XFINITY: After early setback, Ryan Ellis and Gosselin team charge to within one lap of 37th place at Bristol
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: Ryan Ellis’ Social Media Account, @ryanellisracing
Ryan Ellis picked up the 6th last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Saturday’s Food City 300 at the Bristol Motor Speedway when his #71 Anew Solutions Chevrolet fell out with an oil cooler issue after 55 of 300 laps.
The finish, which came in Ellis’ 158th series start, was his first of the season and first in a XFINITY Series race since May 11, 2024 at Darlington, 49 races ago. In the XFINITY Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 1st due to an oil cooler, the 8th for the #71, an the 674th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 7th due to the oil cooler, the 36th for the #71, and the 2,012th for Chevrolet.
Ellis’ latest move to Mario Gosselin’s DGM Racing team, which has now joined forces with Jesse Iwuji Motorsports to form DGM Racing x JIM, has seen the longtime underdog reach a career milestone. At Charlotte in May, Ellis finished a strong 8th – his first career top-ten finish in his thirteenth season on the circuit. The run was particularly significant as his team change allowed him to campaign the #71, a number he’d run since the start of his go-kart career when he was four. He nearly earned another top-ten run last month in Daytona, but a last-lap crash froze the field when he was in 11th.
For Bristol, Ellis and team welcomed new sponsorship from the Missouri-based auto transport company Anew Solutions Automotive Services, marking their first sponsorship of a NASCAR team. The speckled black-and-blue scheme with white numbers featured a graphic of a panther behind the contingency decals, and Ellis’ custom helmet featured the Experiment 626 from “Lilo and Stitch.”
Ellis was to be one of 39 entrants for 38 spots, but that entry list shrank by one after an agreement between Alpha Prime Racing, which entered Stefan Parsons in their part-time entry, the #5 David’s Electric Chevrolet, and Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen, which had intended to put Glen Reen in an unsponsored #35 Chevrolet. Instead, Reen was withdrawn in exchange for Parsons changing his car number – and Owner Points designation – to the Gase team’s #35. NASCAR’s scanner program still had entries for both Parsons’ #5 and Reen’s #35, though Parsons’ radio was available only through the #35 team’s channel.
With these remaining 38 entrants now locked-into the show, Ellis ranked 30th with a best lap of 16.337 seconds (117.451mph), then inched up to 29th on the starting grid with a lap of 16.351 seconds (117.351mph).
Securing the 38th and final starting spot was a frustrated Blaine Perkins, who after spinning his #31 Warrior Health Foundation Chevrolet in practice spun again in qualifying and this time bumped the wall, requiring some last-minute repairs. Those repairs incurred him a redundant tail-end penalty along with 25th-place Matt DiBenedetto in the #99 Viking Motorsports Chevrolet and 34th-place Logan Bearden in the #14 T3 Vodka Chevrolet. This dropped DiBendetto to the last spot on the inside line while Perkins trailed the outside behind Bearden.
When the green flag dropped, Perkins remained in the last spot, 3.657 seconds back of the lead. By Lap 2, he’d dropped Bearden to last, 4.921 behind, but Berden caught and passed him again on Lap 5. By Lap 9, Perkins had dropped 10.373 seconds back of the lead, and on Lap 12 was 11.771 seconds back of the lead when the first caution fell. Heading into Turn 1, Leland Honeyman, Jr.’s #70 Ohio Logistics Chevrolet clipped the left-rear of Kyle Sieg’s #28 Shannon Speck’s Electric Ford, turning Sieg into the left-rear of Ellis’ car, which glanced off the outside wall as Sieg spun. Under this caution, Perkins radioed his car was “still not very good – tight in the center of the corner at a 4 or a 5,” saying also he was on the verge of wrecking again. He remained last until Lap 15, when Kyle Sieg pitted after his spin, only for the team to discover a loose right-front hubcap. After a crew member retrieved a 5/32nds tool to make the repair, Sieg also incurred a speeding penalty in Section 4, though he remained on the lead lap.
On Lap 18, Sieg took the restart in last place, 3.671 seconds back of the lead, then dropped Perkins to last once again the next time by. Perkins remained unhappy with his car, saying it was now “wash(ing) off the bottom in (Turns) 1 and 2.” By Lap 23, Sieg had climbed back to 36th, dropping to 37th the #07 CreaBitty Chevrolet of Carson Ware. Momens later, Perkins was alerted to a car dropping down the running order, which took the last spot on Lap 24 – the #71 of Ryan Ellis.
Now the first driver to be lapped, Ellis made it to pit road with an overheating issue, reporting a water temperature of 259. The team lifted the hood, thinking there was a hole in the radiator, then noticed fluid at the bottom of the hood. What first seemed like water was, in fact, oil, so on Lap 29, the crew pushed the car forward to pull into the garage. The team still retrieved the cool-down box to cool the radiator, but had issues hooking up the hoses. The team had Ellis fire the engine to see where the oil leak was coming from, then shut it off soon after. Concerned about how much oil they had lost, the team called for more oil on Lap 42, but didn’t find any at their hauler. The crew then tried to find a couple quarts from another team, which they finally found on Lap 50. By then, the cool-down box still hadn’t been attached.
On Lap 57, Playoff contender Sammy Smith suddenly slowed on track with smoke trailing from his #8 Pilot Chevrolet. He made it to pit road with a sour engine note and smoke pouring from the right-side pipes. Smith reported abnormally high engine temperature from his gauges. By Lap 68, Smith asked if he could get out of the car, but was told to stay in. On Lap 69, he was pushed behind the wall, the team performing a three-point turn to get his Chevrolet into the garage. The team tried to fire the engine once more, but Smith was then told he could climb out, done for the night.
As Smith climbed out, his #8 was 33 laps ahead of Ellis, whose crew was nearly finished with their repairs, expending three cans of Brakleen to clean off all the spilled oil in the engine bay and the pan. On Lap 80, under a caution shortly before the end of Stage 1, Ellis pulled back onto the track 57 laps down. The team told him to clean his tires, and noted the car was still smoking, though likely from excess oil spilled on the exhaust. The team also calmed Ellis’ concerns that he lost his power steering, saying fluid must have fallen on the belts, and it would soon dry off. This turned out to be the case as Ellis soon reported he could “turn the wheel like a top.”
The caution under which Ellis returned occurred after Corey Day’s #17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet banged doors with Jesse Love’s #2 Whelen Chevrolet, sending Day spinning across Turn 2. Closing on the scene came 13th-place running Parsons, who cut left, only to strike Day’s left-front with his right-front, then slam into the inside wall. By Lap 87, Parsons had dropped a fourth lap down into 36th and was now in the garage area. The crew jacked up the right side and removed the right-front wheel, calling for a flashlight to complete repairs. But on Lap 89, the team reported they were out under the “Damaged Vehicle Policy,” their right-front toed-out by five inches. Other members of the team were confused as they didn’t hear NASCAR declare them declared out. The team continued to attempt repairs, but were out after 81 laps, 25 laps ahead of Smith.
By Lap 91, Ellis was 26 laps behind Smith and closing, and on Lap 100, NASCAR declared Smith out of due to engine failure. Seven laps later, Ellis was 17 laps behind Smith when the #71 pulled behind the wall for a second time, again for the oil leak. This time, the team traced the leak to an uncapped oil cooler where the force of the car going around the track caused oil to spill free. This coincided with Ellis’ own report that it felt like the leak had returned while he was racing. The crew looked for a replacement cap and also a Ziploc bag of o-rings. When the bag couldn’t be found, they looked for a wiggins clamp or something else to seal the leak. On Lap 168, Ellis returned to the track a second time, now 131 laps down. By Lap 217, he closed to within just one lap of Smith before he pulled into the garage for a third time, done for the night.
Perkins only made it to 34th by the checkered flag, finishing 13 laps down. Completing the group in 35th was Joey Gase, who snapped an axle on his #53 NFPA Chevrolet.
Clements and Poole break into the Top Ten at Bristol
After a tight battle for the win, Jeremy Clements took home a strong 9th-place finish in his #51 All South Electric Chevrolet, marking his fourth top-ten finish of 2025 and his first since the summer race in Atlanta, ten races ago. Returning to the site of his brutal crash in the spring, Brennan Poole finished 10th in the #44 Macc Door Systems Chevrolet, scoring his first top-ten finish since last month in Daytona and his fifth of the season.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*As mentioned above, this marked the first time a XFINITY Series driver finished last due to an oil cooler issue.
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #71 in a XFINITY Series race since June 2, 2007, when Randy MacDonald’s #71 Vector Security Chevrolet fell out with handling issues after 2 laps of the Dover 200 at Dover. It had been even longer since the number finished last in a XFINITY race at Bristol – August 24, 1984, when Benny Herley’s #71 Tayor Togs / Maxie’s Vending Pontiac had a push rod fail after one lap of the Free 200.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
38) #71-Ryan Ellis / 55 laps / oil cooler
37) #8-Sammy Smith / 56 laps / engine
36) #35-Stefan Parsons / 81 laps / crash
35) #53-Joey Gase / 268 laps / axle
34) #31-Blaine Perkins / 287 laps / running
2025 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Kaulig Racing (5)
2nd) Joe Gibbs Racing (4)
3rd) Alpha Prime Racing, SS-Green Light Racing (3)
4th) JR Motorsports, Sam Hunt Racing (2)
5th) DGM Racing x JIM, Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen, Jordan Anderson Racing, Mike Harmon Racing, Our Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing, RSS Racing, Young’s Motorsports (1)
2025 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (20)
2nd) Toyota (6)
3rd) Ford (1)
2025 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
