XFINITY: Austin Green’s first oval track start ends with hard Bristol crash

Written By Brock Beard

by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief

SCREENSHOT: The CW Sports, @TheCW_Sports

Austin Green picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Friday’s Food City 300 at the Bristol Motor Speedway when his #32 3Dimensional.com Chevrolet was involved in a multi-car accident after 50 of 300 laps.

The finish occurred in Green’s sixth series start. In the XFINITY Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 12th for the #32, the 400th from a crash, and the 649th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 45th for the #32, the 1,394th from a crash, and the 1,958th for Chevrolet.

When the bright yellow #32 Chevrolet crossed the finish line 7th in the XFINITY Series race at COTA earlier this year, it caught many by surprise that it was a driver making their NASCAR national series debut. Austin Green is the 23-year-old son of 1994 NASCAR Busch Grand National Series champion and current NASCAR official David Green. The younger Green’s career took a winding path through sports car racing, where he’s become a regular contender in SCCA Trans-Am with the Peterson Racing Group in TA2.

The Peterson team had designs on making some starts in NASCAR, at one point fielding their own #87. But they then joined forces with Jordan Anderson Racing using Owner Points from the team’s part-time #32 on Peterson’s car that’s been transported on the team’s Trans-Am hauler. After the 7th-place debut in COTA came a 15th in Portland, then a stunning 4th at Sonoma, where Green drag-raced Sam Mayer to the finish line in a battle for 3rd – a moment I caught on video from pit road. Then followed a 10th on the Chicago Street Course and an 11th just last week in Watkins Glen, where Green barely kept his car from spinning during a last-lap pileup. That race also saw the team field a second car for Green’s Trans-Am teammate Mike Skeen, bringing back the #87. While Skeen wrecked out, finishing 30th, Green’s average finish in his first five starts remained a sterling 9.4.

But this time, Green faced an altogether new challenge – his first NASCAR start on an oval track. At Sonoma, there had been word he’d make his first such attempt next month at Martinsville, but this was moved up to Bristol. It was at this same track 30 years ago that father David scored his only Bristol win after Mark Martin infamously pulled off the track a lap too soon while leading under caution. The younger Green began his weekend 32nd of the 39 entrants in practice, then qualified 28th with a lap of 16.294 seconds (117.761mph). Missing the show was Dawson Cram, though his #74 Mike Harmon Racing Chevrolet was faster than the last two drivers who made it in on Owner Points.

Starting alongside 37th-place Garrett Smithley in an unsponsored white #53 Ford for Joey Gase Motorsports was 38th and last-place starter Greg Van Alst in SS-Green Light Racing’s #07 CB Fabricating Chevrolet. Joining Van Alst were four other drivers for unapproved adjustments: 20th-place starter Sam Mayer in the #1 Carolina Carports Chevrolet, 27th-place Parker Retzlaff in the #31 The Visual Pak Companies Chevrolet, and 31st-place Leland Honeyman in the #42 Ohio Logistics Chevrolet, and 32nd-place Josh Williams in the #11 Alloy Employer Services Chevrolet.

Set to join the penalized drivers was 23rd-place starter Stefan Parsons, who faced an even larger obstacle. While the team primed the engine, water was discovered in the oil, forcing an engine change just minutes before the start. The crews from all three Alpha Prime Racing entries swarmed on the scene, soon to be joined by others from ECR. Also helping was DNQ Dawson Cram, whose crew chief at JD Motorsports, Kase Kallenbach, now works at Alpha Prime. With eight minutes until the green flag, the engine change was completed – 1 hour, 27 minutes from start to finish, according to the team. Parsons was behind the wheel and put on his helmet, but he wouldn’t be able to join the field on pit road. He wouldn’t take the green flag, either – although the NASCAR.com app inexplicably showed him 37th across the line at the start, 3.782 seconds back of the lead to Josh Williams’ 3.880. On Lap 2, outside-polesitter Cole Custer bounced off the Turn 2 wall while running 3rd, forcing his #00 High Point Ford to pit road under the ensuing caution, scoring reset to show Parsons two laps down. On Lap 10, Parsons’ team radioed, “We’re getting close,” and directed him out of the garage. He re-fired the engine on Lap 15, exiting the garage and returning to the track in 38th place, 14 laps down. As with Mason Massey’s similar incident in 2020, Parsons would climb out of last place.

By Lap 29, then-leader Justin Allgaier caught the now 37th-place Greg Van Alst, putting him a lap down, and soon made quick work of the tail end of the field. Ahead of him, Leland Honeyman’s #42 started trailing smoke, then made it to pit road. It was an apparent power steering issue, the team directing him to steer the wheels back and forth in his stall. Before leaving, Honeyman told his crew to pull tape off the nose as he was overheating. Just as Honeyman was about to return to the track in 37th, eight laps down, trouble broke out on the backstretch.

Coming off Turn 2, Austin Green appeared to cut down a right-front tire, shedding sparks as he bounced off the outside wall. Green slid to the inside, clipping the right-rear of race leader Allgaier’s #7 Brandt Agriculture Chevrolet, ripping the TV panel from his car. While Allgaier cleared him, Green’s teammate Parker Retzlaff came on the scene and cut left, trying to clear Green to the inside. Instead, the two collided, and Retzlaff bounced off the inside wall. Retzlaff made it to pit road, his own car trailing sparks, but Green climbed from his car, the first car done for the night. On Lap 60, Green dropped to 37th behind Honeyman, then took last from Parsons around Lap 66. Parsons went on to finish 33rd with Honeyman in 31st.

Green's car against the inside wall. (SCREENSHOT: The CW Sports, @TheCW_Sports)

Smithley took home 36th after late-race rear gear trouble on the Gase car. Taking 35th was Jeffrey Earnhardt, who was one of many surprises in qualifying when he put the #26 K9 Grass by ForeverLawn Toyota 6th on the grid and battled in the Top Five for much of Stage 1. Also impressive in qualifying were Anthony Alfredo in Our Motorsports’ #5 Dumpkin Spice Dude Wipes Chevrolet (started 3rd), Jeremy Clements in the #51 One Stop / All South Electric Chevrolet (7th and won Stage 2), Watkins Glen last-place finisher Kyle Weatherman in the #91 Carv’n Flavor Chevrolet (9th), and Chad Finchum in the #14 Elite Petroleum Ford (18th). Alfredo and Clements finished best of this group in 11th and 12th, but the rest came home no better than 26th, including Earnhardt, who suffered crash damage and took 35th. Matt DiBenedetto rounded out the group after his #38 ReMA Ford returned to the track after he lost power, sending him to the garage for 25 laps.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*This marked the first last-place finish for the #32 in a XFINITY Series race at Bristol since August 26, 1988, when Dale Jarrett scored the first last-place finish of his own XFINITY Series career after his #32 Port-A-Lube Oldsmobile lost the engine after 4 laps.

*Green is the first driver to score his first XFINITY Series last-place finish at Bristol since August 16, 2019, when Mason Diaz crashed his #68 Brandonbilt Motorsports Chevrolet after 3 laps.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

38) #32-Austin Green / 50 laps / crash

37) #31-Parker Retzlaff / 51 laps / crash

36) #53-Garrett Smithley / 113 laps / rear gear

35) #26-Jeffrey Earnhardt / 205 laps / crash

34) #38-Matt DiBenedetto / 275 laps / running

2024 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Joey Gase Motorsports (4)

2nd) DGM Racing, Jordan Anderson Racing, JR Motorsports (3)

3rd) AM Racing, Mike Harmon Racing, SS-Green Light Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing (2)

4th) Alpha Prime Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing, Kaulig Racing, Motorsports Business Management, RSS Racing (1)

2024 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Chevrolet (17)

2nd) Ford (6)

3rd) Toyota (3)

2024 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

Brock Beard https://lastcar.info
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