N’WIDE: Opening-Lap Pileup Gives Jeffrey Earnhardt First Last-Place Finish

SOURCE: Terry Renna, AP

Jeffrey Earnhardt picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Friday’s Drive for the Cure 300 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway when his #4 Flex Seal Chevrolet was involved in a grinding 11-car pileup just seconds after the green flag, preventing him from completing a any of the race’s 200 laps.  The finish came in Earnhardt’s 57th series start.

Jeffrey, the 25-year-old son of Kerry Earnhardt, came into the Charlotte race near the end of his first full season in Nationwide Series competition.  Following two seasons in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East with a career-best 5th-place ranking in the 2007 standings, Earnhardt made his Nationwide debut at Watkins Glen in 2009, driving the #40 for what is now The Motorsports Group to a 24th-place finish.  After three partial seasons with Rick Ware Racing and Go Green Racing, Earnhardt signed with another veteran organization - Johnny Davis’ JD Motorsports - for the full 2014 campaign.  JD’s lineup would include Cup regular Landon Cassill in the #01 and a part-time third entry, #87, shared with NEMCO Motorsports and Rick Ware.

This season, Earnhardt improved on his career-best finish of 16th at Talladega in 2013 with a 12th-place run at Bristol in August, but six DNFs in the first 29 races held him to 18th in points with an average finish of 25.7.  He looked to improve at the Charlotte track, where he’d come home 25th in the spring.

Earnhardt timed in 28th in Thursday’s opening practice, then slipped to 31st in Happy Hour.  He picked up a couple more spots in qualifying, improving to the 29th spot on the grid with an average speed of 174.622 mph.  Though he was a locked-in driver, it was a competitive qualifying session behind him as 45 drivers showed up for 40 spots, leaving two team cars and three single-car teams on the DNQ list, including Morgan Shepherd and Mike Harmon.

When the green flag flew on Friday’s race, however, 13th-place starter Chris Buescher lost traction on his #60 RFRShop.com Ford in the quad-oval, causing Mike Bliss to check-up in the unsponsored #19 TriStar Motorsports Toyota.  As the field accordioned behind them, Earnhardt rear-ended the #28 Texas 28 Spirits Stage Dodge, turning Yeley directly into the path of oncoming traffic.  As the field piled-up behind him, Earnhardt clipped the infield grass and spun backwards into the inside retaining wall, where it stayed under the caution.  Earnhardt was uninjured, but his car couldn’t get out of the grass.  After a tow to the garage, he was done for the night.

The remainder of the Bottom Five consisted entirely of the other four drivers most seriously damaged in the opening-lap wreck.  39th-place went to Yeley, who like Earnhardt, had to be towed to the garage and did not complete the opening lap.  38th-place Will Kimmel suffered extensive nose damage to his #44 Ingersoll-Rand Toyota, ending his fifth start of the year for TriStar Motorsports.  37th went to Tanner Berryhill, who after losing his Dodge to a wreck at Dover had originally planned to drive the renumbered blue-and-gold #13 Dodge entered by Carl Long.  However, Vision Racing completed work on Berryhill’s brand-new Toyota just in time for Happy Hour - only to have its front valence crunched in the pile-up.  36th went to The Motorsports Group’s Matt DiBenedetto, debuting a new white-and-blue paint job on the #40.  DiBenedetto suffered nose and hood damage to his Chevrolet, the only TMG car in the field after the DNQ of Ryan Ellis in the #46.

Six other drivers were involved in the wreck, but all of those drivers continued to run the race.

The crash also proved crucial to the LASTCAR Championship prospects of Jeff Green.  The all-time last-place leader finished 35th on Friday in TriStar’s #91 - just outside the bottom five.  Now, with three races to go, teammate Blake Koch holds both a two-finish lead in the standings and is ahead of Green in bottom-fives 16-12.  Unable to surpass Koch in bottom-fives, Green cannot win a tiebreaker with Koch.  This means for Green to claim the 2014 title, he must finish last in all three remaining races (Texas, Phoenix, Homestead).  A single last-place finish by anyone else will end Green’s three-year reign, whether or not Koch runs any more Nationwide races this season.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first last-place finish for the #4 in a Nationwide Series race in exactly six years, dating back to this very Charlotte race on October 10, 2008.  That night, in the Dollar General 300, Derrike Cope trailed the field when his #4 JVC / ALLINENERGY.COM Chevrolet, fielded by Jay Robinson Racing, broke the suspension after 3 laps.
*Earnhardt is the first Nationwide driver to finish last at Charlotte without completing a lap since Angela Cope, one of Derrike’s twin nieces, did in the 2012 running.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #4-Jeffrey Earnhardt / 0 laps / crash
39) #28-J.J. Yeley / 0 laps / crash
38) #44-Will Kimmel / 1 lap / crash
37) #17-Tanner Berryhill / 1 lap / crash
36) #40-Matt DiBenedetto / 1 lap / crash

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Blake Koch (8)
2nd) Jeff Green (6)
3rd) Kevin Lepage (3)
4th) Matt DiBenedetto, Ryan Ellis (2)
5th) Tanner Berryhill, Milka Duno, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Matt Frahm, Roger Reuse, Robert Richardson, Jr., Tim Schendel, Jimmy Weller, Josh Wise (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #10-TriStar Motorsports (11)
2nd) #46-The Motorsports Group (6)
3rd) #91-TriStar Motorsports (3)
4th) #74-Mike Harmon Racing (2)
5th) #4-JD Motorsports, #17-Vision Racing, #23-R3 Motorsports, #29-RAB Racing, #55-VIVA Motorsports / SS Green Light Racing, #77-Mike Harmon Racing, #87-Rick Ware Racing, #93-JGL Racing (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (15)
2nd) Chevrolet (10)
3rd) Dodge (5)

CUP: Mike Bliss Takes 2014 LASTCAR Lead With Six Races To Go

SOURCE: Chris Trotman, Getty Images

Mike Bliss picked up the 18th last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at the Kansas Speedway when his unsponsored #37 Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet fell out with a vibration after he completed 17 of the race’s 267 laps.

The finish was Bliss’ fourth of the season and his first since Chicagoland, three races ago.  With six races to go, he now leads the 2014 LASTCAR Cup Series Driver’s Championship by a single finish over Dave Blaney, who did not race on Sunday.

Last week at Dover, Bliss finished the race under power for the second time in his four previous starts in Tommy Baldwin’s #37, coming home nine laps down in 36th.  Prior to that, he’d finished 35th at Richmond, six laps down.  The other two runs were last-place finishes at Atlanta and Chicago.  At Kansas, the #37's sponsorship from Accell Construction, Inc. went to teammate Michael Annett in Baldwin’s #7, and with 43 cars on the entry list, it appeared likely Bliss would park the car once more.

In practice, Bliss was 37th fastest in the opening session, then in qualifying timed in 41st with an average speed of 188.416 mph.  In Saturday’s two practice sessions, Bliss found more speed, improving to 34th in the second session and 32nd in Happy Hour.

At the start of Sunday’s race, Mike Wallace started 43rd in his third-consecutive start for Identity Ventures Racing.  Wallace’s #66 435 Overland Park Place Hotel Toyota held the 43rd spot four seven laps before he was passed by last week’s last-place finisher Timmy Hill.  Hill, whose #33 retroinfinity.com Chevrolet carried the same paint scheme as his Nationwide car last week at Dover, was the first driver to lose a lap on Lap 16.  One lap later, Bliss, who had by then slipped to 42nd, pulled behind the wall to take the last spot.  Wallace and Hill finished 33rd and 34th, respectively.

Finishing 42nd Sunday was Kurt Busch and his #41 Haas Automation Chevrolet.  One week after being eliminated from the Contender Round of the Chase, Busch had a miserable weekend.  He qualified 24th, then in Happy Hour spun his primary car into the grass, which caused enough damage for the team to go to a backup car.  In the race, an unscheduled stop left him 3 laps down in the early laps, and a blown right-front tire stuffed the backup int the wall, ending his race after 75 laps.

40th and 41st went to Jimmie Johnson and Justin Allgaier, respectively, who were two of four drivers involved in a grinding accident on Lap 84.  Johnson, who averted disaster after a spin in qualifying, was trying to claw his way from the 32nd starting spot when he was spun by Greg Biffle off Turn 2, sending Johnson hard into the inside wall.  Allgaier, his #51 Brandt Chevrolet hooked into traffic by Johnson, spun into the path of Josh Wise, damaging his #98 Westside Vapor / Vapor Station Chevrolet.  Allgaier did not return to the track, but Wise returned on Lap 137 followed by Johnson on Lap 156.  This allowed Wise to bump Johnson from 39th to 40th on his way to a 38th-place run.

Between Wise and Johnson was 39th-place Dale Earnhardt, Jr. who led 45 of the race’s first 123 laps and was still leading when a blown right-front tire sent his #88 Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet into the outside wall.  Earnhardt returned to the track as well to finish 63 laps down for his first bottom-five finish since Bristol in August.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first last-place finish for both Bliss and the #37 in a Cup Series race at Kansas.  It is the first for Tommy Baldwin Racing at this track since April 21, 2013, when Dave Blaney’s #7 SANY Chevrolet crashed after 36 laps of the STP 400.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #37-Mike Bliss / 17 laps / vibration
42) #41-Kurt Busch / 75 laps / crash
41) #51-Justin Allgaier / 84 laps / crash
40) #48-Jimmie Johnson / 180 laps / running
39) #88-Dale Earnhardt, Jr. / 204 laps / running / led 45 laps

LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Mike Bliss (4)
2nd) Dave Blaney (3)
3rd) Timmy Hill (2)
4th) A.J. Allmendinger, Aric Almirola, Trevor Bayne, Clint Bowyer, Landon Cassill, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., David Gilliland, Denny Hamlin, Travis Kvapil, Kyle Larson, Michael McDowell, Joe Nemechek, Clay Rogers, Johnny Sauter, Morgan Shepherd, Tony Stewart, Martin Truex, Jr., Ryan Truex, Brian Vickers, Cole Whitt, J.J. Yeley (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #37-Tommy Baldwin Racing, #93-BK Racing (4)
2nd) #77-Randy Humphrey Racing (2)
3rd) #11-Joe Gibbs Racing, #14-Stewart-Haas Racing, #15-Michael Waltrip Racing, #21-Wood Brothers Racing, #26-BK Racing, #32-Go FAS Racing, #33-Circle Sport, #38-Front Row Motorsports, #40-Hillman Racing, #42-Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, #43-Richard Petty Motorsports, #44-Team XTREME Racing, #47-JTG-Daugherty Racing, #55-Michael Waltrip Racing, #66-Michael Waltrip Racing / Identity Ventures Racing, #78-Furniture Row Racing, #83-BK Racing, #87-Identity Ventures Racing, #88-Hendrick Motorsports, #95-Leavine Family Racing (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (12)
2nd) Toyota (11)
2nd) Ford (7)

N’WIDE: Milka Duno Crashes Out Of NASCAR Debut

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin' Forums

Milka Duno picked up the 1st last-place finish of her NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 at the Kansas Speedway when her #29 CanTV Toyota was involved in a single-car accident that ended her race after 3 of the event’s 200 laps.  The finish came in Duno’s series debut.

Duno was making her first NASCAR start in a career that began in sports car and open-wheel racing.  A native of Caracas, Venezuela, Duno scored four LMP675-class and one LMP2-class wins in the American Le Mans Series followed by three overall and DP-class wins in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series.  In 2007, Duno moved to the IndyCar Series, where success proved more elusive.  In four seasons, she finished no better than 11th at Texas during her debut season with 21 DNFs in her 43 starts.

In 2010, Duno made the move to stock cars in the ARCA race at Daytona, where she finished last after an early multi-car accident.  She scored her first pole position at the Toledo Speedway in 2011, then over the next two seasons scored her three career top-ten finishes, including a career-best 8th at Salem Speedway in April of last year.  Last week at Dover, Duno made her first NASCAR touring series start and came home 20th in a field of 30.

Coming into Kansas, Duno had twice attempted to make her NASCAR Nationwide Series debut with veteran series team RAB Racing in their #29 Toyotas.  RAB, which has itself tried to break into the Sprint Cup Series with Joe Nemechek, first fielded a car for Duno at Bristol, then last week at Dover, but both times Duno missed the field as the slowest car in qualifying.  During the Dover weekend, however, she made her first NASCAR touring series start in the K&N Pro Series East, finishing 20th in a field of 30.

At Kansas, Duno finally broke through.  In the opening practice, she ran 35th-fastest of the 43 drivers entered, then improved to 34th in qualifying with an average speed of 174.368 mph - more than enough to bump Morgan Shepherd, Tanner Berryhill, and Ryan Ellis from the field.  With Ellis’ DNQ, TriStar Motorsports locked-up its fourth-consecutive LASTCAR Nationwide Owner’s Championship, besting Ellis’ The Motorsports Group-entered #46.

In the race itself, Duno was running the high line among a pack of cars when her Toyota suddenly broke loose entering Turn 1, sending her backwards into the outside wall.  Duno was uninjured, but her race was over after only three laps.

Finishing 39th was Timmy Hill, whose #23 AmigaGamesInc.com / Retro Infinity Chevrolet fielded by Rick Ware pulled out with electrical issues not long after the restart following Duno’s wreck.  Mike Harmon left four laps later with apparent crash damage not long after another wreck between Joey Gase and John Wes Townley, putting him 38th.  Kevin Swindell put JGL Racing in the 38th spot one lap later in his #93 Dodge, while rounding out the Bottom Five was 2014 LASTCAR Nationwide Series leader Blake Koch, who holds his two-finish lead over Jeff Green with just four races to go.  Green did not race on Saturday.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first last-place finish for the #29 in a Nationwide Series race since March 6, 1993, when Phil Parsons’ #29 Matchbox / White Rose Oldsmobile lost the engine after 23 laps of the Hardee’s 200 at Richmond.  The number had never before finished last in a Nationwide race at Kansas.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #29-Milka Duno / 3 laps / crash
39) #23-Timmy Hill / 8 laps / electrical
38) #74-Mike Harmon / 12 laps / crash
37) #93-Kevin Swindell / 13 laps / electrical
36) #10-Blake Koch / 34 laps / vibration

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Blake Koch (8)
2nd) Jeff Green (6)
3rd) Kevin Lepage (3)
4th) Matt DiBenedetto, Ryan Ellis (2)
5th) Tanner Berryhill, Milka Duno, Matt Frahm, Roger Reuse, Robert Richardson, Jr., Tim Schendel, Jimmy Weller, Josh Wise (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #10-TriStar Motorsports (11)
2nd) #46-The Motorsports Group (6)
3rd) #91-TriStar Motorsports (3)
4th) #74-Mike Harmon Racing (2)
5th) #17-Vision Racing, #23-R3 Motorsports, #29-RAB Racing, #55-VIVA Motorsports / SS Green Light Racing, #77-Mike Harmon Racing, #87-Rick Ware Racing, #93-JGL Racing (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (15)
2nd) Chevrolet (9)
3rd) Dodge (5)

CUP: Timmy Hill Trails Dover Field In Team XTREME Racing’s Return

SOURCE: @Teamxtreme44

Timmy Hill picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s AAA 400 at the Dover International Speedway when his #44 Phoenix Warehouses Chevrolet fell out with a vibration after he completed 11 of the race’s 400 laps.

The finish was Hill’s second of the 2014 season and his first since the spring race at Bristol, 25 races ago.  With seven races to go, Hill now takes sole possession of second in he 2014 LASTCAR Cup Series Championship, one finish behind co-leaders Dave Blaney and Mike Bliss.  If the season ended today, Bliss would win the title on a bottom-ten tiebreaker 6-4.  However, Hill now equals Bliss and Blaney with 4 bottom-fives of his own and already has 7 Bottom Tens.  This means that with one more last-place finish in any of the next few races, Hill could take the lead in the championship.

Team XTREME Racing, formerly known as Xxxtreme Motorsport, made its most recent appearance at late June, when J.J. Yeley gave the team a season-best 34th in the Toyota / Save Mart 350 at the Sonoma Raceway.  The team then withdrew from the following race at Kentucky to reorganize, including a move to a new shop.

Plans for XTREME to return to the track at Indianapolis were pushed back two months to this past weekend, when they brought out the red-white-and-blue Chevrolet the team had unsuccessfully tried to qualify at Charlotte.  With Yeley already committed to run the #32 Corvetteparts.com Ford for FAS Lane Racing, journeyman Timmy Hill was tabbed as the team’s driver.

Hill, making his seventh start of the season for a fourth different team, was guaranteed a starting spot in Sunday’s race as only 43 cars showed up to qualify.  After trailing the opening practice, he settled for the 43rd starting spot with an average speed of 152.355 mph, more than a second and a half off the pole lap set by Kevin Harvick.  On Saturday, Hill improved to 42nd in the morning, passing Travis Kvapil in his second-straight run in the #83 Burger King Toyota, then did not participate in Happy Hour.

On Sunday, Hill never relinquished the 43rd spot.  He pulled behind the wall on Lap 12 and was soon listed as the race’s first retiree.  For much of the distance, the 41st and 42nd spots belonged to Yeley, who brushed the wall on Lap 172, and Mike Wallace, who was making his first Dover start since 2005.

No other drivers fell out of the race until the halfway point, when the lapped #98 Phil Parsons Racing Chevrolet of Josh Wise pulled out with suspension issues.  It was just Wise’s second 42nd-place finish of the year and his first since Las Vegas.  After winning the last three LASTCAR Cup Series Championships, Phil Parsons Racing has yet to finish last once and is virtually out of contention for the 2014 title.

Finishing 41st was Michael Annett, who is officially listed as out due to crash damage despite his late-race wreck not bringing out a caution.  Wallace and Yeley rounded out the Bottom Five.

UPDATE (Oct. 1): The updated standings now indicate Annett fell out with a broken axle.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is Team XTREME’s second last-place finish in a Cup race at Dover.  On June 2, 2013, Scott Riggs lost the transmission on his #44 No Label Watches Ford after 16 laps of the FedEx 400 Benefiting Autism Speaks.  That race was also the #44's most recent last-place finish at this track.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #44-Timmy Hill / 11 laps / vibration
42) #98-Josh Wise / 197 laps / suspension
41) #7-Michael Annett / 361 laps / axle
40) #66-Mike Wallace / 384 laps / running
39) #32-J.J. Yeley / 387 laps / running

LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Dave Blaney, Mike Bliss (3)
2nd) Timmy Hill (2)
3rd) A.J. Allmendinger, Aric Almirola, Trevor Bayne, Clint Bowyer, Landon Cassill, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., David Gilliland, Denny Hamlin, Travis Kvapil, Kyle Larson, Michael McDowell, Joe Nemechek, Clay Rogers, Johnny Sauter, Morgan Shepherd, Tony Stewart, Martin Truex, Jr., Ryan Truex, Brian Vickers, Cole Whitt, J.J. Yeley (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #93-BK Racing (4)
2nd) #37-Tommy Baldwin Racing (3)
3rd) #77-Randy Humphrey Racing (2)
4th) #11-Joe Gibbs Racing, #14-Stewart-Haas Racing, #15-Michael Waltrip Racing, #21-Wood Brothers Racing, #26-BK Racing, #32-Go FAS Racing, #33-Circle Sport, #38-Front Row Motorsports, #40-Hillman Racing, #42-Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, #43-Richard Petty Motorsports, #44-Team XTREME Racing, #47-JTG-Daugherty Racing, #55-Michael Waltrip Racing, #66-Michael Waltrip Racing / Identity Ventures Racing, #78-Furniture Row Racing, #83-BK Racing, #87-Identity Ventures Racing, #88-Hendrick Motorsports, #95-Leavine Family Racing (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet, Toyota (11)
2nd) Ford (7)

N’WIDE: Ryan Ellis Last At Dover, LASTCAR Battle Down To Koch and Green

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin' Forums

Ryan Ellis picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s Dover 200 at the Dover International Speedway when his unsponsored #46 The Motorsports Group Chevrolet fell out with a vibration after he completed 2 of the race’s 200 laps.

The finish was Ellis’ second of the 2014 season and his first since the spring race at Iowa, eighteen races ago.

With five races to go, TMG’s #46 team can only tie TriStar Motorsports’ #10 for the most last-place finishes in 2014, and only if they trail all five of the year’s remaining races.  If that happens, whether one team or the other fails to finish in the bottom five could determine the tiebreaker - the #46 leads the #10 by a single bottom-five: 23-22.  A last-place finish by any car other than the #46 will give TriStar its fourth-straight LASTCAR Owner’s Title.

In the LASTCAR driver’s championship, only two drivers are now mathematically eligible - Blake Koch and Jeff Green.  While third-place Kevin Lepage does have a chance to tie Koch for the most last-place finishes in 2014, he will only do so if he becomes the first NASCAR driver to trail five consecutive races.  Even if he does, and if Koch doesn’t finish in the bottom-five in any of those races, Lepage would lose the bottom-five tiebreaker 15-12 as Lepage has only 7 bottom-five runs so far.  Koch currently leads Green in bottom-fives 15-12, a slim lead which could evaporate if Green catches Koch.

Ellis was making his eleventh Nationwide Series start of the season and his third in a row driving TMG’s #46.  In those two previous starts, Ellis had come home 39th, edged for last by Koch and Green in both races.  For Dover, TriStar’s dominant #10 Toyota would be driven by third-ranked Kevin Lepage.  Koch and Yeley would drive TriStar’s fully-funded #44 and #14, respectively.  All were among the 42 entries who showed up at The Monster Mile to make the 40-car field.

Ellis put up the 32nd-fastest lap of the 39 who participated in Friday’s opening practice session and stayed 32nd in Happy Hour.  Saturday, he dropped just one spot to qualify 33rd at an average speed of 146.080 mph - more than enough to bump Mike Harmon and Milka Duno from the field.  During that qualifying session, Josh Reaume crashed Rick Ware’s #87 Chevrolet without completing a lap.  When Ware didn’t have a backup car, reports indicate Harmon was given the spot.  Harmon’s #74 was re-numbered 87 and he would start Saturday’s race at the back, joining Ellis, who had surrendered his starting spot during the pace laps.

Ellis edged Harmon for last when he pulled behind the wall one lap before him.  Both avoided disaster on Lap 8 when Jamie Dick and Derrike Cope crossed paths coming off Turn 4, sending both hard into the inside wall.  Done for the day, Dick and Cope took the next two spots in the Bottom Five, followed by Harrison Rhodes and the #72 James Carter entry during the ensuing caution.

Lepage, who was briefly credited with 40th when Ellis retired, exited the race after 50 laps.  The high attrition rate in the early laps left the #10 TriStar team 31st, barely inside the Bottom Ten.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is TMG’s first last-place finish in a Nationwide Series race at Dover.  Curtis Key’s team had previously finished next-to-last in five of its previous 31 combined starts.
*This marks the first time the #46 has finished last in Nationwide race at Dover.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #46-Ryan Ellis / 2 laps / vibration
39) #87-Mike Harmon / 3 laps / ignition
38) #55-Jamie Dick / 8 laps / crash
37) #70-Derrike Cope / 8 laps / crash
36) #72-Harrison Rhodes / 14 laps / vibration

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Blake Koch (8)
2nd) Jeff Green (6)
3rd) Kevin Lepage (3)
4th) Matt DiBenedetto, Ryan Ellis (2)
5th) Tanner Berryhill, Matt Frahm, Roger Reuse, Robert Richardson, Jr., Tim Schendel, Jimmy Weller, Josh Wise (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #10-TriStar Motorsports (11)
2nd) #46-The Motorsports Group (6)
3rd) #91-TriStar Motorsports (3)
4th) #74-Mike Harmon Racing (2)
5th) #17-Vision Racing, #23-R3 Motorsports, #55-VIVA Motorsports / SS Green Light Racing, #77-Mike Harmon Racing, #87-Rick Ware Racing, #93-JGL Racing (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (14)
2nd) Chevrolet (9)
3rd) Dodge (5)