TRUCKS: Tyler Tanner Joins Crowded Truck Series Garage At Chicagoland
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| SOURCE: Ross Chastain |
The finish was Tanner’s second of the 2015 season, his first since Bristol, two races ago, and came in his 10th series start.
Tanner returned to MB Motorsports for the first time since the last-place run at Bristol to take his turn in the team’s “start-and-park” entry while Justin Jennings again drove Mike Mittler’s primary #63. The two Mittler trucks were among 36 drivers on the preliminary entry list, a group reduced before Friday’s practice to 34 after the withdrawals of Tim Viens and Mike Harmon. Tanner was 26th-fastest in that first session and would start 24th after qualifying was rained-out.
Rain also pushed the green flag from Friday night to Saturday morning, and when it came, the 32nd spot belonged to Norm Benning, who took the spot by virtue of his 25th spot in Owner Points. Missing the race were Chad Boat in the #16 CorvetteParts.net Chevrolet, a new second team for Billy Boat Motorsports, and Ross Chastain’s #18 AISIN Toyota fielded by former series driver Shigeaki Hattori. Hattori’s team is still looking for its first Truck Series appearance since Brett Moffitt’s 17th-place run at Michigan in 2013.
Several drivers were sent to the back with Benning, including two for engine changes that reports indicate had to do with damage after car covers came off several trucks during the storms the night before. One of the victims was Daniel Hemric, whose #14 California Clean Power Chevrolet was still smoking during the pace laps. On Lap 2, 27th-place starter Jennifer Jo Cobb’s #10 POWMIAFamiles.org / Driven2Honor.org Chevrolet slowed with a sudden engine issue of her own. Sometime likely around Lap 25, Ross Chastain tweeted pictures of Cobb’s truck in the garage area along with teammate Caleb Roark’s #0, B.J. McLeod’s #45, and Tanner’s #36. By that point in the race, two more trucks had also joined the rapidly-filling garage: Hemric’s snake-bit #14 had dropped the driveshaft in Turn 1 on Lap 14, one lap before Jesse Little’s second series start ended with what was reported as a “catastrophic” engine failure on his #97 ProtectTheGarvest.com Toyota.
Of this group, only Cobb and Hemric were able to return to the track laps down and finish under power, coming home 23rd and 25th, respectively. Tanner, meanwhile, stayed put and trailed the field, besting both Roark and Little by nine laps. Ryan Ellis saw his second-straight early exit from a Truck Series race while driving MAKE Motorsports’ #50, though this time he completed 18 laps in Mark Beaver’s Landworks Solutions Chevrolet. Rounding out the Bottom Five was McLeod - his fifth-straight bottom-five finish in the #45 Tilted Kilt Chevrolet.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first last-place finish for both Tanner and the #36 in a Truck Series race at Chicagoland.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
32) #36-Tyler Tanner / 5 laps / engine
31) #0-Caleb Roark / 14 laps / brakes
30) #97-Jesse Little / 14 laps / engine
29) #50-Ryan Ellis / 18 laps / vibration
28) #45-B.J. McLeod / 25 laps / vibration
2015 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Norm Benning, Caleb Roark (3)
2nd) Tyler Tanner (2)
3rd) Adam Edwards, Joey Gattina, Stew Hayward, Justin Jennings, Jennifer Jo Cobb, Travis Kvapil, Justin Marks, Robert Mitten (1)
2015 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing (5)
2nd) Norm Benning Racing (4)
3rd) MB Motorsports (3)
4th) MAKE Motorsports, Mike Harmon Racing, NDS Motorsports, Win-Tron Racing (1)
2015 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (13)
2nd) RAM (2)
3rd) Toyota (1)
