N’WIDE: Jeff Green Ties NASCAR Single-Season Last-Place Record With Six Races To Go

SOURCE: Jeff Wagoner

Jeff Green picked up the 50th last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Saturday’s Kentucky 300 at the Kentucky Speedway when his unsponsored #10 TriStar Motorsports Toyota fell out with a vibration after he completed 3 of the race’s 200 laps.

The finish was Green’s second in a row.  It’s also Green’s twelfth of the season, tying NASCAR’s single-season last-place record he set last year.  In 2012, he scored his twelfth finish with eight races to go, but Charles Lewandoski took over his “start-and-park” #10 for three of those final races while Green finished 15th and 16th in TriStar’s #44.

Green qualified 27th for Saturdays race at an average speed of 171.325 mph, ranking him fourth among the eleven “go-or-go-homers” who attempted to qualify.  The only driver to miss the race was Danny Efland, whose #50 missed edging Matt DiBenedetto for the final starting spot by just over half a second.

In the race itself, Green and the #00 SupportMilitary.org Toyota of Blake Koch pulled behind the wall at almost the exact same moment.  In reality, Green edged Koch by a single lap, scoring the record-tying finish.  Rounding out the Bottom Five were T.J. Bell in The Motorsports Group’s #42, Carl Long in Mike Harmon’s #74 Dodge, and the other “start-and-park” TMG entry, #46, of Matt DiBenedetto.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Green not only swept both of 2013's last-place finishes at Kentucky, but also scored the third-consecutive last-place finish at Kentucky for the #10 TriStar Motorsports team.  In the 2012 running of this race, Charles Lewandoski fell out with a vibration after four laps.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #10-Jeff Green / 3 laps / vibration
39) #00-Blake Koch / 4 laps / rear gear
38) #42-T.J. Bell / 6 laps / transmission
37) #74-Carl Long / 8 laps / suspension
36) #46-Matt DiBenedetto / 8 laps / overheating

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green (12)
2nd) Blake Koch (3)
3rd) Joey Gase (2)
4th) Tanner Berryhill, Johanna Long, Eric McClure, Michael McDowell, Robert Richardson, Jr., Morgan Shepherd, Dexter Stacey, Mike Wallace, Josh Wise, J.J. Yeley (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #10-TriStar Motorsports (12)
2nd) #00-SR2 Motorsports (3)
3rd) #52-Jimmy Means Racing (2)
4th) #14-TriStar Motorsports, #17-Vision Racing, #23-R3 Motorsports, #27-SR2 Motorsports, #42-The Motorsports Group, #46-The Motorsports Group, #70-ML Motorsports, #89-Shepherd Racing Ventures, #92-KH Motorsports, #01-JD Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (20)
2nd) Chevrolet (5)
3rd) Dodge, Ford (1)