PREVIEW: Return of Hacker, Holmes, and a Smithley double-header part of Texas All-Star weekend

SCREENSHOT: @TeamAlphaPrime

Friday, May 20, 2022 (8:30 P.M. ET, FS1)

TRUCKS Race 9 of 23

SpeedyCash.com 220 at Texas

2021 Last-Place Finisher: Ross Chastain

ENTRY LIST

After the series’ first short field of 2022 with 35 trucks, there are 38 trucks entered for 36 spots, meaning two teams will be sent home.

RETURNING: #3-Jordan Anderson Racing

For the first time since Jordan Anderson withdrew his truck from COTA, five races ago, the #3 team is back in the lineup with Dometic Outdoor as sponsor. The team eyes its first series start since Atlanta, where after a DNQ in Daytona and a 26th-place crash in Las Vegas finished a solid 18th. Myatt Snider will continue to compete in Anderson’s #31 XFINITY entry on Saturday, currently sitting 19th in the series standings.

DRIVER CHANGE: #17-David Gilliland Racing

Ryan Preece rejoins the Gilliland effort for the fourth time in 2022 and for the first time since Darlington. He enters this event with finishes of 4th, 7th, and 7th in his prior three races, and designs on keeping that streak going with Morton Buildings as sponsor of his Ford. Preece takes the place of XFINITY regular Riley Herbst, who finished 12th last week in Kansas.

DRIVER CHANGE: #20-Young’s Motorsports

Garrett Smithley is set to make his 10th career Truck Series start, his first since a one-off for Nice Motorsports at Charlotte on May 26, 2020, where rear end issues left him in 36th. As in that race, Smithley will carry sponsorship from Trophy Tractor, which also backs his Rick Ware Racing #15 in the All-Star Open on Sunday. Smithley takes the place of Matt Mills, who fractured an axle in Kansas and finished in 34th place.

RETURNING: #32-Bret Holmes Racing

Bret Holmes rejoins the Truck Series field for the first time since Martinsville, where he finished 24th, and looks to replicate the 8th-place run in his most recent 1.5-mile track run at Las Vegas this past spring. Holmes brings back his #32 Chevrolet with Holmes II Excavation as sponsor. He has yet to make a Truck Series start at the Texas track.

DRIVER CHANGE: #33-Reaume Brothers Racing

“Hackerman,” Chris Hacker, rejoins the Reaume effort for only the second time in 2022 and the first since Atlanta, where he ran 17th in only his second lead-lap finish in five starts. Dal Dirt, his Atlanta backer, rejoins the #33 as Hacker takes the place of team owner Josh Reaume, who finished 30th last time out in Kansas.

RETURNING: #41-Niece Motorsports

Texas sees Ross Chastain back in the part-time fifth Al Niece entry for the first time since Darlington, and returning to the site of his disqualification in the 2021 running. Still tied with William Byron for the most Cup wins this season, Chastain again shares Dean Thompson’s sponsor Worldwide Express on the #41 Chevrolet.

DRIVER CHANGE: #43-Reaume Brothers Racing

It’s been two frustrating weeks for the second Reaume entry, following Akinori Ogata’s tangle with Reaume in the early laps at Darlington and Jesse Iwuji flagged off the track for running too slow in Kansas. Taking the wheel this time is another relative newcomer in Armani Williams, who made his series debut last summer at Gateway, finishing 21st. Williams carries new sponsorship from Ice Cold Technologies.

DRIVER CHANGE: #46-G2G Racing

Returning to his home track is Brennan Poole, who again pilots the #46 G2G entry in place of Ryan Huff, 28th in his series return last week in Kansas. Poole looks to pull double-duty again as his XFINITY ride with Mike Harmon Racing welcomes new sponsorship from apparel company American Scroll. Poole looks to make both starts after he was washed out of Darlington’s XFINITY race.

RETURNING: #62-Halmar Racing

The next step in Todd Bodine’s march to 800 NASCAR starts comes at the track where he’s won more Truck Series races than any other – six in total. Bodine brings back the second Halmar entry with Camping World sponsoring the effort. His last series start here was in 2013, when he finished 18th for ThorSport.

CUP INVADERS: #41-Ross Chastain

Saturday, May 21, 2022 (1:30 P.M. ET, FS1)

XFINITY Race 12 of 33

SRS Distribution 250 at Texas

2021 Last-Place Finisher: Bayley Currey

ENTRY LIST

There are 39 drivers entered for 38 spots, meaning one team will fail to qualify.

DRIVER CHANGE: #26-Sam Hunt Racing

Once again, Jeffrey Earnhardt debuts a new look to his ForeverLawn sponsored entry as he rejoins Sam Hunt Racing in the #26 Toyota. Earnhardt, who we last saw finish runner-up at Talladega for Richard Childress and crew chief Larry McReynolds, takes the place of John Hunter Nemechek, who ran a strong 4th last time out in Darlington.

DRIVER CHANGE: #34-Jesse Iwuji Motorsports

After he was flagged off the track for running too slow in Kansas’ Truck race, Jesse Iwuji returns to the #34 in place of Kyle Weatherman, who finished a team-best 12th in his last outing at Darlington. Iwuji has one previous XFINITY start at Texas on October 24, 2020, when he ran 23rd for B.J. McLeod.

DRIVER CHANGE: #38-RSS Racing

C.J. McLaughlin attempts his first XFINITY race since Las Vegas, where he finished a season-best 24th. He takes the place of Kyle Sieg, who ran 32nd in Darlington. TopPool.com is the listed sponsor.

DRIVER CHANGE: #44-Alpha Prime Racing

Ryan Ellis rejoins Alpha Prime Racing for the first time since Dover, and drives the #44 for the first time since Talladega, this time with Limetree Marketing as sponsor. This will be Ellis’ first XFINITY start at Texas since 2016, when he finished 33rd for Obaika Racing. Ellis takes the place of Josh Bilicki, who finished 28th in Darlington.

DRIVER CHANGE: #45-Alpha Prime Racing

MISSING: #99-B.J. McLeod Motorsports

With the McLeod #99 not entered following his season-best 20th-place finish in a paint scheme resembling his father’s 1988 Talladega winner, Stefan Parsons brings sponsor Sokal to the second Alpha Prime team, replacing team co-owner Tommy Joe Martins in the #45 Chevrolet, also backed by Market Rebellion. The younger Parsons eyes his fourth XFINITY start at Texas, where he finished 18th for McLeod in 2020.

DRIVER CHANGE: #88-JR Motorsports

William Byron, the aforementioned two-time race winner in the Cup Series this season, takes his turn in JR Motorsports’ #88 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, washed out of the Darlington field when Chase Elliott was entered.

CUP INVADERS: #48-Tyler Reddick, #88-William Byron

Sunday, May 22, 2022 (5:30 P.M. ET, FS1)

CUP Exhibition Race

NASCAR All-Star Open at Texas

2021 Last-Place Finisher: Daniel Suarez

ENTRY LIST

Four drivers from this list of 16 will transfer into the All-Star Race: winners of the 20, 20, and 10-lap segments, plus a fan vote winner. This entry list – consisting of only the Chartered entries not already qualified – is the second-smallest in the event’s history, trailing only the 14-car grid for the inaugural Atlanta Invitational in 1986. The record for the largest Open field is 36 – the exact number of total Chartered entries today – which was matched in 1994, 1995, and 1996. There were 22 starters last year. Garrett Smithley (#15) and Landon Cassill (#77) return to replace Kansas starters J.J. Yeley and Josh Bilicki, respectively.

#3-Austin Dillon

#7-Corey LaJoie

#8-Tyler Reddick

#15-Garrett Smithley 

#17-Chris Buescher

#21-Harrison Burton

#31-Justin Haley

#38-Todd Gilliland

#41-Cole Custer

#42-Ty Dillon

#43-Erik Jones

#47-Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.

#51-Cody Ware

#77-Landon Cassill 

#78-B.J. McLeod

#99-Daniel Suarez

Sunday, May 22, 2022 (8:00 P.M. ET, FS1)

CUP Exhibition Race

NASCAR All-Star Race at Texas

2021 Last-Place Finisher: Denny Hamlin 

ENTRY LIST

The four transferred drivers from the Open will compete against these 20 locked-in drivers for a total starting field of 24, tied with 2003, 2004, and 2008 for the second-most cars in the history of the event. The record for the most is 27 cars which took the green in 2002. The total length of Sunday’s race is 125 laps split among four stages.

#1-Ross Chastain

#2-Austin Cindric

#4-Kevin Harvick

#5-Kyle Larson

#6-Brad Keselowski

#9-Chase Elliott

#10-Aric Almirola

#11-Denny Hamlin

#12-Ryan Blaney

#14-Chase Briscoe

#16-A.J. Allmendinger

#18-Kyle Busch

#19-Martin Truex, Jr.

#20-Christopher Bell

#22-Joey Logano

#23-Bubba Wallace

#24-William Byron

#34-Michael McDowell

#45-Kurt Busch

#48-Alex Bowman

TODAY IN LASTCAR HISTORY (May 19, 1991): Mike Skinner is credited with last place in the Winston Open at the Charlotte Motor Speedway when his #13 Glidden Chevrolet, fielded by Thee Dixon, did not start the event. Skinner would ultimately make nine more starts in the Open with a best finish of 3rd in 2003.

FORMULA E: Antonio Giovinazzi scores a lead lap last-place finish

PHOTO: Motorsport Images

by Ben Schneider
LASTCAR.info Guest Contributor

Former Alfa Romeo Formula 1 driver Antonio Giovinazzi finished last for the second time in his Formula E career in Sunday’s Berlin ePrix Race 2 when his #99 Dragon / Penske Autosport Penske EV-5 finished 1 minute, 1.933 seconds behind race winner Nyck de Vries.

The finish came in Giovinazzi’s eighth career Formula E start.

As is the case in Formula 1, the definition of a last-place finish is a bit more ambiguous than it is in NASCAR, ARCA, or IndyCar. Those that fail to finish the race are simply listed as “retired” at the bottom of the results sheet, or “not classified” if they are still running at the finish but completed less than 90% of the race distance.

The first time Giovinazzi appeared at the very bottom of the race results was in Rome earlier this season when he retired with a technical issue after completing 7 of the race’s 27 laps.

On Sunday, however, Giovinazzi’s last-place finish had another significant distinction: it was also a lead lap finish.

The chaotic and complicated nature of motorsports makes the coexistence of these two things an astonishment. Throughout all disciplines of racing, a majority of race weekends will see at least one caution or safety car period due to an on track incident that takes out at least one starter. The complex technology in racing cars often leads to mechanical issues or engine failures that can end a team’s day early. And even on the rare occasion where every driver is running at the finish, the discrepancy between the top competitors and the backmarkers means that the lower-funded teams and lesser-experienced drivers are prone to getting lapped by the leaders before the race is over.

Formula E, however, is a series with enough parity in the competition and where the races are short enough that Giovinazzi is not even the first driver to accomplish such a feat in the series. Stéphane Sarrazin finished on the lead lap in last place at Berlin four years ago when his #27 Andretti ATEC-03 finished 1 minute and 6.954 seconds behind race winner Daniel Abt.

In Sarrazin’s case, it was his first race back after missing the first eight rounds of the 2017-18 Formula E season, making a surprise return to the series to replace Tom Blomqvist at Andretti. Giovinazzi, meanwhile, has run the complete season so far this year, though his success has been limited; he and teammate Sérgio Sette Câmara are the only drivers yet to record a Top Ten finish this season and score a championship point. While many ex-F1 drivers have made a successful switch to Formula E, Giovinazzi will certainly be looking for some positive momentum when the series returns to action on June 4 in Indonesia.

ARCA: Arnout Kok unable to overcome qualifying crash at Kansas

ALL PHOTOS: @DnfRacers

by William Soquet
LASTCAR.info Staff Writer

Arnout Kok picked up the second last-place finish of his ARCA Menards Series career in Saturday’s Dutch Boy 150 at Kansas Speedway when his #01 Brand South Africa Toyota did not start the race.

The finish was Kok’s first since Milwaukee in 2021, eight races ago.

Since his engine troubles at Milwaukee, Kok returned to ARCA action at Kansas last year for Fast Track Racing, falling out of the race with rear end troubles. He tested at Daytona with Fast Track at the beginning of this season, and Kansas would mark his first actual start under race conditions. Longtime supporters Brand South Africa, Wild West Jerky, and Polar Bear Coolers supported the effort, plus Space Grill, a sponsor from Kok’s stint with Obaika Racing.

Nineteen other entrants joined Kok on the entry list for Kansas, which shrank by one after the CCM Racing entry of Matt Wilson withdrew. Will Kimmel took over the #69 entry after Scott Melton broke his leg at Talladega, and Ron Vandermeir, Jr. ran one of his own cars using owner points from Richmond Racing. Connor Mosack returned for one of his races in the Bret Holmes Racing machine, and Gus Dean ran one of his scheduled races with Venturini Motorsports. After being charged with felony battery, leading to an indefinite suspension by ARCA, Daniel Dye returned after his charge was reduced to a misdemeanor, his suspension lifted the day before the race. Fast Track Racing completed its lineup with D.L. Wilson, Bryce Haugeberg, and Ryan Huff.

The combined practice/qualifying session was held from 9:45-10:30 AM local time, and around 10:15, reports on social media started to surface that a car crashed, and to add insult to injury, it rolled into a Niece Motorsports hauler after it was taken off the tow truck. Those reports, as it turned out, concerned Arnout Kok and the #01 team. Brad Smith Motorsports crew member Colby Evans, who was at the track, noted that Kok was very upset about the incident and team owner Andy Hillenburg had to console the South African driver. The car was damaged beyond repair for the race that afternoon, but since the car took part in qualifying, ARCA listed the entry as a “did not start” and credited the driver and team with a 19th-place finish with no laps completed.

Finishing 18th was Brad Smith, whose crew was worn down from heat exhaustion throughout the course of the day. Alex Clubb was 17th, completing an even half of the race before falling out. Corey Heim and Drew Dollar rounded out the Bottom Five after Dollar drifted high into Heim in Turn 3 and wrecked them both on Lap 57, leading to a terse round of interviews for drivers and even a car owner after the incident.

THE ILLUSTRATED BOTTOM FIVE (Thank you, @DnfRacers)

19) #01-Arnout Kok / did not start


18) #48-Brad Smith / 31 laps / unknown



17) #03-Alex Clubb / 50 laps / unknown


16) #20-Corey Heim / 59 laps / crash


15) #18-Drew Dollar / 67 laps / crash

2022 LASTCAR ARCA MENARDS SERIES MANUFACTURERS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Ford (2)
2nd) Chevrolet, Toyota (1)

2022 LASTCAR ARCA MENARDS SERIES OWNERS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Fast Track Racing (2)
2nd) CCM Racing, Jones Racing (1)

2022 LASTCAR ARCA MENARDS SERIES DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP

INDYCAR: A.J. Foyt Racing scores third consecutive 2022 last-place finish at Indianapolis GP

PHOTO: Dalton Kellett via Twitter

by William Soquet

LASTCAR.info Staff Writer

Dalton Kellett finished last for the 4th time in his NTT IndyCar Series career in Saturday’s GMR Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway when his #4 K-Line Insulators USA Chevrolet crashed out of the race after completing 34 of 75 laps in the time-shortened event.

The finish was Kellett’s first since Long Beach, two races ago.

In the one race in between his last-place finish at Long Beach and this one at Indianapolis, Kellett started and finished a quiet 23rd at Laguna Seca, bringing home a clean car for A.J. Foyt Racing.

Fresh off her last-place finish in the previous round at Barber, Tatiana Calderon was the slowest car in Indy's first practice, two seconds behind leader Alex Palou and two-tenths behind teammate Kellett, who was 26th. Speeds generally picked up in the second session, though this time it was Jimmie Johnson who was at the bottom of the charts, almost exactly two seconds behind leader Pato O’Ward. In qualifying, Will Power surged to his 64th career pole, and it was once again Johnson at the back, the lone starter on row 14 for the GMR Grand Prix. Foyt teammates Kellett and Calderon were 26th and 25th, respectively.

At the start of the race, Calderon and Johnson were side-by-side as Kellett gained a couple positions; Johnson soon was able to clear Calderon. However, there was a flurry of activity in the back of the running order. Colton Herta and Takuma Sato pitted on Lap 2; Christian Lundgaard pitted on Lap 3 and assumed the last position in the running order. All three stopped for dry tires, as the race had been started under a declared “wet” condition by IndyCar but some drivers felt that a dry tire would be more suitable for the conditions. The rest of the field pitted on Laps 4 and 5, and defending series champion Alex Palou stalled after an off-track excursion on his out lap, causing a caution.

Palou was the only entry a lap down until Lap 16, when Josef Newgarden had contact with Sato, Alexander Rossi and Jack Harvey all in quick succession, spinning off the track and puncturing both rear tires. He required a tow back to the garage area and NBC’s Leigh Diffey even declared Newgarden out of the race, seemingly putting the last-place battle to rest. However, ten laps later, Newgarden re-entered the race. Since the car had two flat tires, Newgarden required a tow back to the pits. However, safety procedure prevents cars from being towed with drivers inside of them. Since Newgarden’s car was not terminally damaged, IndyCar made an exception and allowed Newgarden’s crew to make necessary repairs and have him return to the race.

Newgarden plodded along until Lap 35, when Kellett lost control of his car in a quick left-right combo of corners and skidded along the wet grass, eventually contacting the outside wall and ending his race. It was a bittersweet turn of events for Kellett, who even earned a call from the broadcast booth in the early portions of the race for making some aggressive moves.

Obviously a mistake on my part cost us yesterday. Can’t change that but I can appreciate the experience gained from a hard lesson. We had moved up and raced well to that point.

Big props to the 4 crew for being fast on their feet for the late call to pit for slicks! #INDYCAR pic.twitter.com/O74i7bKrwC

— Dalton Kellett (@Dalton_Kellett) May 15, 2022

It was a tough scene for A.J. Foyt Racing, which saw Kellett finish last at Long Beach and then Calderon finish last at Barber before the mishap at Indy. It didn’t get better for them throughout the course of the event. Kyle Kirkwood, who ran as high as second near the midpoint of the race, finished 26th when Graham Rahal sent it deep into a corner and spun the #14 car, causing gearbox problems that proved to be the end of Kirkwood’s race. Newgarden rounded out the Bottom Three, fifteen laps down and still running at the finish. The third crash victim of the day was Juan Pablo Montoya, driving in the month of May for a third Arrow McLaren SP entry, who got in the grass and into the wall with about two minutes left in the race (IndyCar switched to a timer when they determined that the 85 laps would not be hit within the series’ two-hour time limit) and finished 24th.

THE BOTTOM THREE
27) #4-Dalton Kellett / 34 laps / crash
26) #14-Kyle Kirkwood / 53 laps / crash
25) #2-Josef Newgarden / 60 laps / running

2022 LASTCAR NTT INDYCAR SERIES MANUFACTURERS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (3)
2nd) Honda (2)

2022 LASTCAR NTT INDYCAR SERIES OWNERS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) A.J. Foyt Racing (3)
2nd) Andretti Autosport, Dale Coyne Racing (1)

2022 LASTCAR NTT INDYCAR SERIES DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP

CUP: B.J. McLeod among victims of Kansas’ left-rear tire failures as roof hatch deploys during spin

PHOTO: @teamlivefast

B.J. McLeod picked up the 7th last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s Advent Health 400 at the Kansas Speedway when his #78 General Formulations Ford fell out with chassis damage after 32 of 267 laps.

The finish, which came in McLeod’s 96th series start, was his second of the season and first since Martinsville, 5 races ago. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it was the first from chassis issues, the 27th for the #78, and the 718th for Ford. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 3rd from chassis issues, the 41st for the #78, and the 990th for Ford.

After a difficult night in Martinsville, the Live Fast Motorsports team brought on Josh Williams, McLeod’s lead XFINITY driver, to make his Cup debut during the Bristol Dirt race. The result was a solid 25th-place finish on the lead lap. While McLeod returned to finish 26th the next week in Talladega – the driver’s third-best finish in the first 12 races of the season – the two races after featured frustrating afternoons with brake issues. McLeod ran next-to-last at Dover when the left-front wheel locked-up, then at Darlington his car caught fire on pit road. McLeod climbed out without injury, but a 32nd-place finish was the result, the team’s fourth DNF of 2022. Last year, the Live Fast team only had four DNFs for the entire season.

At Kansas, McLeod ranked 35th of the 36 entrants, besting Josh Bilicki’s #77 UACC Chevrolet by two-tenths of a second. McLeod climbed to 32nd in qualifying with a ap of 168.251mph (32.095 seconds), but again only beat Bilicki based on time. Three other drivers didn’t turn a lap and thus rounded out the field, each due to blown left-rear tires that sent them into spins: Joey Logano in the #22 Verizon 5G Ford, Chris Buescher in the #17 Castrol GTX Full Synthetic Ford, and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. in the #47 Dillons / Louisiana Hot Sauce Chevrolet. Only Logano and Buescher went to backup cars. Stenhouse incurred an unapproved adjustment penalty along with 18th-place starter Denny Hamlin in the #11 Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota and 31st-place Todd Gilliland in the #38 First Phase Credit Card Ford.

By Lap 5, Cody Ware had fallen to last place in his #51 Nurtec ODT Ford as all the penalized drivers now ranked 34th ad higher, Logano already up to 28th. Ware dropped McLeod to last the next time by, and opened up a 0.641-second advantage. Moments later, the first caution came out when Chase Briscoe’s #14 Rush Truck Centers / Cummins Ford spun off Turn 4 and endured a rough ride through the rain-soaked infield grass. Briscoe made it back to pit road without serious damage, but did take last from McLeod in the process on Lap 7. Ware retook the spot the next time by, but an apparent second stop by Briscoe dropped him back to 36th on Lap 9. 

By the 10th circuit, with the race back underway, Briscoe climbed to 34th with Ware two-tenths back of McLeod in the race for 35th. Ware then climbed to 33rd the next time by, dropping the #78 to last once more. From there, McLeod struggled with a car that was loose on both entry and midway through the corner, dropping him 1.253 seconds back of new 35th-place runner Bilicki on Lap 16. The gap continued to grow, increasing to 4.220 seconds on Lap 20, then 5.931 on Lap 22 before McLeod was first to be lapped the following time around. Both Ware and Bilicki were a lap down by Lap 30.

Then on Lap 35, McLeod cut down a left-rear tire as he neared the stripe. While staying off the outside wall, he spun to a stop on the apron with all four tires flat and his roof hatch fully deployed, held against the top of the car by its tethers. Now three laps down, McLeod expressed concern that the underside of his car was damaged in the spin, though he conceded he wasn’t sure how durable the diffuser assembly actually was. “I think we should just quit,” he said to the crew. Moments later, McLeod climbed from the car, saying something was on fire in the cockpit. The crew attempted to hail a flatbed to tow their Ford to the garage, but instead it was bumped to the garage by an equipment truck. While the team wasn’t sure if they were out even though McLeod climbed from the car, on Lap 40, the driver quietly said “We’re done.” The radio went silent until Lap 54, when another crew member confirmed “We’re gonna be done. It did a lot of damage to the car by spinning out. The team instructed the pit crew to pack up their equipment. On Lap 59, NASCAR confirmed McLeod was out, citing “chassis” as the cause perhaps due to McLeod’s concerns about the undertray and diffuser.

Taking 35th was Justin Haley, who during McLeod’s caution exited his pit stall only to lose the left-rear wheel, blocking Denny Hamlin behind him, followed by the left-rear corner of Haley’s car catching fire. Haley’s #31 Leaf Filter Gutter Protection Chevrolet then caught fire a second time around Lap 64, and pulled behind the wall, done for the day. Haley and McLeod were the only two drivers who failed to finish. Cody Ware took 34th, 12 laps down. Daniel Suarez, his #99 CommScope Chevrolet damaged after still another left-front cut down, putting him in the wall, took 33rd. Erik Jones rounded out the Bottom Five after his crew spent seven laps tried everything they could to remove a stuck right-rear wheel from his #43 Focus Factor Chevrolet.

Behind Kurt Busch, who gave the #45 its first Cup Series points race win since 1964, Noah Gragson picked up a career-best 18th-place finish in Kaulig Racing’s #16 Chevrolet, improving on his previous mark of 20th last month at Talldega for Beard Motorsports.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*This marked the first last-place finish for the #78 in a Cup race at Kansas.

*This was the first last-place finish due to a “chassis” issue in a Cup Series points race. Prior to Sunday, it had also happened in exactly one XFINITY race (July 4, 2020, when Jeffrey Earnhardt dropped out after 9 laps at the Indianapolis Grand Prix Circuit) and one in Trucks (May 10, 2019, when Joey Gase was swapped into Jennifer Jo Cobb’s damaged truck to park it at Kansas).

THE BOTTOM FIVE

36) #78-B.J. McLeod / 32 laps / chassis

35) #31-Justin Haley / 64 laps / electrical

34) #51-Cody Ware / 255 laps / running

33) #99-Daniel Suarez / 256 laps / running

32) #43-Erik Jones / 261 laps / running

2022 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Live Fast Motorsports (3)

2nd) Spire Motorsports, Trackhouse Racing (2)

3rd) Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Kaulig Racing, NY Racing Team, Penske Racing, Richard Childress Racing (1)

2022 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Chevrolet (8)

2nd) Ford (4)

3rd) Toyota (1)

2022 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP