TRUCKS: Jennifer Jo Cobb Fastest In Practice, But First Out At Talladega

SOURCE: @JenJoCobb

Jennifer Jo Cobb picked up the 6th last-place finish of her NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career in Saturday’s Fred’s 250 at the Talladega Superspeedway when her #10 V.G. Pride Group / Westsidevapor.com Chevrolet lost the engine after 29 of the race’s 98 laps.

The finish, which came in Cobb’s 112th series start, was her second of the season and her first since Dover, 13 races ago.

Since Dover, Cobb has continued to qualify for every race, picking up four more top-twenty finishes in that span.  She’s also run a medley of new and returning sponsors in recent weeks, including Louisiana oilfield consulting firm V.G. Pride Group, which graced the hood.  Talladega would also be the first time since Eldora in July where Cobb entered just one truck, leaving behind the “start-and-park” #0 entry driven by Caleb Roark and Adam Edwards that’s helped keep the team atop the 2015 LASTCAR Owner’s Championship.

At Talladega, Cobb turned heads in practice when she climbed from 23rd in the opening session to fastest overall in Happy Hour, her best lap of 14 turned coming in at 182.965 mph.  In qualifying, she had to rely on Owner Points with the 29th starting spot, but still outpaced the two drivers she needed in a rare 34-truck entry list.  Missing the show were Ryan Ellis in MAKE Motorsports’ unsponsored #50 Chevrolet and two-time Whelen Southern Modified Tour champion Andy Seuss.  Seuss was making his first Truck Series attempt since April 2013, when he and Rosenblum also missed the cut for that year’s race at the Rockingham Speedway.  Then, as on Saturday, he was driving the #28 Chevrolet for Jim Rosenblum’s FDNY Racing, which honored the department’s 150th anniversary with help from volunteering firefighters.

The 32nd starting spot went to Jordan Anderson and the #74 Rusty’s Off Road Products Chevrolet.  Anderson personally drove six hours from the South Carolina State Fair to the track and qualified for his first-ever superspeedway start.  Anderson climbed to 19th - his best finish since Mosport in August - one of many strong runs seen on Saturday.  ARCA veteran Bobby Gerhart finished a career-best 12th in his first Truck Series start since 1996 driving a family-owned #36 Lucas Oil / MavTV / Breast Cancer Awareness Chevrolet.  Billy Boat Motorsports teammates Mason Mingus (#15) and Chad Boat (#16) both cracked the Top Ten in 3rd and 9th - each their best run in a truck.  And part-timer Chris Fontaine finished 8th in the #45 Glenden Enterprises / Racktail.com Toyota, just his third top-ten finish in 53 starts over nine seasons.

In addition, 2011 Daytona 500 qualifier Brian Keselowski, making his first Truck start driving in relief of the injured Austin Theriault in the #29 Cooper Standard Ford owned by his brother, and last year’s ARCA at Kansas winner Spencer Gallagher in his family-prepared GMS Racing #23 Allegiant Travel Chevrolet were both in contention for the win before two unrelated misfortunes dropped them from 2nd to 17th and 18th, respectively.

Meanwhile, Cobb took the last spot after her engine issues, followed six circuits later by Canadian driver Terry Jones.  Jones walked away at the end of his first Truck start since 2010, even after hard contact with the inside wall off Turn 4 that destroyed his #30 Nortrax Chevrolet.  30th went to Clay Greenfield, whose #68 ClutchDefense.com Chevrolet stalled on the apron on Lap 82 and retired with overheating issues.  29th was Stanton Barrett, whose Truck Series debut and further cross-promotion with his film “Navy Seals vs. Zombies” ended when he tangled with point leader Matt Crafton in Turn 1 on Lap 87.  Rounding out the Bottom Five was Daniel Hemric, who lost seven laps in total after the hood on his #14 Salvation Army / California Clean Power Chevrolet came loose in the early stages.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is Cobb’s second last-place finish in a Truck Series race at Talladega.  On October 31, 2009, her #50 Boys Racing Dodge fielded by NASCAR veteran Trevor Boys lost the engine after completing 1 lap of the Mountain Dew 250 Fueled by Fred’s.  It was Cobb’s first Truck Series last-place finish and came in her fourth series start.
*This is the first last-place finish by the #10 in a Truck Series race at Talladega.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
32) #10-Jennifer Jo Cobb / 29 laps / engine
31) #30-Terry Jones / 35 laps / crash
30) #68-Clay Greenfield / 77 laps / overheating
29) #91-Stanton Barrett / 85 laps / crash
28) #14-Daniel Hemric / 91 laps / running

2015 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Norm Benning, Caleb Roark, Tyler Tanner (3)
2nd) Justin Jennings, Jennifer Jo Cobb (2)
3rd) Adam Edwards, Joey Gattina, Stew Hayward, Travis Kvapil, Justin Marks, Robert Mitten (1)

2015 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing (6)
2nd) MB Motorsports, Norm Benning Racing (4)
3rd) MAKE Motorsports (2)
4th) Mike Harmon Racing, NDS Motorsports, Win-Tron Racing (1)

2015 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (16)
2nd) RAM (2)
3rd) Toyota (1)

CUP: Landon Cassill Takes 2015 LASTCAR Cup Lead With Five Races To Go

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin' Forums

Landon Cassill picked up the 9th last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at the Kansas Speedway when his #40 Carsforsale.com Chevrolet fell out with engine issues after he completed 127 of 269 laps.

The finish, which occurred in Cassill’s 182nd series start, was his fourth of the season and his first since Bristol in April, 23 races ago.  With five races remaining, Cassill has sole possession of the overall lead in the LASTCAR Cup Series standings for the first time since Loudon in July.  Heading into Sunday’s race, Cassill was tied with Alex Bowman with 3 last-place runs apiece with Cassill leading the bottom-five tiebreaker 12-9.


CORRECTION (Oct. 21): Cassill and Bowman entered Kansas tied for the LASTCAR lead with 3 last-place finishes and 6 bottom-fives each.  Cassill led the bottom-ten tiebreaker 12-9 over Bowman.  Yeley entered Kansas with 2 last-place finishes, 6 Bottom Fives, and 19 Bottom Tens.  Thus, if Yeley held the last-place run at Kansas, he would have tied Cassill with 3 lasts and 7 Bottom Fives, but won a new bottom-ten tiebreaker of 20-13 with 31st-place Bowman still at 9 Bottom Tens.

Cassill has had a busy year, both on and off the track.  In May, immediately following a 39th-place finish in the Coca-Cola 600, he completed a nearly 14-mile run from the track to the NASCAR Hall of Fame.  Less than two days later, Cassill’s wife Katie gave birth to their first son, Beckham.  And in August, Cassill beat fellow underdog Josh Wise by six minutes in the grueling Ironman World Championship in Austria.

Cassill has also continued to juggle full schedules in both the Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series, earning a series of strong runs along the way.  Driving the #01 entry for JD Motorsports in XFINITY, Cassill has picked up a pair of top-ten finishes with a season-best 8th at Darlington.  In Cup, he returned to the scene of his last-place run in the Daytona 500 to score a season-best 13th after the grinding last-lap crash.  Last month at Pocono, one week after he lost 10% of his body weight during a hot afternoon at Indianapolis, Cassill nearly bested the Daytona run when he finished 14th.  A third top-twenty finish again came at Darlington, where his 2001 Sterling Marlin tribute scheme crossed the line 20th.  Sights next turned to Kansas, where he finished 29th in May.

Cassill ran double-duty once more, finishing 18th in Saturday’s XFINITY race after starting 20th.  In Cup, Cassill was 40th-fastest of the 44 entrants during opening practice and held the 41st spot in qualifying with a lap of 185.618 mph.  Cassill made the show on Owner Points while Timmy Hill and Premium Motorsports’ #62 missed their second-straight race.  On Saturday, Cassill ran 39th in the second practice and matched that rank in Happy Hour.

Starting 43rd on Sunday was ARCA regular Will Kimmel, making his first Cup start since Kentucky in July.  Kimmel’s #32 Skuttle Tight Ford for Go Green Racing held the last spot during the first 30 laps and was the first to be lapped on the 17th circuit.  On Lap 31, Kimmel conceded the spot to J.J. Yeley, whose lapped #26 Honey Creek Outfitters / Maxim Toyota smacked the outside wall in Turn 2.  The wreck required nine laps for cautious track crews to clean up fluid from Yeley’s machine, and it appeared Yeley would tie Cassill and Bowman for the LASTCAR lead.  Even if Yeley did, he would not win the tiebreaker - Yeley had just 6 bottom-five finishes coming into Kansas, trailing Cassill’s 12 and Bowman’s 9.

Around Lap 130, Cassill made an unscheduled trip to pit road with engine issues, and ultimately became the first retiree from the event.  He entered the Bottom Five on Lap 134 - just as BK Racing managed to get Yeley’s #26 back on track, 105 laps in arrears.  If Yeley remained on track from that point, he would drop Cassill to last on Lap 249.  However, on Lap 233, Yeley again lost several laps and it appeared he would come just sixteen laps short of making 42nd.  Yeley returned on Lap 238 and finished the race under power, finally bumping Cassill to the rear on Lap 252.

Yeley finished 42nd, unable to catch two other drivers felled by separate mid-race accidents.  41st-place Austin Dillon and his #3 American Ethanol Chevrolet had raced all the way from the 25th starting spot to the Top 5, making the most of the high line.  The Chicagoland last-placer looked to be on his way to his second-straight top-ten finish before a tire went down on Lap 156, stuffing his car into the outside wall in Turn 2.  40th-place Clint Bowyer clobbered the same spot much harder on Lap 172, his #15 5-Hour Energy Toyota bouncing onto two wheels before grinding the entire length of the backstretch.  Both dropped beneath 39th-place Kimmel, who came home 14 laps down in the #32.

Next week at Talladega, Cassill looks to bounce back at the track where he scored his first Cup Series top-five finish - a 4th - in the 2014 running.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marks the first last-place finish for the #40 in a Cup race at Kansas, but not for Cassill, who scored his first Cup last-place finish in the same race on October 3, 2010 when his #64 Little Joe’s Autos Toyota fielded by Larry Gunselman broke the rear gear after 3 laps of the Price Chopper 400 presented by Kraft Foods.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #40-Landon Cassill / 127 laps / engine
42) #26-J.J. Yeley / 144 laps / running
41) #3-Austin Dillon / 154 laps / crash
40) #15-Clint Bowyer / 170 laps / crash
39) #32-Will Kimmel / 255 laps / running

2015 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Landon Cassill (4)
2nd) Alex Bowman (3)
3rd) Aric Almirola, Michael Annett, Kasey Kahne, J.J. Yeley (2)
4th) Justin Allgaier, A.J. Allmendinger, Trevor Bayne, Jeb Burton, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Joey Gase, David Gilliland, Timmy Hill, Sam Hornish, Jr., Bobby Labonte, Brian Scott, Tony Stewart, Cole Whitt, Josh Wise (1)

2015 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Hillman Smith Motorsports (4)
2nd) BK Racing, Hendrick Motorsports, HScott Motorsports, Richard Petty Motorsports, Tommy Baldwin Racing (3)
3rd) Go FAS Racing, Front Row Motorsports, Phil Parsons Racing / Premium Motorsports (2)
4th) Joe Gibbs Racing, JTG-Daugherty Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Richard Childress Racing / Circle Sport, Roush-Fenway Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing (1)

2015 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (18)
2nd) Ford (9)
3rd) Toyota (4)

XFINITY: Jeff Green Scores Third Kansas Last-Place Finish In Six Years

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin' Forums

Jeff Green picked up the 80th last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 at the Kansas Speedway when his #19 Premier Barter Exchange Toyota fell out with suspension issues after he completed 3 of 204 laps.

The finish, which came in Green’s 417th series start, was his 20th of the 2015 season, his third in a row, and his fifth in the last seven race
s.

Green did not participate in Friday’s opening practice session, but ran a solid 27th-best in Happy Hour.  He defended the spot in qualifying, improving by nearly half a second to earn 27th on the grid with a speed of 175.262 mph.  41 cars arrived at the track, but though he ran 33rd-fastest in Happy Hour, Mario Gosselin withdrew his #92 CrashClaimsR.us Chevrolet before qualifying, guaranteeing the remaining entrants a spot in the field.

Matt Carter's #68 Fleur-De-Lis Chevrolet, 2011
SOURCE: TheHotLap.com

Starting 40th on the grid was Jennifer Jo Cobb, who was making her first XFINITY Series start since this same race last year, when she came home 24th in Rick Ware’s #87.  According to a trackside report, Cobb’s #10 Mark One Electric / Precision Roofing Chevrolet was probably the oldest car in the field.  The plain white Chevrolet began its life as a “Car of Tomorrow” chassis for DEI’s Cup team, then in 2011 became the #68 Fleur-De-Lis Motorsports ride, perhaps the same one Matt Carter finished last with during that year’s spring race at Richmond.

Jennifer Jo Cobb's Mark One Chevrolet on Saturday
SOURCE: Boyd Adams

Cobb’s ride was originally listed as a TriStar Motorsports entry, making it the first start by TriStar’s #10 since April at Talladega, the last race before Jeff Green assumed Mike Bliss’ vacated ride at Iowa.  However, by being a Chevrolet instead of a Toyota and with Cobb’s identical Truck Series numbers on the car, this was likely not the case.  Regardless of origin, Cobb ended up 29th on the day after she crashed on the frontstretch with 55 laps to go, collecting the #90 Halcyon Mobile Chevrolet of Korbin Forrister.

Forrister’s crash capped a difficult day for Bobby Dotter’s two-car SS-Green Light Racing team, which also kicked-off the battle for 40th spot.  On Lap 2, as Cobb followed the rest of the field into Turns 1 and 2, B.J. McLeod in Dotter’s #15 Main Gate Enterprises Chevrolet lost control and backed into the outside wall, drawing the first caution of the afternoon.  McLeod, who also struggled with an ill-handling car in qualifying despite a 29th-place starting spot, briefly held the last spot while Green pulled the #19 behind the wall under the yellow to drop to 39th.  When the #15 later returned to the track, Green slipped back to 40th.  McLeod retired after 79 laps, the handling issues too bad to continue, and finished 33rd.

Following Green in the Bottom Five were owner-drivers Derrike Cope and Mike Harmon.  For Cope, the engine failure on his #70 Maxelence MVP / To The Point Chevrolet was his worst finish of the season, his day over after only 14 laps.  Harmon’s 38th-place run was his worst since a 39th at Richmond in May, an engine problem of his own stopping the #74 Skin & Bones Dodge.  37th went to Timmy Hill, who after missing the field for the Cup race pulled behind the wall in Motorsports Business Management’s #40 Grafoid Chevrolet.  Rounding out the Bottom Five was 36th-place T.J. Bell - his third-straight 36th-place finish in JGL Racing’s unsponsored #26 Toyota.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is Green’s third last-place finish in an XFINITY Series race at Kansas, the other two also coming with TriStar Motorsports in 2010 and 2013.
*This is the first last-place finish for the #19 in an XFINITY Series race at Kansas since the inaugural event on September 29, 2001, when Ed Berrier’s #19 Tiger Saws & Blades Chevrolet crashed after 10 laps of the Mr. Goodcents 300.  Green won the race that day - the 14th of his career and his 10th and final driving for team owner Greg Pollex in the #10 Nestle Nesquik Ford.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #19-Jeff Green / 3 laps / suspension
39) #70-Derrike Cope / 14 laps / engine
38) #74-Mike Harmon / 20 laps / engine
37) #40-Timmy Hill / 25 laps / vibration
36) #26-T.J. Bell / 30 laps / electrical

2015 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green (20) - 2015 CHAMPION
2nd) Dexter Bean (2)
3rd) Ryan Ellis, C.J. Faison, Mike Harmon, Blake Koch, Charles Lewandoski, Carl Long, Morgan Shepherd, Derek White (1)

2015 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) TriStar Motorsports (22)
2nd) King Autosport, Motorsports Business Management (2)
3rd) JGL Racing, Mike Harmon Racing, Rick Ware Racing, Shepherd Racing Ventures (1)

2015 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (24)
2nd) Chevrolet (3)
3rd) Dodge (2)
4th) Ford (1)

CUP: Kasey Kahne Last While Low Attrition Drops Chaser Kenseth To 42nd

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin' Forums

Kasey Kahne picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s Bank of America 500 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway when his #5 HendrickRideAlong.com Chevrolet was involved in a single-car crash that ended his run after 58 of 334 laps.

The finish, which occurred in Kahne’s 426th series start, is his second of the season and first since the August race at Pocono, nine rounds ago.

Following his sudden exit from the Pocono race, Kahne has continued to struggle through his worst season since 2007.  The crash dropped him from 13th to 15th in points, and another crash during a restart the next week at Watkins Glen left him 42nd, dropping him to 17th and out of the Chase.  In the four races through the Richmond cutoff, Kahne bounced back with four-straight finishes between 12th and 18th, but the efforts fell short of a Chase berth.  Coming into Charlotte, where Kahne had scored four series victories, he’d earned two-straight top tens at Loudon and Dover, finishing 9th and 6th, respectively.

Kahne came to the track once again running the 1984 “throwback” scheme he debuted at Darlington.  The car showed speed early, putting up the 5th-fastest time in Thursday’s opening session before settling for 20th in qualifying with a speed of 190.436 mph.  Kahne’s speeds cooled on Friday with a 12th-best lap in the second session and a 19th in Happy Hour, but the team prepared to make a run on Saturday night.

Persistent rain pushed the race to Sunday morning, where the 40th starting spot belonged to the #33 Little Joe’s Auto Chevrolet of Alex Kennedy.  Kennedy, making his 12th start of the season and second in a row, was locked into the field on points, besting the only two DNQs of Josh Wise in the #32 Rimrock-Devlin Development Ford - the fifth DNQ of the year for Go Green Racing - and the #62 ChampionMachinery.com Chevrolet of Timmy Hill.  Premium Motorsports’ #62 has now missed 17 races and qualified for only 13.  Teammate Reed Sorenson made the show one spot in front of Kennedy in 42nd driving the #98 VIPRacingExperience.com Ford.

The moment the green flag flew on Sunday morning, however, the rear of the field checked-up as the slowing leaders took advantage of NASCAR’s newly-expanded restart zone entering the quad-oval.  Several cars narrowly avoided contact before 41st-place starter Jeb Burton’s #23 Dr. Pepper / Breast Cancer Awareness Toyota rear-ended 39th-place Cole Whitt’s #35 Rinnai Tankless Water Heaters Ford.  The caution fell immediately as Burton’s car dropped debris on the track from its destroyed left-front fender.  Although the crew did manage to keep Burton on the lead lap for the Lap 5 restart, the leaders blew by him on Lap 8.  As Burton struggled to keep pace, BK Racing decided to bring his ride behind the wall around Lap 31.

Meanwhile, on Lap 41, Kahne had worked his way to 12th when his #5 cut a right-front tire and made hard contact with the wall in Turn 1.  No caution fell for the incident, and the resulting green-flag stop dropped him two laps down to the field in the 40th spot.  Between Kahne and Burton were Whitt, his car damaged in the first-lap caution, and Burton’s teammate J.J. Yeley, who lost four laps after NASCAR penalized him for the crew allegedly manipulating the right-rear sheet metal during a pit stop.  Kahne was still 40th on Lap 61 when another right-front let go, sending him even harder into the Turn 1 wall.  This time, the caution did fly and the #5 went behind the wall with heavy damage.  He would not return to the race.

Burton, meanwhile, came back out with a large patch sealing shut his damaged left-front fender.  He retained the 43rd spot until around Lap 146, when he finally passed the retired Kahne.  With Burton and the 41 remaining competitors still running, however, this created the potential for a bad day for a Chase driver to turn out much worse.  That victim was polesitter Matt Kenseth, who after leading 72 laps in his #20 Dollar General Toyota found himself in the middle of the pack after pit stops.  Two separate collisions with Ryan Newman’s #31 Caterpillar Chevrolet later, Kenseth’s car had similar damage to Kahne and was struggling to keep pace.  The second wreck brought out a caution on Lap 178, and while the Joe Gibbs Racing crew had time to make repairs, their efforts fell short.  On Lap 241, Kenseth’s Toyota slammed the Turn 3 wall hard enough to knock him out of the race.  Just two laps later, Kenseth had plummeted all the way to 40th - and out of the race.

By the time Kenseth withdrew, Burton’s lapped machine was joined by Justin Allgaier, whose #51 Brandt Chevrolet was also heavily damaged in a restart pileup on Lap 183.  The crew managed to change radiators and get the car back on track on Lap 261 - just in time for Jimmie Johnson to suffer his second-straight catastrophic mechanical failure.  This time, the oil cooler broke on the #48 Lowe’s Red Vest Chevrolet, and after an unscheduled stop, Johnson’s car was pushed behind the wall just as Allgaier left the garage.  Allgaier’s car was still smoking on the apron when he returned, but he managed to keep pace, just seven laps behind Burton in 42nd.

No other cautions fell in the final 88 laps on Sunday, and both Burton and Allgaier were in position to gain spots in the closing stages.  With just 15 laps to go, Allgaier passed Kenseth, and Burton followed suit with just 8 circuits remaining, dropping the #20 all the way to 42nd - tied for his worst finish of the year with the engine failure two months ago in Bristol.  Both lapped cars of Allgaier and Burton were not quite able to catch 39th-place Jimmie Johnson, who beat them both by five and 13 laps, respectively.  Three of the race’s only five DNFs made the Bottom Five.

In the LASTCAR Cup Series Champonship, co-leaders Alex Bowman (finished 32nd) and Landon Cassill (finished 23rd) not only did not finish last, but both finished outside the Bottom Ten.  Thus, Cassill still leads the title on the bottom-ten tiebreaker, 12-9.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marks the first time the #5 has finished last in a Cup race at Charlotte since October 10, 1971, when Jim Vandiver’s Doc Faustina-owned 1970 Plymouth crashed after 10 laps of the National 500.  It was the second of five career last-place runs for Vandiver, the Huntersville, North Carolina native who also edged polesitter Buddy Baker for last by 11 laps in the historic 1979 Daytona 500.  Vandiver’s best finish in 85 Cup races from 1968 through 1983 was a 2nd to Richard Brickhouse in the inaugural Cup race at Talladega in 1969 - just his second series start.  He passed away this past June at age 76.
*Chevrolet sweeps both Cup Series lasts at Charlotte for the first time since 2004, when Joe Auer’s #51 Chevrolet overheated with Kevin Lepage after 56 laps in May, then crashed with Tony Raines after 2 laps in the fall.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #5-Kasey Kahne / 58 laps / crash
42) #20-Matt Kenseth / 236 laps / crash / led 72 laps
41) #23-Jeb Burton / 244 laps / runing
40) #51-Justin Allgaier / 251 laps / running
39) #48-Jimmie Johnson / 257 laps / engine / led 2 laps

2015 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Alex Bowman, Landon Cassill (3)
2nd) Aric Almirola, Michael Annett, Kasey Kahne, J.J. Yeley (2)
3rd) Justin Allgaier, A.J. Allmendinger, Trevor Bayne, Jeb Burton, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Joey Gase, David Gilliland, Timmy Hill, Sam Hornish, Jr., Bobby Labonte, Brian Scott, Tony Stewart, Cole Whitt, Josh Wise (1)

2015 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) BK Racing, Hendrick Motorsports, Hillman Smith Motorsports, HScott Motorsports, Richard Petty Motorsports, Tommy Baldwin Racing (3)
2nd) Go FAS Racing, Front Row Motorsports, Phil Parsons Racing / Premium Motorsports (2)
3rd) Joe Gibbs Racing, JTG-Daugherty Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Richard Childress Racing / Circle Sport, Roush-Fenway Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing (1)

2015 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (17)
2nd) Ford (9)
3rd) Toyota (4)

XFINITY: As Jeff Green Extends Record, LASTCAR.info Finishes 27th With Joey Gase

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin' Forums

Jeff Green picked up the 79th last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Friday’s Drive for the Cure 300 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway when his #19 Premier Barter Exchange Toyota fell out with a vibration after he completed 3 of the race’s 200 laps.

The finish, which came in Green’s 416th series start, was his 19th of the 2015 season, his second in a row, and his fourth in the last six races.

Green was once again one of 40 entrants to qualify for as many spots, only this time this again included John Wes Townley, fresh off his inaugural Truck Series victory in Las Vegas and back in Athenian Motorsports’ #25 Zaxby’s Chevrolet following a one-week absence.  Green was the only driver who did not turn a lap in Thursday’s opening practice session, but he timed in 31st in Happy Hour and improved to the 29th spot in qualifying with a lap of 173.689 mph.

The 40th starting spot for Friday’s race went to Cale Conley, one of Green’s newest teammates in the #14 Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America Toyota.  Conley was incurred a redundant pre-race penalty for unapproved adjustments following a spin in qualifying, and was joined at the rear with Harrison Rhodes.  Rhodes, driver of the third #0 team for JD Motorsports, was tabbed at Charlotte to drive in a one-off for Motorsports Business Management.  Rhodes struggled in MBM’s #3 Industrial Piping Solutions Dodge, however, as the car trailed fluid in the second practice session, necessitating repairs.

By the end of the first lap, Rhodes took last from Conley.  He held the spot until Lap 4, when Green, still on the lead lap in 24th, pulled the #19 behind the wall as the race’s first retirement.  Moments later, Kentucky last-placer Blake Koch slowed on the backstretch and joined his TriStar teammate in the garage.  As the crew of the #8 Leaf Filter / Breast Cancer Awareness Toyota worked to fix Koch’s mechanical issues, he was soon joined by Timmy Hill in MBM’s #40 Chevrolet; Josh Reaume, who took over for Rhodes in JD’s #0 Chevrolet; and B.J. McLeod in Rick Ware Racing’s #15 BYB Extreme Fighting Series Chevrolet.

However, McLeod’s team, like Koch’s, was still working to get their car back in the race, as was that of Rhodes, whose #13 now struggled with electrical gremlins that required MBM replace spark plugs and wiring.  Koch was the first of these drivers to return on Lap 52, 45 circuits in arrears, and he climbed to 33rd by the finish.  McLeod rejoined the race around Lap 67, 29 behind, but only turned a few more laps before he retired and came home 35th.  The rise of Koch and McLeod pulled both out of the Bottom Five, and in their place dropped Morgan Shepherd’s #89 Racing With Jesus Chevrolet and, on Lap 104, the #26 JGL Racing Toyota of T.J. Bell.

Another driver fighting the race’s relentless pace was Joey Gase, who was again driving the same #52 that survived the team’s hauler fire earlier this month.  This week, Gase’s Honeyman Racing / DB Sales Chevrolet carried names, photogaphs, and logos from various supporters through a program organized by Racing2Cure’s cancer research initiative.  LASTCAR.info was among the logos on Gase’s hood, giving this website its first race-day appearance on a NASCAR stock car.

Gase, who started 31st in his 105th series start, fought a persistent tight condition all night.  He lost a lap on Lap 17, then another on Lap 41 when he was forced in the middle of a three-wide race between leader Kyle Busch and the lapped Brennan Poole.  He also saved his car from a spin after contact from Darrell Wallace, Jr.’s #6 Ford EcoBoost / Breast Cancer Awareness Ford.  The Jimmy Means Racing crew made adjustments to their car, and Gase maneuvered his way from 29th on Lap 64 to 27th at the finish, eight laps behind race winner Austin Dillon.  It was Gase’s ninth-straight finish inside the Top 30 since back-to-back transmission issues at Iowa and Watkins Glen.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Green sweeps both this season’s XFINITY Series last-place runs at Charlotte.  He did the same in 2011 while driving TriStar’s #44 Chevrolet.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #19-Jeff Green / 3 laps / vibration
39) #40-Timmy Hill / 16 laps / steering
38) #0-Josh Reaume / 31 laps / vibration
37) #89-Morgan Shepherd / 46 laps / fuel pressure
36) #26-T.J. Bell / 56 laps / electrical

2015 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green (19) - 2015 CHAMPION
2nd) Dexter Bean (2)
3rd) Ryan Ellis, C.J. Faison, Mike Harmon, Blake Koch, Charles Lewandoski, Carl Long, Morgan Shepherd, Derek White (1)

2015 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) TriStar Motorsports (21)
2nd) King Autosport, Motorsports Business Management (2)
3rd) JGL Racing, Mike Harmon Racing, Rick Ware Racing, Shepherd Racing Ventures (1)

2015 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (23)
2nd) Chevrolet (3)
3rd) Dodge (2)
4th) Ford (1)