N’WIDE: Yeley, TMG Snag Another Last-Place Finish From TriStar

SOURCE: motorsport.com

J.J. Yeley picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Friday’s Virginia 529 College Savings 250 at the Richmond International Raceway when his unsponsored #46 The Motorsports Group Chevrolet fell out with engine trouble after he completed 4 of the race’s 250 laps.

The finish was Yeley’s first of 2013, but the second in three races for The Motorsports Group.  Teammate Josh Wise trailed the field at Bristol.  It is Yeley’s first last-place finish in the Nationwide Series since Kansas in the fall of 2011, sixty-three races ago.  In doing so, Yeley has become the last-place finisher of the 1,000th NASCAR Nationwide Series race.

Yeley qualified in the final starting spot for the 40-car field with an average lap speed of 119.069 mph.  He edged Danny Efland for the spot by just five hundredths of a second.  Efland was one of five drivers who failed to qualify, including Carl Long in Mike Harmon’s #74, Daytona last-placer Morgan Shepherd, three-time LASTCAR Cup Champion Derrike Cope, and Brett Butler in the SR2 Motorsports #00.

During the opening green-flag run, Yeley edged Chase Miller for last place by a single lap.  Miller, again in the TriStar Motorsports #10, finished 39th after qualifying 24th.  Rounding out the Bottom Five were Josh Wise, Yeley’s TMG teammate in the #42, Matt DiBenedetto with his fourth Bottom Five in five starts for Vision Racing, and current 10th-place points man Parker Kligerman with his first Bottom Five of the year.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first last-place finish for the #46 in Nationwide Series competition since 2012 at Kansas, when Chase Miller’s The Motorsports Group Chevrolet lost the ignition after four laps of the Kansas Lottery 300.
*Neither Yeley nor the #46 had ever before finished last in a Nationwide race at Richmond.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #46-J.J. Yeley / 4 laps / engine
39) #10-Chase Miller / 5 laps / vibration
38) #42-Josh Wise / 8 laps / rear gear
37) #37-Matt DiBenedetto / 56 laps / brakes
36) #77-Parker Kligerman / 210 laps / electrical

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green (10)
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 (10)
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 (18)
2nd) Chevrolet (5)
3rd) Dodge, Ford (1)