CUP: Engine sours on Aric Almirola’s throwback ride

SOURCE: Sean Gardner, Getty Images

Aric Almirola picked up the 7th last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s STP 500 at the Martinsville Speedway when his #43 STP Ford fell out with engine problems after he completed 206 of 500 laps.

The finish, Almirola’s first of the year, came in his 185th series start.  It was his first in a Sprint Cup race since last fall at Loudon, 14 races ago.

The crash that gave Almirola the last-place run at Loudon was one of just two DNFs for the #43 team in 2015.  Though they did not win a race, the team racked up three Top Fives and six Top Tens on the way to a 17th-place showing in points.  In four seasons with Richard Petty Motorsports, Almirola has never once finished outside the Top 20 in the driver standings.  Coming into the Martinsville race, Almirola had yet to finish better than a 12th in the Daytona 500, but had not run worse than a 24th at Las Vegas, keeping him a solid 13th in the standings with an unofficial spot in the Chase.

Next on the schedule was Sunday’s race at Martinsville, a track where the driver had seen both highs and lows.  He finished 4th in the fall of 2012, led 53 laps in the fall of 2008, but in his 2007 debut at the track Almirola finished last with electrical issues on DEI’s #01 U.S. Army Chevrolet.

With STP as the title sponsor of the Martinsville event, Almirola would again drive a florescent red and Petty Blue Ford for the race.  This year’s scheme resembled the cars the Pettys fielded in STP’s final years as primary sponsor in the late 1990s, including John Andretti’s Pontiac that secured Petty Enterprises its final victory in 1999.  Amidst the STP-sponsored fervor for the Martinsville race, there was also a near disaster in Petty’s hometown of Level Cross.  On Saturday, fire broke out at the Richard Petty Museum, but was contained before there were any injuries or severe damage.

Meanwhile, Almirola had timed in 21st in Friday’s opening practice session and secured the 20th starting spot with a speed of 96.244 mph.  He remained 20th in Saturday’s second practice session, but was just 27th in Happy Hour.

For the first time since the season-opening Daytona 500, 40 cars showed up to fill the 40-car starting field.  Joining the usual cast of characters was a second entry from Premium Motorsports, a black #55 Chevrolet driven by Reed Sorenson.  Sorenson, whose car carried old door and roof numbers from Michael Waltrip Racing, didn’t turn a lap in qualifying, securing him the final starting spot in his first Cup start since another turn for Premium last October at Kansas.

On race day, Sorenson held the 40th spot for less than a lap before he got around Josh Wise in The Motorsports Group’s unsponsored #30 Chevrolet.  On Lap 5, the race for 20th place between Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and David Ragan resulted in contact, sending Earnhardt’s #88 Nationwide Chevrolet spinning up the track with a flat left-rear tire.  While the spin cost Earnhardt a lap that he would not get back for another 304 circuits, he did manage to claw his way out of 40th on Lap 42, when he caught and passed Sorenson’s #55.  Sorenson lost a second lap around the 58th circuit, then moved past Josh Wise on Lap 77.  Wise lost a third lap in the process, but moved past Sorenson again by the time the second caution flew for Michael Annett’s spin on Lap 92.  Wise again retook it under the caution for Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.’s spin on Lap 139 and was five circuits behind by Lap 176.  It appeared that the two black Chevrolets would wage war for the rest of the afternoon until a much more brightly painted car began to struggle.

Through the first half of the race, Almirola was struggling to keep pace with the leaders and quickly lost two laps of his own.  On Lap 187, he slowed going down the backstretch with the engine sounding down a cylinder.  He pulled into the pits, complaining of a possible ignition problem, and soon took last from Wise on Lap 189.  Almirola returned to competition on Lap 195, but the engine problem only worsened, the car reporting on only five cylinders.  The Petty team vowed to keep the #43 out there until the engine blew, but 11 laps down and slowing, they soon had to pull the car off the track.  Almirola pulled into the garage a final time on Lap 222, just as another wreck drew Caution #4.

Denny Hamlin was running 5th when he wheel-hoped his #11 FedEx Express Toyota going into Turn 1, sending his car sliding and slamming into the outside wall.  Hamlin was uninjured, but the right side of his Toyota was totaled, putting an abrupt end to his afternoon.  The crash left him just 15 laps ahead of Almirola in the final standings.  If the engine on the #43 held out long enough to drop Hamlin to last, Sunday would’ve marked the first time the #11 finished last in a Cup race at Martinsville since May 21, 1950, when Bob Apperson’s 1949 Oldsmobile blew an engine in the second-ever Grand National race on the half-mile track.  Instead, Hamlin wound up 39th.

Finishing 38th was Wise, who pulled behind the wall on Lap 337 citing engine problems.  24 laps earlier, Wise was routed out of the groove by Martin Truex, Jr., and though he avoided contact with the wall, the fifth caution of the day was thrown.  Curiously, it was this caution that gave back Earnhardt, Jr. his lap.  37th went to Sorenson, who lost fifteen laps but finished under power in a car without any clear damage.  Rounding out the group in 36th was Joey Gase, who made his first Cup start at Martinsville in Go FAS Racing’s #32 Donate Life Virginia Ford.  Gase himself avoided a wreck in the final stages, saving his car from a four-wheel drift down the backstretch.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first last-place finish for the #43 at Martinsville since April 1, 2007, when Bobby Labonte’s Cheerios / Betty Crocker Dodge finished under power, but 235 laps down, in the Goody’s Cool Orange 400.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #43-Aric Almirola / 206 laps / engine
39) #11-Denny Hamlin / 221 laps / crash
38) #30-Josh Wise / 326 laps / engine
37) #55-Reed Sorenson / 490 laps / running
36) #32-Joey Gase / 490 laps / running

2016 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Aric Almirola, Matt DiBenedetto, Kyle Larson, Ryan Newman, Cole Whitt, Josh Wise (1)

2016 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) BK Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing, Premium Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing, Richard Petty Motorsports, The Motorsports Group (1)

2016 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (4)
2nd) Ford, Toyota (1)

TRUCKS: For the first time more than 10 years, Johnny Sauter finishes last in Trucks

SOURCE: Sean Gardner, Getty Images

Johnny Sauter picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career in Saturday’s Alpha Energy Solutions 250 at the Martinsville Speedway when his #21 Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff Chevrolet was involved in a single-truck crash that ended his race after 43 of 255 laps.

The finish, which came in Sauter’s 178th series start, was his first in 230 Truck races.  This dates back to September 8, 2005, when his #43 Menards / Energizer Chevrolet crashed after 100 laps of the Cheerios Betty Crocker 200 at Richmond International Raceway.

From the moment he committed to a full-time Truck Series schedule in 2009, Sauter has been a perennial race and championship contender.  In that time, he’s scored all 11 of his series victories and has finished no worse than 9th in the series standings.  He departed ThorSport Racing at the end of last season to join GMS Racing, a rising Chevrolet team whose fleet of drivers includes personable rising star Spencer Gallagher.  Sauter’s first run in GMS’ #21 Chevrolet came in the Daytona opener, which he won in dramatic fashion while a multi-car wreck unfolded behind him.  Mechanical issues in the second round at Atlanta left him 28th, Sauter eyed Martinsville, where he’d won twice with ThorSport in 2011 and 2013.

Sauter showed his usual speed throughout the weekend.  He was 4th in the opening practice, 14th in the second, and 10th in Happy Hour.  He improved even more in qualifying, securing the 3rd starting spot at an average speed of 95.864 mph.  It was Sauter’s best start at the track since the fall of 2013, when he secured the outside-pole.

Things were much wilder at the other end of the field.

39 drivers were originally entered to qualify for Saturday’s 32-truck field, but by Friday, a withdrawal by Faith Motorsports cut the list to 38.  Owner-driver Donne Levister was set to make his series debut at Martinsville driving his #62 Property Pros / SMD Toyota, but the truck failed tech inspection.  The crew prepared to make repairs, but according to the team’s press release, the team did not have sufficient budget or time to complete the work in time.

By the end of qualifying, five drivers had made the field for their first-ever Truck Series start: Kaz Grala (who started 19th in GMS Racing’s #33 Allegiant Travel Chevrolet), Spencer Boyd (27th in the #63 Go-Parts.com RAM for Mike Mittler), Shane Lee (28th in the #07 LeeBoy Toyota for Kevin Cywinski), Claire Decker (31st in the #10 AmsOil Chevrolet for Jennifer Jo Cobb), and last-place starter Bryce Napier (32nd in the #1 Lilly Trucking Chevrolet for Rick Ware Racing).

Claire Decker would join sister Paige in the race while cousin Natalie Decker ended up the slowest of the race’s six DNQs.  Joining Natalie were restrictor plate veteran Chris Fontaine in his #78 Glenden Enterprises Toyota, Norm Benning whose #6 Chevrolet has now missed five straight races, Travis Kvapil in MAKE Motorsports’ #50 Bubba Burger / Corvetteparts.net Chevrolet, newcomer Jordan Anderson still looking for his first start since Daytona in an unsponsored #66 Bolen Motorsports Chevrolet, and defending ARCA Racing Series runner-up Austin Wayne Self.

Austin Wayne Self was set to make his third start of the year in his family-prepared #22 AM Technical Solutions Toyota, but ended up the fastest of the six drivers who failed to qualify.  Meanwhile, Daytona last-placer Tommy Joe Martins managed to secure the 24th starting spot, but had wrecked his #44 Diamond Gusset Jeans Chevrolet in the first round of qualifying.  With Martins forced to a backup and Self trying to make the field, an arrangement was made where Self’s #22 would take Martin’s place, the entry renumbered to Martin’s #44 with Self behind the wheel.  The last-minute number changed was accomplished with Richard Petty Motorsports decals from Brian Scott’s Cup entry and a hand-made number decal on the nose.

Self’s driver change sent him to the rear along with the #86 Coastal Carolina University Chevrolet, whose driver Brandon Brown missed the driver’s meeting.  Both joined 32nd-place starter Bryce Napier in his baby-blue #1 Chevrolet.  The opening fifteen minutes ran under the green flag, and a handful of drivers fell down a lap.  Timmy Hill went three laps down in his #49 Testoril Chevrolet for Premium Motorsports, then on Lap 42 was passed by Claire Decker in Cobb’s #10.  At that moment, trouble broke out in Turns 3 and 4.

Johnny Sauter was running 2nd, just over a second behind polesitter Ben Rhodes, when brake heat apparently melted the bead on his right-front tire, sending him into the outside wall.  Sauter managed to keep rolling under the ensuing yellow, but could only pull into the garage, done for the afternoon.  GMS Racing’s tough day continued just 50 laps later when Kaz Grala lost a right-front of his own and clobbered the Turn 4 fence, leaving him 31st.

30th went to Mike Bliss, who took his first turn in the #71 Race Trac Convenience Stores Chevrolet fielded by fellow series veteran Carlos Contreras.  Bliss lost laps early and was eventually sidelined with electrical issues. 29th went to Cole Custer, whose #00 Haas Automation Chevrolet was destroyed in a grinding backstretch wreck with Christopher Bell with just 13 laps remaining.  Bell managed to keep going and finish 19th while first-timer Spencer Boyd’s RAM rounded out the group.  With 79 laps to go, Boyd spun off the nose Rico Abreu and Tyler Reddick coming off Turn 2.  Boyd avoided damage in the incident and later earned the second of two Lucky Dogs, but left the race late citing crash damage.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first last-place finish for the #21 in a Truck Series race since November 6, 2009, when Nick Tucker’s #21 GunBroker.com Dodge fell out with electrical issues after he completed 2 of 147 laps in the WinStar World Casino 350 at Texas.
*This is the first last-place finish for the #21 in a Truck Series race at Martinsville since April 7, 2001, when Morgan Shepherd’s #21 Genzman Racing Ford lost the brakes after 31 of 250 laps at the Advance Auto Parts 250.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
32) #21-Johnny Sauter / 43 laps / crash
31) #33-Kaz Grala / 91 laps / crash
30) #71-Mike Bliss / 115 laps / electrical
29) #00-Cole Custer / 235 laps / crash
28) #63-Spencer Boyd / 237 laps / crash

2016 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) William Byron, Tommy Joe Martins, Johnny Sauter (1)

2016 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) GMS Racing, Kyle Busch Motorsports, Tommy Joe Martins (1)

2016 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (2)
2nd) Toyota (1)

INTERVIEW: Norm Benning struggling under NASCAR’s 32-truck cap

SOURCE: FOX Sports

The moment has played over and over since that warm July evening in 2013.  On the inside, Clay Greenfield and his black RAM.  To his outside, the cherry-red Chevrolet of Norm Benning.  Through clouds of Eldora dirt, these two underdogs waged sheet-metal war for the final transfer spot into the inaugural Mudsummer Classic.  In the end, the spot went to Benning, his battered #57 cheered by fans in the stands and drivers in the infield.  His late-race battle quickly became an internet sensation.

“I’m not tooting my horn,” said Benning in an interview last week, “but Eldora, three years ago, I went viral on three continents. . .I got texts from Jimmie Johnson on that deal, Mark Martin, and Clint Bowyer.  Bowyer came over and said ‘I’ve never in my life seen anything so exciting’ - that’s a direct quote. Jimmie Johnson said, ‘Norm, it’s one thing to be banging up against a wall out of control, it’s quite another when another guy hits you at the same time,’ he said, ‘that’s one helluva job.’”

Fighting for every last position is nothing new to Benning.  He cut his teeth at dirt tracks like Eldora as a 15-year-old racing adults.  He’s competed in ARCA and NASCAR, attempted to qualify for 11 Daytona 500s and the inaugural Brickyard 400, and now races full-time in the Truck Series.  Though Benning’s team only has three trucks in its stable, he has also fielded a second entry to fill fields, giving valuable on-track experience to series newcomers like Joey Gattina and Ted Minor.

But barely two years after his Eldora triumph, Benning and his team are struggling more than ever before.  He comes into this weekend’s race at Martinsville having failed to qualify for four straight races, including his first at Daytona in several years.  The skid began last fall at the Virginia short track, where he missed the race by four-tenths of a second.

“Four of my fans were together there at Martinsville,” said Benning.  “They said ‘You know what? We’re not even gonna stay. We came to watch him race.  We’re leaving.'”

In a cruel twist, Benning’s speed last fall was 34th-fastest of the 36 trucks who took time, which prior to 2015 would have been enough to put him - and his fellow three DNQs - in the show.  However, since NASCAR shortened Truck Series fields from 36 to 32 trucks, drivers like Benning are now regularly missing races they should be making - not because of a lack of speed, but due to a lack of available spots.  This problem has carried over into the current season.

“I was actually 24th quick at Daytona this year, but. . .I ended up getting squeezed out of that race - I missed it by one position.  And I went to Atlanta and the same thing happened. . .Now I’m falling into that bracket where I’m missing races - me and Mike Mittler and Mike Harmon - I’m just really aggravated about it.  I can’t afford to miss any races.”

Benning explained that the field reductions were put in place in order to curb “start-and-park” efforts, as well as to save purse money.  However, unlike Sprint Cup, which has been consistently unable to field its short 40-car fields, the Truck Series has still consistently pulled in more entries than available spots.  The result is what Benning has experienced: series regulars and fully-sponsored rides being sent home for no good reason.  “They sent 11 trucks home from Daytona,” said Benning.

Missed races mean big losses for a race team, and this loss of funding is felt much harder by teams such as Norm Benning Racing, where tire costs are a key issue:

“Well it’s all about the money, it’s that simple. These teams, we can buy 7 sets of tires, the most we’re allowed to buy.  The most I personally get is 3 sets, then not enough money to race.  These tires are between $2,300 and $2,500 a set.  The big teams, they’ll burn up 2 sets just in practice, that’s $5,000 - and the purses we get are $7,000, $8,000, $9000.  I’ve had major sponsorships, but this point and time I don’t.  And without major sponsorship, you can’t afford all the tires and equipment you need to compete with the major teams.”

Benning expressed concern about the future of the sport, that the 32-truck field will prevent so many small teams from competing that soon only big-budget and Cup development programs will run each race.

“The Truck Series is for up-and-coming drivers, and they need to limit the number of teams an owner can own. Because if they don’t, there won’t be a way for new teams to come in.  If it were up to me, there would be a limit of two teams per owner.  If you want to have more teams, then you should move up to Cup or XFINITY.”

The solution, says Benning, is to simply undo the 32-truck cap.

“Put it back the way it was 2 years ago.  Every driver that made all the attempts  - the top 25 or 27 teams that made all the attempts get provisionals. You know, if you didn’t make all the attempts you can’t get provisionals.”

Benning says he looks forward to returning to the Eldora track this July.  “I know I can win that race. It seems every year - that first year, I had nothing left because it was all banged up, the last two years I was very competitive in the main event, and this year I expect to be better.”  

“I would like to see the fans pushing to put the trucks back to a 36-truck starting field.  If the fans want to see more action, they need to tell NASCAR we need to have 36 trucks again in the starting field.”

4/14/02: Andy Hillenburg and Marcis Auto Racing exit early at Martinsville

SOURCE: Getty Images, The Sporting News

On April 14, 2002, Andy Hillenburg picked up the 4th last-place finish of his NASCAR Winston Cup Series career in the Virginia 500 at the Martinsville Speedway when his #71 Camp 28 Saloon / Fast Track Driving School Chevrolet fell out with clutch issues after 9 of 500 laps.  The finish came in Hillenburg’s 11th series start.

The 2002 Winston Cup season began with a farewell to one of the series’ most prolific owner-drivers.  Over the offseason, 61-year-old Dave Marcis announced that the Daytona 500 would be his final Cup start, closing out a 35-year career.  His iconic #71 RealTree Chevrolet carried a silver paint scheme for SpeedWeeks, honoring his late friend Dale Earnhardt who, with owner Richard Childress, helped support Marcis’ racing efforts.  A 7th-place showing in the Second Gatorade Twin 125 put Marcis 14th on the grid for his 33rd Daytona 500 start, an event he never once missed from 1968 through 1999.  Marcis’ 883rd start ended when his engine soured after 79 laps, leaving him 42nd.  Tony Stewart, whose own engine blew on Lap 3, ended up with his first Cup Series last-place finish.

After Daytona, Marcis turned his attention to team ownership.  Marcis Auto Racing returned the next week at Rockingham with fellow Wisconsin drive Dick Trickle and sponsorship from Warranty Gold, but the #71 ended up the fastest of three cars to miss the field.  Trickle and team rebounded by making their next attempt at Atlanta two races later, but Trickle wound up 42nd after a hard head-on crash into the backstretch wall.  For the next round at Darlington, Marcis tabbed another driver: Andy Hillenburg.

Hillenburg, then 39 years old, had been active in racing for most of his life.  Like Marcis, he was an owner-driver when he made his own Cup debut at Rockingham on March 3, 1991, finishing last in his #29 MAX-Orb Buick.  By 1995, he had branched out into NASCAR’s top three divisions in addition to the ARCA Racing Series.  He won two ARCA races that season, including his first of two ARCA 200s at Daytona, and claimed the season championship in a close contest with Bobby Bowsher.  Hillenburg even qualified for the 2000 Indianapolis 500, bumping from the field 14 other drivers including Roberto Guerrero and Davy Jones.  Through it all, Hillenburg’s entries often carried logos from his Fast Track High Performance Driving School where he still serves as a racing instructor.

Darlington was a reunion of sorts for Hillenburg and Marcis, who had previously worked together as test drivers for the International Race of Champions.  With 43 cars for 43 spots, Hillenburg made the Darlington race - his first Cup start since Talladega in the fall of 1999 - but engine problems left him last after just 12 laps.  The Wisconsin boys took over again for the next two races at Bristol and Texas, but the team continued to struggle.  Dick Trickle made it 239 laps into the Food City 500 at Bristol, but the engine failure still left him 42nd.  Jay Sauter - brother of current Truck Series regular Johnny - came home under power in his Cup debut at Texas, but could only manage 37th.  The next week, it was again Hillenburg’s turn.

Hillenburg’s #71 for Martinsville carried sponsorship both from the Fast Track school as well as the Camp 28 Saloon, Marcis’ rustic resort and bunkhouse in the Rib Lake area of Wisconsin.  Again, the car squeezed into the field in the 43rd spot, but this time edged for the final spot Truck Series regular Randy Renfrow in Foster Price’s unsponsored #59 Dodge.  During the pace laps of Sunday’s race, however, Hillenburg was joined by the silver-and-black #29 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet.

Kevin Harvick, then in his second Cup season, had been put on probation following an altercation with Greg Biffle after the Busch Series race at Bristol.  The day before, Harvick then spun Coy Gibbs from contention in Martinsville’s Craftsman Truck Series race.  As of Sunday morning, NASCAR instituted what it called a “temporary emergency action,” parking Harvick for the Cup race without the possibility of an appeal.  In Harvick’s place was Kenny Wallace, who during the young season was also a relief driver for the injured Steve Park.  The driver change sent Wallace to the back of the pack.

When the green flag flew, Hillenburg had already fallen behind Wallace and the rest of the field by open track.  Around Lap 5, he was 10 seconds behind the leaders and three seconds behind 42nd-place Rick Mast in Junie Donlavey’s #90 Sauer’s Ford.  On Lap 10, polesitter and race leader Jeff Gordon was about to lap Hillenburg in Turns 1 and 2.  Hillenburg pulled to the inside on the backstretch, then pulled onto pit road.  FOX’s Mike Joy indicated that the #71 was a “field filler” for the race as Hillenburg pulled into the garage.

42nd went to John Andretti, whose #43 Cheerios Dodge blew an engine in Turns 3 and 4 on Lap 211, triggering a multi-car wreck in Turn 4.  In 41st was Ryan Newman, who while running 10th in his first Martinsville race started blowing smoke on Lap 242, then pulled his #12 Alltel Ford behind the wall with overheating issues.

40th went to ARCA regular Frank Kimmel, who was making his third of just seven Cup starts.  Kimmel was one of many drivers tabbed to race for Travis Carter Racing.  Carter’s two cars were set to be sponsored by K-Mart, but when the retailer filed for bankruptcy, the team struggled without funding.  Kimmel, who made his Cup debut for Carter when he relieved Jimmy Spencer at Michigan in 1998, brought his ARCA sponsorship from Advance Auto Parts and the Pork Council onto the #26.  Joe Nemechek, the season-opening driver of the car, returned to qualify Kimmel’s entry at Martinsville while Kimmel raced to victory in Friday’s ARCA event at Nashville.  Kimmel struggled in the Cup race itself, slapping the wall in Turn 3 after contact from Hut Stricklin near the halfway point before retiring for the afternoon.

Rounding out the Bottom Five in 39th was Jerry Nadeau, who stayed out early to lead 42 laps in his #25 UAW-Delphi Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, but electrical issues with 161 laps to go led to an overheating problem that knocked him from the race.  Nadeau remained on standby to relieve teammate Jeff Gordon, who was struggling after he’d lost all power steering at the exact halfway point of the race.  Then-rookie Jimmie Johnson in the third Hendrick Chevrolet struggled in his Martinsville debut.  He lost the primary ignition early and with it, the use of the rev limiter, lost several more laps with a broken rear end, then suffered more electrical issues on the way to a 35th-place finish.  In his next 17 Martinsville starts, Johnson never finished worse than 9th and scored six of his eight victories.

Marcis Auto Racing continued to struggle through the rest of the 2002 season.  The team made just four of its remaining seven attempts with Trickle and both Jay and Tim Sauter, but finished no better than Tim’s 34th that fall at Dover.  The Marcis team’s final start came with Jay Sauter that fall at Talladega - another last-place finish after a Lap 46 crash.  While the team closed its doors in 2003, Marcis himself remains very active in motorsports.  He currently runs a hot rod shop in Arden, North Carolina and can be seen competing for land speed records.  Still wearing his trademark wingtip shoes, Marcis pursues his records in a modified #71 stock car which resembles the very same car he ran in the 2002 Daytona 500.

Hillenburg is also still active in racing.  Following one more run with Marcis in the 2002 Winston Open, his next Cup attempt was in 2004, when he came just short of putting Junie Donlavey’s team into one more Daytona 500.  He then filled out fields driving the #80 Commercial Truck & Trailer Ford for Hover Motorsports.  At Darlington, Hillenburg’s lapped machine was spun by Tony Stewart, sending Hillenburg into the path of Jeff Gordon, triggering a wreck that was one of the hardest Gordon had experienced to that point.  Though a victim in the incident, Hillenburg was very up-front in accepting blame, apologizing to Gordon and his fans for the wreck.  He made just two more starts that year at Bristol and Martinsville, but DNQ’d for the next six attempts.

But Hillenburg’s greatest contribution to the sport was his 2007 purchase of Rockingham Speedway, scene of his Cup debut in 1991.  He brought racing back to the track for the first time since his run for Hover in 2004 and eventually a Camping World Truck Series date in 2013.  Today, Hillenburg continues to run his racing school at the track.  He also fields a part-time entry in the ARCA Racing Series.  Ed Pompa and Richard Doheny ran his two cars at Daytona, finishing 30th and 17th, respectively.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first last-place finish for the #71 in a Cup race at Martinsville since April 29, 1984 when Mike Alexander’s turn in Dave Marcis’ #71 Action Vans Oldsmobile ended after a crash just 1 lap into the Sovran Bank 500.  Alexander was running the full season in the #71 that year as Marcis had signed to drive for Butch Mock for 1984.  This race is more popularly known as the day Rick Hendrick scored his first victory as a team owner with Geoffrey Bodine in the #5.
*This marked the first time a Cup driver finished last due to clutch issues since February 23, 1997, when Loy Allen, Jr.’s #19 Child Support Recovery Ford fell out after 68 laps of the Goodwrench Service 400 at Rockingham.  It hadn’t happened at Martinsville since April 24, 1994, when Jeff Burton’s #8 Raybestos Ford left the Hanes 500 after 286 laps.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #71-Andy Hillenburg / 9 laps / clutch
42) #43-John Andretti / 209 laps / engine
41) #12-Ryan Newman / 257 laps / overheating
40) #26-Frank Kimmel / 282 laps / crash
39) #25-Jerry Nadeau / 341 laps / overheating / led 42 laps

OPINION: Catch-36: Many chartered teams grew by "start-and-parking"

Tommy Baldwin Racing, 2009
SOURCE: motorsport.com

Five races into the Sprint Cup season and already the RTA’s new Charter system has taken its toll.  Only three Open teams returned from Daytona, and they'll perhaps remain the only three next Sunday at Martinsville for yet another short field.  Regardless, earlier this month at Las Vegas, Darrell Waltrip beamed that this year’s field “is the strongest we’ve ever had.”

This sentiment has been shared by other media members and fans alike.  Many are repeating the RTA’s line that the Charters have successfully prohibited the act of “start-and-parking,” forcing the entire field to run full races and full seasons.  What’s curious about this is how many of the Chartered 36 were “start-and-park” teams as recently as 2014, and may not even exist today had the practice been off the table.  Let’s crack open the LASTCAR yearbook and see which teams had the most pimples:

Front Row Motorsports, which today holds two medallions for Chris Buescher and Landon Cassill, joined the Sprint Cup Series in 2005 as an underfunded single-car team which changed its number on a near-weekly basis.  They never made the field for the Daytona 500 until 2008, when John Andretti raced his way in as a “go-or-go-homer” in the final corner of his qualifying race.  The team never ran a full season until 2009, and only then was able to because they bought a spot in the Top 35 from DEI’s closed #15 team.  Even then, Front Row fielded a second “start-and-park” car, #37, which scored six last-place finishes that year alone.  This parking expansion team returned in 2011, when it exited early 15 times as car #55, and another 29 times in 2012 as #26 with then-rookie Josh Wise.

Germain Racing, which holds a medallion for Casey Mears, also benefitted from the “start-and-park” method.  A fixture in the Camping World Truck Series since 2004, Germain debuted in the Cup Series as a part-time team at Las Vegas in 2009, where Max Papis finished 36th.  The next year, the team eyed their first full-season run, but sponsorship from GEICO wasn’t enough to get them through the year.  The solution was to have Papis park in at least nine races during the season to supplement his remaining full-race attempts.  In 2011, when Mears took over for Papis in the #13, Germain added a full-time “start-and-park” entry to fund it.  Four different drivers parked Germain’s backup #60 in all 20 of its starts, allowing the #13 to run full races weekly.  The #60 disappeared in 2012, when Germain switched from Toyota to Ford.

HScott Motorsports has two medallions for drivers Clint Bowyer and Michael Annett.  One was acquired from Premium Motorsports, the conglomerate of several teams including Phil Parsons Racing and NEMCO Motorsports, teams which from 2009 through 2013 amassed a combined 64 Sprint Cup last-place finishes.  The other came through the efforts of James Finch, who sold his decades-old Sprint Cup and XFINITY effort to HScott owner Harry Scott, Jr. in late 2013.  Like Front Row, Finch’s team was a prolific part-time effort for years, and like Germain, was a team that in 2004 and again in 2009 chose to “start-and-park” in several races in order to build itself into a full-time team, which it accomplished in 2011.  Even in the eight races before Brad Keselowski’s breakout win at Talladega in April 2009, Finch's program failed to qualify four times, parked in another three, and crashed the week before at Phoenix.

Tommy Baldwin Racing, which has Regan Smith’s medallion, stands as perhaps the last of the latest crop of Sprint Cup start-up teams.  In 2009, Baldwin brought his XFINITY Series program to Cup, joining start-ups like PRISM Motorsports, NEMCO Motorsports, Max Q Racing, and Mayfield Motorsports which acquired cars and crews from teams that folded over the offseason.  Baldwin’s #36 was among the slowest in the lead-up to that year’s Daytona qualifying races, but veteran Scott Riggs latched onto the lead pack and raced the car into the show.  Despite a 25th-place finish in the 500, sponsorship woes and DNQ’s forced Riggs to “start-and-park” beginning that spring at Richmond.  Like Germain, Baldwin enlisted a second car #35 that was parked to fund the #36 in 2010, and when that deal fell through, the #36 parked in its place.  It wasn’t until 2011, during Dave Blaney’s breakout performance in the Daytona 500, that Baldwin’s team ran full races on a consistent basis.  Even so, Baldwin’s team has enlisted the aid of a “start-and-park” teammate as recently as late 2014, when his #37 Chevrolet finished 43rd due to early exits in five of its ten starts.

Circle Sport - Leavine Family Racing, which has Michael McDowell and Ty Dillon share a medallion, debuted as a part-timer at Texas in the spring of 2011 with Truck Series veteran David Starr, who came home 38th.  When Scott Speed replaced Starr for their return to Texas in 2012, he parked after 13 laps, earning the first of five last-place finishes in at least 19 “start-and-park” efforts over the next two seasons.  It wasn’t until 2014, when McDowell signed with the team, that the car finished under power on a consistent basis.  But it was not until this year, when they merged with Joe Falk’s team Circle Sport, that the team will now make a bid at their first full Sprint Cup season.  Curiously, 2015 was also the first time - and the last - that Falk’s car qualified for every Cup race run that season since he joined the circuit in 1997.

JTG-Daugherty Racing, its charter securing A.J. Allmendinger’s spot in the field, has never been a “start-and-park” team in the 258 races dating back to Marcos Ambrose’s 17th-place finish in JTG’s Cup debut at the 2009 Daytona 500.  However, just five months after that 500, Kelly Bires parked their XFINITY Series ride after 2 laps at Chicago, the first of 16 early exits that season, yielding two last-place finishes.  Following two more one-off starts with Ambrose, including a victory at Watkins Glen, the XFINITY program parked for good, and the team has only run Cup since.

BK Racing, which has two medallions for David Ragan and Matt DiBenedetto, also didn’t join the Sprint Cup Series as a “start-and-park” team.  When Ron Devine and Wayne Press acquired the assets of Team Red Bull’s two-car team over the 2011-2012 offseason, they qualified two cars in the Daytona 500 with Landon Cassill and David Reutimann, their 22nd and 26th-place finishes beginning a full-season, full-race two-car run.  However, just two years later, BK entered a third car, #93, as a “start-and-park” entry.  That third team made six starts in 2014 and finished last in five of them with four different drivers.  The next year, the car became a fully-funded third team with then-rookie Jeb Burton.

The list goes on and on.  Brad Keselowski’s first 20 XFINITY Series starts came driving for Brad Coleman in a #23 Chevrolet that finished last twice, including a Lap 1 exit at Mexico City.  Danica Patrick’s team at Stewart-Haas Racing came about because Tommy Baldwin volunteered the owner points to his primary team in 2012 while he parked a second car part-time.  Even Richard Childress’ 285th and final Cup start as a driver in 1981 came driving a backup #41 Mountain Dew Buick for Junior Johnson at Riverside, a car he parked after Darrell Waltrip’s matching #11 fired up, allowing Waltrip to secure his first Winston Cup.

One would be quick to point out that none of these teams or drivers “start-and-park” anymore.  But if that matters, this should, too: in 2015, there were no more Sprint Cup “start-and-parks.”  None.  From 2009 through 2013, Phil Parsons Racing scored more last-place finishes in Cup than anyone else, but last year they trailed just one field because of an actual race-ending crash at Kentucky.  Twice in 2015, Premium Motorsports fielded a car that couldn’t start the race, and both times they got it to fire and rejoin the event, even when they were too many laps down to improve even one position.  And the only three last-place finishes by a team without a Charter in 2016 were by Hillman Racing, which lost three engines in three fully-funded cars.  Yet still, "start-and-park" teams are viewed as some kind of threat to the sport.  It's a clear attempt to stifle competition from programs looking to rise through the ranks as they have.

NASCAR, the media, and especially the RTA need to stop using “start-and-park” teams as some kind of boogeyman to justify the Charter system.  Small teams are the victims of this decision, not the cause.  NASCAR has always been a sport of haves and have nots, but for decades there was always a chance of upward mobility - no matter how slim - for those who stuck it out.  What the RTA has done with its charters is created an artificial barrier to prevent stories like those listed above from ever happening again.  And I believe both the quality of the field and the culture in the garage will suffer for it.  In fact, it already has.

Remember this: more likely than not, the team in victory lane today was the same one that pulled behind the wall on Lap 3 only a few years ago.  And if today’s Charter system had been around back then, you may have never known the driver behind the wheel.