N’WIDE: Jeff Green Scores Fourteenth Last-Place Finish Of 2013

SOURCE: Jeff Wagoner

Jeff Green picked up the 52nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career in Friday’s Dollar General 300 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway when his unsponsored #10 TriStar Motorsports Toyota fell out with a vibration after he completed 2 of the race’s 200 laps.

The finish was Green’s fourteenth of 2013, his second in a row, and his fourth in the last five races.  With three races to go, Green stands a chance of besting his single-season record by as many as five finishes.  A season total of seventeen last-place finishes would make Green the first driver ever to finish last in more than one-half a NASCAR season’s races.

Green did not run in the opening practice, but timed in 25th in Happy Hour.  He qualified 22nd for the race at an average speed of 177.649 mph, ranking him sixth among the sixteen “go-or-go-homers” who attempted to qualify.  Four drivers failed to complete a qualifying lap, including Elliott Sadler and Ken Butler III, who both crashed in their qualifying attempts.  Sadler and Butler III joined Green in the Bottom Five.  Sadler was involved in two more crashes during the race while Butler pulled behind the wall two laps after Green.

Filling out the Bottom Five were Blake Koch, Butler’s teammate at SR2 Motorsports, and Reed Sorenson.  Sorenson was making the first-ever Nationwide Series start for Leavine Family Racing, the part-time Cup Series team with three last-place finishes this year.  Sorenson’s Ford was destroyed in the three-car wreck that also took out Sadler and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Brian Vickers.

This marked the first time since Talladega in May that not a single car from The Motorsports Group finished in the Bottom Five.  The lowest finisher from the team was T.J. Bell, who came home 28th in an unsponsored #40 Chevrolet.  His teammates Josh Wise in the #42 and J.J. Yeley in the #46 both failed to qualify, joining two-time last-placer Joey Gase in Jimmy Means’ #52, Dexter Stacey in his first attempt since Mid-Ohio, Dover last-placer Danny Efland, and former LASTCAR Nationwide Series record holder Derrike Cope in his #73.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was Green’s first last-place finish in the fall Charlotte race for the Nationwide Series since 2011, when his #44 TriStar Motorsports Chevrolet fell out with a vibration after three laps.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #10-Jeff Green / 2 laps / vibration
39) #24-Ken Butler III / 4 laps / handling
38) #00-Blake Koch / 4 laps / electrical
37) #95-Reed Sorenson / 50 laps / crash
36) #11-Elliott Sadler / 64 laps / crash

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green (14)
2nd) Blake Koch (3)
3rd) Joey Gase (2)
4th) Tanner Berryhill, Danny Efland, 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 (14)
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, #50-Mark Beaver, #70-ML Motorsports, #89-Shepherd Racing Ventures, #92-KH Motorsports, #01-JD Motorsports (1)

LASTCAR N'WIDE SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (22)
2nd) Chevrolet (6)
3rd) Dodge, Ford (1)