CUP: After Phoenix Troubles, Nemechek One Finish Away From Tying Cope For Second-Most Lasts in Cup History

Joe Nemechek picked up the 25th last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s Subway Fresh Fit 500 at the Phoenix International Raceway when his unsponsored #87 NEMCO Motorsports Toyota fell out with electrical problems after completing 22 of the race’s 312 laps.

Last week, Nemechek’s #87 was the fastest Toyota in the Daytona 500's prestigious qualifying session - 21st overall - and had secured sufficient sponsorship from AM/FM Energy to run the entire race. Unfortunately, he was one of the unlucky drivers involved in the grinding multi-car accident on Lap 29, leaving him with a 39th-place finish.

Without sponsorship at Phoenix, Nemechek was unable to run all 312 laps. He qualified 32nd for the race at a speed of 134.933 mph, more than enough to bump Brian Keselowski’s own unsponsored machine out of the race, and ran up to the first debris caution on Lap 21 before he pulled behind the wall.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*With the finish, Nemechek is one finish away from tying Derrike Cope for the second-most last-place finishes in NASCAR Sprint Cup history. By scoring one more last-place finish, he will also tie the late J.D. McDuffie for the third-most all time (32).
*Nemechek’s most recent Cup last-place finish came last year in the 2010 AAA Texas 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway, where his unsponsored #87 retired with engine woes after 12 laps. It was his 7th last-place finish of the 2010 Cup season, part of his second LASTCAR Cup Driver’s Championship.
*Neither Nemechek, nor a car #87, had ever before finished last in a Cup race at Phoenix.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #87-Joe Nemechek / 22 laps / electrical
42) #36-Dave Blaney / 27 laps / electrical
41) #66-Michael McDowell / 43 laps / brakes / led 1 lap
40) #21-Trevor Bayne / 49 laps / crash
39) #38-Travis Kvapil / 66 laps / crash

LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
Daytona 500 last-place finisher J.J. Yeley welcomed back returning sponsor AAMCO Transmissions from SpeedWeeks and was ready to race in front of his home-state fans in Arizona. Unfortunately, Yeley was forced to make several green-flag stops where the crew worked under the hood until an electrical failure took his #46 out of the race after 72 laps. He finished 37th.
1st) Joe Nemechek, J.J. Yeley (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #46-Dusty Whitney, #87-NEMCO Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet, Toyota (1)

N’WIDE: Marks’ Brake Failure Results In Early Phoenix Exit

Justin Marks picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s Bashas’ Supermarkets 200 at the Phoenix International Raceway when his unsponsored #27 Baker Curb Racing Ford fell out with brake problems after completing 7 of the race’s 200 laps.

Marks qualified 36th at a speed of 124.236 mph, but was guaranteed a spot in the race as only 40 cars entered the race. It was the series’ first short field since the 42-car 2008 Stater Brothers 300 at the Auto Club Speedway of Southern California. In the race itself, Marks was the first to go behind the wall during the opening green-flag run. All of the Bottom Five finishers fell out within the first 19 laps.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Ford had not finished last in back-to-back Nationwide races since 2004, when Mark Green and Jimmy Kitchens finished 43rd in Jay Robinson’s #28 Fords in the Funai 250 at Richmond and the final Nationwide race at Nazareth, the Gould’s Pumps / ITT Industries 200.
*For Marks and Baker-Curb Racing, their most recent last-place finishes all came last season. Driver and team’s came last summer in the 2010 Napa Auto Parts 200 at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Marks’ rear gear failed on his #43 Future Electronics Ford during the opening lap.
*It was the first last-place finish for the #27 in Nationwide since the 2010 Subway Jalapeno 250 at Daytona, the first race for the series’ new-model car. That night, driver Jennifer Jo Cobb’s #27 DriverBoutique.com Ford was involved in a two-car accident with her then-teammate Johnny Chapman at Baker-Curb Racing.
*The #27 had never before finished last in a Nationwide race at Phoenix.
*It was just the 4th time in 19 total races that Ford finished last in a Nationwide Series race at Phoenix.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #27-Justin Marks / 7 laps / brakes
39) #55-Brett Rowe / 8 laps / handling
38) #25-Kelly Bires / 10 laps / brakes
37) #24-Kevin Lepage / 17 laps / overheating
36) #41-Carl Long / 19 laps / brakes

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
Daytona last-place finisher Kelly Bires and his #25 finished 38th in Saturday’s race, followed seven laps later by fellow Ed Rensi driver Kevin Lepage’s #24 to the garage area.
1st) Kelly Bires, Justin Marks (1)

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #25-Ed Rensi, #27-Baker Curb Racing (1)

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Ford (2)

TRUCKS: Kvapil’s First Last-Place Finish in Trucks Comes at Phoenix

Travis Kvapil picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career in Friday’s Lucas Oil 150 at the Phoenix International Raceway when his #5 International Truck / Monaco RVs Toyota was involved in a single-truck accident after completing 99 of the race’s 150 laps. For Kvapil, the 2003 series champion, the finish came in his 134th series start.

Kvapil struggled tremendously during Daytona SpeedWeeks, having crashed out of both the Truck Series opener and the Daytona 500. Still, after Steve Wallace and the #77 team chose not to run at Phoenix after the team’s 20th-place finish in the Daytona 500, Kvapil no longer had to worry about qualifying: he was now locked-into both the Truck and Cup races based on Owner Points. In qualifying for the Truck race, Kvapil had to rely on these points as his 125.056 mph lap was only good enough for 33rd on the grid.

The poor performance in qualifying forced the Randy Moss-owned team to make post-qualifying adjustments for an impound race, forcing Kvapil to start in the rear of the field. While fighting to keep up the pace on Lap 59, he cut a tire and spun in turn two, bringing out the second caution of the race. Now down a lap to the leaders, Kvapil’s night took a turn for the worse on Lap 102 with a crash in turn three.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*The #5 had not finished last in a Truck Series race since 1997, when Robbie Pyle’s Central Fastener Dodge lost its transmission 13 laps into the 1997 Link-Belt Construction Equipment 225 at Louisville.
*Kvapil has two other last-place finishes in NASCAR competition, but both of them came in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: an engine failure 13 laps into the 2005 USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland while driving Doug Bawel’s #77 Kodak Dodge and a brake failure on Bob Jenkins’ #37 Long John Silver’s Dodge 30 laps into the 2009 Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
36) #5-Travis Kvapil / 99 laps / crash
35) #07-B.J. McLeod / 104 laps / crash
34) #81-David Starr / 112 laps / crash
33) #10-Chase Mattioli / 128 laps / running
32) #29-Parker Kligerman / 132 laps / crash

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
Daytona last-place finisher Norm Benning finished 27th on Friday, still under power and just five laps down to race winner Kyle Busch.
1st) Norm Benning, Travis Kvapil (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #5-Randy Moss, #57-Norm Benning Racing (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet, Toyota (1)

CUP: Yeley Loses Daytona 500 Engine; Harvick Barely Avoids First Career Last-Place Finish

J.J. Yeley picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s 53rd Annual Daytona 500 at the Daytona International Speedway when his #46 AAMCO Transmissions / Red Line Oil Chevrolet lost its engine after completing 22 of the race’s 208 laps.

In 2010, Yeley returned from injuries suffered in a dirt track race to take over departing driver Terry Cook’s driving duties in Whitney Motorsports’ #46. When Yeley joined the team in May, Cook and team had qualified for just three of the season’s first ten races. Cook nearly raced his way into the Daytona 500 that year, but was knocked-out by a mid-race spin while running near the Final Transfer Spot. Despite a continued lack of sponsorship, Yeley helped turn the team around, qualifying on speed for his first eight consecutive races with Whitney. The highlight of the season came in his return trip to Daytona in July, where he finished a season-best 19th.

As the summer of 2010 ended, however, Yeley’s qualifying performances faltered, resulting in a string of DNQs. In September, Whitney replaced Yeley with Michael McDowell and changed manufacturers from Chevrolet to Dodge. Yeley eventually rejoined the team to run the team’s old Dodges, numbered #81, and qualified them into two more races at Dover and Martinsville. After McDowell himself struggled in the final weeks of the season, Yeley re-signed with the team to run its #46 Chevrolet at Daytona.

Last week, Yeley struggled in Sunday’s qualifying session, forcing him to race his way into the Daytona 500 field from the next-to-last starting spot in the 24-car Race 1 of the Gatorade Duels. For much of that race on Thursday, Kevin Conway held the Final Transfer Spot with drafting help from teammate and defending LASTCAR Cup Driver’s Champion Joe Nemechek. Without a teammate of his own, Yeley lost a lap in the closing stages, but scored the final Lucky Dog of the afternoon when, curiously, Michael McDowell blew his engine in HP Racing’s #66 Toyota (a team that was formerly LASTCAR 2010 Owner’s Champion runner-ups PRISM Motorsports). This allowed Yeley to pit for fresh tires and fuel for the final green-white-checkered finish. In those final two laps, Yeley muscled his way past Conway and Nemechek, fighting to break their two-car draft and bump his way in. The effort succeeded, much to Nemechek’s dismay, as Yeley finished one spot ahead of Conway in 17th. All this was done with an engine the team acquired just two weeks before the Duels.

Having raced his way into the 33rd spot of the Daytona 500 field, Yeley acquired additional sponsorship from both AAMCO Transmissions and returning sponsor Red Line Oil, who funded McDowell’s late-season run for Whitney in 2010. Prior to that, the #46 carried only limited sponsorship from Red Line Oil in qualifying and a little more from International Trucking, another 2010 sponsor, in the Duels. Now with sufficient funding to run the entire race on Sunday, Yeley was ready to race and build on his 19th-place finish there the previous July.

Unfortunately, the run did not last long. On Lap 11, while running in the middle of a thick knot of traffic on the backstretch, Yeley’s #46 suddenly erupted in smoke as the engine let go, bringing out the second caution of the race. No other car was involved in the incident, and the damage sustained to the engine proved terminal.

Just over ten laps later, Kevin Harvick’s engine exploded off turn two, ultimately ending his race with a 42nd-place finish. Yeley’s engine failure was all that kept Harvick from scoring his first last-place finish in any of his combined 730 Cup, Nationwide, and Truck Series starts.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was Yeley’s first last-place finish in Cup since last fall at Charlotte, where he fell out with ignition problems after 73 laps while driving owner Tommy Baldwin’s #36 Chevrolet in the 2010 Bank of America 500.
*Dusty Whitney’s #46 most recently finished last in last fall’s Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire, where Michael McDowell fell out with engine failure after 29 laps.
*This was the first time the #46 had finished last in the Daytona 500 since the 1997 running, where Wally Dallenbach, Jr.’s First Union Chevrolet lost the engine after 32 laps.
*Chevrolet has now finished last in 16 of 53 Daytona 500s. The late Coo Coo Marlin’s 1965 Chevy #04 was the first in 1967.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #46-J.J. Yeley / 10 laps / engine
42) #29-Kevin Harvick / 22 laps / engine / led 5 laps
41) #92-Brian Keselowski / 28 laps / crash
40) #15-Michael Waltrip / 28 laps / crash
39) #87-Joe Nemechek / 29 laps / crash

LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
Defending LASTCAR Driver’s Champion Joe Nemechek was locked-into Sunday’s field on his qualifying speed for the second time in as many years, granting him the 41st starting spot. Though Nemechek, like Yeley, had acquired full sponsorship to run the entire race, his luck was equally terrible. Trapped in the high groove when the massive Lap 29 wreck unfolded in Turn 3, Nemechek’s #87 was left severely damaged, leaving him 39th in the running order.
1st) J.J. Yeley (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #46-Dusty Whitney (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (1)

N’WIDE: Bires' Overheating Ford Produces First Career Last-Place Finish

Kelly Bires picked up the last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s DRIVE4COPD 300 at the Daytona International Speedway when his #25 RaceDaySponsor.com Ford fell out with overheating problems after completing 5 of the race’s 120 laps. The finish came in Bires’ 79th series start. Bires currently has no other last-place finishes in either of the other two top NASCAR divisions.

Bires qualified Ed Rensi’s Ford 32nd in the 43-car field at a speed of 177.267 mph, beating six other “go-or-go-homers,” including Brett Rowe and Jennifer Jo Cobb, who failed to qualify. However, on race day, Bires was the first driver to pull behind the pit wall during the opening green-flag stretch. The Bottom Five-finishing drivers all completed 26 or fewer laps with two of them taken out in accidents.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*The #25 had not finished last in a Nationwide Series race since 2005, when Ashton Lewis’ U.S. Marines Ford crashed out of the 2005 Ford 300 at Homestead after completing 39 laps. The number had never before finished last in a Nationwide Series race at Daytona.
*A Nationwide Series driver had not finished last due to overheating problems since 2009, when Chris Cook’s #47 ConstructionJobs.com Toyota fell out after the opening lap of the 2009 Able Body Labor 200 at Phoenix.
*This marked the third-straight year that a Nationwide Series driver scored his first career last-place finish in the Daytona opener. Scott Lagasse, Jr. was the last-place finisher in 2009 and Chrissy Wallace scored her first in 2010.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #25-Kelly Bires / 5 laps / overheating
42) #27-J.R. Fitzpatrick / 10 laps / crash
41) #24-Kevin Lepage / 12 laps / vibration
40) #44-Jeff Green / 18 laps / rear gear
39) #62-Michael Annett / 26 laps / crash

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
Defending LASTCAR Nationwide Series Driver’s Champion Dennis Setzer did not enter Saturday’s race. Setzer has yet to make a start in any of the races run in the new-bodied car the series introduced last July at Daytona.
1st) Kelly Bires (1)

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
Defending LASTCAR Nationwide Owner’s Champions K-Automotive Motorsports did not enter a car in Saturday’s race, choosing instead to focus on getting Brian Keselowski into the Daytona 500. The effort paid off with interest for the small team as Brian raced K-Automotive’s unsponsored #92 into the Daytona 500 with a stirring 5th-place run in Race 2 of the Gatorade Duels. Mark Smith, who came close to challenging K-Automotive for the Owner’s Title in 2010, fielded two cars in Saturday’s race. Eric McClure finished 33rd in the team’s #14 while Jeff Green, runner-up in last year’s Driver’s Championship, finished 40th in car #44.
1st) #25-Ed Rensi (1)

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Ford (1)