SEASON IN REVIEW
Concord, North Carolina driver Chris Lafferty picked up his first LASTCAR Truck Series Championship in 2013, scoring six last-place finishes in eleven starts during a twenty-two race season. Lafferty won the title outright by three finishes over Chris Jones and by four over Johnny Chapman, preventing either from extending RSS Racing’s streak of three consecutive LASTCAR Truck Series Championships. His six finishes also tied Phil Bonifield (1999) and Mike Garvey (2011) for the single-season Truck Series last-place record.
Lafferty claimed this title driving the second truck, #0, owned by Jennifer Jo Cobb, a team which narrowly lost the 2012 LASTCAR Truck Series title to RSS’ Dennis Setzer in a bottom-five tiebreaker. It was a difficult season for both driver and team. On May 15, Cobb accused fellow owner-driver Mike Harmon of stealing her racing hauler, and a subsequent investigation resulted in the seizure of Cobb’s equipment from Harmon’s garage. Lafferty, himself an owner-driver, has not been able to run his own #89 trucks in the series since 2011, and has since been working as a part-time “start-and-park” driver for Cobb’s organization. In 2012, Lafferty made five Truck Series starts, including four for Cobb, with no last-place finishes. Blake Koch finished out the year in the #0, setting the stage for the 2012 LASTCAR showdown with Setzer.
Lafferty made eleven Truck Series starts in 2013, the most he has ever raced in a single season. His first two last-place finishes of the season came in his third start at Kentucky on June 27, when his #0 Driven2Honor.org Ford lost the rear end after the opening lap of the race, and his fourth at Iowa on July 13, when the rear end failed on his Ford after three laps. In his next two starts, Lafferty drove two different manufacturers for the Cobb team. On September 1, his Chevrolet burned the clutch after 3 laps at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, one of two inaugural races on the 2013 calendar and the first road course race for the series since 2000. Then, driving a RAM sponsored by Koma Unwind and Driven2Honor.org, Lafferty swept the season at Iowa on September 8 when handling woes stopped him five laps into the event.
Lafferty’s final two last-place finishes came in Chevrolets. Finish number five for the season came at Las Vegas on September 28, a race whose field of twenty-nine trucks was the series’ smallest since July 27, 1996 during a race at the I-70 Speedway. Lafferty’s Chevrolet lost the transmission after two laps of the Vegas event. The sixth finish came three races later at Texas on November 1, when the transmission failed after 4 laps of the race. With a three-finish lead and just two races to go, Lafferty locked-up the 2013 LASTCAR Truck Series title at Texas.
Lafferty had two races to claim the single-season Truck Series last-place record. However, the Cobb team didn’t enter the #0 at Phoenix and withdrew it from the entry list at Homestead. Thus, Lafferty now holds equal claim to the record along with Phil Bonifield and Mike Garvey.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
The biggest moment in all of NASCAR in 2013 came on July 24 when the Truck Series slid through the Ohio mud on the Eldora Speedway, setting the stage for NASCAR’s first dirt track race since September 30, 1970. That 1970 race saw John Sears finish last for the fifth and final time in his career when his #4 1969 Dodge lost the engine after 16 laps. At Eldora, the final spot went to Jeff Babcock, a dirt tracker making his series debut in Chris Fontaine’s #84 BulkMaterialLift.com Toyota. Babcock lost the engine after 63 laps.
Babcock was one of four drivers in 2013 to finish last in their first-ever Truck Series starts. The first of the other three was Australian driver Scott Saunders, who also took a turn in the #0 Koma Unwind RAM for Jennifer Jo Cobb at Kansas on April 20, then fell out with a vibration after 2 laps. Ricky Ehrgott made his debut at Pocono on August 3, but crashed after 2 laps in his #81 Platinum Wealth Partners / Rev1 Power Services Toyota. ARCA driver Mason Mingus made his debut at Talladega on October 19 when his #35 811 Call Before You Dig Chevrolet suffered an oil leak after 5 laps.
Johnny Chapman finished last twice in 2013, and in the process became the new all-time leader in Truck Series last-place finishes with a career total of fourteen. He tied Wayne Edwards’ mark at Dover on May 31 when his #38 RSS Racing Chevrolet had an oil leak after 4 laps. He broke the record the very next race at Texas on June 7, when the ignition on the same truck let go after 6 laps.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Chris Lafferty (6)
2nd) Chris Jones (3)
3rd) Johnny Chapman (2)
4th) Jeff Babcock, Ryan Blaney, Ricky Ehrgott, Mike Harmon, Jennifer Jo Cobb, D.J. Kennington, Mason Mingus, Scott Riggs, Scott Saunders, Jimmy Weller, J.J. Yeley (1)
