SEASON IN REVIEW
Newton, North Carolina driver Dennis Setzer picked up his first LASTCAR Truck Series Championship in 2012, scoring three last-place finishes in fourteen starts during a twenty-two race season. Setzer won the title in a bottom-five tiebreaker over Blake Koch 12-5. By scoring the third-consecutive title for Rod Sieg’s RSS Motorsports, Setzer also became the first NASCAR driver to score LASTCAR titles in both the Nationwide and Truck Series.
Setzer was competing in his seventeenth Truck Series season, having competed in at least one race in every season with the sole exception of 1996. He finished second in points for three consecutive seasons from 2003 through 2005. He’s also scored eighteen Truck Series victories, none more emotional than his most recent at Martinsville on March 29, 2008, when he scored the final win for Bobby Hamilton Racing in the Kroger 250, just over a year after cancer took Hamilton’s life in 2007. To date, Setzer’s win is the most recent by Dodge in the Truck Series.
In 2012, two-time and defending LASTCAR Truck Series Champion Mike Garvey stepped out of the #38 and the 52-year-old Setzer stepped in, sharing the “start-and-park” ride with Chris Jones. Setzer failed to finish all but one of his starts that season, excepting a 19th-place finish at Iowa during the American Ethanol 200 on July 14. The Iowa race was one of Setzer’s seven starts that year in RSS’ #93, which was still largely a “start-and-park” entry as well with drivers Chris Cockrum, Ryan Sieg, Brent Raymer, Chris Jones, Tim George, Jr., Ryan Lynch, and 2009 LASTCAR Nationwide Series Champion Johnny Chapman sharing the ride.
The #39 remained Ryan Sieg’s for every race in 2012 but Chicago, where Sieg and Chris Jones switched rides during the July 21 running of the American Ethanol 225. That night, RSS entered four trucks for the first time, adding a #37 driven by all-time NASCAR last-place leader Jeff Green. Green, making his first Truck Series start since 2008, was edged by Johnny Chapman’s #07 for what would have been Green’s first last-place finish in the series. There was not much benefit to the team’s addition - Setzer finished 33rd in the #38, Jones 31st in the #39, and Ryan Sieg 30th in the #93.
Setzer’s first last-place finish of 2012 came at Dover on June 1, when his #38 RSS Racing Chevrolet fell out with a vibration after 2 laps of the Lucas Oil 200. The next occurred in consecutive races eight rounds later, starting at Atlanta on August 31 when his #38 broke a rear gear after 2 laps of the Jeff Foxworthy’s Grit Chips 300, and concluding at Iowa on September 15, where the truck overheated after 2 laps of the American Ethanol 200.
Much like his LASTCAR Nationwide Series title in 2010, Setzer struggled to finish last in the second half of the season and had to fend off a challenge from another up-and-coming contender down the stretch. This time, the challenge came from Jennifer Jo Cobb, who enlisted the aid of her own “start-and-park” teammates in #0 Fords. Starting at Texas on June 8, drivers Chris Lafferty, T.J. Bell, and Blake Koch qualified for ten of the season’s last twenty-two races, scoring four last-place finishes. Three of them went to Koch in his final three starts of the season at Kentucky, Phoenix, and the season finale at Homestead. Though Koch’s Homestead last-place run tied Setzer’s season total, his limited schedule made him lose the bottom-five tiebreaker 12-5.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
Coming into 2012, Jason Leffler had not run more than five Truck Series races in any season since 2003, but he scored his lone series victory that year driving Jim Smith’s #2 Team ASE / Carquest Dodge to victory at Dover in the MBNA Armed Forces Family 200 on May 30, 2003. In 2012, he returned to the series driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports, owned by the “rowdy” Joe Gibbs Racing driver himself. The union started inauspiciously at Daytona on February 24, when Leffler’s #18 Dollar General Toyota crashed in the tri-oval after 17 laps of the NextEra Energy Resources 250. Leffler made just eight more starts for Busch before he lost his ride.
A 19-year-old Jeb Burton, son of 2002 Daytona 500 Champion and three-time LASTCAR Cup Series Champion Ward Burton, competed in his first Truck Series season in 2012, running five races for Mike Hillman in the #27 State Water Heaters Chevrolet. Burton finished last in his third career start at Kansas on April 21 when his #27 crashed on the opening lap of the SFP 250. Burton rebounded to score his first career top-ten finish in the very next race at Charlotte, where he came home 8th.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Blake Koch [5 B5s], Dennis Setzer [12 B5s] (3)
2nd) Johnny Chapman, Clay Greenfield, Brandon Knupp (2)
3rd) T.J. Bell, Jeb Burton, Rick Crawford, Grant Enfinger, Chris Fontaine, Chris Jones, Jennifer Jo Cobb, Jason Leffler, Brennan Newberry, Scott Riggs (1)
