SEASON IN REVIEW
Statesville, North Carolina driver Johnny Chapman picked up his first LASTCAR Nationwide Series Championship in 2009, scoring eight last-place finishes in twenty-eight starts during a thirty-five race season.
Chapman, a standout in NASCAR’s Late Model Stock division, was competing in his seventh Nationwide Series season. He joined the series in 1994 following his lone Cup start at Rockingham on February 28, 1993, when his #64 Pontiac finished 36th with handling problems after 368 laps of the GM Goodwrench 500. His best Nationwide finish came at South Boston in 1997, when his #89 Alarm South Ford finished 11th in the Winston Motorsports 300. However, except for a handful of Truck Series starts, Chapman was mostly absent from NASCAR from 1999 until 2008.
It was in 2008 that Chapman joined MSRP Motorsports, a start-up team formed by Phil Parsons and Randy Humphrey. Twelve different drivers raced MSRP’s unsponsored #90 and #91 Chevrolets in 2008, but not one of them finished the race. This was by design as the team was determined to park its cars in every race. MSRP had such great qualifying setups that at least one of their cars made every single race that season, and as a result, eight of the team’s drivers picked up at least one last-place finish for a team total of nine. Chapman made more starts than any other of MSRP’s drivers in 2008 - 23 - and was set to return in 2009.
In 2009, just six drivers shared parking duties in MSRP’s equipment. Joining Chapman were Chris Cook, Terry Cook, Justin Hobgood, and Tom Hubert, and Chase Miller. Chapman was entered in 32 of the season’s 35 races, all of them in an unsponsored cream-colored #90 MSRP Motorsports Chevrolet. Chapman failed to qualify just four times, picked up 28 DNFs - two short of Jeff Fuller’s 2004 record of 30 - and finished last eight times for an average finish of 41.4 - beating Fuller’s 2004 average of 40.8. By season’s end, MSRP had scored another 12 last-place finishes, just one finish short of NEMCO Motorsports’ team record of 13 in 2004.
Chapman’s first two last-place finishes of 2009 came in consecutive races: first at Texas, where a vibration stopped him after 5 laps of the O’Reilly 300 on April 4, and then at Nashville on April 11, where a vibration ended his day after 15 laps of the Nashville 300. After Dave Blaney gave the #90 its third-straight 43rd at Phoenix the following week, Chapman scored his third at Richmond on May 1, where the brakes let go after 12 laps.
Chapman’s next three finishes came in consecutive races that summer, starting at Milwaukee on June 20, where the ignition failed after 2 laps of the Northerntool.com 250. On June 27, the brakes failed after 2 laps of the Camping World RV Sales 200 at New Hampshire, and then on July 3 in Daytona, the drive shaft was to blame for another exit after 2 laps of the Subway Jalapeno 250. A bid to become the first NASCAR driver ever to score four consecutive last-place finishes went south when Chapman failed to qualify the following week at Chicagoland. 2009 LASTCAR Nationwide runner-up Mark Green finished last that day for the prolific Jay Robinson.
Six races later on August 21, Chapman rebounded with his seventh finish in the Food City 250 when the ignition failed after 2 laps. Then seven races later came the eighth at Charlotte, where his #90 overheated after 3 laps of the Dollar General 300.
Chapman left MSRP when the team became D’Hont-Humphrey Motorsports in 2010, and though the team still never finished a race that season, it scored just two more last-place finishes with Danny O’Quinn, Jr. at Nashville on April 3 and with David Gilliland at Dover on May 7. By then, MSRP had already moved to the Cup Series as PRISM Motorsports, securing the 2009 LASTCAR Cup Series Championship for Dave Blaney in another record-breaking year. In 2010, PRISM expanded to two teams, bringing in future LASTCAR Cup Champion Michael McDowell in the #55.
Chapman made 29 more Nationwide starts through 2011, parking cars for six other teams. Most notably, Chapman parked 2007 LASTCAR Nationwide Champion Morgan Shepherd’s #89 Chevrolets during a seven-race stint in 2010 while Shepherd drove for Richard Childress. Chapman’s 117th and most recent Nationwide start came at Phoenix on November 12, 2011, when he finished 40th after an opening-lap crash in the Wypall 200.
On June 7, 2013, Chapman beat Wayne Edwards’ record for the most last-place finishes in Truck Series history with his fourteenth finish.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
On May 23, Jericho, New York driver Donny Lia, who one year earlier pulled a stunning upset winning the Truck Series event at Mansfield, finished last in his only Nationwide Series start. Driving the #07 SK Motorsports Toyota he shared with nine other drivers, including 2016 LASTCAR Cup Champion Josh Wise, Lia fell out after 1 lap of the Carquest Auto Parts 300 at Charlotte.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Johnny Chapman (8)
2nd) Mark Green (5)
3rd) Kevin Hamlin (3)
4th) Willie Allen, Casey Atwood, Dave Blaney (2)
5th) Stanton Barrett, Mike Bliss, Chris Cook, Derrike Cope, Steve Grissom, Mike Harmon, Tom Hubert, Scott Lagasse, Jr., Kevin Lepage, Donny Lia, Chase Miller, Danny O'Quinn, Jr., Dennis Setzer (1)
