CUP: P.J. Jones Gets Dodge Its First Cup Last-Place Finish of 2011 at Infineon

P.J. Jones picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup career in Sunday’s Toyota / Save Mart 350 at the Infineon Raceway when his #77 Speed Energy / GNC Dodge fell out with suspension problems after five of the race’s 110 laps.

For the third consecutive year, Jones was tabbed by Cup Series regular Robby Gordon to drive a second car for him at Sonoma. On Friday, Jones made it three-for-three when he timed in 35th at a speed of 91.223 mph, ranking him second behind only Joe Nemechek among the day’s “go-or-go-homers.” Missing the race was fellow road racer Tony Ave, driving Travis Kvapil’s #38 for Front Row Motorsports.

Before the start of Sunday’s race, Mike Skinner pulled out of his 37th starting spot and fell to the rear of the field, apparently set to give the #60 team its fourth last-place finish of 2011. However, Jones pulled out of the race after the first five green-flag laps, and Skinner followed five circuits after that.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. busted his radiator after an early tangle with Brian Vickers in Turn 11, ultimately ending his day with a 41st-place finish. Only Jones and Skinner’s early departure kept Earnhardt, Jr. from scoring his 7th last-place finish and his first since Phoenix in the fall of 2007.

Robby Gordon, Jones’ car owner, started 28th and finished 18th, the #7 team’s best run since Gordon came home 16th in the season-opening Daytona 500. Gordon successfully recovered from an incident in Turn 11 and ran the final laps on tires lent from fellow Dodge driver Brad Keselowski.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*The #77 had not finished last in a Cup race since 2008, when Sam Hornish, Jr.’s Mobil 1 Dodge was involved in a fiery crash with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Casey Mears 20 laps into the 2008 Auto Club 500 at the Auto Club Speedway of Southern California.
*The #77 had never before finished last in a Cup, Nationwide, or Truck Series road race.
*This was P.J.’s second last-place finish at Infineon in the last three years. In his first run with Gordon in 2009, he fell out after two laps with power steering problems driving a #04 Menards / Jim Beam Toyota. That race was the scene of P.J.’s most recent last-place showing.
*It’s Dodge’s first last-place finish in the 2011 Cup season. Dodge had not finished last in a Cup race since last September’s Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire, where Michael McDowell’s #46 Cash America Dodge fell out with engine failure after 29 laps.  Ford has yet to finish last in a Cup race this season.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #77-P.J. Jones / 5 laps / suspension
42) #60-Mike Skinner / 10 laps / ignition
41) #88-Dale Earnhardt, Jr. / 45 laps / overheating
40) #87-Joe Nemechek / 66 laps / transmission
39) #14-Tony Stewart / 88 laps / crash / led 3 laps

LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Michael McDowell (5)
2nd) Joe Nemechek (3)
3rd) Mike Skinner, J.J. Yeley (2)
4th) Landon Cassill, Kevin Conway, P.J. Jones, Scott Riggs (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #66-HP Racing LLC (5)
2nd) #60-Germain Racing, #87-NEMCO Motorsports (3)
3rd) #46-Whitney Motorsports (2)
4th) #77-Robby Gordon Motorsports, #81-Whitney Motorsports, #97-NEMCO Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (12)
2nd) Chevrolet (3)
3rd) Dodge (1)

CORRECTION: The original details about Joe Nemechek’s exit from the race have been omitted in light of conflicting scanner communications provided by a reader. My apologies for any confusion.

N’WIDE: Rowe Ties Green For LASTCAR Nationwide Series Lead at Road America

Brett Rowe picked up the 5th last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s Bucyrus 200 presented by Menards at Road America when his #55 Imperial Bedding Chevrolet fell out with brake problems after 2 of the race’s 57 laps.

All 42 cars on the entry list qualified for the series’ first road race of the year, and Rowe placed 37th in qualifying at a speed of 150.671 mph. Two laps into the race, Rowe followed Key Motorsports teammates Tim Andrews and Chase Miller to the garage area, all three of them listed as out due to brake failure.

Morgan Shepherd, Rowe’s owner and teammate, started 35th and came home in the same position due to handling woes 11 laps into the event.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was Rowe’s first-ever last-place finish on a road course.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
42) #55-Brett Rowe / 2 laps / brakes
41) #42-Tim Andrews / 2 laps / brakes
40) #46-Chase Miller / 2 laps / brakes
39) #03-Scott Wimmer / 3 laps / brakes
38) #44-Jeff Green / 3 laps / vibration

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green, Brett Rowe (3)
2nd) Kelly Bires (2)
3rd) Matt Carter, Johnny Chapman, Kevin Conway, Mike Harmon, James Hylton, Blake Koch, Justin Marks, Dennis Setzer (1)

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #44-TriStar Motorsports, #55-Faith Motorsports (3)
2nd) #25-Ed Rensi (2)
3rd) #0-JD Motorsports, #27-Baker Curb Racing, #49-Jay Robinson Racing, #68-Fleur-De-Lis Motorsports, #74-Mike Harmon, #75-Rick Ware Racing, #82-MacDonald Motorsports, #87-NEMCO Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (11)
2nd) Ford (4)
3rd) Dodge (1)

CUP: McDowell, Fellow Underdogs Keep Jimmie Johnson From First Cup Last-Place Finish

Michael McDowell picked up the 12th last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400 at the Michigan International Speedway when his unsponsored #66 HP Racing LLC Toyota fell out with electrical problems after 28 of the race’s 200 laps.

Happy Hour at Michigan brought HP Racing and other underfunded Sprint Cup teams some much-needed TV time as several of them topped the speed charts. McDowell himself put up the 11th-best time in a session that was led by David Stremme in start-up team Inception Motorsports’ #30. Also among the Top 10 that session were J.J. Yeley’s Dusty Whitney-owned Chevrolet (2nd), Travis Kvapil for Front Row Motorsports (3rd), Joe Nemechek (7th), and Robby Gordon (10th).

On Saturday, McDowell qualified 38th for the race at a speed of 184.573 mph, ranking him second-slowest among the “go-or-go-homers” who qualified (ahead of last week’s last-place finisher Scott Riggs in the #81), but more importantly ahead of Tony Raines, Brian Keselowski, and Mike Skinner, who failed to qualify.

Joe Nemechek, who timed-in 29th, fell to the rear before the green flag to join Joey Logano, sent to the rear after an engine change in Happy Hour. By Lap 8, all 43 cars were still running, but McDowell had fallen to 41st with Scott Riggs holding onto 43rd.

On that same lap, Jimmie Johnson spun off turn two, resulting in a broken front sway bar that put him a lap down. With McDowell, Riggs, and the other teams remaining on track and on the same lap as the leaders, this dropped Johnson back to 43rd, a position he was trapped in when he lost two laps making repairs under a subsequent caution on Lap 27.

However, McDowell pulled his unsponsored Toyota behind the wall under that yellow, ultimately sparing Johnson of what could have been his first-ever last-place finish in a Sprint Cup points-paying race. Johnson, who went on to finish 27th in the 200-lapper, did finish last in Race 1 of the 2002 Gatorade Twin 125s at Daytona when he left the race nine laps from the finish with ignition troubles.

Joining Johnson as drivers who have yet to finish last in a Sprint Cup points-paying race are Kasey Kahne, Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, and Boris Said.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first time the #66 had ever finished last in a Cup Series race at Michigan.
*A Cup driver had not finished last at Michigan due to electrical problems since 2009, when Tony Raines’ #37 Long John Silvers Dodge fell out 17 laps into the 2009 Lifelock 400.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #66-Michael McDowell / 28 laps / electrical
42) #81-Scott Riggs / 30 laps / brakes
41) #30-David Stremme / 39 laps / clutch
40) #87-Joe Nemechek / 44 laps / vibration
39) #46-J.J. Yeley / 47 laps / brakes

LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Michael McDowell (5)
2nd) Joe Nemechek (3)
3rd) Mike Skinner, J.J. Yeley (2)
4th) Landon Cassill, Kevin Conway, Scott Riggs (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #66-HP Racing LLC (5)
2nd) #60-Germain Racing, #87-NEMCO Motorsports (3)
3rd) #46-Whitney Motorsports (2)
4th) #81-Whitney Motorsports, #97-NEMCO Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (12)
2nd) Chevrolet (3)

N’WIDE: Setzer Tied For Third-Most Nationwide Series Last-Place Finishes

Dennis Setzer picked up the 13th last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s Alliance Truck Parts 250 at the Michigan International Speedway when his unsponsored #49 Jay Robinson Racing Chevrolet fell out with a vibration after completing 1 of the race’s 125 laps.

The finish moved Setzer up to 3rd in the LASTCAR Nationwide Series standings, putting him into a tie with Ed Berrier and Johnny Chapman. Setzer also sits 11th all-time.
This week’s team, Jay Robinson Racing, has fielded cars in the Nationwide Series for eleven seasons, dating back to Rodney Childers’ lone series start at Myrtle Beach in 2000 (today, Childers is the crew chief for David Reutimann’s #00 Cup team). The Robinson team’s best finish came in 2008, when Kenny Wallace drove their #28 to a 3rd-place finish at Memphis.

Today, the team still runs both the #28 and #49, now with 1990 Daytona 500 champion Derrike Cope as driver of the #28. Cope has so far made all but one race this season with a best finish of 23rd on three occasions. However, with sponsorship woes continuing to plague teams on the circuit, Robinson’s #49 has been delegated to “start-and-park” status with Dennis Setzer behind the wheel in five of nine starts. Two weeks ago at Chicago, Setzer gave the #49 its best finish of the year when he came home 35th.

Setzer, who scored the most last-place finishes of any Nationwide Series driver in 2010 (10), timed in 24th for the 43-car field at a speed of 176.406 mph, ranking him fifth among the field’s “go-or-go-home” drivers. Brett Rowe, who has two last-place finishes in 2011, missed the race in Morgan Shepherd’s #55 along with Chase Miller in Curtis Key’s #46.

After the opening lap of the race, Setzer pulled behind the wall under green. Cope, again in the #28, finished 28th, four laps down.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*The #49 had not finished last in a Nationwide Series race since 2010, when Mark Green’s Jay Robinson Inc. Chevrolet fell out with electrical problems two laps into the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 at Gateway.
*The #49 had not finished last in a Nationwide Series race at Michigan since 2002, when the radiator on Dan Shaver’s #49 Blitz Motorsports Ford failed after 17 laps of the 2002 Cabela’s 250 at Michigan. Shaver brought out the first caution of the race four laps earlier with a spin in turn four.
*It is Setzer’s first-ever Nationwide Series last-place finish at Michigan.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #49-Dennis Setzer / 1 lap / vibration
42) #52-Tony Raines / 2 laps / electrical
41) #44-Jeff Green / 2 laps / vibration
40) #42-Tim Andrews / 2 laps / brakes
39) #74-J.J. Yeley / 5 laps / vibration

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green (3)
2nd) Kelly Bires, Brett Rowe (2)
3rd) Matt Carter, Johnny Chapman, Kevin Conway, Mike Harmon, James Hylton, Blake Koch, Justin Marks, Dennis Setzer (1)

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #44-TriStar Motorsports (3)
2nd) #25-Ed Rensi, #55-Faith Motorsports (2)
3rd) #0-JD Motorsports, #27-Baker Curb Racing, #49-Jay Robinson Racing, #68-Fleur-De-Lis Motorsports, #74-Mike Harmon, #75-Rick Ware Racing, #82-MacDonald Motorsports, #87-NEMCO Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (10)
2nd) Ford (4)
3rd) Dodge (1)

CUP: Riggs Scores First Cup Last-Place Finish In Nearly Three Years

Scott Riggs picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s 5-Hour Energy 500 at the Pocono Raceway when his #81 WhitneysCollision.com Chevrolet fell out with brake problems after completing 17 of the race’s 200 laps.

Riggs returned to the Sprint Cup Series this season as the driver of Dusty Whitney’s second team, a “start-and-park” #81 car that would help fund Whitney’s primary #46 driven by J.J. Yeley. In his first attempt at Darlington, Riggs narrowly missed the field when the engine on his #81 blew after his first timed lap. Riggs missed the show the next race at Dover, withdrew from the Sprint Showdown, and ended up with his second DNQ of the year for the Coca-Cola 600.

Since then, Riggs has qualified for two straight races, including Sunday’s race at Pocono, where he qualified 39th at a speed of 167.264 mph. The run was more than enough to beat two-time last-placer Mike Skinner, who crashed hard in turn one after running the slowest qualifying lap of the day.

Just like at Kansas, where Riggs was forced to park and finished 42nd, the #81 was sent behind the wall early. When the first caution of the race fell for debris on Lap 18, Riggs headed to the garage and the team packed up for the day. It was Riggs’ second-consecutive last-place finish in NASCAR, joining his run in last week’s Truck Series race at Kansas.

By the restart, several other teams also pulled out, including the #37 of Tony Raines, the #66 of Michael McDowell, the #50 of T.J. Bell, and teammate Yeley’s #46. However, when Raines, McDowell, and Bell returned to run some more laps, Yeley was shuffled down to 42nd in the final running order.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first time two Sprint Cup teammates have finished in the final two spots since PRISM Motorsports did in last August’s Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol. Riggs himself drove PRISM’s #66 to a 42nd-place finish ahead of teammate Michael McDowell, 43rd in the #55.
*It was Riggs’ first last-place finish in almost three years, dating back to when his #66 Hunt Brothers Pizza Chevrolet finished running, but 128 laps down, in the 2008 Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta.
*The #81 had not finished last in a Cup race since 2003, when John Andretti’s #81 Kraft 100th Anniversary Chevrolet was involved in a single-car crash after 46 laps of the 2003 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis.
*It is the first time the #81 has ever finished last in a Cup race at Pocono.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #81-Scott Riggs / 17 laps / brakes
42) #46-J.J. Yeley / 23 laps / brakes
41) #66-Michael McDowell / 29 laps / electrical / led 1 lap
40) #87-Joe Nemechek / 29 laps / ignition
39) #50-T.J. Bell / 33 laps / electrical

LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Michael McDowell (4)
2nd) Joe Nemechek (3)
3rd) Mike Skinner, J.J. Yeley (2)
4th) Landon Cassill, Kevin Conway, Scott Riggs (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #66-HP Racing LLC (4)
2nd) #60-Germain Racing, #87-NEMCO Motorsports (3)
3rd) #46-Whitney Motorsports (2)
4th) #81-Whitney Motorsports, #97-NEMCO Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (11)
2nd) Chevrolet (3)

TRUCKS: Benning Ties Garvey For LASTCAR Lead Following Texas Engine Trouble

Norm Benning picked up the 5th last-place finish of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career in Friday’s WinStar World Casino 400k at the Texas Motor Speedway when his unsponsored #57 Norm Benning Racing Chevrolet fell out with engine problems after 3 of the race’s 168 laps.

Benning qualified 35th - last in the short-fielded race - at a speed of 155.070 mph, more than eight miles per hour slower than the next-fastest truck of Stephan McCurley. Both Benning and McCurley remained in the rear after making adjustments outside of impound and both exited the race within the first 30 laps. Between the two, previous LASTCAR Truck Series leader Mike Garvey fell out one lap after Benning, followed by Johnny Chapman.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Benning and the #57 had finished last in a Truck race at Texas on just one other occasion, the 2009 WinStar World Casino 400, when his Germane Tooling Group Chevrolet fell out with handling woes after three laps.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
35) #57-Norm Benning / 3 laps / engine
34) #38-Mike Garvey / 4 laps / brakes
33) #07-Johnny Chapman / 9 laps / transmission
32) #65-Stephan McCurley / 25 laps / clutch
31) #30-Todd Bodine / 66 laps / crash

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Norm Benning, Mike Garvey (2)
2nd) James Buescher, Travis Kvapil, Chris Lafferty, Scott Riggs, Brad Sweet (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #38-Shane Sieg, #57-Norm Benning Racing (2)
2nd) #5-Randy Moss, #10-Jennifer Jo Cobb, #31-Turner Motorsports, #32-Turner Motorsports, #07-SS Green Light Racing (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (7)
2nd) Toyota (2)

CUP: Nemechek Shuffled By Skinner Up To Second In Two LASTCAR Rankings

Joe Nemechek picked up the 27th last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Sunday’s STP 400 at the Kansas Speedway when his unsponsored #87 NEMCO Motorsports Toyota fell out with rear gear problems after completing 19 of the race’s 267 laps.

The finish moved Nemechek into 2nd in both the All-Time and Sprint Cup LASTCAR standings. His 27th Sprint Cup last-place finish breaks a tie for second with Derrike Cope, putting him five finishes away from tying the late J.D. McDuffie for the most-ever in the series. It’s also Nemechek’s 33rd last-place finish across all three divisions, moving him into a tie with Morgan Shepherd for second-most all-time, two finishes behind Cope’s all-time record of 35.

At Kansas, scene of Nemechek’s most recent Cup win in 2004, he ran 16th-fastest in the opening practice session, then qualified 34th at a speed of 171.445 mph, good enough to beat six other “go-or-go-home” drivers, including Tony Raines and T.J. Bell, who failed to qualify.

On race day, Mike Skinner looked like he was going to give Germain Racing’s #60 its fourth last-place finish of 2011 when he went behind the wall on Lap 8. As it turned out over the radio, Skinner’s team was fighting a tight condition on the car and would return to the track. Nemechek joined Skinner behind the wall just over ten circuits later, followed a lap later by Scott Riggs, who was making his first Cup race of the season after finishing last in the Truck Series race the previous day.

While both Nemechek and Riggs were done for the day, Skinner made at least four trips back and forth to the racetrack, continually chasing a setup he called “an aerodynamic nightmare.” As he did, several other drivers who had also parked their cars returned to the track, trying to keep Skinner behind them. By Lap 56, Skinner had completed enough laps to ease past Nemechek and Riggs, but was unable to catch drivers Michael McDowell, David Stremme, and Johnny Sauter (driving for Robby Gordon), who all parked earlier, then returned from the garage area to log more laps. McDowell was the first of this group to retire, allowing Skinner to edge him for 40th before he finally pulled the #60 out of the race for good. This allowed both Stremme and Sauter to hold him off and finish 39th and 36th, respectively.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*It was Nemechek’s third last-place finish of the 2011 season, the most recent coming at the Goody’s Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville where his brakes failed 25 laps into the race.
*Neither Nemechek nor the #87 had ever before finished last in a Cup race at Kansas.
*It’s the second-straight year that a Cup driver has finished last at Kansas because of a rear gear failure. Last October, Landon Cassill picked up his first career last-place finish in the Price Chopper 400 after his #64 Little Joe’s Autos Toyota fell out 33 laps into the event.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #87-Joe Nemechek / 19 laps / rear gear
42) #81-Scott Riggs / 20 laps / rear gear
41) #66-Michael McDowell / 33 laps / electrical
40) #60-Mike Skinner / 34 laps / ignition
39) #30-David Stremme / 37 laps / brakes

LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Michael McDowell (4)
2nd) Joe Nemechek (3)
3rd) Mike Skinner, J.J. Yeley (2)
4th) Landon Cassill, Kevin Conway (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #66-HP Racing LLC (4)
2nd) #60-Germain Racing, #87-NEMCO Motorsports (3)
3rd) #46-Dusty Whitney (2)
4th) #97-NEMCO Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (11)
2nd) Chevrolet (2)

N’WIDE: Rowe Edges Miller And Green To Pit Road For Second Last-Place Finish of 2011

Brett Rowe picked up the 4th last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s STP 300 at the Chicagoland Speedway when his #55 Imperial Bedding Company Chevrolet fell out with brake problems after 3 of the race’s 200 laps.

Qualifying was rained-out at Chicagoland, so since only 42 drivers were on the entry list, Rowe was one of the competitors. Starting 39th, Rowe remained in the rear of the field early on and, after three laps, followed Jeff Green and Chase Miller behind the wall. As the last of the three cars to cross the start / finish line, this credited Rowe with his second last-place finish of 2011.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Neither Rowe nor the #55 had ever before finished last in a Nationwide Series race at Chicagoland.
*This was the first time a Nationwide Series driver has ever finished last at Chicagoland due to brake failure.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
42) #55-Brett Rowe / 3 laps / brakes
41) #46-Chase Miller / 3 laps / handling
40) #44-Jeff Green / 3 laps / transmission
39) #74-Mike Harmon / 6 laps / clutch
38) #75-Johnny Chapman / 15 laps / overheating

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green (3)
2nd) Kelly Bires, Brett Rowe (2)
3rd) Matt Carter, Johnny Chapman, Kevin Conway, Mike Harmon, James Hylton, Blake Koch, Justin Marks (1)

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #44-TriStar Motorsports (3)
2nd) #25-Ed Rensi, #55-Faith Motorsports (2)
3rd) #0-JD Motorsports, #27-Baker Curb Racing, #68-Fleur-De-Lis Motorsports, #74-Mike Harmon, #75-Rick Ware Racing, #82-MacDonald Motorsports, #87-NEMCO Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (9)
2nd) Ford (4)
3rd) Dodge (1)

TRUCKS: Riggs Finishes 36th In Truck Series Return

Scott Riggs picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career in Friday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 250 at the Kansas Speedway when his #07 SS Green Light Racing / www.Bobber.info Toyota fell out with a rear gear problem after running 4 of the race’s 167 laps. The finish came in Riggs’ 44th series start.

The Kansas race saw Riggs make his first Truck Series start since the end of his 2001 campaign, when he won five races and finished fifth in points for owner Jim Smith. This time around, Riggs would be driving SS Green Light Racing’s #07, a team that has made every race this season with drivers Donnie Neunberger, B.J. McLeod, Jamie Dick, Caleb Roark, Johnny Chapman, and J.J. Yeley. Roark gave the team its best finish of the season at Martinsville, where he rallied from 32nd to finish 19th. In the four races since, however, the team has finished no better than 31st and completed no more than 40 laps.

Riggs qualified 28th for the Kansas race at a speed of 162.308 mph, enough to beat seven other “go-or-go-homers,” including Stephan McCurley’s #65, the race’s lone DNQ. Unfortunately, Riggs did not get to run the race very long, sent behind the wall four laps into the race. Mike Garvey, a two-time last-placer in 2011, fell out three laps later, followed by Chris Jones three circuits after that.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*The last time Riggs competed in a Truck Series race was the 2001 season finale, the Auto Club 200 at Fontana, where a crash left him 32nd after starting on the pole. Finishing last that day was Sammy Sanders, whose Ed Rensi-owned #61 Chevrolet lost the engine after eight laps. It was Sanders’ first and only last-place finish.
*The #07 had not finished last in a Truck Series race since last fall at Phoenix, when Butch Miller fell out 8 laps into the 2010 Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
36) #07-Scott Riggs / 4 laps / rear gear
35) #38-Mike Garvey / 7 laps / transmission
34) #87-Chris Jones / 10 laps / vibration
33) #57-Norm Benning / 22 laps / suspension
32) #73-J.J. Yeley / 42 laps / power steering

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Mike Garvey (2)
2nd) Norm Benning, James Buescher, Travis Kvapil, Chris Lafferty, Scott Riggs, Brad Sweet (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #38-Shane Sieg (2)
2nd) #5-Randy Moss, #10-Jennifer Jo Cobb, #31-Turner Motorsports, #32-Turner Motorsports, #57-Norm Benning Racing, #07-SS Green Light Racing (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (6)
2nd) Toyota (2)