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

Taylor Gray picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 at the Kansas Speedway when his #19 Operation 300 Toyota lost the engine after he completed 45 of 200 laps.

The finish came in Gray’s 11th series start. In the XFINITY Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 33rd for the #19, the 165th for Toyota, and the 283rd from engine trouble. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 87th for the #19, the 415th for Toyota, and the 1,147th for an engine.

While still searching for his first Truck Series win, the three-time ARCA Menards Series race winner from 2022 has taken the next important step in his NASCAR career this year by making the Playoffs for the first time. A 3rd-place finish under the lights at Richmond earned his fifth top-ten finish and ninth Top Ten, and a 5th in the Playoff opener at Milwaukee was followed by a solid 12th in Bristol.

This has coincided with Gray’s first starts in the XFINITY Series, where he’s been in the rotation for Joe Gibbs Racing’s “all-star” #19 Toyota. His season debut also came at Richmond, where he immediately scored his best series finish to date, finishing 3rd behind teammates Chandler Smith and Aric Almirola. He also scored a 5th at Pocono, an 8th at Michigan, and started outside-pole in his most recent attempt at Atlanta.

Gray returned to double-duty at Kansas. On the Truck Series side, he ranked 8th in practice, qualified 17th, and finished 7th and 5th in the two stages before he came home 18th. This was enough to lock his way into the Round of 8 by 37 points. Heading into next week at Talladega, he now anchors the standings, 15 points below the cut line. He also showed speed on the XFINITY side, ranking 2nd in practice, just 0.014 second behind leader Connor Zilisch. But he slipped to 11th in qualifying with a lap of 31.117 seconds (173.539mph).

Gray had been one of 39 drivers on the preliminary entry list, but after Mike Harmon Racing acquired the Owner Points from Richard Childress Racing’s #33 entry, Joey Gase withdrew his #53 and brought his Branson.com sponsorship to the flagship #35 Chevrolet, replacing Carson Ware. Gase qualified 34th while the 38th and final spot went to Leland Honeyman, Jr. in the #42 Hardscape Contractors Chevrolet. Both he and 37th-place Brad Perez in the #45 Apex Coffee Roasters Chevrolet were the only two drivers to not complete a lap in qualifying (Honeyman due to an engine change, and Perez after spinning during his qualifying lap). Both Honeyman and Perez earned redundant tail-end penalties along with the unapproved adjustments penalties for 19th-place Jeb Burton in the #27 BG Products Chevrolet, 24th-place Matt DiBenedetto in the #38 ReMA Ford, 27th-place Dawson Cram in his first start for DGM Racing aboard the #92 Trade with the Pros Chevrolet, and 31st-place Logan Bearden in the #15 AirBox Ford. Not docked was Daniel Dye, who like Perez spun during his qualifying lap, but retained the 30th spot on the grid in his #10 Race to Stop Suicide Chevrolet.

Prior to the start, NASCAR spent some time ensuring the penalized drivers were in the right order, dropping Perez to the tail end of the inside line. When the green flag dropped, Perez inched ahead of Honeyman based on intervals – a 3.05 second gap from the lead for Perez ahead of Honeyman’s 3.16. By the end of Lap 1, the spot fell to a newly engaged Ryan Vargas, the last-minute driver choice for Mike Harmon’s #74 Williamsburg Contracting / ShenCo Custom Designs Chevrolet. As Vargas crossed the stripe 4.509 seconds back of the lead, 0.225 behind Perez, Jeremy Clements was given the black flag. The penalty was the same as Conor Daly’s in yesterday’s Truck Series race – for changing lanes too early. On Lap 3, Clements served his penalty, and his #51 Impel Union Chevrolet took the 38th spot. He returned to the track a lap down, then earned the Lucky Dog under the first caution of the race.

On Lap 4, Playoff contender Sammy Smith was in a tight battle ahead of A.J. Allmendinger in Turns 3 and 4. Running the high lane, Smith’s #8 TMC Chevrolet appeared to get loose just as Allmendinger crowded his left-rear, causing Smith to smack the wall with the right-rear. The impact pushed in the right-rear corner, upsetting the balance of his car enough that he fell back to 23rd and on Lap 7 spun on the backstretch. As Clements got his lap back, Smith took last on Lap 8. The crew applied bear bond to the right-rear, then sent him back out for at least one more stop. “I tell you, that was fucking uncalled for,” said Smith of Allmendinger. The crew brought him back in, instructing each other “don’t cut anything unless you have to,” and managed to keep him on the lead lap.

The race restarted on Lap 11 with Smith 7.915 seconds back of the lead and 4.963 behind Clements. He caught the tail end of the field on Lap 12 as Clements dropped Vargas back to 37th place. Then around Lap 13, Logan Bearden’s #15 dropped off the pace with a flat tire, forcing him to make an unscheduled stop. He took over last on Lap 14, then returned to the track one lap down and on the verge of two, but with fresh tires. Ahead of him, the 37th spot fell to Patrick Emerling, whose #07 BB Roofing Chevrolet dropped a few spots in the opening run, but remained within a half-second of the now 36th-place Vargas. On Lap 28, Emerling was lapped by the leaders, taking the Lucky Dog from Bearden, who was soon two laps down. By Lap 37, there were just 31 cars on the lead lap, and Perez had climbed into that position.

Meanwhile, Gray was running inside the Top Ten near the end of Stage 1 when, on Lap 32, he dropped a cylinder and slipped back to 9th place. By now, he was running two seconds off the pace, and his exhaust note sounded significantly lower. He nearly made it to the next caution, only for the engine to erupt on Lap 44, leaving him coasting to the apron in Turn 1. This brought out the caution that ended Stage 1 under the yellow, and Gray pulled behind the wall on Lap 46. “Sorry, man – sucks,” said the crew. He took over the last spot from Bearden on Lap 49, and was declared out by NASCAR on Lap 61.

Perez ended up finishing 37th when he, too, coasted onto the apron on Lap 62, then drew the caution on Lap 64 when he stopped in Turn 3. He’d lost oil pressure, and the team discovered the oil pump belt had come loose. “It delaminated like the one on the 44,” the team said, referring to teammate Brennan Poole. “It is what it is,” said Perez as he thanked his crew. “I gave it my best here.” As Perez’ car was pushed to the garage on Lap 68, the Alpha Prime crew wasn’t sure if they had a replacement belt, or if they even wanted to try and install it. As team co-owner Tommy Joe Martins spoke with the team, he recalled the last time they tried replacing a belt, the engine let go. But Martins told the team not to declare the car out, as on the track Playoff contender Justin Allgaier’s #7 Brandt Chevrolet had just spun off Turn 2 and slammed into the backstretch wall. Allgaier’s team would complete repairs, only to slam the Turn 3 wall again on the restart, forcing them out of the race on Lap 77. “Get a belt on it and see if it fires,” said someone on Perez’ team. They also called for someone to look over the engine, but on Lap 87 came the message, “That thing probably ran without an oil pump belt until it ran out of fuel – that’s why there’s nothing to check.” With that, the team soon declared themselves out, taking 37th, 12 laps behind the wrecked Allgaier.

Rounding out the Bottom Five were Dawson Cram, who pulled the #92 behind the wall in the final laps, and Daniel Dye, who was shown 11 laps down at the finish, one lap behind the 33rd-place finishing Bearden.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*This marked the third last-place finish for the #19 in a XFINITY Series race at Kansas, and the first since October 17, 2015, when Jeff Green’s #19 Premier Barter Exchange Toyota turned 3 laps before suspension issues.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

38) #19-Taylor Gray / 45 laps / engine

37) #45-Brad Perez / 61 laps / oil pump

36) #7-Justin Allgaier / 73 laps / crash

35) #92-Dawson Cram / 174 laps / fuel pressure

34) #10-Daniel Dye / 189 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, Joe Gibbs Racing, Mike Harmon Racing, SS-Green Light Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing (2)

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

2024 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Chevrolet (17)

2nd) Ford (6)

3rd) Toyota (4)

2024 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP