N’WIDE: Dexter Stacey Wrecks Hard In Michigan Debut

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin'

Dexter Stacey picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s Alliance Truck Parts 250 at the Michigan International Speedway when his #92 Maddie’s Place Ford was involved in a single-car crash after he completed 6 of the race’s 125 laps.

The finish was Stacey’s first of the 2013 season and his first in a Nationwide Series race since last fall at Homestead, thirteen races ago, when he became the final driver to finish 43rd in a Nationwide event.

Following a seven-race debut in 2012 driving for R3 Motorsports and Go Green Racing, Stacey is competing in his first full season in the Nationwide Series.  Moving with him was KH Motorsports, the Kristin Hamelin-owned team that now fields his #92 Fords.  The transition has been a difficult one.  His season began with a DNQ at Daytona, followed by ten starts with no finishes better than a 21st at Iowa.  A hard crash into the outside wall at Richmond resulted in a concussion, putting Tim Andrews in the #92 for Talladega.  Andrews also crashed, leaving him 30th.

Just 39 cars showed up to qualify at Michigan, creating the shortest Nationwide Series field in twelve years, dating back to July 8, 2001, when 39 cars showed up to run the GNC Live Well 200 at Watkins Glen.  Stacey locked up the 33rd starting spot with an average speed of 183.118 mph.

One lap into the race itself, the first caution fell when Alex Bowman and Travis Pastrana spun in Turn 4, triggering a multi-car melee that involved three other cars.  Jeffrey Earnhardt, the nose on his #79 damaged in the resulting stack-up, then fell to the 39th spot.

Stacey wasn’t involved in that wreck, but he brought out the second caution one lap after the restart.  Entering Turn 4 while running around the 23rd spot, Stacey cut a right-front tire, sending him into the outside wall at a sharp angle.  Stacey’s car stopped short of the start / finish line.  Though he remained in the car for several moments, he finally climbed out, apparently unharmed.

Following the restart from Stacey’s crash, The Motorsports Group took 38th an 37th with teammates J.J. Yeley and Josh Wise.  Current 2013 LASTCAR Nationwide Series leader Jeff Green finished 36th, and 35th place went to last-place started Carl Long in Rick Ware’s #15.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first last-place finish for the #92 since 2010, when Dennis Setzer, the year’s LASTCAR Nationwide Series Champion, fell out with a vibration in his K-Automotive Motorsports Dodge after three laps of the O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas.  The number has not finished last in a Nationwide race at Michigan since 2009, when Willie Allen’s turn in the Holloway / Dusty’s Collision Dodge ended after one lap of the Carfax 250.
*This is the first last-place finish for a Ford in a Nationwide Series race at Michigan since 2006, when Greg Biffle’s #16 Ameriquest Mortgage Ford crashed after ten laps of the Carfax 250.  Biffle won Sunday’s Cup Series race, his first of the season.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
39) #92-Dexter Stacey / 6 laps / crash
38) #46-J.J. Yeley / 8 laps / handling
37) #42-Josh Wise / 10 laps / electrical
36) #10-Jeff Green / 14 laps / vibration
35) #15-Carl Long / 16 laps / alternator

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green (5)
2nd) Tanner Berryhill, Joey Gase, Blake Koch, Johanna Long, Eric McClure, Michael McDowell, Robert Richardson, Jr., Dexter Stacey (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #10-TriStar Motorsports (5)
2nd) #14-TriStar Motorsports, #17-Vision Racing, #23-R3 Motorsports, #27-SR2 Motorsports, #52-Jimmy Means Racing, #70-ML Motorsports, #92-KH Motorsports, #00-SR2 Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (10)
2nd) Chevrolet (2)
3rd) Ford (1)