PHOTO: NASCAR Online
SEASON IN REVIEW
West Palm Beach, Florida driver Blake Koch picked up his first LASTCAR Nationwide Series Championship in 2014, scoring eight last-place finishes in twenty-eight starts during a thirty-three race season. Koch’s championship ended Jeff Green’s three-year reign as champion, but extended TriStar Motorsports’ streak to four consecutive championships.
The year 2014 was Koch’s sixth season in Nationwide Series competition. He made his debut on October 24, 2009 at Memphis Motorsports Park, finishing 17th. The #81 Joe Michael / Crusader Staffing Dodge that Koch raced that day was fielded by MacDonald Motorsports, a team run by NASCAR veteran Randy MacDonald and his mother Pat since 2000. Following the Daytona opener in 2011, Koch and MacDonald attempted to run the rest of the season. Koch finished the season 18th in points with a season-best finish of 14th at Road America and the fall race at Phoenix. He also suffered 4 DNFs, including his first career last-place finish at Dover after a tangle with teammate Donnie Neunberger on Lap 2.
Koch ran just one more race for MacDonald in 2012, finishing 19th in the July race at Daytona. For the rest of that season, he traveled between several underfunded teams, often enlisted as a “start-and-park” driver. He ran 12 of the first 15 races for Rick Ware Racing, including a season-best 17th in the Daytona opener, parked the #42 for The Motorsports Group at Chicago and Montreal, then finished the year with Jason Sciavicco’s SR2 Motorsports. Despite the patchwork season, Koch did not finish last all season.
Koch remained with SR2 in 2013, switching between full-race runs and “start-and-park” efforts in the team’s #24 and #00 Toyotas. He finished last three times that season, tying him with Michael McDowell in a distant second to season champion Jeff Green, but received a tremendous opportunity in the season finale at Homestead. When rookie Alex Bowman and RAB Racing parted ways before the race, Koch was tabbed as Bowman’s replacement. One year after qualifying 9th in SR2’s #00, Koch put RAB’s #99 on the outside-pole and finished 11th – both new career-bests.
In 2014, Koch moved to TriStar Motorsports with a chance to run more full races – and contend for a LASTCAR championship. In eight races, Koch ran the fully-funded #44 Toyota, earning a season-best 18th at Phoenix on November 8. He also drove once for Rick Ware Racing at Bristol on August 22, finishing 35th in Ware’s #23. But in Koch’s other nineteen starts, he would share “start-and-park” duties in the #10 and #91 Toyotas with none other than Jeff Green, setting up a unique LASTCAR battle between teammates.
Koch’s first last-place run of the year came at Phoenix on March 1 when his #10 SupportMilitary.org Toyota had a vibration after 3 laps. The next came two races later at Bristol on March 15, where the #10 Heroes Behind the Camo / SupportMilitary.org Toyota suffered more vibration issues after 5 laps. The third and fourth came in consecutive races in the same car: vibrations after 2 laps at Texas on April 4 and Darlington on April 11. At that point, Green and Koch had swept all seven last-place runs in 2014, extending a streak of 12 straight last-place runs that began in late 2013.
Jimmy Weller’s engine troubles ended TriStar’s streak the following week at Richmond, but Koch responded with his fifth finish at Talladega on May 3. Koch did not run in the series again until Dover on May 31, where he not only finished last for a sixth time, but with an early exit in Mike Mittler’s #36 the previous day, became the first to sweep Truck and Nationwide last-place runs at the same track since Morgan Shepherd did the same at Fontana in 2007. An opportunity to become the first to ever sweep all three last-place runs presented itself when Koch ran the #32 SupportMilitary.org Ford in Sunday’s Cup race, but wound up 30th, losing last place to Brian Vickers.
Koch did not finish last for another seven races, ending the drought at Indianapolis on July 26 with another vibration after 2 laps in the #10 M&W Logistics Toyota. By that point, Green’s championship defense had stalled, thanks in part to his continued role as Eric McClure’s relief driver in the #14 Hefty Toyota. After Indianapolis, Koch led Green by four finishes, 7-3. Green bounced back with back-to-back runs at Bristol and Atlanta in August and September, then Koch’s vibration at Chicagoland on September 13 was followed by Green’s sixth finish of the year the very next race at Kentucky – his third in four races at the track. With six races remaining, Koch held a two-finish lead over Green, and Ryan Ellis’ last-place run in the second Dover race ensured that one of the two TriStar teammates would leave with the title.
In the final five races of the season, Green was slated to drive three “start-and-park” races for TriStar with Koch in the other two, setting up what seemed to be a final spirited battle for the LASTCAR title. However, when both drivers were shut out of the first two of those finishes, Green needed to finish last in all of the remaining three to claim the title. When Green did not enter the first of those races at Texas, Koch secured the title with a next-to-last-place finish to Ryan Ellis. While Koch would not finish last again that season, Green took the final finish of the year at Homestead, tightening the winning margin to just one finish. It was Green’s 60th in Nationwide competition and his 65th across all three of NASCAR’s top divisions.
In all, TriStar Motorsports scored fifteen of the thirty-three last-place finishes in 2014 – eleven with the #10 and four in the #91 – and all of them earned by Koch and Green.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
The Motorsports Group scaled back once more from three teams to only two in 2014, but the team’s “start-and-park” #46 Chevrolets proved a much bigger threat in the LASTCAR battle, scoring seven last-place finishes. Truck Series newcomer Ryan Ellis scored the first three last-place runs of his career with the team while teammate Matt DiBenedetto picked up another two. Scoring one finish each in the #46 were Matt Frahm at Iowa on August 2 and Josh Wise the next week at Watkins Glen on August 9.
At Kansas on October 4, former sports car and IndyCar racer Milka Duno crashed out of her NASCAR debut, earning her first last-place finish in the #29 CanTV Toyota fielded by RAB Racing – Koch’s team from Homestead in 2013.
A late challenger to the LASTCAR title arrived in Jeffrey Earnhardt, who after suffering injuries in a motorcycle accident early in the season scored his first two last-place finishes in the final four races of the year. Both last-place finishes prevented him from completing the opening lap: the first came at Charlotte on October 10, when his #4 Flex Shot Chevrolet was involved in a green-flag pileup on the frontstretch, while the second was an engine failure on his unsponsored #4 at Phoenix on November 8.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Blake Koch (8)
2nd) Jeff Green (7)
3rd) Ryan Ellis, Kevin Lepage (3)
4th) Matt DiBenedetto, Jeffrey Earnhardt (2)
5th) Tanner Berryhill, Milka Duno, Matt Frahm, Roger Reuse, Robert Richardson, Jr., Tim Schendel, Jimmy Weller, Josh Wise (1)
