SCREENSHOT: FS1
SEASON IN REVIEW
Naples, Florida driver Joe Nemechek picked up his second LASTCAR Truck Series Championship in 2019, scoring four last-place finishes in thirteen starts during a twenty-three race season. It was his second-straight title in the Truck Series and his fourth overall across NASCAR’s top three series.
Nemechek and his two-truck operation returned in 2019, still looking for new drivers and sponsors to rebuild their struggling NEMCO Motorsports program. The team brought both trucks to the opener in Daytona on February 15, where Joe finished 16th in the #87 and pay driver Angela Ruch ran a strong 8th in the #8 JJ Resources Chevrolet. But one week later in Atlanta, Nemechek crashed after 50 laps of the February 23 race, leaving him last.
Nemechek’s second last-place run came six races later at Charlotte, where on May 17, the rear gear failed after 19 laps. Five more races later on July 11, Nemechek’s #87 was out with a vibration after 16 laps around Kentucky. The fourth last-place run came in the penultimate round at Phoenix on November 8, another nine races later. There, one year after he secured the LASTCAR championship in the same race, he was awarded the 2019 LASTCAR Truck Series Championship.
Despite the struggles, NEMCO Motorsports enjoyed some extra attention in the 2019 season. At Martinsville on October 26, John Hunter Nemechek rebounded from an early crash to finish 7th. Tony Mrakovich, who had struggled to qualify his own truck, finished 12th for NEMCO at Pocono on July 27. The team also offered Tyler Ankrum the chance to retain his full-season status after a sponsorship deal fell through, running two races at Iowa and Gateway. Ankrum then won for DGR-Crosley at Kentucky and made it to the Round of 6 in the championship before he was eliminated.
At season’s end, Joe Nemechek himself broke Richard Petty’s record for most combined NASCAR Cup, XFINITY, and Truck Series starts. His 1,186th combined start happened to be the Truck Series finale at Homestead, where he ran a strong 14th.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
The return of NASCAR’s disqualification protocol first struck the Truck Series on June 16, where Ross Chastain dominated the race in Iowa, only to be disqualified for his truck being too low. Chastain led 144 laps that day, breaking Greg Biffle’s 2008 NASCAR record for most laps led by a driver classified last in a race. Chastain would go on to win at Gateway and ultimately made it to the Championship 4 at Homestead.
On June 28, Ben Rhodes claimed the first Truck Series last-place finish by a Ford since 2013 when his #99 Carolina Nut Co. Ford blew the engine right after the green flag at Chicagoland and was out after one completed lap. It was also Rhodes’ first last-place finish in his 85th series start.
On August 1 at Eldora, Stewart Friesen finally scored his first Truck Series victory after multiple runner-up finishes, and just five days after his first last-place finish following a Turn 1 wreck at Pocono.
On November 15 in the finale at Homestead, Anthony Alfredo ended up with his first last-place finish when a rod blew a hole in the motor at the command to start engines, forcing him behind the wall before the race ever started. This was the seventh time in 2019 that the last-place finisher of a Truck Series race failed to complete a single lap.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Joe Nemechek (4)
2nd) Norm Benning, Gus Dean (2)
3rd) Anthony Alfredo, Ross Chastain, Ray Ciccarelli, Natalie Decker, Stewart Friesen, Joey Gase, Austin Hill, Derek Kraus, Jesse Little, Mason Massey, Cody McMahan, John Hunter Nemechek, Greg Rayl, Josh Reaume, Ben Rhodes, Scott Stenzel (1)
