CUP EXTRA: 1993 LASTCAR Champion Jeff Gordon Retires With Six Last-Place Finishes

SOURCE: ESPN

Sunday saw the 797th and final Cup start for Jeff Gordon, who came home 3rd in the championship after a late rally lifted him to 6th on the track.  Gordon retires with six last-place finishes in NASCAR’s top three divisions.  Looking at the circumstances of these finishes offers an intriguing view of how quickly he adjusted to stock car racing, and to the dedication of his team to get him back on track when things went sideways.

Gordon’s first last-place finish came on April 13, 1991, in his eighth career XFINITY Series start at Bristol.  Just 22 laps into the Budweiser 250, Gordon’s #1 Carolina Ford Dealers Ford lost an engine, taking him out of the race.  It was to be Gordon’s only last-place finish outside of Cup.  Much like Gordon’s debut in the Cup Series the next year, this race also saw a changing of the guard.  Three-time Sportsman champion and two-time XFINITY champion Jack Ingram failed to qualify for the second time that season and would ultimately retire from the tour at season’s end.

Gordon’s next two last-place finishes came during his first full rookie season in Cup in 1993, and both were due to early crashes at the series’ two trips to North Wilkesboro Speedway.  In the First Union 400 on April 18, Gordon’s rainbow-hued #24 DuPont Auto Finishes Chevrolet caught fire after backing into the Turn 1 wall on Lap 26.  Then, during the Tyson / Holly Farms 400 on October 3, his 16th-place car was damaged in a seven-car opening-lap crash when the outside lane failed to get going on the green flag.  Gordon parked the car with handling woes after running a quarter distance.  Gordon got his revenge in 1996, winning the final Cup race yet run at the North Carolina short track.

The next last-place run didn’t happen until the PRIMESTAR 500 on March 9, 1997, during the final race run on the Atlanta Motor Speedway’s 1.522-mile true oval configuration.  Gordon lasted just 59 laps into the site of his first Cup start before the engine let go.  It was to be the first of only two DNFs in an otherwise dominant 10-win season.  When he returned to the Atlanta track for its reconfiguration in the fall, he again struggled to finish 17th, but still walked away with his second Winston Cup.

The final two last-place finishes of Gordon’s career came at the Texas Motor Speedway, a track that vexed the champion after back-to-back early race crashes in the first two races run there in 1997 and 1998.  While he managed to avoid finishing last in both races, he was not so fortunate during the spring races in 1999 and 2008.  The first finish on March 28, 1999 was another crash, a solo shunt into the Turn 4 wall after 68 laps.  The other on April 6, 2008 saw Gordon fighting handling woes once again after a crash in the same spot on Lap 110.  Again, just as he had at North Wilkesboro, Gordon soon managed to solve the Texas puzzle, winning his lone race there in 2009.

Gordon remains the only driver in NASCAR history to win both a NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship and a LASTCAR title, the latter coming during his first Cup season in 1993 after a bottom-ten tiebreaker with ARCA veteran Bob Schacht.  On top of his 93 victories and countless other impressive statistics, it is perhaps this quick turnaround from challenger to champion that is most impressive of all.

CUP: Crash Eliminates Clint Bowyer From MWR’s Final Race; Landon Cassill Clinches First LASTCAR Title

SOURCE: Sarah Crabill - Getty Images N.A.

Clint Bowyer picked up the 4th last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway when his #15 5-Hour Energy Toyota was involved in a multi-car crash that ended his run after 45 of the race’s 267 laps.

The finish, which came in Bowyer’s 361st series start, was second of the season and his first since Martinsville, three races ago.  Bowyer’s elimination from the race locked-up the 2015 LASTCAR Cup Series Championship for Landon Cassill, who ran as high as 19th before he came home 35th, four laps down.  Alex Bowman, his title challenger, finished 26th, two laps behind race winner Kyle Busch.  The two LASTCAR title contenders started side-by-side in Row 17.

Following his last-place run at Martinsville, Bowyer came home 15th at Texas and 23rd in the rain-shortened race at Phoenix, and he would remain 16th and last among the Chase field at season’s end.  The Homestead finale marked both Bowyer and teammate David Ragan’s final race with Michael Waltrip Racing as the team is set to close its doors this offseason.  MWR made its NASCAR debut in 1994 with all-time last-place leader Jeff Green coming home 3rd in an XFINITY Series race at Bristol driving the #17 Clabber Girl Pontiac.  In 1,203 combined starts across all its Cup, XFINITY, and Truck Series teams, MWR earned 12 victories.  Bowyer’s Homestead run was the team’s 20th last-place finish.

Bowyer started the weekend 9th in the opening practice and ran 29th and 24th in Saturday’s two practice sessions.  He would start 24th on Sunday after a lap of 172.651 mph, fourteen spots ahead of Ragan.  Missing the race were Rookie of the Year contender Jeb Burton in the #23 Overture Promotional Product Agency / Estes Toyota and Reed Sorenson in Premium Motorsports’ unsponsored #62 Toyota.  Premium’s #62 attempted all 36 races in 2015, but qualified for only 16.  

Premium secured a starting spot for their newly-acquired second team as Ryan Preece made his fourth start in a row driving the #98 East West Marine / Logan’s / FireAde Chevrolet with the modified scheme he ran in his Cup debut September at Loudon.  Preece held the spot the opening four laps until Cole Whitt fell back in Front Row Motorsports’ #35 Speed Stick Ford.  Sam Hornish, Jr., making his final start for Richard Petty Motorsports in the #9 Cheney Brothers Ford, was next to take the spot on Lap 13 and was about to lose a lap when the first caution flew on Lap 15.

At that moment, polesitter Denny Hamlin’s #11 FedEx Ground Toyota was running 2nd to Joey Logano when he lost a Wiggins clamp and his leaking axle grease caught fire under the hood.  Hamlin pulled behind the wall on Lap 16, and it first appeared he would score his first last-place finish since coming home 42nd in the short field last summer at Kentucky (LINK).  However, the crew got him back out on track three laps down on Lap 19.  He got two Lucky Dogs and one more lap back on the track en route to a surprising 10th-place finish.

The first of Hamlin’s Lucky Dogs came on Lap 41, when Kasey Kahne’s #5 Great Clips Chevrolet slowed in Turns 1 and 2 with a flat right-rear tire.  Contact with the was made, and Kahne lost a lap as the crew made repairs, dropping Kahne behind Hamlin for 43rd on Lap 43.  Kahne was still running in the spot when trouble broke out shortly after the restart.

On Lap 46, as the field stormed down the backstretch, Bowyer’s ill-handling Toyota lost control while racing Ty Dillon’s #33 Nexium 24 Hour Chevrolet mid-pack.  Bowyer’s car hooked to the right, collecting Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s #88 Nationwide Chevrolet as he nosed the outside wall, then cut left again.  The ensuing wreck collected Aric Almirola’s #43 Smithfield Foods Ford, Casey Mears’ #13 GEICO Chevrolet, and damaged the right-front to both Hornish and Bowyer’s teammate Ragan as they tried to get by on the inside.  No drivers were injured, and a disappointed Bowyer was unsure what caused his car to lose control.

The next time by on Lap 47, Mears was classified in last, the rear end of his #13 badly damaged, with Bowyer 42nd and Almirola in 41st.  The trio went to the garage for repairs, followed soon by 40th-place Dale Earnhardt, Jr., whose team was unable to fix his car on pit road.  NBC Sports posted a picture of Bowyer’s crew hard at work with the others, the front valence removed from the #15 short of the halfway mark.  However, despite their efforts, Bowyer was listed as out of the race by Lap 92.  Mears, who completed the same 45 laps as Bowyer, was still listed as 43rd until Lap 150, the Germain Racing crew deciding not to rejoin the race until the next caution for debris.  Bowyer fell to last the next time by and stayed in that spot.

Mears pulled off the track a final time on Lap 203 and remained 42nd at the finish, he and Bowyer the only two retirees from the race.  Almirola remained 41st and Earnhardt, Jr. 40th, both laps down to race winner Kyle Busch.  Rounding out the Bottom Five was Josh Wise, whose #32 Zak Products Ford trailed smoke in the final stages of the race.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first last-place finish for Bowyer, Michael Waltrip Racing, and the #15 in a Cup race at Homestead.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #15-Clint Bowyer / 45 laps / crash
42) #13-Casey Mears / 104 laps / crash
41) #43-Aric Almirola / 209 laps / running
40) #88-Dale Earnhardt, Jr. / 241 laps / running
39) #32-Josh Wise / 247 laps / running

2015 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL
1st) Landon Cassill (4) - 2015 CHAMPION
2nd) Alex Bowman (3)
3rd) Aric Almirola, Michael Annett, Ryan Blaney, Clint Bowyer, Timmy Hill, 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, Sam Hornish, Jr., Bobby Labonte, Brian Scott, Tony Stewart, Cole Whitt, Josh Wise (1)

2015 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL
1st) Hillman Smith Motorsports (4)
2nd) BK Racing, Hendrick Motorsports, HScott Motorsports, Phil Parsons Racing / Premium Motorsports, Richard Petty Motorsports, Tommy Baldwin Racing (3)
3rd) Go FAS Racing, Front Row Motorsports, Michael Waltrip Racing, Wood Brothers Racing (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 - FINAL
1st) Chevrolet (19)
2nd) Ford (11)
3rd) Toyota (6)

XFINITY: Jeff Green Trails All But 10 XFINITY Series Races In 2015

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin' Forums

Jeff Green picked up the 83rd last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Saturday’s Ford EcoBoost 300 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway when his #19 Premier Barter Exchange Toyota fell out with transmission problems after 3 of 200 laps.

The finish, which came in Green’s 420th series start, was his 23rd of the 2015 season.  He shatters his own record for the most last-place runs in a season by a NASCAR driver - 15, which he set in the 2013 XFINITY Series season, and is now a five-time LASTCAR champion.  By rounding out the 2015 season with six consecutive last-place finishes, Green can also break his record of eight lasts in a row if he sweeps the opening three rounds in 2016.

Green was 36th-fastest in the series’ final practice session of the season and timed in 27th in qualifying with a speed of 161.310 mph.  The lone driver who missed the field was Morgan Shepherd, whose #89 Racing With Jesus Chevrolet ended up with its seventh DNQ of the season.

Starting 40th on Saturday was ARCA driver Tim Veins, who after making his Truck Series debut at Dover this past May rejoined Mike Harmon to drive his #74 RaceDaySponsor.com Dodge.  On Lap 4, Green pulled behind the wall and secured the 40th spot while Viens, who spun in Turn 1 on Lap 11, recovered to ended up 33rd at the finish, the final car to come home under power.

The remaining members of the Bottom Five retired from the race between the start and the third caution for Josh Reaume hitting the Turn 4 wall in Motorsports Business Management’s #40 Braille Battery / Grafoid Chevrolet, the next lapped car to finish ahead of Viens.  39th went to T.J. Bell, his sixth-straight bottom-five finish in JGL Racing’s #26 Toyota.  38th was B.J. McLeod, his second-straight bottom-five finish for King Autosport in the #92 Bucked Up Apparel Chevrolet.  Mike Bliss, Green’s teammate and the defending LASTCAR Cup Champion, was 38th in TriStar’s unsponsored #14.  Rounding out the group in 36th was Carlos Contreras, who lost the engine on Rick Ware’s #15 BYBExtreme.com Chevrolet.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is Green’s third last-place finish in an XFINITY Series race at Homestead, joining finishes in 2010 and 2014.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #19-Jeff Green / 3 laps / transmission
39) #26-T.J. Bell /23 laps / vibration
38) #92-B.J. McLeod / 36 laps / vibration
37) #14-Mike Bliss / 44 laps / vibration / led 1 lap
36) #15-Carlos Contreras / 59 laps / engine

2015 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL
1st) Jeff Green (23) - 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 - FINAL
1st) TriStar Motorsports (25)
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 - FINAL
1st) Toyota (27)
2nd) Chevrolet (3)
3rd) Dodge (2)
4th) Ford (1)

TRUCKS: Brandon Brown Last At Homestead; Caleb Roark Repeats As LASTCAR Champ

SOURCE: FOX Sports 1

Brandon Brown picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career in Friday’s Ford EcoBoost 200 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway when his #86 Coastal Carolina University Chevrolet fell out with transmission issues after he completed 2 of the race’s 134 laps.  The finish came in Brown’s 8th series start.

His sights set on a career in NASCAR, the youngster from Woodbridge, Virginia jumped from go-karts to late models in 2010 when he was just 16 years old.  He and his family-owned team Brandonbuilt Motorsports scored their first feature win that July and as a rookie made a name for himself in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series.  Last year, Brown and team made another jump to the Truck Series, where he finished 25th in his debut at Iowa.  This year, still running part-time, Brown improved his career-best finish to 14th at Dover.

Brown began the Homestead weekend with the 21st-fastest speed in practice among the 36 drivers who entered.  He ran 50 laps in the session, second only to Kyle Weatherman’s 57 in Lira Motorsports’ first two-entry venture outside of ARCA.  In qualifying, Brown scored the 26th spot on the grid, locking himself in on speed.  Missing the race were Ross Kenseth, who made his Truck Series debut last month at Martinsville driving Shigeaki Hatori’s #18 Green Brave Toyota, Bobby Pierce in MB Motorsports’ #36 Pixographs.com Chevrolet, Todd Peck in his family-prepared #45 Boobitrap / Arthritis Foundation Chevrolet, and series veteran Norm Benning.

Starting 32nd on Friday was Dexter Stacey, who returned to MAKE Motorsports for the second time this season and first since Texas two rounds ago.  This time, his MaddiesPlace.com sponsorship from his difficult 2013 XFINITY Series season graced the hood of MAKE’s #1 Chevrolet.  Stacey would come home 24th.

ho was making his first start in NASCAR’s top three divisions since a difficult 2013 season in the XFINITY Series.  This week, Stacey and his Maddie’s Place sponsorship graced the #1 Chevrolet fielded by MAKE Motorsports.  By Lap 4, last week’s last-place finisher Brandon Jones had dropped to the back of the field with right-rear damage to his #33 Lucas Oil Chevrolet after contact with Mason Mingus sent him into the outside wall in Turns 3 and 4.  At that same moment, Brown’s Chevrolet stalled on the apron of Turn 2, drawing the caution.  Brown did not re-enter the race while Jones continued to struggle before spinning on Lap 75, leaving him 31st.

Finishing 30th on Friday was XFINITY Series Rookie of the Year Daniel Suarez, whose #51 Arris Toyota left with damage following his own contact with the wall on Lap 83.  Jordan Anderson rounded out his first season in 29th driving Mike Harmon’s #74 Simmons & White / Columbia, South Carolina Chevrolet, the last truck to finish under power.  Rounding out the Bottom Five was Georgia driver Garrett Smithley, who was making his series debut in Mike Mittler’s #63 Nimitz Chevrolet.

Caleb Roark clinched the 2015 LASTCAR Truck Series championship before the first lap was turned at Homestead.  Tyler Tanner, who needed a last-place finish on Friday, wasn’t entered in the season finale as MB Motorsports enlisted Smithley and Pierce to run its two trucks.  Caleb Roark himself was originally to drive Jennifer Jo Cobb’s #0, but was replaced by Scott Lagasse, Jr. following the withdrawal of Lagasse’s #20 fielded by Bob Newberry.  Lagasse finished 15th, the first finish better than 28th by the #0 all season.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first last-place finish for the #86 in a Truck Series race since June 28, 2012, when Scott Riggs’ #86 @ClayGreenfield RAM overheated after 3 laps of the UNOH 225 at Kentucky.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
32) #86-Brandon Brown / 2 laps / transmission
31) #33-Brandon Jones / 67 laps / crash
30) #51-Daniel Suarez / 84 laps / crash
29) #74-Jordan Anderson / 115 laps / running
28) #63-Garrett Smithley / 126 laps / running

2015 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL
1st) Caleb Roark (4) - 2015 CHAMPION
2nd) Norm Benning, Tyler Tanner (3)
3rd) Justin Jennings, Jennifer Jo Cobb (2)
4th) Brandon Brown, Adam Edwards, Joey Gattina, J.J. Haley, Stew Hayward, Brandon Jones, Travis Kvapil, Justin Marks, Robert Mitten (1)

2015 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL
1st) Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing (7)
2nd) MB Motorsports, Norm Benning Racing (4)
3rd) MAKE Motorsports (2)
4th) Braun Motorsports, Brandonbuilt Motorsports, GMS Racing, Mike Harmon Racing, NDS Motorsports, Win-Tron Racing (1)

2015 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL
1st) Chevrolet (20)
2nd) RAM (2)
3rd) Toyota (1)

CUP: Rain Allows Timmy Hill To Hold Off Joey Gase For Phoenix Last-Place Finish

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin' Forums

Timmy Hill picked up the 4th last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s rain-shortened Quicken Loans Race For Heroes 500 at the Phoenix International Raceway when his #62 Prairie Auto Credit / Financial Concepts Chevrolet finished under power, but 91 laps down, after 127 of 219 circuits.

The finish, which came in Hill’s 47th series start, was his first since August at Michigan, 12 races ago, and is his second for Premium Motorsports - the other in the #98 which Premium acquired from Phil Parsons Racing this past summer.

Jerry Hill's Cup Series Pontiac at Rockingham, 1992
SOURCE: Historical Stock Car Racing Forum

Hill was pulling triple-duty at the Phoenix track.  In addition to running Premium’s #94 in the Truck Series, where he finished 18th, as well as Premium’s #62 in Cup, he also brought Tom Kapusta’s XFINITY Series team back to the track for the first time since the spring race at the Arizona track.  The race, where Hill finished 27th, had added meaning as he would run the same #56 his father Jerry Hill ran in Sprint Cup and ARCA in the early 1990s.

With 43 cars on the Sprint Cup entry list, Hill was guaranteed a starting spot for Premium’s #62.  It would be just the 16th start of the season for the car in a year where it had missed the show 19 other times.  However, in that span, Hill got the car into the field the last seven-straight times and accounted for only four of the DNQs.  With another driver tabbed to run the #62 at Homestead, Hill looked to make the most of his final start of the season in a car which carried new sponsorship from two backers.

Hill was slowest in Friday’s opening practice and was set to roll off shotgun on the field with a speed of 131.507 mph.  On Saturday morning, he remained the slowest in the second practice session as well as Happy Hour.

Hours of delays pushed the start of Sunday’s race well after sunset, and when the green flag finally flew, Hill remained at the back of the field for the opening eight laps.  Then, on Lap 9, outside-polesitter Kurt Busch ended up 43rd after serving a penalty for jumping polesitter Jimmie Johnson in his #41 Haas Automation Chevrolet.  Busch re-passed Hill on Lap 13, and the next time by, Hill was the first to lose a lap to Johnson, then a second on Lap 31.  He remained in 43rd through the first competition caution on Lap 42.

On the Lap 48 restart, teammate Ryan Preece in the #98 Xyience Ford had fallen to 43rd, then briefly conceded it the next time by to Joey Gase, who was making his Cup third start of the season and first since Kansas in May in the #32 R Factor 2 Ford for Go Green Racing, successfully rebounding from a DNQ last week in Texas.  Just short of the one-third mark, however, Hill retook the 43rd spot when he went behind the wall with engine trouble.  Although Hill reported on Twitter that the motor had let go due to a dropped valve, the #62 returned to the track 91 laps down, joined soon after by Gase, who remained laps down in 42nd after brake issues sent him to the garage.

The second and, ultimately, final caution of the night played a critical role in both the NASCAR and LASTCAR championship battle. When Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.’s #17 Cargill Ford lost the brakes in Turn 3 and slammed Gase’s wounded #32 into the outside wall, both cars were out of the race, giving Hill a chance to pass Gase if he ran approximately 40 more laps.  However, the final red flag came out when Hill was still 35 laps away from catching Gase, keeping the #62 at the back of the field.  The race was soon called, and it was Hill, not Gase, who ended up with his second last-place run of 2015.

Rounding out the Bottom Five behind Gase and Stenhouse were 40th-place Ryan Ellis in Circle Sport’s #33 Science Logic Chevrolet and the #23 Dr. Pepper Toyota of Jeb Burton, both laps down to race winner Dale Earnhardt, Jr.  For Ellis, it was his Sprint Cup debut after 29 XFINITY Series and 20 Truck Series starts.  A lifelong Jeff Gordon fan, Ellis got to race against his hero in his penultimate event exactly 23 years to the day that Gordon made his own Cup debut in Richard Petty’s last.

Rick Wilson, 1981
SOURCE: jerry9car at Photobucket

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first last-place finish for the #62 in a Sprint Cup Series race since July 4, 1981, when Rick Wilson’s #62 Florida Equipment & Service Oldsmobile started 8th in the Firecracker 400 at Daytona, but lost the engine after only 8 laps.  Cale Yarborough edged Harry Gant for the race win.  Seven years later, when driving for Morgan-McClure Motorsports, Wilson earned a career-best runner-up in the same race after a photo finish with Bill Elliott.
*This is the first last-place finish for both Hill and the #62 in a Cup race at Phoenix.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #62-Timmy Hill / 127 laps / running
42) #32-Joey Gase / 161 laps / crash
41) #17-Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. / 194 laps / crash
40) #33-Ryan Ellis / 21 laps / running
39) #23-Jeb Burton / 213 laps / running

LASTCAR CHAMPIONSHIP UPDATE
Next week at Homestead, the LASTCAR Cup Series Championship will be decided between four-time last-placer Landon Cassill and three-timer Alex Bowman.  Two-time last-placers Michael Annett and J.J. Yeley were eliminated from contention at Phoenix when both did not finish last and came home 32nd and 29th, respectively.

Both Cassill and Bowman finished outside the Bottom Five in 35th and 38th, respectively - Bowman edged by Jeb Burton for 39th by a single lap.  This means that if Bowman finishes last at Homestead while Cassill finishes 38th or better, Bowman will take the LASTCAR title by a single bottom-five finish, 8-7.  Otherwise, Cassill will either claim the title outright or by a bottom-ten tiebreaker of at least 14-10.

2015 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Landon Cassill (4)
2nd) Alex Bowman (3)
3rd) Aric Almirola, Michael Annett, Ryan Blaney, Timmy Hill, Kasey Kahne, J.J. Yeley (2)
4th) Justin Allgaier, A.J. Allmendinger, Trevor Bayne, Clint Bowyer, Jeb Burton, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Joey Gase, David Gilliland, 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, Phil Parsons Racing / Premium Motorsports, Richard Petty Motorsports, Tommy Baldwin Racing (3)
3rd) Go FAS Racing, Front Row Motorsports, Wood Brothers Racing (2)
4th) Joe Gibbs Racing, JTG-Daugherty Racing, Michael Waltrip 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 (19)
2nd) Ford (11)
3rd) Toyota (5)