TRUCKS: Fontaine Finishes Last For The First Time In More Than Three Years

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin'

Chris Fontaine picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career in Saturday’s Kroger 200 at the Martinsville Speedway when his #84 Stingray Chevrolet Glenden Enterprises Chevrolet fell out with clutch problems after he completed 5 of the race’s 200 laps.

The finish was Fontaine’s first of the 2012 season and his first in Truck Series competition in three years, dating back to the 2009 North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. There, he and Dwayne Gaulding teammate Donnie Neuenberger finished in the final two spots, Fontaine’s #22 Red Rocks Café Dodge beating Neunberger’s Stock Car Steel #21 by two laps.

Fontaine was making his in the fourteenth start of this, his eighth season of Truck Series competition, running his own #84 he has campaigned in most of his 45 career starts to date. At Daytona in February, Fontaine scored a career-best 7th-place finish driving a Toyota he has only campaigned in the restrictor plate races. Martinsville would see him return to Chevrolet, and he qualified 34th in the 36-truck field, relying on owner points after a lap of 91.918 mph.

In the race itself, Fontaine was the first truck behind the wall, edging the Eddie Sharp Racing entry of Cale Gale, felled by transmission trouble, by two laps.

Among the five drivers who did not qualify for Saturday’s race was 2012 LASTCAR Truck Series leader Dennis Setzer and his #38. With Martinville being the first of the final four races of the season, this gave championship runner-up Clay Greenfield a chance to capitalize as fellow second-place drivers Johnny Chapman and Brandon Knupp were not entered in the race. However, Greenfield came home 25th, an Setzer retains his one-finish lead with now only three races to go.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first last-place finish for the #84 in Truck Series competition since 1998, when Randy Renfrow’s #84 Porter-Cable Power Tools Ford lost the engine 28 laps into the season-ending Sam’s Town 250 at Las Vegas. The only other time the number finished last in Truck Series competition was earlier in the 1998 season, when Wayne Anderson, the previous driver of the Porter-Cable Ford, crashed eight laps into the Stevens Bell / Genuine Car Parts 200 at New Jersey’s old Flemington Speedway.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
36) #84-Chris Fontaine / 5 laps / clutch
35) #33-Cale Gale / 7 laps / transmission
34) #35-Matt Merrell / 35 laps / transmission
33) #9-Ron Hornaday, Jr. / 136 laps / oil pressure
32) #27-Ryan Truex / 158 laps / transmission

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Dennis Setzer (3)
2nd) Johnny Chapman, Clay Greenfield, Brandon Knupp (2)
3rd) T.J. Bell, Jeb Burton, Rick Crawford, Grant Enfinger, Chris Fontaine, Blake Koch, Jennifer Jo Cobb, Jason Leffler, Brennan Newberry, Scott Riggs (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #38-RSS Racing (3)
2nd) #0-Jennifer Jo Cobb, #27-Hillman Racing (2)
3rd) #5-Wauters Motorsports, #10-Jennifer Jo Cobb, #14-Bob Newberry, #18-Kyle Busch Motorsports, #25-Hillman Racing, #60-Turn One Racing, #68-Clay Greenfield Motorsports, #84-Chris Fontaine, #86-Clay Greenfield Motorsports, #74-Mike Harmon, #00-Rick Lind, #07-Ken Smith (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (11)
2nd) Ford, RAM (3)
3rd) Toyota (2)