressure
17) #06-Tim Richmond / 34 laps / engine

2020 LASTCAR ARCA MENARDS SERIES OWNERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Fast Track Racing, Reeves Racing, Wayne Peterson Racing (1)

2020 LASTCAR ARCA MENARDS SERIES MANUFACTURERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (2)
2nd) Toyota (1)

2020 LASTCAR ARCA MENARDS SERIES DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP

CUP: Unusual “rear hub” failure leaves Matt Kenseth last at Talladega

PHOTO: @mattkenseth

(Special thanks to William Soquet, our Guest Contributor, for tracking this race’s last-place battle. Be sure to follow him on Twitter at @WilliamSoquet for more underdog coverage in the ARCA Menards Series.)

Matt Kenseth picked up the 4th last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Monday’s GEICO 500 at the Talladega Superspeedway when his #42 McDonald’s Chevrolet fell out with a rear hub failure after 127 of 191 laps.

The finish, which came in Kenseth’s 674th series start, was his first of the season and first since the Daytona 500 on February 26, 2017, 120 races ago. In the Cup Series’ last-place history, it was the first citing a “rear hub,” the 26th for the #42, and the 784th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was also the first blamed on a “rear hub,” the 38th for the #42, and the 1,718th for Chevrolet.

The story of Kenseth’s return to Cup Series competition is well known. After losing his Joe Gibbs Racing ride to Erik Jones in 2017, then running a 15-race schedule for his former employer Roush-Fenway Racing in 2018, Kenseth was out of a ride for more than a year. But all that changed this past April, when Chip Ganassi Racing released Kyle Larson for uttering a racial slur in a livestreamed sim race. While Ross Chastain and Jamie McMurray were among the candidates, they hired Kenseth, who would return for NASCAR’s resumption of the season at Darlington in May. Despite the lack of practice and qualifying, Kenseth finished 10th.

In the races since, however, Kenseth has finished no better than 15th, which came at Atlanta. On more than one occasion, he’s had issues on pit road. But coming into Talladega, he had yet to score a single DNF in 2020. At Talladega, he drew the 13th spot. He would run the team’s red McDonald’s car, a sponsor that hadn’t reached victory lane in NASCAR since 1994, when Jimmy Spencer took the checkered flag in another hot summer race at Talladega driving for Junior Johnson.

Drawing the 40th and final starting spot was Garrett Smithley, who was swapped into B.J. McLeod’s bright red #78 Baker Camp Arnold Capital Management Chevrolet that McLeod was originally going to drive himself. Instead, McLeod reunited with Spire Motorsports after NASCAR rescinded their approval of James Davison to make his Cup debut in the #77 Oil Fire Rye Whiskey Chevrolet.

Both McLeod and Smithley were among the six drivers who incurred pre-race penalties – Smithley for two inspection failures and McLeod for unapproved adjustments. Also nabbed for unapproved adjustments were Brendan Gaughan, slated to start 39th in the #62 Beard Oil / South Point Chevrolet, and 37th-place Daniel Suarez in the #96 CommScope Toyota. William Byron’s #24 Axalta Chevrolet failed inspection twice while Joey Gase failed three times in Rick Ware Racing’s #51 The Gifted Life Podcast Ford. This meant Gase would have to incur a pass-through penalty at the start of the race. By the time the field addressed the starter’s stand, however, it was Byron who lined up in the final starting spot.

When the green flag dropped, Byron moved past Gaughan, who was four seconds back at the start. Gase then served his pass-through penalty and remained on the lead lap, though completely by himself a full 26 seconds back of the lead. By Lap 3, he was 34 seconds back. J.J. Yeley, Gase’s teammate in the #53 Truckworx Chevrolet, started to lose touch with the pack by Lap 4, and had dropped 14 seconds back. On Lap 6, the leaders caught the trailing Gase, who pulled into the high lane and became the first to lose a lap. For the rest of the afternoon, this high lane was where lapped traffic attempted to stay out of the way of faster cars. First Yeley, then Smithley both lost laps of their own by Lap 14.

On Lap 23, Gase passed Yeley for 39th, putting Yeley’s #53 into the last spot. He would hold that position for much of the race. On Lap 26, just seconds before the competition caution, Yeley lost a second lap going into Turn 1. Yeley was also the first to go to the garage area, citing a mechanical issue near the end of Stage 1. As Stage 2 began following a caution for rain, Yeley returned to the track ten laps down. Back up to speed, he linked onto a two-car draft of both McLeod and the #00 Permatex Chevrolet of Quin Houff. This group was lapped by the leaders on Lap 91, putting Yeley an 11th lap back.

Kenseth, meanwhile, was running mid-pack on the same lap as the leaders when trouble found him on Lap 128. Heading down the backstretch in the inside line, he unexpectedly jumped out of line and slowed, saying he’d lost the brakes. He managed to come to pit road and lost a lap before heading to the garage area. Later reports said it was either a brake issue or a problem with the track bar. The team set to work, and he wasn’t listed out for several laps. He took last from Yeley on Lap 139, then was listed “out” of the race on Lap 170.

Yeley ultimately climbed to 36th at the finish after other drivers faced late-race trouble. Finishing 38th and 39th were Chase Elliott in the #9 Mountain Dew / Little Ceasars Chevrolet and Austin Dillon in the #3 Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Off Road Chevrolet. Elliott was running 3rd on Lap 134 when he was squeezed between Penske teammates Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski, causing Keselowski to turn Elliott into the outside wall. Dillon was the only other driver involved when his right-front struck the left-rear of Elliott’s car. Dillon fell out under the “Damaged Vehicle Policy” while Elliott managed to limp around the track for two more laps before he pulled into the garage. Gase took 37th after his #51 tagged the Turn 4 wall in a wreck with Brennan Poole on Lap 142. Poole had run 15th on Lap 66 and led on Lap 97 before damage to his #15 Remember Everyone Deployed Chevrolet took him out in the final laps.

In the final charge to the checkered flag, John Hunter Nemechek made a daring bid for the lead, pushing Erik Jones to the runner-up spot and nearly forcing a three-wide drag race to the finish line. Unfortunately, Nemechek’s #38 Death Wish Coffee Ford made contact with Jones, putting both in the wall to leave them 5th and 8th. Nemechek’s 8th-place run was still a new career-best, improving on his strong 9th in NASCAR’s return at Darlington in May.

Also of note was Daniel Suarez, who worked his way to 8th in the final 50 laps after he’d incurred his pre-race penalty. Suarez ultimately slipped to 28th at the finish, one lap down.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #42 at Talladega since April 29, 2018, when Kyle Larson’s Credit One Bank Chevrolet crashed after 71 laps of the GEICO 500.
*The only other time car #42 finished last in a NASCAR race due to any kind of hub failure was on October 25, 1954, when Lee Petty’s Chrysler fell out after 12 laps at North Wilkesboro. It was Petty’s first career NASCAR last-place finish and came in the season finale, the Wilkes 160, where Petty had already locked-up his first of three Cup Series Championships. For more on last-place hub failures, check out the statistics below:

HUB FAILURES IN LASTCAR CUP SERIES HISTORY
While Kenseth’s last-place finish is the first due to a “rear hub,” it is actually the fifteenth where a hub was the listed cause. A general “hub” failure arose in six instances, but hasn’t arisen since May 30, 1976, when Terry Ryan fell out after 11 laps of the World 600 at Charlotte. This was the most recent of all last-place finishes caused by a hub failure in NASCAR history. A hub has not yet been a listed reason for an XFINITY or Truck Series last-place finish.

The remaining eight instances of last-place hub failure all specified which of the four hubs broke. Interestingly, all but one of them occurred on the right side. A “right-front hub” occurred five times, most recently September 15, 1960 to Doug Yates at Gamecock (South Carolina) Speedway after 34 laps. A “right-rear hub” occurred twice, most recently July 8, 1965 at Old Dominion (Virginia) Speedway, where Darel Dieringer retired after 38 laps.

The lone “left-front hub” occurred August 24, 1965 at Dog Track (North Carolina) Speedway to Tom Pistone after one lap of the Moyock 300. If Kenseth’s last-place finish was caused by the “left-rear hub,” it would have been the first such instance in NASCAR’s last-place history.

UPDATE (June 25, 2020): After contacting Chip Ganassi Racing, there was no new information on the cause of the hub failure, but scanner audio indicated the crew was working on the left side, indicating the "rear hub" was likely the first "left-rear hub."

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #42-Matt Kenseth / 127 laps / rear hub
39) #3-Austin Dillon / 133 laps / crash
38) #9-Chase Elliott / 135 laps / crash
37) #51-Joey Gase / 141 laps / crash
36) #53-J.J. Yeley / 178 laps / running

2020 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Motorsports Business Management (3)
2nd) Hendrick Motorsports, JTG-Daugherty Racing, Rick Ware Racing (2)
3rd) B.J. McLeod Motorsports, Chip Ganassi Racing, Leavine Family Racing, Penske Racing (1)

2020 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (7)
2nd) Toyota (4)
3rd) Ford (2)

2020 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

XFINITY: John Jackson shows speed before early exit in superspeedway return

PHOTO: @StartAndParkCar

John Jackson picked up the 6th last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Saturday’s Unhinged 300 at the Talladega Superspeedway when his #66 CrashClaimsR.us / James Carter Attorney Toyota fell out with overheating issues after 40 of 113 laps.

The finish, which came in Jackson’s 36th series start, was his first of the season and first since April 6, 2019 at Bristol, 37 races ago. In the XFINITY Series’ last-place history, it was the 9th for the #66, the 35th from overheating issues, and the 135th for Toyota. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 73rd for the #66, the 175th from overheating, and the 334th for Toyota.

Jackson was making his first start of the 2020 season and his first at Talladega since 2016, when he ran 32nd for the same Motorsports Business Management team. Last year, he made seven starts for MBM, and in all but one start failed to finish with no fewer than 82 laps complete. He finished last at Atlanta and Bristol, turning no more than 14 laps. But the lone exception came at Daytona, where he turned all but two laps and finished 32nd in MBM’s #42 Toyota Supra.

According to @StartAndParkCar on Twitter, Jackson’s ride for Saturday’s race was the same green-and-white Supra that Max Tullman ran last year. One of the team's former superspeedway cars was converted to downforce tracks and run by Stephen Leicht last weekend in Homestead. It was also reportedly a full-race effort, the team bringing one-and-a-half sets of tires, though they’d planned to run by themselves out of the draft and log laps. This, however, apparently changed on race day, where he drew 38th in the 39-car field.

Starting last in the race was Colin Garrett, who was giving Sam Hunt Racing their first superspeedway start. His #26 The Rosie Network Toyota was joined at the rear by three drivers who incurred pre-race penalties: 28th-place Mason Massey in the #99 Gerber Collision & Glass Toyota for an unapproved adjustment, 34th-place starter A.J. Allmendinger in the #16 Ellsworth Advisors Chevrolet who along with Jeb Burton in the #8 LS Tractor Chevrolet failed inspection, and 29th-place Tim Viens in the #47 Patriots of America PAC Chevrolet.

Viens parted ways with Mike Affarano’s Truck Series team after their withdrawal at Homestead last week. He was a last-minute driver change at Mike Harmon Racing, replacing Joe Nemechek, who also ran the red-white-and-blue car at Daytona. This driver change was what incurred the pre-race penalty. While both the car and Viens were sponsored by PACs supporting President Trump’s re-election, they were different PACs, so the campaign logos were missing from the #47 Chevrolet.

Before the pre-race penalties were incurred, several drivers stalled on pit road and needed a push, including Jackson and 26th-place Kody Vanderwal, who was driving a former JR Motorsports car as his latest #52 Advanced Dairy Services Chevrolet for Jimmy Means Racing. Both cars were rolling again before Jackson’s teammate Chad Finchum, whose crew worked frantically to get his #13 Mohawk Market Toyota back on the track. Finchum’s engine fired, and he joined the grid by one lap to go signal.

When the race started, Jackson had slotted in at the tail end of the field, 4.657 seconds back of the lead. By the end of Lap 1, he’d dropped Viens to last, and the #47 drafted behind both Jackson and Massey. The Harmon team had to remind Viens to remain in line, however, as he started to lose some ground to the two cars in front.

Meanwhile, bad luck once again found Ryan Sieg. While running among the leaders in his #39 CMRRoofing.com Chevrolet, Sieg cut a tire and scraped the wall in the second corner. He avoided serious damage, but didn’t draw the caution, and had to make a green-flag stop for two tires. Sieg was understandably furious as he’d start the race nearly two laps down: “Fucking bullshit,” he said over the radio. “Fucking every week. Hope we just ran over something.” Things didn’t go much better on the ensuing run. The moment after NASCAR cleared him for reaching minimum speed, the right-front went down again, and he struck the wall once more. With just seven laps complete, Sieg pulled behind the wall, but by narrowly clearing the “Crash Clock” was able to complete repairs. Both Brian Keselowski and the team looked to an issue with the sway bar arm pushing on the tire.

On Lap 16, Sieg returned to the track, ten laps down. He finally completed his sixth lap of the race on the 17th circuit, and lost another lap to put him 11 behind. As the field moved past him in the closing laps of Stage 1, he was briefly in a five-wide situation on the apron as the leaders passed to his right.

Next to find trouble was Jesse Little, who was reported off the pace in the final five laps of Stage 1. “Smoke coming out,” said someone on the JD Motorsports crew as Little’s #4 Skuttle Tight Chevrolet pulled down pit road. He lost a lap - and nearly another - before returning to the track just seconds before the end of the stage with Sieg still in last place. For some reason, Sieg earned the Lucky Dog instead of Little, who had to wait until the end of Stage 2 to pass the pace car. By then, the last-place battle had been settled.

At the start of Stage 2, Jackson was told to drop to the tail end of the line and prepare to come down pit road. When the green flag dropped on Lap 30, Jackson was still on the lead lap and had worked his way between 30th and 33rd place, putting a few lead lap cars behind him. Regardless, on Lap 32, Jackson was guided to pit road, then to the entrance of the garage. On Lap 38, NASCAR confirmed Jackson was out with “overheating” issues, and he took last from Sieg on Lap 42.

Sieg managed to climb to 30th at the finish while Little earned two Lucky Dogs before finishing 13th.

Finishing 38th was Matt Mills, who in the early laps followed team owner B.J. McLeod and his two teammates in a trailing four-car pack. Mills ultimately made it just 65 laps in his #5 J.F. Electric Toyota before he, too, retired with overheating issues. Finishing 37th was Riley Herbst, who wrecked in the tro-oval on Lap 77, destroying his #18 Monster Energy Toyota. NASCAR reported Herbst was out under the Damaged Vehicle Policy when he pulled into the garage. Viens took 36th, though after clobbering the Turn 2 wall managed to return to the track before his wounded #47 fell out of the race. Rounding out the group was last-place starter Colin Garrett, who suffered a frightening wreck on Lap 96 after he struck a spinning Kody Vanderwal. After a string of bad luck with early engine woes, Vanderwal was out from crash damage, left in 31st place.

One underdog team that rebounded on Saturday was Our Motorsports, which wrecked at Bristol and Homestead, then parked a backup car from B.J. McLeod Motorsports in the second Homestead event. Driving the Fr8 Auctions Chevrolet, Brett Moffitt earned the team’s first-ever top-five finish by taking 5th, having run in and around the Top 10 for much of the afternoon.

Gray Gaulding rejoined SS-Green Light Racing in the race he nearly won last year. He was caught in the middle of the day’s biggest accident on Lap 105 but emerged largely unscathed, taking the 8th spot at the finish in his #07 Walk-Ons.com Chevrolet.

One spot behind him was Alex Labbe, whose two DGM Racing teammates Josh Williams and Caesar Bacarella were eliminated in the same Turn 3 crash that took out Vanderwal and Garrett. Driving the #36 Lakes Wales High School Class of 2020 Chevrolet, Labbe took the 9th spot, improving on his season-best 10th-place run in this year’s Daytona opener.

Just outside the Top Ten came Brandon Brown, who also ran inside the Top 10 for much of the race, but had to overcome significant damage in the Lap 105 wreck. Brown still managed to finish 11th in a race that saw 23 drivers finish on the lead lap. Included among them was hard luck Tommy Joe Martins, whose #44 AAN Adjusters Chevrolet recovered from rear-ending Robby Lyons to finish 15th – the team’s best run of the season, improving on their 18th at Fontana.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #66 in an XFINITY Series race at Talladega.
*This was also the first time the last-place finisher of an XFINITY race at Talladega fell out due to overheating issues.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
39) #66-John Jackson / 30 laps / overheating
38) #5-Matt Mills / 65 laps / overheating
37) #18-Riley Herbst / 76 laps / dvp
36) #47-Tim Veins / 90 laps / crash
35) #26-Colin Garrett / 95 laps / crash

2020 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Motorsports Business Management (3)
2nd) Jimmy Means Racing, Shepherd Racing Ventures (2)
3rd) JD Motorsports, Jeremy Clements Racing, JR Motorsports, SS-Green Light Racing (1)

2020 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (8)
2nd) Toyota (3)

2020 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

PREVIEW: Series veterans return to tackle Talladega while Davison eyes Cup debut - in Pocono

PHOTO: Spire Motorsports

Saturday, June 20, 2020
XFINITY Race 11 of 33
Unhinged 300 at Talladega
2019 Last-Place Finisher: Joey Gase

ENTRY LIST
There are 39 drivers entered for 40 spots in Saturday’s race, an increase of one team from Sunday’s second Homestead race. The series has still yet to host a 40-car field since NASCAR’s temporary field increase in May.

DRIVER CHANGE: #8-JR Motorsports
When Jeb Burton last started an XFINITY Series race, he started 4th in this year’s Daytona opener and had a strong run going before a late crash left him 23rd. He returns for the first time since then and will again run with LS Tractor on the sponsor of the #8. He takes the place of Daniel Hemric, who was left 31st on Sunday in Homestead after a hard crash on the backstretch.

DRIVER CHANGE: #15-JD Motorsports
Robby Lyons returns to the XFINITY garage for the first time since Fontana in February and will again run the #15 for Johnny Davis. He takes the place of Colby Howard, who ran 17th on Sunday in Homestead. This will be Lyons’ first XFINITY start at Talladega.

RETURNING: #38-RSS Racing
Jeff Green will not have to worry about his ride getting sold to another driver this Saturday, and will again campaign the C2 Freight Resources Chevrolet for RSS Racing’s part-time third team. Green has scored three top-ten finishes on the superspeedways in the last four seasons.

DRIVER CHANGE: #47-Mike Harmon Racing
Another dark horse veteran will be Joe Nemechek, who returns to take the place of Kyle Weatherman. Weatherman ran strong early in both XFINITY races at Homestead before problems under the hood, including a fire on Sunday, left him back in the running order. Nemechek has not won an XFINITY race at Talladega since 2000, but has finished 6th as recently as 2014. Saturday will be his first series start there since 2018, when he ran 31st for Johnny Davis. UPDATE: And now Tim Veins will run the car as of Thurrsday. Viens had just parted ways with Truck Series team Mike Affarano Motorsports after a costly withdrawal in Homestead. This will be Viens' 2nd series start and first since 2015 at Homestead, when he also raced for Harmon.

DRIVER CHANGE: #66-Motorsports Business Management
John Jackson will make his season debut on Saturday, rejoining the MBM team after seven starts with them last year. He takes the place of Stephen Leicht, who last weekend ran one of the team’s former superspeedway cars before it was converted to a downforce track setup, taking last place on Sunday. Jackson has just one previous XFINITY start at Talladega back in 2016, when he ran 32nd for MBM.

DRIVER CHANGE: #74-Mike Harmon Racing
Mike Harmon is back behind the wheel of his own #74 Chevrolet for the first time since this year’s Daytona opener, where he ran a strong 16th. He takes the place of Bayley Currey, who snatched up a stage point by finishing 10th in Stage 1 at Homestead. This will be Harmon’s 14th series start at Talladega, where his best finish remains a 17th in 2008. He ran 23rd last year, his best finish at the track since that day.

DRIVER CHANGE: #99-B.J. McLeod Motorsports
Engine problems left Stefan Parsons back in the order for both races at Homestead last week. This time, he hands the wheel back to Mason Massey, who will make his superspeedway debut in the McLeod car. Massey most recently took the green in the first four races since the series’ return in May, capped by a season-best 21st at Charlotte.

DRIVER CHANGE: #07-SS-Green Light Racing
Still another dark horse has to be Gray Gaulding, who came within just a few moves of scoring his first career NASCAR victory in this race last year, taking 2nd to Tyler Reddick. Gaulding raced for this same team in that race, though in their second car, the #08. After a solid season where Gaulding even had an outside chance at making the Playoffs, he rejoins SS-Green Light for the first time since the 2019 finale. He’s since made four Cup starts with Rick Ware Racing, and will drive for them Sunday as well (see below). Gaulding takes the place of Ware’s younger son Carson, who ran 28th in Homestead on Sunday.

Sunday, June 21, 2020
CUP Race 13 of 36
GEICO 500 at Talladega
2019 Last-Place Finisher: Michael McDowell

ENTRY LIST
There are 40 teams entered for as many spots in Sunday’s race, meaning all will qualify.

MISSING: #7-Tommy Baldwin Racing
The Baldwin team is not entered in Sunday’s race after Reed Sorenson’s entry was withdrawn for last week’s Homestead race.

DRIVER CHANGE: #27-Rick Ware Racing
DRIVER SWAP: #53-Rick Ware Racing
Gray Gaulding runs double-duty this weekend, taking the place of J.J. Yeley in the #27 with returning sponsorship from Panini America. Yeley moves to Ware’s #53, taking the place of Josh Bilicki, who isn’t entered after a vibration left him 37th at Homestead.

RETURNING: #62-Beard Motorsports
Talladega marks the second round of Brendan Gaughan’s four-race retirement tour on the superspeedways. In Daytona, he recovered from a wreck and narrowly avoided Ryan Newman’s terrible crash, taking the checkers in 7th place. Sunday will also mark Newman’s first Cup start on a superspeedway since that night. Gaughan had a scary crash of his own at this track last fall, and looks to improve on his career-best 4th in the fall of 2004.

DRIVER SWAP: #77-Spire Motorsports
RETURNING: #78-B.J. McLeod Motorsports
B.J. McLeod’s team returns to the Cup Series after back-to-back withdrawals at Martinsville and Homestead. McLeod himself will drive, moving over from the Spire Motorsports #77. In his place comes James Davison, who will make his Cup Series debut with sponsorship from Oil Fire Rye Whiskey on the Chevrolet. Davison’s most recent NASCAR start came two years ago in the XFINITY race at Road America, where he finished 8th. Since all four of his NASCAR starts were on road courses, Talladega will also mark Davison’s first oval-track start outside of IndyCar. This team and this race also saw Justin Haley make his series debut last year, a debut soon followed by his first Cup victory at Daytona. UPDATE (June 18): On Thursday came news that Davison will not run Talladega due to the lack of practice and qualifying. He will instead make his debut at Pocono at the end of the month. McLeod will move from his own car back to the #77, and put Garrett Smithley in his own #78. Baker Camp Arnold Capital Management will back Smithley's run in the #78.

Saturday, June 27, 2020
TRUCKS Race 6 of 23
Pocono Organics 150 to Benefit Farm Aid at Pocono
2019 Last-Place Finisher: Bayley Currey

The Truck Series takes the week off and returns at the end of the month as part of a stacked weekend in Pocono.

TODAY IN LASTCAR HISTORY (June 18, 1999): Lonnie Rush, Jr. picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Truck Series career in the Grainger Industrial Supply 225K at the Portland International Raceway when his engine failed on the #17 Hastings Premium Filters Ford after 3 laps. Rush typically drove the identical #27 Ford at the Mike Albernaz team, but that day handed the wheel to Rob Rizzo, who finished 21st. Rush also finished last in his 55th and final series start at Phoenix on March 18, 2000.

CUP: J.J. Yeley’s fuel pump leaves him the lone retiree at Homestead

PHOTO: @RickWareRacing

J.J. Yeley picked up the 17th last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s Dixie Vodka 400 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway when his #27 Rick Ware Racing Ford fell out with fuel pump issues after 211 of 267 laps.

The finish, which came in Yeley’s 302nd series start, was his first of the season and first since June 23, 2019 at Sonoma, 32 races ago. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 18th for fuel pump issues, the 27th for the #27, and the 699th for Ford. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 29th from fuel pump failure, the 53rd for the #27, and the 961st for Ford. The finish also gave Yeley sole possession of sixth on the all-time last-place rankings, breaking a tie with the late J.D. McDuffie.

Since his most recent last-place finish, Yeley has continued to serve many teams as a journeyman driver. Last July, he took over for Jeff Green in the “start-and-park” #38 Chevrolet at RSS Racing and a two-race stint with B.J. McLeod Motorsports. The year culminated with five last-place finishes, bringing him the LASTCAR XFINITY Series Championship. He made a one-off Truck Series start at Bristol, finishing 31st for the Reaume Brothers.

But on the Cup Series side, he’s stayed with Rick Ware Racing. Just two rounds after the last-place finish in Sonoma, he finished a season-best 12th under the lights at Daytona. He then made at least one start in each of Ware’s four cars, including the debut of the #54 at Bristol, where he ran 28th. In those 15 starts, he completed all but 184 of the 4,270 attempted laps, a 95.7% completion rate.

Yeley’s solid finishes kept him on the Ware team this season, when the organization merged with Jay Robinson’s Premium Motorsports. After wrecking out of the field for the Daytona 500, Yeley was the first to run the former Premium #27 under the Ware banner at Darlington, ran the Premium-affiliated Spire Motorsports #77 in the next round, and then Tommy Baldwin Racing’s returning #7 team in the Coca-Cola 600, where the Damaged Vehicle Policy handed him his first DNF of the year. Running the Baldwin car at Bristol gave Yeley his best finish of the 2020 season when he ran 25th, eight laps down. Coming into Homestead, he had run all but 196 of 3,222 laps, a near-identical completion rate of 93.9%.

At Homestead, Yeley would run the #27 once more, which had swapped from Chevrolet to Ford after the Ware-Premium merger. Last Wednesday at Martinsville, Yeley ran the same car Josh Bilicki ran at Atlanta, but without Bilicki’s sponsorship from Insurance King. Yeley’s Homestead car would be completely black, lacking even the decorative decals left on the Martinsville car from Atlanta. He’d also run double-duty, sharing the XFINITY Series ride at SS-Green Light Racing driven by Ware’s son Carson. Yeley finished 11th in the Saturday race, his best since a brief stint with Jimmy Means Racing earlier this year.

Both B.J. McLeod’s #78 and the Baldwin #7 withdrew earlier in the week. Yeley drew 25th for the resulting starting grid of 38.

Starting 38th and last on Sunday was Timmy Hill, who looked to bounce back after his Top 20 run at Martinsville was ruined by a faulty fuel pump midway through the race. Hill again returned to the RoofClaim.com sponsor on his #66 Toyota, making it resemble the car that nearly won the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series opener back in March. Joining him at the rear were both 31st-place starter Quin Houff in the #00 Good Greek Movers Chevrolet and 34th-place B.J. McLeod in the #77 Formula One Imports Chevrolet, both for unapproved adjustments. McLeod had an extra set of sticker tires in the Spire Motorsports pit after his run in Sunday’s XFINITY race was cut short by clutch issues.

Starts and stops due to lightning in the area dragged Sunday’s race well past its original window, interrupting the battle for last place. When the race started, Hill rolled off 3.509 seconds back of the leader, but was ahead of McLeod at the end of Lap 1, his #77 now 5.631 seconds back. Soon, McLeod raced past Joey Gase in the #51 EFX Corp Ford. Gase was fighting a bad push through the corners as he trailed a pack of four cars that had broken off from the back of the field. Another lightning strike stopped the race after 5 laps with Gase still running 38th, and the team planning their adjustments.

Drivers returned to their cars after the delay, only to climb back out just moments after engines were fired. When racing did resume, pit stops traded the last spot between William Byron in the #24 Axalta Chevrolet, then Michael McDowell in the #34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford. McDowell had struck a bird during the first five-lap stint, requiring repairs that involved lifting the hood. He would recover nicely to finish 15th. On Lap 9, Gase took last from McDowell, and said his car was “free in, and it’s still super tight coming off.” He also had an issue with a mirror that had come loose in the cockpit and asked for a screwdriver.

On Lap 21, a caution for Ryan Newman’s spin in the #6 Oscar Meyer Ford dropped Newman to last as the team repaired damage from a blown right-rear tire. Newman stayed on the lead lap, and two circuits later dropped Daniel Suarez to last in the #96 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Toyota, then Corey LaJoie in the #32 Storm Tight Windows Ford. McDowell re-took the spot on Lap 24, then dropped McLeod back to last after the restart. McLeod, too, was struggling with a tight condition, and was still in last place when yet another lightning strike stopped the race after 33 laps. By then, McLeod was still on the lead lap, 26.742 seconds back of the lead.

Racing resumed once again, and on Lap 35, Gase took the spot from McLeod. He didn’t hold it long as an incident on pit road left several of the leaders with damage, including Matt DiBenedetto in the #21 Motorcraft Ford. Repairs to the left-front fender left DiBenedetto in last on Lap 36, and he came out several seconds back of the field for the restart on Lap 37. He caught and passed the tail end of the field by Lap 49, when McLeod took over last and became the first driver lapped on the track. McLeod passed Gase on Lap 58, and Gase fell four laps down when he made a green-flag pit stop on Lap 72. Even then, Gase was still struggling with a tight race car.

The long green-flag runs still kept the last-place battle close. Gase dropped McLeod to last on Lap 135, and McLeod got back by on Lap 137. It was only that time by that another Rick Ware car – the #53 Sky King Fireworks Chevrolet of Josh Bilicki – went behind the wall. The team thought they had a brake issue and prepared to bleed the system, but the driver said he had a vibration on the right side of the car instead. The miscommunication seemed to stem from radio issue. Bilicki returned to the track on Lap 150 and prepared to pit for stickers, but someone shouted on the radio, demanding he take on a set of scuffs. Bilicki continued to wonder what caused the vibration, saying he thought he had a loose right-rear tire.

Yeley didn’t enter the last-place picture until Lap 220, when he made his own trip to the garage area. At the time, he was running laps down, but on the verge of climbing out of the Bottom Five. Ware himself tweeted Yeley had lost fuel pressure, and the team set to work on the car. But on Lap 227, the team reported “Are we done there, Steve?” “Yeah, as far as I know,” then said Yeley had climbed out of the car. Yeley took last from Bilicki on Lap 232, and was declared out by NASCAR ten laps later. “27 out, fuel pump,” was the report – the same issue that ended Timmy Hill’s night on Wednesday.

Yeley was the only driver who failed to finish the race. Bilicki, Gase, McLeod, and Hill rounded out the Bottom Five within 22 laps of race winner Denny Hamlin.

Rookie drivers took center stage in the race, tops among them Tyler Reddick. From the start, Reddick and his largely unsponsored #8 Chevrolet Cares Chevrolet made a bid for the lead, running as high as 2nd between the lightning strikes. Returning to the site where he’d locked-up back-to-back XFINITY Series titles for two different teams, Reddick made a charge late in the race, battling Ryan Blaney for 3rd, before settling back in 4th. It was his first top-five finish and fourth top-ten finish in just 14 series starts. Four spots behind Reddick, Christopher Bell and his #95 Rheem / Smurfit Kappa Toyota surged from 36th on the grid to finish a career-best 8th, his third top-ten finish in 12 career starts.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for both Yeley and the #27 at Homestead.
*This also was the first time in Cup Series history that two consecutive last-place finishers fell out due to fuel pump issues.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
38) #27-J.J. Yeley / 211 laps / fuel pump
37) #53-Josh Bilicki / 245 laps / running
36) #51-Joey Gase / 255 laps / running
35) #77-B.J. McLeod / 256 laps / running
34) #66-Timmy Hill / 257 laps / running

2020 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Motorsports Business Management (3)
2nd) Hendrick Motorsports, JTG-Daugherty Racing, Rick Ware Racing (2)
3rd) B.J. McLeod Motorsports, Leavine Family Racing, Penske Racing (1)

2020 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (6)
2nd) Toyota (4)
3rd) Ford (2)

2020 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP