N’WIDE: Jeff Green Two Finishes Away From Breaking All-Time Single Season Last-Place Record

SOURCE: NASCAR Media

Jeff Green picked up the 36th last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday night’s U.S. Cellular 250 at the Iowa Speedway when his #91 TriStar Motorsports Toyota fell out with a vibration after 4 of the race’s 250 laps.

The finish was Green’s 10th of the 2012 season. This already ties the season total of the last two LASTCAR Nationwide Series champions: both Green himself (2011) and Dennis Setzer (2010) scored 10 last-place runs by season’s end. Now, Green still has 13 more races left in the season, presenting him with a legitimate chance of breaking the record.

Further, if Green finishes last in at least two of the remaining 13 races to be run in 2012, he will have scored more last-place finishes in a single season than any driver in any of NASCAR’s top three divisions. The current record is held by Jeff Fuller, who recorded 11 finishes in the 2004 Nationwide Series season while driving for NEMCO Motorsports. Fuller ended 2004 with a total of 13 last-place finishes in NASCAR as he scored another two in Cup.

Last week at Iowa, Green was moved to a new TriStar Motorsports team, #91. The #10 with which Green scored his previous nine finishes in 2012 went to teammate Mike Bliss, who finished two laps down in 20th. Green qualified 27th at an average speed of 131.595 mph, ranking him third behind Bliss and Joe Gibbs development driver Darrell Wallace, Jr. among the thirteen "go-or-go-homers" on the entry list.

Green exited the race under green after four laps along with Chase Miller in The Motorsport Group’s #46. Miller’s teammates Matt DiBenedetto and Tim Schendel also ended up in the Bottom Five.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first last-place finish for the #91 in a Nationwide Series race since 2010, when David Gilliland’s D’Hont Humphrey Motorsports Chevrolet suffered an ignition failure after the first lap of the Heluva Good! 200 at Dover.
*This was Jeff Green’s third consecutive last-place finish in the U.S. Cellular 250 at Iowa. He has yet to finish last in the spring race.
*This was Toyota’s 130th last-place finish across NASCAR’s top three divisions.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #91-Jeff Green / 4 laps / vibration
42) #46-Chase Miller / 4 laps / brakes
41) #47-Matt DiBenedetto / 6 laps / vibration
40) #15-Dusty Davis / 12 laps / carburetor
39) #42-Tim Schendel / 15 laps / fuel pump

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green (10)
2nd) Mike Harmon, Kevin Lepage (2)
3rd) Ryan Blaney, Stephen Leicht, Chase Miller, Tony Raines, Scott Speed, Josh Wise (1)

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

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (11)
2nd) Chevrolet (9)