N’WIDE: Yeley’s First Nationwide 43rd In Six Years Comes In Curb Team’s Return

SOURCE: Rubbins Racin'

J.J. Yeley picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 at the Kansas Speedway when his #27 31-W Insulation Ford fell out with electrical problems after completing 2 of the race’s 200 laps.

The finish was Yeley’s first of the 2011 season, but the second for the Baker-Curb Motorsports team. Their other finish came with Justin Marks at Phoenix, 28 races ago.

Kansas was the #27 team’s sixth start of the 2011 Nationwide Series campaign and its fourth with J.J. Yeley aboard. The car’s best finish came in its most recent start at Fontana in April, where Canadian J.R. Fitzpatrick turned in a 20th-place finish. Having struggled through the first five races of the season, however, Baker-Curb did not make another race until Saturday.

Yeley’s lap of 164.951 mph in qualifying was just good enough for the 43rd and final starting spot, edging Dennis Setzer for the position by less than five hundredths of a second. On race day, Yeley missed the driver’s meeting, then pulled behind the wall a lap before T.J. Bell and 2011 LASTCAR Nationwide Driver’s Champion Jeff Green.

While Mike Curb’s team made only a brief appearance in the Nationwide race, he also succeeded in making his 100th Sprint Cup start as an owner. Austin Dillon, grandson of Richard Childress and the current Camping World Truck Series point leader, made his Cup Series debut Sunday driving Curb’s #98 Childress-prepared Chevrolet. It was Curb’s first Cup start as an owner since Brad Noffsinger’s run in the season-ending 1988 Atlanta Journal 500 at Atlanta.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was Yeley’s first Nationwide Series last-place finish in more than six years. His only other 43rd came at Fontana, when his #18 Vigoro / The Home Depot Chevrolet lost the engine four laps into the 2005 Ameriquest 300.
*Yeley’s finish in a Ford ends an eight-race last-place streak by Chevrolet in the series which began after Jennifer Jo Cobb’s Ford finished last at Lucas Oil Raceway.
*The #27 has never before finished last in a Nationwide Series race at Kansas.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #27-J.J. Yeley / 2 laps / electrical
42) #50-T.J. Bell / 3 laps / vibration
41) #44-Jeff Green / 3 laps / vibration
40) #47-Charles Lewandoski / 5 laps / vibration
39) #46-Chase Miller / 10 laps / ignition

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green (9)
2nd) Brett Rowe (3)
3rd) Kelly Bires, Johnny Chapman, Dennis Setzer (2)
4th) T.J. Bell, Matt Carter, Kevin Conway, Marc Davis, Mike Harmon, James Hylton, Jennifer Jo Cobb, Brian Keselowski, Blake Koch, Justin Marks, Scott Wimmer, J.J. Yeley (1)

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #44-TriStar Motorsports (9)
2nd) #55-Faith Motorsports (3)
3rd) #25-Ed Rensi, #27-Baker Curb Racing, #47-Key Motorsports, #49-Jay Robinson Racing (2)
4th) #0-JD Motorsports, #13-Jennifer Jo Cobb, #41-Rick Ware Racing, #50-Mark Beaver, #68-Fleur-De-Lis Motorsports, #74-Mike Harmon, #75-Rick Ware Racing, #82-MacDonald Motorsports, #87-NEMCO Motorsports, #03-R3 Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR N’WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (23)
2nd) Ford (6)
3rd) Dodge (1)