N’WIDE: Canadian Dexter Stacey Becomes The Final Nationwide Series Driver To Finish 43rd

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin'

Dexter Stacey picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s Ford EcoBoost 300 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway when his #39 Maddie’s Place Ford fell out with engine problems without completing any of the race’s 200 laps. The finish came in Stacey’s seventh series start at the end of his first season on the tour.

Stacey, a nineteen-year-old Canadian driver and four-year campaigner on the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, qualified 40th for Sunday’s race at an average speed of 160.399 mph. Fortunately, his #39 team was locked-in on owner points as the car made all thirty-three races in 2012 with Stacey and seven other drivers. However, engine troubles prevented Stacey’s car from completing a lap, securing him a last-place finish before The Motorsports Group teammates Josh Wise and Chase Miller fell out six laps into the race.

Stacey’s best finish of his rookie season remains a 24th at Chicago back in September, his second career start for owner Archie St. Hillaire’s Go Green Racing Team. He also made two other starts on the road courses at Watkins Glen and Montreal in R3 Motorsports’ #23, coming home 32nd and 35th, respectively.

2012 LASTCAR Nationwide Series Champion Jeff Green came home 40th in TriStar Motorsports’ #91, coming up just short of a thirteenth last-place finish in thirty-three races this season. His mark of twelve last-place finishes, all of them scored in the first twenty-five races, remains the new LASTCAR single-season record.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first last-place finish for the #39 in a Nationwide Series race since the fall of 2011, when Matt Frahm’s TSP Powder Coating Ford was involved in a multi-car crash on the opening lap of the Wypall 200 at Phoenix.
*It is the first last-place finish for the #39 in a Nationwide Series race at Homestead since 2006, when Sam Hornish, Jr.’s Mobil 1 Dodge was involved in a crash after 20 laps of the 2006 Ford 300.
*Stacey is the first Canadian-born driver to finish last in a Nationwide Series race since 2007, when D.J. Kennington’s #72 Northern Provincial Pipelines Dodge crashed 7 laps into the Arizona Travel 200 at Phoenix.
*This was the first time a Nationwide Series last-placer at Homestead did not complete a single lap since 2003, when Casey Atwood’s #14 Navy "Accelerate Your Life" Chevrolet was taken out in a four-car crash on the opening lap of the Ford 300.
*With the Nationwide Series scaling back to 40-car fields in 2013, Stacey also became the final Nationwide Series driver to finish 43rd in a NASCAR Nationwide Series race. The first driver to finish 43rd in a Nationwide Series race was Dick McCabe, whose #33 Jonathon’s Restaurant / Bosch Buick fell out with engine problems 29 laps into the Oxford 250 at the Oxford Plains Speedway in Oxford, Maine on July 14, 1986.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #39-Dexter Stacey / 0 laps / engine
42) #42-Josh Wise / 6 laps / overheating
41) #46-Chase Miller / 6 laps / vibration
40) #91-Jeff Green / 17 laps / vibration
39) #00-Blake Koch / 40 laps / fuel pump

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL
1st) Jeff Green (12)
2nd) Chase Miller (3)
3rd) Mike Harmon, Kevin Lepage, Charles Lewandoski, Tony Raines (2)
4th) Tim Andrews, T.J. Bell, Ryan Blaney, Angela Cope, Joey Gase, Stephen Leicht, Danica Patrick, Scott Speed, Dexter Stacey, Josh Wise (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL
1st) #10-TriStar Motorsports (14)
2nd) #46-The Motorsports Group (3)
3rd) #47-The Motorsports Group, #52-Means Racing, #74-Mike Harmon, #91-TriStar Motorsports (2)
4th) #7-JR Motorsports, #36-Tommy Baldwin Racing, #39-Go Green Racing, #42-The Motorsports Group, #50-Mark Beaver, #70-ML Motorsports, #00-Jason Sciavicco, #08-Randy Hill Racing (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL
1st) Toyota (17)
2nd) Chevrolet (14)
3rd) Ford (2)