SEASON IN REVIEW
Owensboro, Kentucky driver Jeff Green picked up his third LASTCAR Nationwide Series Championship in 2012, scoring twelve last-place finishes in thirty-two starts during a thirty-three race season. In doing so, Green joined Jeff Fuller as the only two three-time LASTCAR Nationwide Champions.
Green’s “start-and-park” entry changed once more in 2012, this time a flat black Toyota #10 with numbers styled exactly the same as Cup Series newcomer Danica Patrick. Again, Green ran as a teammate to both Mike Bliss and Eric McClure, but this time TriStar stretched its resources even further. Six other Nationwide drivers ran for TriStar in the 2012 Nationwide Series season, and for the first time since 1997, owner Mark Smith put together two Cup Series teams as well. Those new Cup teams, #19 and #91, were also “start-and-park” cars with Mike Bliss and Reed Sorenson running the majority of the races.
Back in the Nationwide Series, Green picked up where he left off in 2011, scoring five of the season’s first seven last-place finishes, all of them due to vibrations in his #10 TriStar Motorsports Toyota. The first two were third-lap exits in back-to-back races - the season opener at Daytona, the DRIVE4COPD 300 on February 25, and the Bashas’ Supermarkets 200 at Phoenix on March 3. The next three finishes also came in consecutive races, and were again due to vibrations. At Fontana on March 24, he fell out after 2 laps of the Royal Purple 300, followed by third-lap retirements at both the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas on April 13 and the Virginia 529 College Savings 250 on April 27.
At Talladega on May 5, Green’s bid for another streak of four consecutive last-place finishes was lost to the Jimmy Means team and driver Kevin Lepage, but a serious late-race accident involving teammate Eric McClure changed the complexion of Green’s season. McClure suffered injuries when he struck the inside wall entering turn three and wasn’t cleared to race for the next five events. Green was tabbed as McClure’s relief driver, and in five starts in the #14 Hefty / Reynolds Wrap Toyota, Green never finished last and scored a pair of 17th-place finishes at Dover and Michigan.
McClure returned in time for the Sargento 200 at Road America on June 23, and back in his #10, Green finished last for the sixth time that season after a vibration ended his race after 2 laps. The Road America finish was Green’s 37th last-place finish across all three of NASCAR’s top divisions, beating the previous all-time record of 36 by three-time LASTCAR Cup Series Champion Derrike Cope. Amazingly, this wasn’t the only record Green would set in 2012.
Green picked up another streak of three consecutive last-place finishes that summer, upping his season total to nine finishes. This streak began at Daytona on July 6, where his #10 overheated after 3 laps of the Subway Jalapeno 250, continued at New Hampshire on July 14, where a vibration ended his run after 2 laps of the F.W. Webb 200, and ended at Chicagoland on July 22, when his car had another vibration 4 laps into the STP 300. Green was so dominant in that period that if he finished last instead of The Motorsports Group’s #47 at both Kentucky and Indianapolis, he would have had a streak of seven consecutive last-place finishes.
The seventh race in that streak would have been at Iowa on August 4, where Green made one of two starts in TriStar’s #91 Toyotas. The result was the same as Green suffered a vibration after 4 laps of the U.S. Cellular 250. Two races later and back in the #10, Green finished last for the eleventh time in 2012 at Montreal on August 18 when another vibration stopped him after 2 laps of the NAPA Auto Parts 200.
Finally, on September 9, Green finished last in the Virginia 529 College Savings 250 at Richmond when his #10 suffered one more vibration after 3 laps of the race. The finish, his twelfth of the year, finally beat Jeff Fuller’s single-season last-place record set in 2004. At the end of the year, Green had a staggering 43 last-place finishes in NASCAR with 38 of them in the Nationwide Series alone and 30 of those coming with TriStar Motorsports since late 2010.
Incredibly, Green’s record could have been even longer. After Richmond, he made just four more starts in TriStar’s “start-and-park” cars and came one spot shy of a thirteenth last-place run at Kansas on October 20. His other three starts were fully-funded, and he improved his season-best finish to a 15th at Dover on September 29, driving his #44 G-Oil Toyota. During Green’s full-race runs, the #10 and #91 cars parked and finished last in four more races with Kevin Lepage, Charles Lewandoski, and Tony Raines upping the team’s season total to 16, three more than the previous record of 13 set by NEMCO in 2004 and again by K-Automotive Motorsports in 2010.
Green returned to TriStar yet again in 2013, even though it was in the same unsponsored #10 Toyota.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
The Motorsports Group, with cars #40, #42, #46, and #47, flexed their muscle in 2012, scoring six last-place finishes on the year. Most notable among their group was Josh Wise, who swept both the Nationwide and Cup Series last-place finishes at Bristol in March. In the Ford EcoBoost 300, the Nationwide race on March 17, Wise’s #42 Chevrolet edged Jeff Green when his electrical problem occurred the same lap as Green’s vibration, securing Wise his first Nationwide last-place finish. Chase Miller, whose three finishes came in TMG’s #46, finished a distant 2nd to Green in the LASTCAR Nationwide Series standings.
Popular open-wheel driver Danica Patrick scored her first Nationwide Series last-place finish at Watkins Glen when her #7 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet tangled with Ryan Truex on the opening lap of the Zippo 200 at the Glen on August 11, then fell out with crash damage after 2 laps. Patrick was joined on October 12 by another female first-time last-placer, Angela Cope, one of the twin nieces of 1990 Daytona 500 Champion and three-time LASTCAR Cup Series Champion Derrike Cope. Cope’s #00 Highland Wealth Advisors / Highway 55 Toyota crashed on the opening lap of the Dollar General 300 at Charlotte.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Jeff Green (12)
2nd) Chase Miller (3)
3rd) Mike Harmon, Kevin Lepage, Charles Lewandoski, Tony Raines (2)
4th) Tim Andrews, T.J. Bell, Ryan Blaney, Angela Cope, Joey Gase, Stephen Leicht, Danica Patrick, Scott Speed, Dexter Stacey, Josh Wise (1)
