CUP: Scott Speed Overheats In Leavine Family Racing’s Return

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin'

Scott Speed picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Saturday’s Samsung Mobile 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway when his #95 Tommy Williams Drywall Ford fell out with overheating problems after 13 of the race’s 334 laps.

The finish was Speed’s first of 2012 and his first in Sprint Cup competition since he was involved in an early crash at Richmond while driving for Dusty Whitney, seventeen races ago.

Speed qualified 38th at a speed of 185.122 mph, ranking him sixth among the eleven “go-or-go-homers” who attempted to qualify. This put Speed’s team - Texas-based Leavine Family Racing - into their first race of 2012. It was also Speed’s first Cup race of the season, two weeks after he narrowly missed the show at Martinsville while driving the #52 for Hamilton-Means Racing.

In the race, Speed was one of many drivers to make at least one unscheduled pit stop during the opening 67-lap green-flag run. Of this group, Speed was the first to fall out of the race, taking 43rd from Mike Bliss’ #19 before the first caution fell.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*The last time the #95 finished last in a Cup Series race was in the fall of 2005, when Stanton Barrett’s Stanton Barrett Racing Chevrolet fell out with an engine failure after 110 laps of the Subway 500 at Martinsville.
*Neither a car #95 nor Speed had ever before finished last in a Cup race at Texas.
*A Cup Series driver had never before finished last at Texas due to overheating problems.
*This was the first Cup Series last-place finish for the Leavine Family Racing team in its fifth series start.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #95-Scott Speed / 13 laps / overheating
42) #23-Scott Riggs / 25 laps / vibration
41) #98-Michael McDowell / 36 laps / vibration
40) #19-Mike Bliss / 38 laps / brakes
39) #26-Josh Wise / 66 laps / vibration

LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Brendan Gaughan, Michael McDowell, David Ragan, Reed Sorenson, Scott Speed, Josh Wise, J.J. Yeley (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #26-Front Row Motorsports, #33-Richard Childress Racing, #34-Front Row Motorsports, #49-Robinson-Blakeney Racing, #74-Turn One Racing, #95-Leavine Family Racing, #98-Phil Parsons Racing (1)

LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Ford (4)
2nd) Chevrolet (2)
3rd) Toyota (1)