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

Preston Pardus picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Saturday’s Pacific Office Automation 147 at the Portland International Raceway when his #36 Danus Utilities Chevrolet fell out with track bar issues after 9 of 75 laps.

The finish occurred in Pardus’ 24th series start. In the XFINITY Series last-place rankings, it was the 2nd from the track bar, the 16th for the #36, and the 641st for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 3rd by the track bar, the 49th for the #36, and the 1,942nd for Chevrolet.

Over the last five years, Preston Pardus has become a fixture in the garage series for any of the NASCAR XFINITY Series’ road course races. Th 27-year-old from Florida has close family ties to both stock car racing and road racing. His father, Dan Pardus, began in the short tracks, winning two consecutive track championships in New Smyrna, then became a regular in the four-cylinder Goody’s Dash Series. Preston’s path wound around road courses across North America as a Spec Miata competitor in SCCA, where he’s won races and championships.

Like his father, Preston has turned his skills toward a presence in NASCAR. Dan is a veteran of 18 starts in the XFINITY Series, another 38 in ARCA, and in 1998 qualified for the first-ever Winston Cup Series night race at Daytona, where he finished 36th in a field of 43. Preston, with his father as crew chief, has qualified 19th or better in 11 of his first 23 XFINITY starts. He’s also earned a trio of top-ten finishes – one each at Road America, the Indianapolis Grand Prix Circuit, and the Charlotte “Roval.”

Portland would mark the first of a two-race road course schedule for Pardus. In next week’s race at Sonoma, he’ll drive his family’s Pardus Racing #50. For Portland, he would pilot Mario Gosselin’s returning part-time entry, the #36, which carried one of the driver’s longtime sponsors in Danus Utilities on both the hood and rear TV panel. This number and team had yielded the first of Pardus’ top-ten finishes at Indianapolis in 2020. Not only did he look to improve on his only prior NASCAR start at Portland, which resulted in a 31st-place finish last year, but also rebound from a disappointing DNQ at COTA, where his 10th-fastest car in practice was knocked out by a snapped right-rear axle in qualifying.

Pardus began the weekend a solid 23rd in opening practice. His was among the 39 drivers entered for 38 spots, a list that was soon cut short by the end of the session. Frankie Muniz, back with Joey Gase Racing for the first time since Phoenix, blew a hole in the oil pan of the #35 Ford Performance Ford. With no backup engine on hand, Muniz was forced to withdraw before qualifying even began, leaving him the lone DNQ. That session saw Pardus improve his rank, securing 21st on the grid with a lap of 95.045mph (74.617 seconds).

Securing the 38th and final starting spot was Hailie Deegan in the #15 Airbox Ford, who was not only among the ten drivers incurring tail-end penalties for unapproved adjustments, but would also move ahead of 10th-place qualifier A.J. Allmendinger. Allmendinger had qualified for the second round of time trials, but couldn’t turn a lap as he’d spun into the tire barriers in the first round, damaging the rear clip enough to send him to a backup car.

The other ten drivers sent to the rear were 11th-place qualifier Chandler Smith in the #81 QuickTie Toyota, 12th-place Jesse Love in the #2 Whelen Chevrolet, 14th-place Sage Karam in the #26 Synergy Modula Toyota, 20th-place Brandon Jones in the #9 Menards / Magick Woods Vanities Chevrolet, 23rd-place Kyle Weatherman in the #91 DriveSmart / Portland Gear Chevrolet, 26th-place Austin Green in the #32 3Dimensional.com Chevrolet, 33rd-place Logan Bearden in the #07 Environmental Controls Corporation Chevrolet, and 36th-place Patrick Gallagher in the #6 www.teamjdmotorsports.com Chevrolet.

However, when the green flag dropped, at least one other driver – Kyle Sieg – dropped back in the lineup. Sieg had qualified 37th and stood to gain some spots for the start, but crossed he stripe 12.878 seconds back of the lead, trailing even the lowest-qualified penalized driver of Patrick Gallagher, whose gap from the top spot was 12.878. Sieg dropped Gallagher back to last for the end of Lap 1, and the #6 remained in that spot until Lap 4, when Weatherman swung wide off the final corner. By the time he returned to the track, Gallagher had just passed him for the 37th spot. Weatherman caught and passed Gallagher by the start of Lap 5, then the spot fell to Bearden on Lap 6 after he overshot the chicane and mistakenly stopped. By Lap 8, Bearden was now 52.373 seconds back of the lead and 18.630 behind Gallagher. Deegan made a pit stop that time by, dropping her to last on Lap 9, by which point she became the first driver off the lead lap.

Pardus pulled down pit road around Lap 10, then by Lap 12 had taken the last spot from Deegan. A mechanical issue was to blame one which sent him behind the wall. Soon after, the car was spotted behind the team’s hauler with the hood up, but the crew no longer servicing it, and the trackside scoring listed him the first driver out of the race.

Hailie Deegan climbed to 33rd by the finish, though she would cut down a tire and bring out a caution with 17 laps to go. She did escape the Bottom Five by a single spot, which began with Jeb Burton in the #27 Timber Creek Outdoors Chevrolet. An axle issue was the listed reason for Burton’s early struggles, and though he was shown “running” in the race results, his final pit stop matched his final lap completed, indicating he may have been on pit road at the checkered flag. Brandon Jones’ #9 took 36th after a grinding Turn 12 pileup on Lap 67 triggered by 35th-place Chandler Smith’s blown engine on the #81. Jones’ #9 was stuck in the tire barrier in an incident that collected at least six other cars. Sage Karam rounded out the group in 34th, six laps down, a radiator hose knocked loose on a late restart spoiling a day that saw him finish 10th in Stage 1 and 8th in Stage 2 in the Sam Hunt #26.

Ed Jones’ impressive rebound leads underdog stories in Portland

Shane van Gisbergen’s dramatic first career XFINITY Series victory was but one of Saturday’s big surprises. Finishing 5th came Ed Jones, Sage Karam’s teammate at the Sam Hunt team, who parlayed his IndyCar experience on the track into a career-best run. Jones did so in a remarkable turnaround as his only two previous NASCAR starts – each at COTA, one each in XFINITY and Trucks – both ended in disaster with finishes of 35th and 36th.

Further back, Josh Bilicki’s first-ever run for Joe Gibbs Racing saw him running 3rd for most of the opening stages in the #19 Ditec Marine Products Toyota. Even after a spin in the chicane on a mid-race restart, he clawed back to finish in 12th, besting his full-time teammate in Sheldon Creed. A few spots behind came Austin Green, who after his 7th-place debut in COTA backed it up with a solid 15th in the Jordan Anderson Racing #32.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*Pardus is the first driver to finish last in the #36 in the XFINITY Series since February 13, 2021, when Alex Labbe scored the first last-place finish of his own career at Daytona.

*The only other occasion where a XFINITY Series driver finished last due to track bar issues occurred on July 30, 2022, when Jeb Burton’s #27 Ergodyne Work Gear Chevrolet dropped out without completing a lap around the Indianapolis Grand Prix Circuit.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

38) #36-Preston Pardus / 9 laps / track bar

37) #27-Jeb Burton / 61 laps / running

36) #9-Brandon Jones / 66 laps / crash

35) #81-Chandler Smith / 66 laps / crash

34) #26-Sage Karam / 69 laps / running

2024 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) DGM Racing, Joey Gase Motorsports, Jordan Anderson Racing, JR Motorsports (2)

2nd) Alpha Prime Racing, Kaulig Racing, Motorsports Business Management, Stewart-Haas Racing (1)

2024 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Chevrolet (8)

2nd) Ford, Toyota (2)

2024 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP