SEASON IN REVIEW
Gaffney, South Carolina driver Kertus Davis scored his first LASTCAR Nationwide Series Championship in 2008, scoring four last-place finishes in thirty starts during a thirty-five race season.
Davis, a frequent competitor in the X-1R Pro Cup Series, was competing in his seventh Nationwide season. He made his first start for Jimmy Means at Nazareth in 2001, finishing 35th due to engine problems on his #52 Broadway Motors Ford after 33 laps. The bulk of his starts in the series came with Johnny Davis as driver of the same #0 RaceGirl Chevrolets once campaigned by defending LASTCAR Nationwide Series Champion Morgan Shepherd. On April 30, 2005, the duo scored Kertus’ best career finish, a 10th in the Aaron’s 312 at Talladega, leading to a career-best 31st-place finish in points.
In 2008, the first year of Nationwide Insurance’s title sponsorship of the series (which continued up to 2015, when it became the NASCAR Nationwide Series), Kertus Davis scored his only other career finish better than 21st, an 11th which again came in the Aaron’s 312 on April 26 while driving the #01 RaceGirl Chevrolet. In the year that followed, Davis moved to drive for both three-time LASTCAR Cup Champion Derrike Cope and 2006 LASTCAR Nationwide Championship owner Jay Robinson, the latter now a three-car team. The overall result was four DNQs and 22 DNFs in 30 starts, including five last-place finishes.
Davis’ first last-place finish of the year came in the final Nationwide race at Mexico City, the April 20 running of the Corono Mexico 200 presented by Banamex. In his only last-place run of the year driving for the Davis team, Kertus’ #01 RaceGirl Chevrolet crashed after the opening lap of the race.
Davis’ remaining three last-place runs all came with Jay Robinson, whom he joined at Kentucky in June. The first of these finishes came at Gateway on July 19 when his #49 Jay Robinson, Inc. Chevrolet lost the brakes after the opening lap of the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250. The next was six races later in Fontana on August 30, when the same car had electrical problems after 2 laps of the Camping World RV Service 300. The third finish came at Texas on November 1, where this time brake problems were to blame for an exit after 4 laps of the O’Reilly Challenge.
Kertus Davis ran just fourteen more Nationwide races in 2009, ultimately returning to drive for Johnny Davis’ team in his 117th and final start at Iowa on August 1, 2009. During that running of the U.S. Cellular 250, Davis’ #0 SponsorDavis.com Chevrolet finished 37th due to brake failure, edging Mark Green in Jay Robinson’s #49.
Overall, Davis scored four of Jay Robinson’s six last-place finishes in 2008, adding to ones scored by Derrike Cope and Shane Hall in the same #49. Johnny Davis’ team picked up another six finishes of its own that year, running both the #0 and #01 with drivers Mike Potter, Dwayne Leik, Larry Gunselman, and Brad Teague.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
However, both Davis and Robinson ultimately trailed in last-place finishes to a new upstart team called MSRP Motorsports, founded by Randy Humphrey and 1989 LASTCAR Cup Champion Phil Parsons. MSRP’s #90 and #91 Chevrolets scored nine last-place finishes with eight drivers in 2008. One of those drivers was Johnny Chapman, who trailed the field at Richmond on September 5 when his #90 MSRP Motorsports Chevrolet had electrical problems after the opening lap. It was Chapman’s only last-place finish of the year, edging Kertus Davis for the spot by ten laps, and set the stage for Chapman’s championship run in 2009.
At Talladega on April 26, the same day Davis scored his season-best 11th-place run in the Aaron’s 312, one of MSRP’s cars was involved in a controversial accident. On lap 10, Dario Franchitti cut a tire and spun into the wall in turn three. Nearly a minute later, as the field slowed for the caution, Larry Gunselman in MSRP’s #91 Ford slammed into Franchitti’s car at full speed. Franchitti suffered a broken ankle, forcing him to miss the next five races of his abbreviated rookie season in Cup. Gunselman scored one other last-place run for MSRP at Fontana and another for Johnny Davis at Chicagoland, giving him second in the final LASTCAR standings.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Kertus Davis (4)
2nd) Larry Gunselman (3)
3rd) Justin Ashburn, Derrike Cope, Mike Harmon, Kenny Hendrick, Kevin Lepage (2)
4th) Todd Bodine, Johnny Chapman, Chris Cook, Terry Cook, Carl Edwards, Danny Efland, Scott Gaylord, Steve Grissom, Shane Hall, Justin Hobgood, Kyle Krisiloff, Dwayne Leik, Donnie Neuenberger, Danny O'Quinn, Jr., Mike Potter, Brett Rowe, Morgan Shepherd, Brad Teague (1)
