N’WIDE: Raines Finishes Last For TriStar As Teammate Jeff Green Finishes 23rd

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin'

Tony Raines picked up the 4th last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s Great Clips 200 at the Phoenix International Raceway when his unsponsored #91 TriStar Motorsports Toyota fell out with a vibration after he completed 5 of the race’s 204 laps.

It was Raines’ second last-place finish of 2012, his first since Dover, twenty races ago.

Raines qualified 31st for Saturday’s race at an average speed of 128.041 mph, ranking him ninth among the fifteen "go-or-go-homers" who attempted to make the race. This secured the third start of the season for TriStar’s #91 team. The team debuted at Iowa in August with 2012 LASTCAR Nationwide Series Champion Jeff Green driving it to his tenth of twelve last-place finishes this season.

On Satuday, Raines’ car was the first behind the wall. Three laps later, Chase Miller parked his #46, and all three of his teammates at The Motorsports Group followed suit. This resulted in TMG’s #40 scoring its first DNF since Bristol in August, finishing 37th with Erik Darnell.

Meanwhile, Jeff Green not only finished under power for the first time since last month at Charlotte, but also made his first full-race run in the #10, the car number he parked in eleven of his last-place finishes this season. Green came home 23rd, three laps down.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first last-place finish for both Raines and the #91 in a Nationwide Series race at Phoenix.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
43) #91-Tony Raines / 5 laps / vibration
42) #46-Chase Miller / 8 laps / brakes
41) #15-Carl Long / 12 laps / brakes
40) #42-Josh Wise / 15 laps / electrical
39) #00-Blake Koch / 17 laps / brakes

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
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, Josh Wise (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
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, #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
1st) Toyota (17)
2nd) Chevrolet (14)
3rd) Ford (1)