N’WIDE: Chase Miller Edges Jeff Green For Third Last-Place Finish

SOURCE: Rob Dostie

Chase Miller picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s Food City 250 at the Bristol Motor Speedway when his unsponsored #46 The Motorsports Group Chevrolet fell out with ignition problems after completing 2 of the race’s 250 laps.

The finish was Miller’s second of the 2012 season and his first since Iowa, thirteen races ago. He is now tied with Mike Harmon and Kevin Lepage for second-most in 2012, but remains a distant second to leader Jeff Green’s season total of 11.

Miller qualified 31st at an average speed of 117.588 mph, ranking him eighth among the sixteen "go-or-go-homers" who attempted to qualify. Teammate Stephen Leicht, in The Motorsports Group’s #47, was among the three drivers who did not make the field.

At the start of the race, Jeremy Clements fell from his 21st starting spot to 43rd when a radio problem kept him from starting the race. However, Clements returned to the track around 35 laps down, by which point seven drivers had already parked their cars. The first of that group was Miller, who beat 2012 leader Jeff Green by four laps.

For the second consecutive race, Erik Darnell had a solid race in The Motorsports Group’s only full-race team. Coming off a 16th-place finish at Montreal, Darnell’s #40 flirted with a top-ten finish at Bristol, briefly running 9th, but electrical woes dropped him to 35th after 173 laps.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first time the #46 finished last in a Nationwide Series race at Bristol since 1994, when Shawna Robinson’s Polaroid Chevrolet suffered an ignition problem after seven laps of the Goody’s 250. This race is better known as the one Mark Martin dominated, only to pull behind the wall one lap too early when the race ended under caution. David Green won the race while all-time LASTCAR leader Jeff Green finished 3rd in a Pontiac owned by Michael Waltrip.
*This was Miller’s first last-place finish in a Nationwide Series race at Bristol.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #46-Chase Miller / 2 laps / ignition
42) #10-Jeff Green / 6 laps / vibration
41) #08-Tim Andrews / 11 laps / brakes
40) #42-Josh Wise / 14 laps / electrical
39) #50-David Starr / 19 laps / engine

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green (11)
2nd) Mike Harmon, Kevin Lepage, Chase Miller (2)
3rd) Ryan Blaney, Stephen Leicht, Danica Patrick, Tony Raines, Scott Speed, Josh Wise (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #10-TriStar Motorsports (11)
2nd) #46-The Motorsports Group, #47-The Motorsports Group, #74-Mike Harmon (2)
3rd) #7-JR Motorsports, #36-Tommy Baldwin Racing, #42-The Motorsports Group, #52-Means Racing, #70-ML Motorsports, #91-TriStar Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (12)
2nd) Chevrolet (11)