PREVIEW: Triple-duty for Yeley and double-duty for Finchum among the stories in NASCAR's return to Nashville

PHOTO: @TeamNurtecODT

Friday, June 18, 2021 

TRUCKS Race 12 of 22

Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville Superspeedway

2011 Last-Place Finisher (July): Mike Garvey

ENTRY LIST

There are 43 drivers entered – up seven entries from last week in Texas – and each will contest for a place in Friday’s 36-truck field. Both the Trucks and XFINITY will compete on the 1.33-mile concrete tri-oval for the first time since 2011.

DRIVER SWAP: #3-Jordan Anderson Racing

DRIVER CHANGE: #33-Reaume Brothers Racing

Josh Reaume is back behind the wheel of one of his trucks for only the second time this year and first since Richmond, when he ran 33rd in the #34. This time around, he drives the flagship #33 in place of Keith McGee, who moves back to Jordan Anderson’s entry in place of Howie DiSavino III, who isn’t entered. DiSavino finished 23rd with McGee in 29th. Military Finance is the listed sponsor for McGee’s #3.

MISSING: #6-Norm Benning Racing

As Norm Benning reported prior to Texas, where he finished 30th, he has not entered the Nashville event due to the prevalence of Cup drivers and teams. He is very much looking forward to returning in the following two rounds at Pocono and Knoxville. Incidentally, Benning has made six Truck Series starts on the Nashville Superspeedway with a best finish of 22nd in 2009 and 2010.

RETURNING: #11-Spencer Davis Racing

Spencer Davis is back in action at Nashville, driving the #11 he last campaigned at Darlington, where he was collected in the night’s biggest crash, finishing 29th.

RETURNING: #14-Trey Hutchens Racing

Trey Hutchens returns for first time since his only remaining race-ready truck was destroyed in Charlotte. The incident appears to have attracted the attention of sponsors as Rich Mar and Quality Roof Seamer are the listed backers of his Chevrolet.

RETURNING: #17-David Gilliland Racing

After a week off as his #37 wasn’t entered in the All-Star Open, Ryan Preece will make the first Truck Series start of his career following 93 Cup starts and 59 in XFINITY. He will drive David Gilliland’s #17 Ford with Hunt Brothers Pizza on board, then turn his attention to Sunday’s Cup race.

DRIVER CHANGE: #24-GMS Racing

After Chase Elliott fell just short of winning last week in Texas, Jack Wood will make his third career Truck Series stat in the #24 with Chevy Accessories as the listed sponsor. Wood was just 10 years old the last time the series ran at Nashville.

NEW TEAM: #27-Rackley-W.A.R.

One week after Josh Berry finished a strong 10th in the team’s flagship #25, the Rackley-W.A.R. effort will debut a new second truck and put Cup regular William Byron behind the wheel of the #27. Cruisin’ Sports will back Byron in addition to the Rackley Roofing brand.

DRIVER CHANGE: #30-On Point Motorsports

Brennan Poole is again out of the #30 this week after he ran 14th in his reunion with the On Point effort last week in Texas. That finish happened to be the team’s best all year, improving on the 17th-place showings Danny Bohn earned at both Daytona and Las Vegas. Bohn is again the driver this week with North American Motor Car as the sponsor.

RETURNING: #32-Bret Holmes Racing

Bret Holmes will attempt his fifth Truck start of 2021 and first since Charlotte, where a crash left him 36th out of a starting lineup of 38. Southern States Bank is again the listed sponsor.

DRIVER CHANGE: #34-Reaume Brothers Racing

Should he qualify, Lawless Alan will make the first oval track start of his Truck Series career, following a 36th on the Daytona Road Course and a 23rd in COTA. Alan takes the place of Jesse Iwuji, who ran 28th in Texas, one spot ahead of his teammate.

DRIVER CHANGE: #49-CMI Motorsports

After a difficult weekend in Texas where Ray Ciccarelli fell out late with brake trouble, J.J. Yeley will take the controls of the #49 to kick off a triple-header weekend for the veteran from Arizona. If he qualifies, Yeley will start his 37th series race and first of the season. He last took the green in a Truck on August 21, 2020 at Dover, when he ran 26th for Josh Reaume. Most significantly, while Yeley has yet to make a Truck start at the Nashville Superspeedway, he has eight starts in XFINITY races there with a best finish of 4th in 2006.

DRIVER CHANGE: #56-Hill Motorspors

Timmy Hill steps in for brother Tyler in the #56 with Mountain Fork Brewery as sponsor once again. Tyler finished 19th last week, and Timmy most recently ran 18th in Charlotte.

RETURNING: #66-ThorSport Racing

Also rejoining the series is ThorSport’s newest #66 team, which skipped Texas after solid runs with both Paul Menard and Ty Majeski. Majeski will again run the truck this week with his Charlotte sponsor SimCraft as sponsor.

RETURNING: #68-Clay Greenfield Racing

Along with Rackley Roofing’s title sponsor of the race and two-truck effort with Josh Berry and William Byron, the company will also adorn their first team, Clay Greenfield’s #68. Greenfield and his Toyota have not entered a race this season since the Daytona opener, and are looking for their first start since last fall at Martinsville, where they ran 21st.

RETURNING: #75-Henderson Motorsports

A simple jet-black paint scheme for sponsor Fast Checkout is the look for a returning Parker Kligerman and Charlie Henderson’s team, both on the entry list for the first time since COTA, where they ran 13th. Kligerman is another of the few entered this week with starts at the Nashville Speedway, and with Benning not entered is the only one to wheel a truck around here. He drove Brad Keselowski’s entries to a 10th and 5th in the track’s two Truck Series races in 2011.

CUP INVADERS: #17-Ryan Preece, #27-William Byron, #45-Ross Chastain

Saturday, June 19, 2021 

XFINITY Race 15 of 33

Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville Superspeedway

2011 Last-Place Finisher (July, 300 miles): Marc Davis

ENTRY LIST

There are 42 drivers entered for 36 spots – the same number of entries last week in Texas – but this time, all will be able to attempt to qualify.

DRIVER SWAP: #4-JD Motorsports

DRIVER SWAP: #6-JD Motorsports

Ryan Vargas and Landon Cassill swap rides again, putting Cassill in the #4 and Vargas in the #6. Cassill finished 15th last week with Vargas back in 24th.

DRIVER CHANGE: #17-Rick Ware Racing / SS-Green Light Racing

DRIVER CHANGE: #07-SS-Green Light Racing

J.J. Yeley’s XFINITY ride will be with SS-Green Light Racing in the #07, carrying Rick Ware Racing sponsor Smart Sanitizer. Yeley bumps Joe Graf, Jr. to the Ware-partnered #17 Chevrolet along with Graf’s G Coin sponsorship, taking the place of Garrett Smithley. Smithley will not run Saturday’s race and focus on Sunday’s main event with RWR.

DRIVER CHANGE: #23-Our Motorsports

The Reaume Brothers / Natalie Decker portion of the #23 team’s schedule returns this week as Decker takes the place of Tanner Berryhill with returning Red Street Records as sponsor. Berryhill finished next-to-last in Texas following a mid-race tangle with Gray Gaulding.

DRIVER CHANGE: #26-Sam Hunt Racing

West coast standout Will Rodgers is set to make his fifth career XFINITY Series start and first since the 2019 finale at Homestead, taking the place of Brandon Gdovic in Sam Hunt’s #26 Toyota. Good RX is the listed sponsor for the effort.

DRIVER CHANGE: #31-Jordan Anderson Racing

After a frustrating clutch issue prevented him from starting the Texas race until after the 50-lap mark, Jordan Anderson is back out of his #31 Chevrolet, putting in Cup regular Tyler Reddick. Reddick, who raced his way into an All-Star spot on Sunday, finished 8th with the team in COTA and 5th in Charlotte.

RETURNING: #42-Motorsports Business Management

DRIVER CHANGE: #61-Motorsports Business Management / Hattori Racing Enterprises

As Carl Long indicated last Saturday in Texas, the Nashville race will see him bring back the #42 XFINITY team, which Long campaigned in 2019 following the shutdown of Chip Ganassi Racing’s XFINITY program. Chad Finchum will run the car with Toyota of Knoxville as sponsor. The entry returns as Shigeaki Hattori will put Austin Hill in MBM’s #61 for the first time in 2021, kicking off a six-race schedule for HRE in the series.

SPONSOR UPDATE: #68-Brandonbilt Motorsports

Brandon Brown’s “For Sale” sign at Texas – and the viral video that accompanied it – has paid off. Saturday will mark the first time motorsports media site Kickin’ The Tires will have their logo on a car.

MISSING: #77-Bassett Racing

DRIVER CHANGE: #90-DGM Racing

Dillon Bassett takes the place of Ronnie Bassett, Jr. in the Mario Gosselin-owned #90, continuing the brothers’ relationship with the DGM team. For the first time in 2021, the Bassett’s own #77 isn’t entered at all – and for an event where they would have had an opportunity to qualify on time.

CUP INVADERS: #31-Tyler Reddick, #54-Kyle Busch

Sunday, June 20, 2021

CUP Race 17 of 36

Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway

2020 Last-Place Finisher: Inaugural Event

ENTRY LIST

There are 39 drivers entered for Sunday’s 40-car field – up two entries from the last points race in Sonoma – but the 13th short field in 17 races this season.

TEAM UPDATE: #13-Motorsports Business Management

As also indicated by Carl Long last week, the MBM team has again entered their second car, which returned to action in last week’s All-Star Open with David Starr. Starr is again the driver this week with Bob Menery as the listed sponsor.

DRIVER CHANGE: #15-Rick Ware Racing

Joey Gase is set to make his sixth Cup start of 2021 and first since Kansas, once again running the #15 for Rick Ware Racing. He takes the place of James Davison, who put a donut on the driver’s side door during the physical early laps of the All-Star Open.

RETURNING: #37-JTG-Daugherty Racing

On top of his Truck Series debut, Ryan Preece is back in the Cup Series field after they skipped the All-Star Race. Entenmann’s donuts is the listed sponsor for Preece’s “open” #37.

DRIVER CHANGE: #51-Rick Ware Racing

J.J. Yeley will round out his triple-header weekend in the Nurtec ODT Chevrolet, taking the place of Cody Ware, who is entered in this weekend’s IndyCar Series event in Road America. This will be Yeley’s fifth Cup start of the season and first since Darlington, where he ran 29th in RWR’s #53. He has finished no worse than that all year and completed 98.5% of his attempted laps in 2021.

DRIVER CHANGE: #66-Motorsports Business Management

While Timmy Hill will run his Truck Series effort this weekend, he will not reprise his role in MBM’s Cup Series #66 Toyota. That ride will go to Chad Finchum, who will pull double-duty with his run in MBM’s #42 on Saturday. Smithbilt Homes, a longtime backer of Finchum’s, will be back to sponsor Finchum’s fifth Cup start and first since October 28, 2020 at Texas.

TODAY IN LASTCAR HISTORY (June 18, 1978): Making his 55th Cup start, Neil Bonnett picked up the first last-place finish of his career in the Gabriel 400 at Michigan when his #5 Armor All Dodge lost an engine after 24 laps. The #5 wouldn’t finish last in another Cup race until April 13, 1986 with Geoffrey Bodine at Darlington. Another Cup driver wouldn’t score his first last-place finish in the #5 until August 2, 2015 with Kasey Kahne.

SRX: Fuel pump issues relegate Awesome Bill to last in first series race

PHOTO: @jeff_gluck on Twitter

by William Soquet

LASTCAR.info Staff Writer

Bill Elliott scored the first last-place finish of his Superstar Racing Experience career at the Stafford Motor Speedway when his #9 unsponsored purple car fell out with mechanical issues after completing ten of the feature race’s 100 laps.

Across series history, it was the first for the #9, the first for the purple-liveried car, and the first for crew chief Mike Christopher, as it was the series’ first-ever race.

Fitting right in with the eclectic mix of drivers that comprise the SRX field, "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville" (yes, he was actually nicknamed that) has kept an active racing career since his last NASCAR Cup Series start in 2012. He's continued to race various minor series for the following half-decade and made a surprise XFINITY Series start in 2018 at Road America. When I asked him at a press conference that weekend if he ever planned on retiring for good, Elliott said that he plans on racing until he lacks either the physical or mental capacity to do it anymore. Viewed from that lens, the six-weekend SRX is a natural fit – big personalities, a new car, and a handful of America’s most iconic short track venues.

The Superstar Racing Experience employs ten full-time drivers and has two roles that rotate. One of those is the “cameo” role, reserved for superstars who will drive only the occasional race or two. The other is the “track champion” car, reserved for a driver who is synonymous with the venue where the series is racing. Greg Biffle, the 19-time Cup race winner, filled the cameo role for the series’ first event, and Milford, Connecticut’s Doug Coby took the wheel of the track champion car. Coby’s racing career went through Stafford for a long time, logging an estimated 10,000 laps before moving on to claim six NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championships.

The SRX format utilizes two heats and a feature, not unlike NASCAR’s short-lived Dash 4 Cash format from 2016. Unlike the Dash, in which starting lineups were based on time trials, the SRX drivers were entered in a random draw to determine the starting order for the first heat. Elliott drew 11th, on the inside of the final row. Marco Andretti started last on the field and was going to be the pace laps interview until the broadcast couldn’t connect to his radio. Elliott’s car stood out in the fact that while almost every other paint scheme in the field had a sponsor to go along with it, Elliott’s purple car bore no major sponsor other than the series logo on the door. SRX randomly pairs a driver with a paint scheme on a week-by-week basis.

By the end of the first lap, Andretti had passed Elliott for 11th and the two trailed the field by a handful of car lengths by the end of the second lap. However, at the two-minute mark, it was Willy T. Ribbs who had moved into last, and Ribbs quickly lost ground to the field while fighting a tight car, going 12.5 seconds down to the lead at the halfway mark (seven and a half minutes) of heat one. Less than a minute after that, however, Paul Tracy spun off the bumper of Michael Waltrip in turns one and two. 

With a significant part of the nose dislodged, Tracy spent the rest of the heat in the pit lane as crew chief Todd Parrott worked on the car. Elliott worked his way up to ninth by the end of the fifteen minutes.

The starting lineup for the second heat was a total invert of the Heat 1 finishing order. Biffle, by virtue of taking the checkered flag in the first heat, started 12th in Heat 2. He didn’t stay there for long, passing Bobby Labonte in the first set of turns after the green flag. By the halfway mark, Helio Castroneves had been shuffled back to last. Not long after that, Ribbs spun in turn three from the midpoint of the field. Biffle and Castroneves were running 11th and 12th at the time and Biffle checked up earlier than Castroneves entering the corner, resulting in the Brazilian punting Biffle. All three cars involved spent the remainder of the heat on pit road repairing their machines - Biffle was classified as last by timing and scoring. Elliott continued his climb through the field, making his way up to fourth by the end of the second fifteen-minute period.

The starting lineup for the feature event was the finishing order of the second heat, and Biffle rolled off last on the grid after switching to a plain white backup car for the feature. However, Elliott’s purple machine stalled on the backstretch during pace laps after the driver reported a loss of fuel pressure. The car was pushed to pit road, where pit reporter Brad Daugherty said that the series gave crew chief Mike Christopher about five minutes to fix the problem before the feature started. After some electrical work around the fuel pump area, Elliott rejoined the tail of the field, where he started the race.

There he stayed until lap five, when Michael Waltrip spun off the bumper of Ernie Francis, Jr. in turn three. Waltrip drove his Progressive Insurance car to pit lane, where did not lose any laps under caution. By the time the field restarted on lap eight, Elliott’s car was nowhere to be found, even as timing and scoring had him in the tenth spot ahead of Waltrip and Ribbs. The broadcast made a quick mention of Elliott going to the pit lane on lap ten, and that was the last the broadcast saw or heard from Elliott.

While mechanical issues sidelined Elliott, the other two cars that failed to finish did so due to damage. Michael Waltrip was shown the black flag right around the midway point of the event for a massive tire rub and did not return to the track, finishing 48 laps in arrears. Marco Andretti finished tenth after his right-front suspension locked up with six laps to go.

Since all cars are prepared and owned by the series itself, LASTCAR will instead track last-place finishes for liveries and crew chiefs, which are randomly assigned to drivers on a week-by-week basis.

THE BOTTOM THREE

12th) #9-Bill Elliott / 10 laps / fuel pump

11th) #15-Michael Waltip / 52 laps / damage

10th) #98-Marco Andretti / 96 laps / damage

2021 LASTCAR SRX CREW CHIEFS CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Mike Christopher (1)

2021 LASTCAR SRX LIVERIES CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Purple Unsponsored (1)

2021 LASTCAR SRX DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP

CUP: Denny Hamlin's last-minute pit stop ends All-Star Race's 100-lap last-place battle

PHOTO: Brock Beard

Denny Hamlin finished last in Sunday’s running of the All-Star Race at the Texas Motor Speedway when his #11 FedEx Office Toyota finished under power after completing all 100 laps.

Now 16 races into the season, three stories have captured much of the attention – the series of different winners that began the year, the Hendrick dominance that has since followed it, and the perplexing winless streaks of both Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin. For Hamlin, the year began with a chance to become the first driver ever to win the Daytona 500 in three straight years. He was well on his way to accomplishing it, leading 98 laps, only to find himself out of contention in the final laps. Since then, Hamlin has amassed the most points of any driver, scoring top-five finishes in all but seven of the first 16 races and a Top Ten in all but four. He’s also completed all but three laps all season and led 756 of the combined 4,291. But he still arrived in Texas without a single checkered flag in 2021. But he was also the 2015 winner of the All-Star Race, and would roll off 16th on the night of the event.

Among those excited to take part in the event was Michael McDowell, winner of the 500 that slipped through Hamlin’s fingers. While active in Cup on at least a part-time schedule since 2008, McDowell never raced in the Open until 2013, and had only made six starts since with a best finish of 7th at Bristol last year. He’d start 11th, five spots ahead of Hamlin.

“I’m excited to be a part of it. It’s my first All-Star Race, and so it was fun to watch the Open and not be in it, and be able to know you’re locked-in. And obviously the format tonight is gonna create a lot of excitement and some opportunity and with no practice you just hope that you’re gonna unload just where you wanna be. . .but you just don’t know until you get those first laps out there and get going.”

The extreme heat and humidity of the weekend threatened to be as much of a challenge as the race itself. I asked McDowell of his experience racing in extreme temperatures. “I think our cars are hot every week, so it’s a part of it,” he said. “When you go to Pocono or Indy and those places, it’s hot just like this. I think that tonight, once the sun comes down, it’ll get a little bit cooler, a little bit better. But the other part of this race is it’s a short race, so you don’t put in the driver comfort things that you normally would, and so I think that makes it a little bit hotter because you’re not typically running all of the systems you would normally run to keep the driver cool just to save weight. . .So you’re kind of pushing everything to the limit – driver included – so it’s a good test for everybody.”

Looking ahead on the schedule, he also was excited to tackle Road America in a Cup car, a track where he scored his first XFINITY win in 2016. “Yeah, definitely. Road America’s one we have circled for sure that we feel like we’ll have a shot for running up front at and winning.”

With no drivers sent to the rear for pre-race penalties, Fan Vote winner Matt DiBenedetto rolled off in 21st place in the #21 Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford. DiBenedetto trailed the field coming to the green, but by the end of Lap 1 dropped Aric Almirola to last in the #10 Smithfield Ford. Moments later, the caution fell on Lap 2 for a fender rub on Christopher Bell’s #20 Craftsman Toyota. Bell made it to pit road without incident, and took over last place.

On the restart, Almirola was again behind Bell, but got past the #20 on Lap 5, by which point both drivers were a short distance back of the remaining field. Bell continued to lose ground over the next two circuits, but by Lap 12 had again caught Almirola entering the quad-oval. Looking low, Bell nearly put his right-front wheel on the grass to attempt a pass, and the pair were again side-by-side on Lap 15. Bell finally cleared the #10 just before Round 1 ended on Lap 15, putting Almirola in last place.

For Round 2, Bell picked the inside lane with Almirola to his outside, and Almirola this time drew ahead by Lap 17. On Lap 20, Ryan Newman dropped back in his #6 Wyndham Rewards Ford until he was in the sights of last-place Almirola. The two remained in a stalemate, and the #10 began to lose touch with Newman’s Ford. With two laps to go in the round, DiBenedetto had also dropped back, and the #21 finished just ahead of the #10 as the pair crossed the stripe side-by-side to end Round 2.

Dillon edges Newman for last past the stripe---

The following inversion for Round 3 brought Almirola to the lead and placed two Penske Racing teammates to the final row:  Brad Keselowski in the #2 Discount Tire Ford and Ryan Blaney in the #12 Menards / Wrangler Ford. Blaney lagged back on the restart, but passed Keselowski the next time by. Both then worked their way past Kurt Busch in the #1 Gear Wrench Chevrolet, but Kurt dropped Blaney to last again on Lap 34. By then, Kurt had his sights set on Keselowski, who was locked in a side-by-side battle with Ross Chastain. Keselowski then dropped to last on Lap 36, and the next time by was several carlengths back of the field – the biggest deficit of the race so far. The nearly one-second gap stabilized on Lap 39, and the #2 was soon reeling in the slipping Cole Custer in the #41 HaasTooling.com Ford. Keselowski and Custer were both running by themselves, but Custer managed to hold off Keselowski when Round 3 concluded.

For the Lap 46 restart to begin Round 4, Keselowski was advised by NASCAR to close up more on the field. He was still at least two carlengths back of the next car in line when he took the green, and by the next lap had dropped Martin Truex, Jr.’s #19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota to last for the first time all night. Truex then caught still another new challenger in Open Stage 2 winner Tyler Reddick in the #8 iCash Autos / I Am Second Chevrolet. Like Keselowski, Reddick then lost around a second to the next car in line before the gap stabilized and he slowly reeled in Truex once more. On the final lap of the round, Reddick dove under Truex entering Turn 1, but couldn’t make it stick, and the #8 remained in 21st place.

Reddick remained last for the Round 5 restart, and green-flag stops soon shuffled much of the order. Christopher Bell re-took last place on Lap 66, followed by Austin Dillon in the #3 Andy’s Frozen Custard Chevrolet on Lap 70. Dillon would ultimately incur three of the night’s four pit road penalties, each for a different cause. A pass-through penalty for speeding had put him in last while pitting before pit road was open on Lap 79, then driving through more than three pit boxes on Lap 90 would keep him there. Dillon retained the spot even as Ross Chastain had a harmless spin in Turn 2 on Lap 80. And, like Brad Keselowski before him, Dillon would lag back for the restart. When Round 5 ended, Christopher Bell again nearly clipped the infield grass, but the order remained the same. The aforementioned pit box penalty was then handed to Dillon, keeping him in last for the final ten laps.

---until Hamlin comes down pit road, window net down.

When the final sprint began, Dillon lined up next to Ryan Newman’s #6, and the two would battle for much of the final stage. Dillon put Newman to last with 8 to go, but couldn’t shake Newman, who worked to his inside entering Turn 1 the next time by. Dillon held him off, but Newman tried the move again with five to go. Again, Dillon kept the momentum going and kept the #6 in last place. By then, both had reeled in Chastain with DiBenedetto in front of the #42, who threatened to turn it into a four-car battle on the final lap. While Chastain held the inside line, putting Newman in his draft, Dillon held the outside and crossed the line less than a carlength ahead of Newman.

Only, by now, it suddenly wasn’t the battle for last place.

As the tail end of the field streaked across the finish line, Denny Hamlin rolled down pit road at reduced speed, his window net down. “We had lugnuts loose,” said Hamlin after walking from his car. “and we'd get our crew chief suspended because of a lugnut loose, so we don’t wanted [sic] to have that.” Thus, while Hamlin’s pit stall was past the starting line, his decision to pit had dropped him behind both Newman and Dillon, causing him to take the last spot at practically the last moment. Hamlin continued around the track, joining the rest of the field at the far end of pit road after the cool-down lap, and was credited with still finishing under power. The decision had saved the team from a possible penalty, as NASCAR reported no lugnut penalties after the race.

Newman, Dillon, Chastain, and DiBenedetto rounded out the Bottom Five – all of them within a fraction of a second of each other. And for the second-straight year at two radically different tracks, the All-Star Race saw the entire field complete every lap.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*This marked the first-ever last-place finish for the #11 in the All-Star Race.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

21) #11-Denny Hamlin / 100 laps / running

20) #6-Ryan Newman / 100 laps / running

19) #3-Austin Dillon / 100 laps / running

18) #42-Ross Chastain / 100 laps / running

17) #21-Matt DiBenedetto / 100 laps / running

CUP: Daniel Suarez eliminated in early wreck with Erik Jones at Texas

PHOTO: Brock Beard

Daniel Suarez finished last in Sunday’s running of the All-Star Open at the Texas Motor Speedway when his #99 CommScope Chevrolet was eliminated in a two-car accident after 13 of 50 laps.

Overlooked for much of the previous offseason was the birth of Team Trackhouse, founded by former NASCAR driver Justin Marks with support from Richard Childress Racing. The team had landed Suarez as driver, but didn’t receive much press compared to 23XI Racing, co-owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan. That is, until recording star Pitbull joined weeks before the Daytona 500. Suarez showed speed in his qualifier for the Daytona 500, and after he was collected in the race’s biggest wreck has since matched and at times exceeded the performance of Bubba Wallace at 23XI.

Suarez ran Top 20 in three of the first six races, then led 58 laps on the Bristol Dirt Track before Joey Logano passed him for the win. He ran 11th at Kansas, 9th at Dover, and nearly had another Top 10 at Sonoma before a late-race scuffle with Michael McDowell. At rainy COTA, the team showed its determination by changing two transmissions on the same day, avoiding their first last-place finish in the process. Since then, motivational speaker Tony Robbins has eyed investing in the team. They’ve also matched 23XI’s rumors of possibly expanding to two cars are soon as next season.

Suarez, who won the Open in 2017 and finished runner-up the next year, had crossed paths with Bubba Wallace in the Open before. In 2019, Wallace made contact with Suarez while battling for the lead, sending Suarez spinning while Wallace made the show. Now on competing start-up teams, there was a possibility for a repeat as the two lined up nose-to-tail for the second-straight race: 

Rolling off 22nd and last was David Starr, who was eligible for running the event when he made his lone start of 2021 in this year’s Coca-Cola 600, finishing 36th in Motorsports Business Management’s #66 Toyota. This time around - with Timmy Hill in the #66 - Starr would run MBM’s #13, an effort that hasn’t run a Cup race since Garrett Smithley narrowly missed the field for this year’s Daytona 500. This time, the car was flat black with a logo for T-Top Manufacturing on the hood and Cantera Design Builders on the quarter-panels.

Suarez pulls his wrecked car behind the wall.

Prior to the start of the race, Starr incurred a tail-end penalty for unapproved adjustments. This likely stemmed from the crew working under the hood while the other cars were gridded. Two more cars would join him. Ross Chastain was set to start 5th in the #42 McDonald’s Chevrolet until he twice failed inspection as the aero ducts did not conform to OEM specifications. Chastain’s crew chief was ejected and the team was handed a $25,000 fine. Also sent to the rear was 16th-place starter Austin Cindric, whose #33 Pirtek Ford twice failed inspection for another reason, leaving them among the last of the Open cars to join the grid on pit road.

During the pace laps, Starr and Chastain started in the final row. Chastain drew away at the start, and by the end of Lap 1 was running by himself. NASCAR then posted Chris Buescher’s #17 Fastenal Ford and, by Lap 4, Austin Cindric’s docked #33, likely for start violations. Neither would serve their penalty before Lap 5, when Bubba Wallace drew the first caution for spinning his #23 Door Dash Toyota in Turn 2. Wallace took last from Starr, and Cindric and Buescher served their penalties by dropping to the tail end of the longest line.

On the Lap 9 restart, Buescher spun in Turn 4 after contact in the left-rear from Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.’s #47 Kroger / Bush’s Beans Chevrolet. Like Wallace, Buescher avoided serious damage and came down pit road for fresh tires and a pull on the fender. He took over last place, which had also been held by Timmy Hill after he dropped to the tail end in MBM’s #66 Boathouse Bar & Grill / Oak’d Handcrafted BBQ Toyota. Hill had laid back under caution, and had been joined in the rear by B.J. McLeod, who had pulled to the outside to let traffic pass in the #78 Surface Sunscreen Ford. McLeod stayed ahead of Hill, who briefly held the spot until Lap 13, when Josh Bilicki took over the spot in his #52 Junction Fuels Ford.

Erik Jones' wrecked car that collected Suarez

Suarez didn’t enter the last-place picture until the following restart on Lap 14, when contact from Chase Briscoe’s #14 Ford Performance Racing School Ford sent Erik Jones spinning his #43 Petty’s Garage Chevrolet in Turn 4. The field split around the sideways Jones, but Suarez couldn’t avoid slamming into the front of his car with the right-front of his #99. Suarez cut to pit road and immediately pulled into the first garage opening, followed a few seconds later by Jones. Both were done for the night, their haulers parked next to each other as they unloaded. 

I was unable to reach both Suarez and Jones for comment. However, I did speak to a few other drivers on their experience.

“Actually, it was fun,” said B.J. McLeod, who finished 12th. “I like this place. This package, you run easy wide-open in three and four, and one’s a challenge because you have to back out of the gas. So, interesting and just had fun. We made some adjustments to see if we could get a little better, and so we did.”

“I was really happy,” said Cody Ware, who finished 11th. “I was happy to see we had some good speed with this package, so hopefully next year with this new Next-Gen car coming out, we’ll see some more of the same, improving the program, getting some better equipment, and just progressing. . .Seeing how the PJ1 activates, how long it took to come in, is good to know. I don’t think we’re going to be doing as much drafting when we go back to the 550 package coming in November, but I think other than that, just seeing we have a good mile-and-a-half package and we’re improving it. Had a good run at the 600, backed it up here with a solid finish, so I’m really happy with what Mike Hillman and the guys on the Nurtec ODT car are doing this year.”

“For us, it was gonna be a practice session,” said David Starr, who finished 18th. “Trying to make our cars better and me and Timmy (Hill) were racing hard back there and just making some pit stops, trying some stuff. We knew we wasn’t gonna transfer, but we were racing hard to make our cars better. And, I’ll tell you what – that first segment was crazy. They were wrecking each other left and right. I don’t know if they were wrecking each other on purpose, but it just seemed like every time you’d go green, two or three laps later, it was a cation coming out. It’d happen right in front of you. But that’s what you get when you have a Saturday night feature on a Sunday afternoon at the Texas Motor Speedway. . .It was a fun race, man. I’m just glad I was in it.”

The next two spots in the Bottom Five were given to Ross Chastain, who overcame his pre-race penalty to win Stage 1, and polesitter Tyler Reddick, who claimed Stage 2 in the #8 iCash Autos / I Am Second Chevrolet. Starr rounded out the group, last of the four drivers who were lapped by the time Aric Almirola won the third and final stage. Matt DiBenedetto, the runner-up, scored the Fan Vote to transfer into the main event.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*This marked only the second last-place finish for the #99 in the Open race. The other occurrence was at Charlotte on May 22, 2004, when Jeff Burton’s #99 Roundup FastAct Ford was among the 11 drivers collected in a pileup on the initial start.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

22) #99-Daniel Suarez / 13 laps / crash

21) #43-Erik Jones / 13 laps / crash

20) #42-Ross Chastain / 20 laps / stage 1 winner / led 2 laps

19) #8-Tyler Reddick / 40 laps / stage 2 winner / led 38 laps

18) #13-David Starr / 49 laps / running

XFINITY: In Texas, Bayley Currey and Jordan Anderson find themselves locked in two-car battle to even start the race

PHOTO: Brock Beard

Bayley Currey picked up the 4th last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Saturday’s Alsco Uniforms 250 powered by Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen at the Texas Motor Speedway when his #74 Electric Fence Reel Chevrolet fell out with electrical problems without completing any of the 171 laps.

The finish, which came in Currey’s 62nd series start, was his second of the year and first since Talladega, six races ago. In the XFINITY Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 13th for the #74, the 55th from electrical woes, and the 571st for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 53rd for the #74, the 131st from electrical problems, and the 1,786th for Chevrolet.

Currey arrived at his home track looking to turn around a difficult season. Despite earning a career-best 7th at Phoenix this past spring, he’d finished no better than 22nd anywhere else and failed to qualify for both time trials at the Circuit of the Americas and Charlotte. Teammate Kyle Weatherman at the Mike Harmon Racing team has fared little better with a season-best 15th at Daytona, a 16th on the Daytona Road Course, but no other finishes better than 22nd. This was a frustrating turn for the MHR effort, whose two young drivers turned heads with many consistent runs last season.

One positive, however, has been on the sponsorship front. Both Currey and Weatherman debuted new backers at Texas: Weatherman’s #47 Duke & Boone Hunting Supply Chevrolet and Currey’s #74, which carried security fence company Electric Fence Reel on the h

Jordan Anderson in the garage

ood, plus quarter-panel logos for Shoofly Leggins, which manufactures “fly boots” for horses.

Currey rolled off 39th, one spot ahead of last-place starter Matt Jaskol in Motorsports Business Management’s #61 LiftKits4Less.com Toyota. When the engines fired, however, a logjam developed behind 32nd-place starter Jordan Anderson. Anderson, who got to race his own #31 Bommarito.com Chevrolet in the XFINITY Series for the first time, had trouble engaging the clutch, and soon the rest of the field drove around him to join the field. A push truck came to the scene, at which point Anderson’s engine fired, and he caught up to the pack.

Currey, meanwhile, would soon have problems of his own. During the second pace lap, his #74 started smoking, and the driver thought the car was on fire. His car also stopped on the track, and was towed into the garage area. NASCAR looked over the track, fearing that fluid had been dropped, and delayed the start. During that delay, Anderson pulled down pit road, the engine running. After a crewman looked under the driver’s side hood flap, Anderson’s engine seemed to pick up before it cut off. The team now looked under the hood, then soon pushed the car behind the wall as the green flag dropped.

Anderson’s crew worked on the #31 just behind pit wall, then at the bottom of the steep rise between the garage’s entrance and pit road, before pushing it the rest of the way to their truck. Anderson’s truck happened to be next to Currey’s, and the two cars sat nose-to-nose around ten yards apart with both crews working hard to get their machines back on the track. Currey, classified behind Anderson on the starting grid, was shown in last place on the leaderboard with Anderson 39th.

Bayley Currey's car across from Anderson's

By the time Anderson’s car arrived and was put on jack stands, Harmon’s crew had jacked up the right side of Currey’s #74 and had removed the right-rear wheel. A faulty battery had caused the smoke in the cockpit – a battery that was tossed aside, then kicked by the team owner. The crew attempted to install other batteries, but each kept shorting out due to an electrical fault. Currey climbed out of his car and assisted the crew.

Anderson’s crew continued to add fluid to a reservoir on the driver’s side of the car, and had at least two cans of engine cleaner and brake cleaner under and around the machine. A crew member from Richard Childress Racing, still wearing his TaxSlayer uniform from Myatt Snider’s team, was working under the right-front corner of the car. By Lap 35, both front wheels were off Anderson’s car, and the driver had climbed out. “No clutch, and it was leaking clutch fluid everywhere,” he said. “I don’t know what it is just yet. It keeps leaking whenever we put clutch fluid in it.” 

By Lap 40, Currey had climbed back into his car without his helmet, and another crewman was sitting on the passenger side, working on the dash. A trickle charger was then hooked to the dash four circuits later, and efforts were made to re-fire the engine. Things took a turn the next time by as Harmon walked back with the team’s tire cart, and another crewman brought back the set of tires they had on pit road. By then, Anderson was back in his car, the window net up and tires bolted back on. Currey’s crew brought out their own jack stands on Lap 47, and soon removed the right-side wheels. The car was still in this position two laps later when Anderson’s car, back on all four, re-fired its engine and returned to the race a full 50 laps down.

On Lap 54, Currey’s team removed the air cleaner, then the tapered spacer. NASCAR declared Currey out the next time by, preventing them from climbing out of last place. Currey said the car gave no indication of the issue at the shop. “I don’t know what we need to do to get the monkey off our back, man,” he said. “It’s been pretty bad these past few weeks. . .I work as hard as I can on that thing, and for something weird like that to happen sucks. I really enjoy coming here. I really enjoy Texas. Feel like I’m actually pretty good at this race track.” Currey will be helping the team get that same car turned around for next week’s race in Nashville, where he’ll drive it again.

Anderson climbed to 34th at the finish, losing just one more lap by the checkered flag. Among those who finished behind him were those collected in crashes during the race. On Lap 89, Tanner Berryhill’s #23 Eclipse Claims Consulting Chevrolet tangled with Gray Gaulding’s #52 Panini America Chevrolet off Turn 4, and Matt Mills spun his #5 J.F. Electric Toyota into the grass. The pileup resulted in heavy nose damage to both Gaulding and Berryhill with the #23 trailing fluid on his way to the transporter. Mills recovered to finish 26th while Gaulding and Berryhill ended up 38th and 39th.

Kyle Weatherman, Currey’s teammate, also had a short day, dropping out after 100 laps with fuel pump issues to take 37th. Jeffrey Earnhardt rounded out the group when his #0 Forever Lawn Chevrolet was collected by Stefan Parsons’ #99 Sokal Digital Chevrolet in a tangle down the backstretch. Parsons finished three more laps than Earnhardt, moving him to 35th behind Anderson.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*This marked the first last-place run for the #74 in an XFINITY Series race at Texas since April 10, 2015, when Mike Harmon’s unsponsored #74 Dodge fell out with engine trouble after 2 of 200 laps of the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300.

*It hasn’t been that long since two consecutive XFINITY Series races saw the last-place finisher fail to complete a lap. During the double-header at Kentucky on July 9-10, 2020, Brandon Jones and Kyle Weatherman, respectively, crashed out on the opening lap.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

40) #74-Bayley Currey / 0 laps / electrical

39) #23-Tanner Berryhill / 88 laps / crash

38) #52-Gray Gaulding / 89 laps / crash

37) #47-Kyle Weatherman / 100 laps / fuel pump

36) #0-Jeffrey Earnhardt / 107 laps / crash

2021 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) B.J. McLeod Motorsports, JR Motorsports, Mike Harmon Racing, RSS Racing / Reaume Brothers Racing (2)

2nd) DGM Racing, JD Motorsports, Motorsports Business Management, Our Motorsports, Sam Hunt Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing (1)

2021 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Chevrolet (10)

2nd) Toyota (3)

3rd) Ford (1)

2021 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP