by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: Steven Taranto, @STaranto92
Ryan Ellis picked up the 8th last-place finish of his NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series career in Saturday’s National Debt Relief 250 at the Martinsville Speedway when his #02 Centurion Secure Chevrolet fell out with a busted water pump after he completed 60 of 250 laps.
The finish, which came in Ellis’ 196th series start, was his second of the season and first since March 7th at Phoenix, 28 races ago. In the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 3rd for the water pump, the 10th for the #02, and the 701st for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 7th due to the water pump, the 37th for the #02, and the 2,072nd for Chevrolet.
After fighting his way into full-time competition and landing a steady sponsor in TabloTV, Ellis is still searching for the right driver-team combination. His 6th-place run in this year’s Daytona opener, his first for team owner Randy Young, remains his only top-ten finish of the season. In that time, he’s only twice finished better than 21st, taking a 17th in the return to Daytona in August and then an 18th two rounds ago at Phoenix, successfully rebounding from his last-place run there in the spring. Many times, it’s been due to mechanical issues, and the team’s often been hard at work trying to get the #02 back on track, as they had in San Diego. While sitting 27th in points, it was announced earlier this month that Ellis will be rejoining Alpha Prime Racing for their switch to Ford in 2027, kicking off a multi-year deal.
For Martinsville, Ellis carried primary sponsorship from Centurion Secure Global, a company which according to their website, designs and builds compliant structures for “government agencies, defense contractors, and integrators.” His was one of 38 cars entered for exactly 38 spots in Saturday’s field, meaning all would start the race. He began the weekend 26th on the speed charts for practice with a lap of 20.848 seconds (90.829mph). The fifth car scheduled on track for qualifying, he slipped a couple spots to 29th despite a faster lap of 20.457 seconds (92.565mph).
Securing the 38th and final starting spot was Baltazar Leguizamon, Ellis’ teammate in the #42 Elaion Chevrolet. Saturday marked the Argentinian driver’s first series start since San Diego in June, and his first ever on an oval, never mind a short track. His completed lap of 21.102 seconds (89.736mph) was three-tenths off the next-slowest car of Lee Pulliam, but remained just 1.247 off the pole, earned by eventual race winner Carson Kvapil.
While no drivers incurred tail-end penalties prior to the start, by Lap 3, Leguizamon had climbed to the 37th spot past 28th-place qualifier Dawson Cram, whose #47 Chevrolet ran the same red-and-white scheme from recent weeks, but this time without the logos for Hoods Home Center on the quarter-panels. Cram was 7.560 seconds back of the lead on Lap 3, about four-tenths back of Leguizamon, and the gap stayed about the same for the next few laps. On Lap 5, Cram was 10.121 seconds back of the lead to Leguizamon’s 9.768.
The first driver to find trouble was Austin Hill, who on Lap 12 started to gradually lose positions in his #21 1-800-PACK-RAT / Spirit Halloween Chevrolet. Hill appeared to lock his brakes while stuck in the middle of a three-wide battle between Patrick Emerling’s #38 Firman Power Equipment / Molrix Ford and the #92 Black’s Tire / Larue #HallowScheme Chevrolet of Alex Labbe. By Lap 18, there was visible smoke coming off his right-front as he was passed by Justin S. Carroll in the unsponsored #35 Chevrolet from Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen. By Lap 21, Hill was caught by leader Kvapil and 2nd-place Justin Allgaier, just as both were lapping 37th-place Leguizamon entering Turn 1. The leaders threaded the needle between both cars, and on Lap 22, Hill made it to pit road, taking last place from the lapped Cram.
Stopped in Pit Stall No. 14, a few stalls past the starting line, Hill’s crew changed the right-side tires and discovered the right-front was coming apart on one side. Debris must have also damaged his right-front suspension as the crew then took several laps working on the right-front corner. He didn’t return to the track until Lap 30, just moments before Emerling lost his brakes into Turn 3 and collided with Patrick Staropoli’s #48 Syfovre Chevrolet, putting both into the outside wall. Emerling continued with left-rear damage as the first caution of the day fell, at which point Hill was eight laps down.
Ellis’ night took a turn on the ensuing restart, when Sammy Smith and his fresh tires on the #8 Pilot Chevrolet rammed Lavar Scott’s #45 OptiWize 10-N-1 / Prime Bites Chevrolet, which then bumped Ellis into a spin to his left. As Ellis narrowly missed the inside wall, he slid into the path of Chase contender Corey Day, whose #17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet had been hooked by the spinning Scott. All drivers involved continued around the track under the ensuing caution, of which Day seemed to have the most damage to the rear of his car. Ellis was shown in the 31st spot on Lap 49, then 23rd for the Lap 53 restart, during which he lost a couple spots back to 28th. He reached the end of Stage 1 on Lap 60, the caution already out once again due to a late-stage spin caused by Sam Mayer’s #41 Starkey Chevrolet sending Jeremy Clements’ #51 Spartan Wate / Fox Sports Spartanburg 98.3 Chevrolet into Harrison Burton’s #24 Dead On Tools Toyota. Ellis slowed to avoid the wreck, but reported that, as he did, he lost power steering. While the crew tried to diagnose the issue under yellow, they soon directed him behind the wall. By the early laps of Stage 2, Hill had climbed past Ellis, who ultimately was the first driver declared out of the race. Ellis tweeted that it was a water pump which ended their day, and this was reflected in the official results.
Emerling got his lap back from the first caution once Stage 2 had ended. But after that, he was involved in two more incidents during the middle stages before his #38 was eliminated in a three-car tangle down the backstretch that resulted in a nearly 12-minute red flag. Taken out along with 37th-place Emerling were 36th-place Mason Maggio in the #91 Indicor Mechanical / Epperson Insurance Chevrolet and Garrett Smithley’s Halloween-decorated #0 North Georgia Spring Chevrolet. It was fluid from Smithley’s wrecked car which resulted in the red flag for cleanup. Rounding out the Bottom Five was Daniel Dye, whose #32 Champion Container Corporation Chevrolet was likewise involved in several incidents before he was sent into the outside wall, ending his night after 174 laps.
LASTCAR contenders survive the chaos at Martinsville
The final four cautions of the race saw both Dawson Cram and Baltazar Leguizamon return to the lead lap, each thanks to a pair of Free Passes earned. The finished nose-to-tail with Leguizamon in 27th, about a full second ahead of 28th-place Cram. For Cram, it was only his third lead-lap finish since Indianapolis in 2025, and his first since San Diego this past June. Fellow LASTCAR title contender Kyle Sieg also ran well on Saturday, at one point battling his brother Ryan in the Top Five before his #28 Down East Chevrolet settled for 21st at the checkered flag. Kyle Sieg – now bumped from 3rd to 4th in the standings by Ellis – has now been eliminated from contention for his second LASTCAR title, setting up a one-race battle at Homestead behind current leader J.J. Yeley and Dawson Cram.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #02 in an O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Martinsville.
*This was the first time a last-place finisher of an O’Reilly race at Martinsville fell out with water pump issues.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
38) #02-Ryan Ellis / 60 laps / water pump
37) #38-Patrick Emerling / 161 laps / crash
36) #91-Mason Maggio / 161 laps / crash
35) #0-Garrett Smithley / 161 laps / crash
34) #32-Daniel Dye / 174 laps / crash
2026 LASTCAR O’REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) RSS Racing (7)
2nd) JR Motorsports, Mike Harmon Racing, Young’s Motorsports (3)
3rd) DGM Racing x JIM, Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen, Jordan Anderson Racing Bommarito Autosport (2)
4th) AM Racing, Big Machine Racing, Haas Factory Team, Hendrick Motorsports, Hettinger Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing, Sam Hunt Racing, SS-Green Light Racing, Viking Motorsports (1)
2026 LASTCAR O’REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (21)
2nd) Ford (8)
3rd) Toyota (2)
2026 LASTCAR O’REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
