PHOTO: Robert Taylor
SEASON IN REVIEW
Doylestown, Pennsylvania driver Mike Senica picked up his first LASTCAR Camping World Truck Series Championship in 2017, scoring three last-place finishes in ten starts during a twenty-three race season. Senica didn’t lead the standings until after the final race of the season at Homestead, where he broke a Bottom Five tiebreaker with Todd Peck, 9-8. It also put an end to Caleb Roark’s three consecutive LASTCAR Truck Series titles (Roark did not start a race in 2017) and the four consecutive LASTCAR Truck titles for Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing.
A sports marketing businessman, certified flight instructor, and professional wrestler (known as “Mike Flyte”), Senica started racing in SCCA and the open-wheel Formula Ford series, then trained at the Fast Track Racing School to earn his ARCA Racing Series license. He made his ARCA debut at Mansfield on July 17, 2010, driving for veteran car owner Wayne Peterson. He began to run a larger part of the ARCA schedule in 2016 when he joined with car owner Wayne Hixson, but only finished under power once – a 20th-place finish at Kentucky.
Age 51 in 2017, Senica made the jump to the Truck Series at Iowa on June 23, where he finished 21st for D.J. Copp in the #83 PB2 Powdered Peanut Butter Chevrolet. Three rounds later at Pocono, where he was already slated to run the weekend’s ARCA race for Hixson, Senica was tabbed by Norm Benning to make his second career start in Trucks. This time around, Senica would drive Benning’s second truck, a black Chevrolet which bore the same #57 that Benning campaigned from 2008 through 2014. Benning brought the truck with him at Gateway on June 17 to help fill the field, and Tommy Regan brought it home 29th. J.J. Yeley and B.J. McLeod had also taken turns parking the truck before Senica got the job.
As with his predecessors, Senica pulled out early of the July 29 race, siting steering issues after 2 laps. He very nearly pulled the ARCA – Truck Series sweep that weekend, having finished 29th of 30 cars in the ARCA event after teammate Eric Caudell edged him by five laps. Following his first of two DNQs at Bristol, Senica’s second finish came September 15 at Chicagoland, where this time the rear gear let go on the opening lap.
After Chicagoland, Senica was in a four-way tie for the 2017 LASTCAR Truck Series lead with seven races to go. The advantage belonged to Joe Nemechek, who was looking to become the first driver ever to score a LASTCAR title in both Cup and Trucks. Nemechek led the standings by a single Bottom Ten over Todd Peck, who took the lead in the second round and held it for much of the season, with Senica tied for third with Tommy Regan. Peck retook the lead with his third last-place run at Las Vegas, five rounds from the finale. After failing to qualify at Martinsville, Senica then tied Peck in the penultimate round at Phoenix on November 10.
Heading into the Homestead finale, Peck still led the standings on a Bottom Fifteen tiebreaker over Senica, 10-9. Senica needed at least a Bottom Ten at Homestead in order to break the tie. Nemechek, though one finish behind, outmatched both Peck and Senica on Bottom Fives and Bottom Tens, meaning that he could take the title if he finished last at Homestead. When it was announced that Peck would not drive at Homestead, it was up to Senica and Nemechek to take the spot. When both Jennifer Jo Cobb-owned trucks fell out on the opening lap, Nemechek was eliminated. Senica was parked after four laps, leaving him 30th, and handing him the title by a single Bottom Five over Peck. It was the only time all season that Senica led the standings.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
While Joe Nemechek fell short of the 2017 title, one of his two last-place finishes proved significant. On August 12, he fell out with a vibration on his #87 D.A.B. Constructors Chevrolet, then turned his attention to his son John Hunter Nemechek in the #8 Fire Alarm Services Chevrolet. Unfortunately, by then the younger Nemechek had been involved in a crash with Chase Briscoe while running in the Top 5. The result put father and son in the final two positions, the first time that had happened in a NASCAR points-paying race since March 27, 1988, when Richard and Kyle Petty trailed the TranSouth 500 at Darlington in Cup.
The other significant moment came a few weeks later, when it became commonplace for the Truck Series’ last-place finishers to fail to complete a single lap. A streak began at Mosport on September 3, where Tommy Regan’s #0 Driven2Honor.org Chevrolet lost an engine on the first lap. Senica’s Chicagoland finish on September 15 came just as quick. So did Ray Ciccarelli’s first in the Cobb #0 at New Hampshire. At that point, the streak had already equaled the NASCAR national series record of three in a row, set twice in the 1964 season. The streak was extended the next time out at Las Vegas on September 30 by Todd Peck, then Norm Benning pulled behind the wall promptly at Talladega on October 14. A sixth in a row came at Martinsville on October 28, where Chris Windom lost the engine on his #63 Baldwin Brothers Chevrolet in practice and was unable to start. The streak was only broken the next week at Texas, where Tommy Joe Martins crashed his primary truck on his first lap of practice, acquired a backup from Mike Harmon, then wrecked after three laps.
The no-lap streak highlighted a persistent problem with the quality of Truck Series fields in 2017. Seven of the season’s 23 races saw fields of fewer than 32 trucks with a season-low of 28 during the spring race at Texas. Even with drivers like Senica entered in order to fill fields, the grids often remained short.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Todd Peck [8 B5s], Mike Senica [9 B5s] (3)
2nd) Norm Benning, Ray Ciccarelli, Tommy Joe Martins, Joe Nemechek, Tommy Regan (2)
3rd) Stewart Friesen, Caleb Holman, Jennifer Jo Cobb, Camden Murphy, Bryce Napier, Chris Windom, J.J. Yeley (1)
