N’WIDE: Jeff Green 9-For-19 After Last-Place Finish At Indy
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| SOURCE: motorsport.com |
The finish was Green’s ninth of the 2013 season and his first since New Hampshire, two races ago. With nine last-place finishes in nineteen races and with fourteen races to go, Green needs to finish last just four more times to break his single-season record of twelve he set last year.
Green’s #10 carried a new look for the Brickyard. Yellow numbers were used instead of blue ones, and the car carried associate sponsorship from occasional TriStar Motorsports backer Value Place. Although Richmond last-placer Dexter Stacey withdrew to compete in a race in Canada, Green still had to beat four other “go-or-go-homers” to make the field. Green did this, securing the 33rd starting spot with an average speed of 170.074 mph, equaling the speed of J.J. Yeley in The Motorsports Group’s #46.
The four “go-or-go-homers” behind Green and Yeley all failed to qualify: Matt DiBenedetto in the “start-and-park” #37 Dodge for Vision Racing, Carl Long in Mike Harmon’s #74, owner-driver Morgan Shepherd, the July Daytona last-placer, and two-time and last week’s last-placer Joey Gase in Jimmy Means’ #52.
The first fifty laps of Saturday’s race were run under the green flag. Falling to the rear first was 14th-place starter Justin Allgaier. Allgaier’s #31 raced to support the Charles Dean Leffler Trust, a foundation for the benefit of the late Jason Leffler’s five-year-old son. The car also carried the familiar paint scheme of the #38 Great Clips machine Leffler raced for many years in the series. Unfortunately, Allgaier had engine trouble before the green flag, and his team was forced to switch carburetors. He returned to the race nineteen laps down and held 40th through the early stages.
While Allgaier’s team made repairs, Green pulled behind the wall, followed two laps later by both Josh Wise in the #42 The Motorsports Group entry and the #00 SR2 Motorsports Toyota driven this week by Jeff Green’s brother David. It was David’s first start of the season and his last since he’d come home 39th at Charlotte last October. Rounding out the Bottom Five were Yeley’s #46 and Jeff Green’s TriStar teammate Mike Bliss, who narrowly missed the field for the 400-mile Cup race on Sunday.
Allgaier returned to the track and finished 33rd, nineteen laps down.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was Green’s first last-place finish in a Nationwide Series race at Indianapolis. He did, however, finish last once at Indianapolis Raceway Park (now Lucas Oil Raceway) in 1996 when his #3 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet crashed eight laps into the Kroger 200.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #10-Jeff Green / 4 laps / vibration
39) #42-Josh Wise / 6 laps / rear gear
38) #00-David Green / 6 laps / transmission
37) #46-J.J. Yeley / 7 laps / electrical
36) #19-Mike Bliss / 41 laps / engine
LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green (9)
2nd) Joey Gase (2)
3rd) Tanner Berryhill, Blake Koch, Johanna Long, Eric McClure, Michael McDowell, Robert Richardson, Jr., Morgan Shepherd, Dexter Stacey (1)
LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #10-TriStar Motorsports (9)
2nd) #52-Jimmy Means Racing (2)
3rd) #14-TriStar Motorsports, #17-Vision Racing, #23-R3 Motorsports, #27-SR2 Motorsports, #70-ML Motorsports, #89-Shepherd Racing Ventures, #92-KH Motorsports, #00-SR2 Motorsports (1)
LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (15)
2nd) Chevrolet (2)
3rd) Dodge, Ford (1)
