SEASON IN REVIEW
Liverpool, New York driver Doug Heveron picked up his first LASTCAR Busch Grand National Series Championship in 1994, scoring three last-place finishes in twenty-one starts during a twenty-eight race season. He defeated Tommy Houston for the title in a bottom-five tiebreaker 8-4.
Heveron was competing in his first Busch Grand National Series season, but it was far from his first foray into racing. After a lone start in CART back in 1983, Heveron competed in three Cup Series seasons from 1984 through 1986. Most notably, in 1984, it was Heveron’s car catching air in turn one that caused the final caution when Richard Petty won his 200th and final Cup race in the Firecracker 400. He also raced for nine season in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, racking up three wins, 48 Top Fives, and 83 Top Tens from 1985 through 1993. Following his fifth-straight finish in the Top Ten in series points, Heveron eyed a return to NASCAR.
Heveron caught a ride in the #75 Food Country USA Chevrolet owned by longtime owner Charlie Henderson. Since 1985, Henderson had picked up three wins and employed steady contenders such as Brad Teague, Butch Miller, Rick Wilson, and Ward Burton. Hopes were high for another strong season in 1994, but other than a 5th-place run at Martinsville and a 4th at Hickory, the season was a disappointment. Heveron scored 11 DNFs in 21 starts and failed to qualify at Charlotte, leaving him 27th in points.
Heveron also scored three last-place finishes. His first came in his second series start at Richmond, where his #75 Oldsmobile lost the engine 46 laps into the Hardee’s Frisco 250 at Richmond. The next came at Nazareth on May 22, where this time he crashed after 55 laps of the Meridian Advantage 200. The third was July 16 at South Boston, where the engine let go on his Chevrolet after 51 laps of the Ford Credit 300.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
Tommy Houston scored two of the season’s final five races to equal Heveron’s mark, but trailed him by three Bottom Fives in the final standings. It was the closest Houston ever got to a LASTCAR title before his 417th and final Busch Grand National Series start in 1996. He did, however, equal Ed Berrier’s mark of 11 last-place finishes, tying Berrier for the all-time lead before taking the record in his final season.
“Front Row” Joe Nemechek won the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series Championship as an owner-driver in 1992, and in 1994 set out to compete full-time in Cup driving for Larry Hedrick. He still ran eleven Busch races in 1994, picking up a victory at Richmond on March 5, then scoring his first last-place finish the very next week at Atlanta. Nemechek started outside-pole in his #87 BellSouth Mobility Chevrolet, but crashed and finished 43rd after two laps of the Busch Light 300. Doug Heveron finished 42nd with a busted oil tank.
Following a 15th-place finish in his first Busch Grand National Series start at Oxford in 1986, Kevin Lepage didn’t make his second start until 1994, when he ran 21 of the season’s 28 races. On May 7, he scored his first top-ten finish at Loudon despite a flat tire in the closing laps. Earlier that year on March 20, during the Miller 500 at Martinsville, Lepage scored his first last-place finish when his #71 Vermont Teddy Bear Buick lost the engine after 28 laps. It was the final last-place finish for Buick in the Busch Grand National Series. As of this writing, Lepage is still active in the Busch Grand National Series, where he has two wins, and he’s made 201 Cup Series starts from 1997 through 2007.
Randy LaJoie made his first bid at running the full Busch season in 1994. Following his terrifying crash in his qualifying race for the 1984 Daytona 500, LaJoie ran several part-time seasons in Cup and Busch before he landed a ride in owner Dick Moroso’s #20 Fina Lube Chevrolet. It was in this car that LaJoie earned his first last-place finish in the series at Dover, where his engine let go after 5 laps of the Goodwrench / Delco 200 on June 4. In the years after, LaJoie took his Fina sponsorship to owner Bill Baumgardner and won back-to-back Busch championships in 1996 and 1997, ultimately winning fifteen races over 350 starts through 2006.
Before his four straight Camping World East Championships and his 1998 Rookie of the Year season in the Busch Grand National Series, Andy Santerre scored his first last-place finish during the 1994 season. On June 25, Santerre scored the final last-place finish for Oldsmobile in the Busch Grand National Series when his #1 Primetime Luxury Vans Oldsmobile broke a transmission after 4 laps of the Fay’s 150 at Watkins Glen.
Ernie Irvan was scored last on August 20 when his #28 MAC Tools Ford was withdrawn from the Detroit Gasket 200 following Irvan’s serious accident in Winston Cup practice earlier that day.
Rodney Combs finished last in the first rain-shortened Busch Grand National Series race, which took place at Darlington on September 3. Combs’ #43 French’s Mustard Pontiac lost the engine after 2 of the race’s 111 laps before the 147-lap Gatorade 200 was stopped.
Mike Stefanik, a dominating short-tracker in both the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Series, ran the sixth through tenth starts of his 26-race Busch Grand National Series career in 1994. He finished last in his first start of the season at Daytona on February 19, coming home 44th in his #1 Luxaire Heating & Air Conditioning Ford following a massive crash after 5 laps of the Goody’s 300. As of this writing, it is Stefanik’s only last-place finish in NASCAR’s top three divisions.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Doug Heveron [8 B5s], Tommy Houston [4 B5s] (3)
2nd) Tommy Ellis (2)
3rd) Jim Bown, Chad Chaffin, Rodney Combs, Dale Earnhardt, Mike Garvey, Ernie Irvan, Randy LaJoie, Kevin Lepage, Mark Martin, Patty Moise, Jeff Neal, Joe Nemechek, Roy Payne, Randy Porter, Robert Pressley, Shawna Robinson, Andy Santerre, Kirk Shelmerdine, Mike Stefanik, Kenny Wallace (1)
