SEASON IN REVIEW
Lakeville, Minnesota driver Mike Garvey picked up his first LASTCAR Truck Series Championship in 2010, scoring four last-place finishes in sixteen starts during a twenty-five race season.
The 47-year-old Garvey, a career short-tracker in the American Speed Association and the X-1R Pro Cup Series, was competing in his fourth Truck Series season. He joined Rod Sieg’s start-up team in 2009 to help the team get going for Sieg’s sons Ryan and Shane. Ryan finished 13th in the team’s debut at Milwaukee on June 20, 2009, then improved to a 9th-place finish at Gateway, where Garvey made his first start on September 12 of that year.
In 2010, Garvey started the year driving the #93 S&W Services Chevrolet, sharing “start-and-park” duty with Shane. Ryan ran the full season in the #39 and scored another two Top Tens, an 8th at Kentucky on September 3 and a 9th at Dover on May 14, putting him 15th in points. Garvey and Ryan switched rides at Indianapolis Raceway Park on July 23, where Ryan put the #93 in 25th. Other than that, Garvey and Shane finished just one race between them - Garvey’s sterling 12th-place finish at Talladega on October 30. In all, the #93 finished last six times in 2010 with Garvey scoring four of those finishes.
Garvey’s first two finishes of the year came in consecutive races at Charlotte on May 21, where the engine let go after 9 laps of the North Carolina Education 200, and Texas on June 4, where the transmission failed after 6 laps of the Winstar World Casino 400K. The next occurred two races later at Iowa on July 11, where the brakes let go after 5 laps of the Lucas Oil 200. The fourth occurred eleven races later at Martinsville on October 23, where the brakes were again a problem after 27 laps of the Kroger 200.
Garvey returned to the Sieg team in 2011, when he successfully defended his LASTCAR title.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
Midway through the 2010 season, owner Danny Gill and his flat-white #95 Dodge RAMs, used to fund the team’s primary #46 Dodges, seemed poised to challenge Garvey for the LASTCAR title. Starting at the inaugural Pocono Mountains 125 at Pocono on July 31, Team Gill Racing’s #95 finished last in three consecutive races, followed a race later by another three-race streak from Chicago on August 27 through New Hampshire on September 18. The #95 ended up tying the #93 for the LASTCAR Truck Series Owner’s Championship, but lost the driver’s title as the team finished last with four different drivers: Carl Long, Dillon Oliver, Tim Andrews, and J.C. Stout. It was the first - and to date, only - season for the Gill team.
A 20-year-old Landon Cassill, former development driver for JR Motorsports in the Nationwide Series, made his eighth Truck Series start in the season-opening NextEra Energy Resources 250 at Daytona driving a new ThorSport Racing entry #98 sponsored by EasyToInstall.com. His race was a short one, however, when teammate Johnny Sauter’s #13 was pinched into the outside wall entering turn three, collecting Cassill in the ensuing pileup. Cassill and Sauter both fell out of the race with Cassill finishing last.
On May 2, Formula One racer Narain Karthikeyan became the first driver from India to finish last in a NASCAR race when his #60 SafeAuto Insurance Chevrolet crashed coming across the start/finish line at Kansas after 7 laps of the O’Reilly Auto Parts 200. Karthikeyan made nine starts that year driving for Jeff Wyler, and picked up a career-best 11th at Texas on June 4.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Mike Garvey (4)
2nd) Tim Andrews, Carl Long, Johanna Long, Shane Sieg, J.C. Stout (2)
3rd) Landon Cassill, Johnny Chapman, Mike Harmon, John Jackson, Chris Jones, Narain Karthikeyan, Chris Lafferty, Butch Miller, Dillon Oliver, G.R. Smith, Jason White (1)
