O’REILLY: Blown engine sidelines Patrick Staropoli early at Watkins Glen
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: Logan Riely, Getty Images
Patrick Staropoli picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series career in Saturday’s Mission 200 at the Glen at Watkins Glen International when his #48 Syfovre Chevrolet lost the engine after 4 of 82 laps.
The finish came in Staropoli’s 17th series start. In the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series last-place rankings, it was the 10th for the #48, the 420th from an engine failure, and the 690th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 39th for the #48, the 1,456th from the engine, and the 2,041st for Chevrolet.
In a sport filled with drivers with diverse backgrounds, Dr. Patrick Staropoli is an intriguing standout. According to his website, he graduated summa cum laude from Harvard, earned his M.D. at University of Miami Medical School, and is now an accomplished Vitreoretinal Surgeon in Texas, having completed his fellowship at the prestigious Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. Despite his professional demands, he somehow found time to work his way up the racing ladder. He started competing in go-karts at age 14, made his way to Super Late Models, and earned a development deal with Michael Waltrip Racing as inaugural winner of the PEAK Challenge. On March 22, 2014, in what is now the ARCA Menards Series West, Staropoli won the NAPA Auto Parts 150 at Irwindale, becoming the first doctor to win a NASCAR race. Two years later, he made his Truck Series debut at Homestead, where he finished 31st driving for SS-Green Light Racing.
After continuing to hone his skills in late models, Staropoli took his next big step just last year, when he ran a combination of ARCA, Truck Series, and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series races. Many of his starts came with sponsorship from Syfovre, an eye medication, which according to the company website is “designed to treat geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration.” Staropoli earned a pair of 8th-place finishes in the ARCA races at Phoenix and Charlotte. Then, in his four-race stints for both Cook Racing Enterprises in the Truck Series and Sam Hunt Racing in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, each time earned his best finishes at Martinsville. In the Truck Series, he finished 15th, while in O’Reilly, he took 16th in the spring and 17th in the fall.
It was still surprising that Staropoli immediately secured his first full-time ride in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series this season with Big Machine Racing. Nick Sanchez, the team’s driver in 2025, scored his first win with the team, and seemed headed for more in 2026. Instead, Sanchez picked up a last-minute deal from a struggling AM Racing, a team that’s been absent from the series since their sudden withdrawal from Rockingham. Carrying the Syfovre branding, Staropoli started off this year with finishes of 18th in Daytona, 13th in Atlanta, and 20th in COTA. He also again ran well in Martinsville, taking 16th, then finishing 14th in Kansas. But he nearly finished last in Talladega, where he crashed on the opening lap, but quick repairs allowed him to finish under power, climbing past David Starr in the process.
At Watkins Glen, Staropoli was one of 38 drivers entered to attempt as many starting spots in Saturday’s field. In practice, he ranked 24th with a best lap of 74.485 seconds (118.413mph). He’d been scheduled to go out 20th in line for qualifying, but that session was cancelled by rain, so by the rulebook, he secured the 19th spot on the grid. This also happened to be a double-header for Staropoli, who competed in Friday’s ARCA race for Rick Ware Racing, a joint effort with the Foundation For Fighting Blindness. His #51 Chevrolet finished 22nd after mechanical issues.
Securing the 38th and final starting spot was Preston Pardus, whose family-owned Pardus Racing effort returned to the circuit for the first time since their 27th-place showing in COTA. He’d be joined by three drivers who each incurred pre-race penalties. The first was Dean Thompson, who was to roll off 16th in his #26 Thompson Pipe Group Toyota, but his team changed the transmission.
Next was Sheldon Creed, who was to start 3rd in his #00 Ollie’s Chevrolet, but in practice he spun at the exit of Turn 1 and backed into the guardrail, forcing extensive repairs that constituted unapproved adjustments. According to Chris Knight, Jeremy Clements was about to make his first practice lap when Creed crashed. Since Clements shared a single backup car with Creed’s Haas Factory Team, and didn’t know if Creed needed it, he decided to use Stage 1 to shake down his car instead. Ultimately, Creed’s team did complete repairs on their primary, leaving the backup unused.
The third penalized car, also docked for unapproved adjustments, was 37th-place starter Matt Wilson, whose #35 Monroe Kitchen Chevrolet was for a second straight week a collaboration between Mike Harmon Racing and Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen. As at Texas, Harmon’s team officially withdrew from the race, but still brought their car to join Gase’s other two entries. This week, they dusted off the Chevrolet that Devin Jones tried to qualify into the Charlotte “Roval” race in 2023, still bearing the base scheme from Jones’ sponsor Verinext. Those logos were removed along with the #74, which was again replaced with the #35 in Harmon’s red font. Wilson, a part-timer in ARCA, would be making his NASCAR debut with Dawson Cram, Harmon’s regular driver, serving as spotter. Wilson joined Clements as the only two drivers to not join practice.
Based on intervals at the stripe, both of Wilson’s “teammates” at the Joey Gase Motorsports effort also dropped back after each were shown in Row 16. Glen Reen in the #55 Toyota dropped from 32nd to 34th while Derek White, the 31st-place starter, immediately took over the last spot at the start, 7.209 seconds back of the lead. Reen crossed the stripe between the penalized Thompson in 33rd (5.375) and Pardus in 35th (6.158), who were followed by 36th-place Creed (6.389) and 37th-place Wilson (6.859), who was already four-tenths ahead of White as the tail end of the field flashed below the starter’s stand.
At the end of Lap 1, White remained in the last spot, now 15.178 seconds back of the lead to Wilson’s 13.447, their gap nearly tripled to just over 1.7 seconds. On Lap 3, White was 21.971 seconds back of the lead with Wilson now more than four seconds ahead of him at 15.116. On Lap 4, White lost another nine seconds to the leaders with an interval of 30.830, but his gap to Wilson had stabilized as the #35 remained about four seconds ahead at a 26.207. As Lap 5 began, Jeb Burton’s #27 FVP Verified Proven Chevrolet plummeted to last place as he slowed to a stop in the Inner Loop with significant damage to his left-front corner. The trailing duo of Wilson and White passed him as TheCW’s cameras caught the incident. White cleared him off Turn 5 and reached the stripe now in 37th, 40.946 seconds back of the lead. Burton reached pit road, where the crew called for bear-bond and kept an eye on where the leaders were running.
Then on Lap 6, as Burton’s crew performed repairs, Staropoli’s car erupted in white smoke coming off the final turn and steered directly behind the wall into the garage area. This immediately dropped Staropoli to 37th, one lap down, with Burton now two down with his repairs completed. Staropoli’s team discussed something happening in The Esses, and discussed whether they needed a push to get to the garage. The crew pushed him instead. On Lap 7, Burton returned to the track two laps down and dropped Staropoli to last place on Lap 8. That time by, Staropoli’s crew relayed the issue was terminal, and directed where to distribute their three remaining sets of tires – one to Young’s Motorsports, which fielded Ryan Ellis (#02) and Will Rodgers (#42), and the other two sets to Gase’s three-car team.
During all this, on Lap 7, Wilson started to spin entering Turn 10 and clipped the grass with his left-front fender, causing the splitter to dig in and rip away some of the bodywork on the #35. He limped onto pit road and lost a lap to the leaders as they began Lap 8, and by Lap 9, Burton had climbed to 36th, putting Wilson to 37th, and the now 35th-place White lost a lap to the leaders. On Lap 15, NASCAR declared Staropoli the first driver out of the race with engine issues, and by Lap 16, TheCW also indicated Wilson was out, later listed as crash damage for what seemed to be a minor incident. Taking the 36th spot was William Sawalich, whose recent streak of bad luck continued with an engine going flat on his #18 Starkey Toyota while battling among the leaders. Dean Thompson’s backup transmission also failed, leaving his #26 in the 35th spot. Rounding out the Bottom Five was Ryan Ellis, who with Staropoli’s tires made it to 72 laps before a broken tie rod ended his afternoon.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #48 in an O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race since May 29, 2023, when Parker Kligerman’s own run for Big Machine Racing at Charlotte had fuel pump issues that left him under power, 56 laps down, on May 29, 2023.
*The #48 hadn’t finished last in an O’Reilly race at Watkins Glen since June 30, 1996, when Randy Porter’s own run at Watkins Glen ended with transmission issues on his #48 Unifirst Uniforms Ford after 15 laps of the Lysol 200.
Randy Porter interviewed after his early exit at The Glen, 1996. (SCREENSHOT: CBS, uploaded by Michael McIntyre)
THE BOTTOM FIVE
38) #48-Patrick Staropoli / 4 laps / engine
37) #35-Matt Wilson / 5 laps / crash
36) #18-William Sawalich / 15 laps / engine
35) #26-Dean Thompson / 54 laps / transmission
34) #02-Ryan Ellis / 72 laps / running
2026 LASTCAR O’REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) DGM Racing x JIM, Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen, Young’s Motorsports (2)
2nd) AM Racing, Big Machine Racing, Haas Factory Team, Hettinger Racing, JR Motorsports, RSS Racing, SS-Green Light Racing (1)
2026 LASTCAR O’REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (10)
2nd) Ford (3)
2026 LASTCAR O’REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
