XFINITY: Jeff Green Takes Early 2015 LASTCAR XFINITY Series Lead

SOURCE: NASCAR Media

Jeff Green picked up the 62nd last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Saturday’s Axalta Faster. Tougher. Brighter. 200 at the Phoenix International Raceway when his unsponsored #10 TriStar Motorsports Toyota fell out with a vibration after he completed 3 of the race’s 200 laps.

The finish came in Green’s 394th series start and his second last-place run in a row.  He now holds a one-finish lead in the LASTCAR standings over Daytona last-placer Dexter Bean and Morgan Shepherd, who was 40th at Atlanta.

Green returned to the controls of TriStar’s white #10 Toyota, and after sitting out the opening practice along with 3 other drivers, put up the 37th-fastest time of the 41 drivers entered.  He put up a lap of 125.462 mph in qualifying and made the field on Owner Points, securing the 36th starting spot in the field of 40.  Missing the show was Shepherd, whose #89 was edged for the final starting spot by less than two tenths of a second.  That spot went Charles Lewandoski, who got start-up team Kapusta Racing’s #56 Ole Energy Chevrolet into the show in the team’s first-ever attempt.  Lewandoski would finish 30th.

Three laps into the start of Saturday’s race, Green pulled behind the wall, followed four laps later by the #40 Braille Battery / Grafoid Dodge of owner-driver Derek White.  Between qualifying and the race, White traded rides with teammate Carl Long.  In qualifying, White secured Long the 39th starting spot in a #13 painted identically to the #46 Al Smith Dodge that Long famously flipped in the final Cup race at Rockingham in 2004.  Long came home 32nd.

Finishing 38th on Saturday was Mario Gosselin, who this week didn’t enter teammate Dexter Bean’s #92 into the show alongside his #90 King Autosport Chevrolet.  37th went to Landon Cassill, whose #01 G&K Services Chevrolet crashed hard into the Turn 4 wall on Lap 95, bringing out the second caution of the afternoon.  The third caution fell for the 36th place finisher, Peyton Sellers, whose engine let go on the backstretch on Lap 124.  Sellers had jumped from his NASCAR Whelen All American Series Late Model Stock Car ride in South Boston, Virginia to give owner Victor Obaika his first XFINITY Series start since Atlanta.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is Green’s fourth last-place finish in a XFINITY Series race at Phoenix.  The previous runs came November 2010, March 2012, and November 2013.  All four came while driving for TriStar Motorsports.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #10-Jeff Green / 3 laps / vibration
39) #40-Derek White / 7 laps / brakes
38) #90-Mario Gosselin / 59 laps / brakes
37) #01-Landon Cassill / 91 laps / crash
36) #97-Peyton Sellers / 118 laps / engine

2015 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jeff Green (2)
2nd) Dexter Bean, Morgan Shepherd (1)

2015 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) #10-TriStar Motorsports (2)
2nd) #89-Shepherd Racing Ventures, #92-King Autosport (1)

2015 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet, Toyota (2)