PHOTO: Brock Beard
SEASON IN REVIEW
South Boston, Virginia driver Ward Burton scored his third LASTCAR Cup Series Championship in 2007, scoring four last-place finishes in sixteen starts during a thirty-six-race season.
Burton was competing in his thirteenth season on the Cup Series tour. Following a three-race stint for Morgan-McClure Motorsports in late 2006, Burton and team made a bid to run the full season in 2007 with funding from new sponsor State Water Heaters. As a single-car operation, the new year promised to be a huge challenge as the team had to run NASCAR’s new-generation “Car of Tomorrow” in sixteen of the season’s thirty-six races, forcing every team in the garage to prepare two full sets of cars.
The strain was evident from the start of the season. A crash in Burton’s qualifying race for the Daytona 500 caused him to miss the race he’d won just five years earlier, the first of nineteen DNQs that season. Burton’s first start of the year came in the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 11, which turned disastrous following a three-car crash that ended their race after just fifteen laps, giving them their first last-place finish of the season.
Burton’s next last-place run came in a “Car of Tomorrow” race, the July 1 running of the Lenox Industrial Tools 300 in Loudon, New Hampshire, when his #4 State Water Heaters Chevrolet los the engine after just four laps. The final two last-place finishes came in races without the “Car of Tomorrow:” one came four races later in Long Pond, Pennsylvania when another engine failure stopped the #4 State Water Heaters / Lucas Oil Chevrolet after 109 laps, while the other was another ten races later in Concord, North Carolina, where yet another engine failure ended their Bank of America 500 after just 83 laps.
These sixteen starts and eight DNFs left Burton 47th in the final point standings and, to date, were the last of his 375 Cup Series starts. Today, Burton operates his own conservation group, the Ward Burton Wildlife Foundation, and is helping his son Jeb Burton with his own racing career.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
With just 48 laps to go in the February 18 running of the Daytona 500, Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch crashed while battling for the lead, giving Stewart his second last-place finish in six runnings of The Great American Race. Busch and Stewart led a combined 130 of 202 laps, but finished 41st and 43rd, respectively.
The “Car of Tomorrow” debuted in the Food City 500 at Bristol, Tennessee on March 25, an event won by Kyle Busch, who then expressed his dislike for the new cars. The car’s first last-place finisher that day was Reed Sorenson, whose #41 Target Dodge was taken out in a single-car crash after 21 laps. That November 18 in the Ford 400 at Homestead, Florida, Johnny Benson, Jr. became the final driver to finish last in the “old car” when his #36 360 OTC Toyota fell out with engine problems after 73 laps. To date, that race is Benson’s 274th and last Cup Series start.
The year 2007 also saw Toyota join the NASCAR Cup Series, its race-built Camry model primarily campaigned by the developing Michael Waltrip Racing team. The manufacturer’s first last-place finish, however, would go to Brian Vickers, driving for the brand-new two-car Red Bull Racing team. Vickers’ #83 Red Bull Toyota fell out with crash damage after 122 laps of the Dodge Avenger 500 in Darlington, South Carolina on May 13 following a single-car accident.
Nine drivers scored their first Cup Series last-place finishes in 2007, including four drivers contending for the 2007 Rookie of the Year and three members of the 2006 rookie class. Entering the 2013 season, those seven drivers are still active Cup Series competitors:
Colombia’s Juan Pablo Montoya, winner of the 2000 Indianapolis 500, the 2004 Grand Prix of Monaco, and the 2007 and 2008 Rolex 24 at Daytona, scored his first Cup Series last-place finish in Brooklyn, Michigan on June 17 when his #42 Texaco / Havoline Dodge crashed after 67 laps of the Citizens Bank 400. One week later, Montoya scored his first Cup victory at Sonoma, California in the Toyota / Save Mart 350. Montoya and the #42 Earnhardt-Ganassi team still race today.
Paul Menard finished a strong 7th in just his third career Cup start at Hampton, Georgia on March 20, 2006, the year of his first NASCAR Busch Series victory, and he went full-time Cup racing driving bright yellow Chevrolets for Dale Earnhardt, Incorporated in 2007. Menard’s first last-place finish came April 29 in Talladega, Alabama, where his #15 Menards Chevrolet lost the engine after 22 laps. Four years later, Menard moved to Richard Childress Racing and scored his first Cup Series win in that year’s Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis.
David Reutimann began as a rookie for the new Michael Waltrip Racing team in 2007 following several good runs in Toyota products in both the NASCAR Busch and Truck Series. His first last-place finish came on July 15 in the USG Sheetrock 400 in Joliet, Illinois when is #00 Burger King Toyota lost the engine after 43 laps. Reutimann would win the race three years later, the second win of his career. His first win came in the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte, North Carolina on May 25, 2009. Reutimann was released from MWR after the 2011 season.
A.J. Allmendinger scored five wins in the 2006 Champ Car World Series and finished 3rd in points, then turned to NASCAR in 2007 to join Brian Vickers at Team Red Bull. After four straight DNQs at the start of the season, Allmendinger made his first Cup start in the “Car of Tomorrow’s” debut at Bristol, Tennessee on March 25. His first last-place finish came at Dover, Delaware on September 23, when his #84 Red Bull Toyota started 11th, only to lose the engine after four laps. Allmendinger moved between Richard Petty Motorsports and Penske Racing from 2009 through 2012 and now drives on a part-time basis for Phoenix Racing.
Lightly-regarded Denny Hamlin turned in an incredible 2006 season, sweeping both races at Pocono and becoming the first rookie to win the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona Beach, Florida on his way to Rookie of the Year and a 3rd-place finish in points. His first last-place finish came on July 7 in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona Beach, Florida, where he led ten of the first thirteen laps before his #11 FedEx Kinko’s Chevrolet was accidentally wrecked by teammate Tony Stewart. Hamlin returned to the race to finish under power, 61 laps down. Today, Hamlin still races in the #11 FedEx Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing and, as of this writing, has twenty-three wins.
J.J. Yeley and David Stremme competed against Hamlin for Rookie of the Year in 2006, both of them driving cars vacated by veterans Bobby Labonte and Sterling Marlin, respectively. Yeley, a standout in Sprint Car racing, scored his first last-place finish in Fort Worth, Texas on April 15, when his #18 Interstate Batteries Chevrolet was involved in a multi-car crash after completing the opening lap of the Samsung 500. One week later in Avondale, Arizona, Stremme, a newcomer from the Busch Series, scored his first last-place finish in the Subway Fresh Fit 500 when his #40 Coors Light Dodge finished 64 laps down after his own three-car crash on Lap 44. As of this writing, Stremme’s plans for 2014 are unknown, but Yeley is expected to return to the #36 Tommy Baldwin Racing team.
In addition, 2007 saw the first last-place finish for journeyman driver Aric Almirola, the current driver of the #43 Smithfield Ford for Richard Petty Motorsports. Almirola, who shared the #01 U.S. Army Chevrolet with Mark Martin and Regan Smith in 2007, scored his first last-place finish at Martinsville, Virginia on October 21, when his car suffered electrical problems after 111 laps of the Subway 500.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Ward Burton (4)
2nd) Joe Nemechek (3)
3rd) Jeff Burton, Denny Hamlin, David Reutimann, Reed Sorenson, Brian Vickers (2)
4th) A.J. Allmendinger, Aric Almirola, Johnny Benson, Jr., Greg Biffle, Dave Blaney, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Jeff Green, Dale Jarrett, Bobby Labonte, Sterling Marlin, Mark Martin, Paul Menard, Juan Pablo Montoya, Ryan Newman, Kyle Petty, Scott Riggs, Tony Stewart, David Stremme, J.J. Yeley (1)
