SEASON IN REVIEW
Phoenix, Arizona driver Michael McDowell picked up his second LASTCAR Cup Series Championship in 2012, scoring five last-place finishes in thirty starts during a thirty-six-race season. It was McDowell’s second-consecutive LASTCAR Cup Series Championship, making him the first driver to do so since J.D. McDuffie in 1984 and 1985. McDowell won the first tiebreaker since 2008 and the first bottom-ten tiebreaker since 1993 over Reed Sorenson, 25-15.
For the second-straight year, McDowell was in position to take the LASTCAR title at Homestead, Florida. This time, however, he came into the race tied with Reed Sorenson for the most last-place finishes in 2012, but trailed Sorenson by a single bottom-five finish. This meant both drivers could claim the title with a Bottom Five in the final race of the year. However, when McDowell made the race while Sorenson failed to qualify, McDowell could clinch the title by tying Sorenson in Bottom Fives with a finish of 39th or worse, as McDowell had 11 more Bottom Tens than Sorenson. McDowell accomplished this, coming home 41st, and took home the championship.
Following his 2011 LASTCAR Cup Series Championship, McDowell, in his fifth season on the tour, saw his HP Racing LLC team go through a massive reorganization. HP Racing LLC merged with Whitney Motorsports and switched from Toyota to Ford, thanks to additional funding from record executive Mike Curb. As was Curb’s tradition, the car number was changed from #66 to #98, but retained the same black paint job with red numbers under the new team name Phil Parsons Racing. Like NEMCO, PPR received additional sponsorship from radio station K-LOVE, the Presbyterian Healthcare System, and Traqm.com.
Randy Humphrey, once a co-owner of Parsons’ prior Cup teams, went his own way to start Humphrey-Smith Motorsports in a cooperative with TriStar Motorsports’ Mark Smith. As Humphrey-Smith’s team expanded from its original #19 team to the #91, they hired Reed Sorenson, who battled McDowell for the LASTCAR title. By season’s end, Phil Parsons Racing and Humphrey-Smith Motorsports would combine to score thirteen of the season’s thirty-six last-place finishes.
McDowell’s first last-place finish of 2012 came on March 4 at his home track in Avondale, Arizona, where his #98 K-Love / Curb Records Ford lost the brakes after eight laps. The next occurred eight races later in Talladega, Alabama on May 6, where #98 fell out with a vibration after two laps. Eight races later in the following restrictor-plate race at Daytona Beach, Florida on July 7, McDowell’s car was qualified by Mike Bliss, but parked by McDowell after three laps due to overheating problems. The fourth finish was nine races after that in Joliet, Illinois, where the rear gear was to blame after 38 laps. The fifth and final finish came five races later in Kansas City, Kansas on October 21, where a vibration took him out of the event after seven laps.
At season’s end, McDowell finished 37th in points with three DNQs and 25 DNFs in 30 starts.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
David Ragan scored the first last-place finish of his Cup Series career when his #34 Scorpion Truck Bed Liners collided with the wrecked car of Jimmie Johnson on Lap 2 of the Daytona 500 on February 27. Ragan, who won the most recent Cup race at Daytona during his final season aboard Roush-Fenway Racing’s #6 UPS Ford, narrowly kept Johnson from scoring his first last-place finish. The wreck began when Elliott Sadler bumped Johnson loose in the tri-oval, sending the field scattering behind him before Ragan and three other cars made contact.
Also scoring his first last-place finish in 2012 was 2011 Daytona 500 Champion Trevor Bayne, whose #21 Motorcraft / Quick Lane Ford started 7th at Brooklyn, Michigan on June 17, then lost the engine after seven laps.
Josh Wise drove a “start-and-park” #26 MDS Ford for Front Row Motorsports in 2012 and scored four last-place finishes of his own, losing a very unusual Rookie of the Year fight to fellow “start-and-park” driver Stephen Leicht in the Joe Falk-owned #33 Chevrolet. Wise’s first last-place finish came at Bristol, Tennessee on March 18, where his #26 broke a spindle after sixteen laps. In doing so, Wise became the first driver to finish last in Cup and Nationwide at the same track since September 6, 2009 at Hampton, Georgia, where that year’s LASTCAR Cup Series Champion Dave Blaney did the same driving for Phil Parsons’ Cup and Nationwide Series teams.
Scott Riggs followed-up on Wise’s feat by finishing last in both the June 28 Truck Series race and the June 30 Cup Series race in Sparta, Kentucky on the same weekend. Riggs’ #86 @ClayGreenfield Dodge RAM overheated three laps into the Truck race while his #23 North Texas Pipe Chevrolet suffered electrical problems twelve laps into the Cup race.
In the wild race at Watkins Glen, New York on August 12, Brian Vickers became the first Cup driver to finish last without completing a lap since Tom Hubert’s third-consecutive last-place run at Sonoma, California on June 25, 2006. Vickers’ #55 MyClassicGarage.com / Aaron’s Toyota lost the engine on the opening lap. Coming into 2013, a total of 134 Cup Series last-place finishers failed to complete the opening lap.
Dave Blaney finished last at Concord, North Carolina on October 13 when his unsponsored #36 Tommy Baldwin Chevrolet fell out with transmission trouble after 25 laps, marking his sixth consecutive Cup Series season with at least one last-place finish.
Meanwhile, on June 23, Jeff Green took over the all-time LASTCAR lead from Derrike Cope on with his 37th last-place finish across all three of NASCAR’s top divisions. The tiebreaking finish came in the Sargento 200, the Nationwide Series event on the Road America road course in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Driving for Humphrey-Smith Motorsports’ Mark Smith, Green’s unsponsored #10 TriStar Motorsports Toyota fell out after two laps due to a vibration. By the end of the 2012 season, Green would rack up his second consecutive LASTCAR Nationwide Series title with twelve last-place finishes that year, upping the all-time record to an unprecedented 43 last-place finishes across NASCAR’s top three divisions.
Joe Nemechek would tie Derrike Cope for second on the all-time list - 36 finishes apiece - when he fell out first in the AdvoCare 500 at Hampton, Georgia on September 2 after his #87 AM/FM Energy Pellet & Wood Stoves Toyota broke a rear gear after 22 laps.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Michael McDowell [14 B5s, 25 B10s], Reed Sorenson [14 B5s, 15 B10s] (5)
2nd) Josh Wise (4)
3rd) Mike Bliss, Scott Riggs, Scott Speed (3)
4th) Joe Nemechek, J.J. Yeley (2)
5th) Trevor Bayne, Kelly Bires, Dave Blaney, Landon Cassill, Brendan Gaughan, Jason Leffler, David Ragan, Martin Truex, Jr., Brian Vickers (1)
