TRUCKS: Chris Lafferty Ties The 2013 LASTCAR Truck Series Owner’s Championship

SOURCE: Troy Whitaker

Chris Lafferty picked up the 4th last-place finish of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career in Thursday’s UNOH 225 at the Kentucky Speedway when his #0 Driven2Honor.org Ford fell out with rear end problems after he completed 1 of the race’s 150 laps.

The finish was Lafferty’s first of the season and his first in a Truck Series race since Pocono in 2011, forty-two races ago.

Lafferty was making just his third start of the 2013 season and his second in the #0, a team truck to the #10 driven by team owner Jennifer Jo Cobb.  Last season, this same #0 team nearly won the LASTCAR Truck Series Championship with Blake Koch before losing the bottom-five tiebreaker to Dennis Setzer at Homestead.  Lafferty, himself a part-time owner-driver, raced the #0 in four other races in 2012, then scored a career-best 24th at Las Vegas driving Mike Mittler’s #65.

Lafferty was one of three drivers who failed to complete a qualifying lap at Kentucky.  However, with just thirty-six trucks showing up for as many spots, every entrant made the field, and Lafferty secured the 35th starting spot.  In the race, he pulled behind the wall after the opening lap, followed one lap later by Clay Greenfield in the second Norm Benning-owned Chevrolet and the LASTCAR leading #38 RSS Racing Chevrolet driven this week by Charlotte last-placer Chris Jones.  The Chevrolets of Danny Efland and Brennan Newberry rounded out the Bottom Five.  Cobb finished 26th.

This was the second last-place finish of the year for the #0, joining Scott Saunders’ run at Kansas four races ago.  The team is now tied with the #38 RSS Racing team for the lead in the 2013 LASTCAR Truck Series Owner’s Championship.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the second-straight last-place finish for the #0 in a Truck Series race at Kentucky.  Last September in the Kentucky 201, Blake Koch trailed the field in the #0 Driven2Honor.org Ford after his transmission failed on the opening lap.  It was Koch’s first Truck Series last-place finish.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
36) #0-Chris Lafferty / 1 lap / rear end
35) #75-Clay Greenfield / 2 laps / transmission
34) #38-Chris Jones / 2 laps / vibration
33) #84-Danny Efland / 9 laps / clutch
32) #24-Brennan Newberry / 31 laps / drive shaft

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Johnny Chapman (2)
2nd) Mike Harmon, Jennifer Jo Cobb, Chris Jones, Chris Lafferty, Scott Riggs, Scott Saunders (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #0-Jennifer Jo Cobb, #38-RSS Racing (2)
2nd) #10-Jennifer Jo Cobb, #84-Chris Fontaine, #92-Ricky Benton, #93-RSS Racing (1)

LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (4)
2nd) Ford, RAM (2)