East: Early mechanical problem gives Eli Bright his first career last-place finish at Loudon

Eli Bright picked up the 1st last place finish of his SCRL CatDog Pro Series East career in Monday's G-Oil 100 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway when his #39 Generation Rescue Chevrolet fell out with camshaft trouble after completing 7 of the 25 laps.

The finish came in Bright's 13th career series start. Coming into the East Series, Bright had some previous success in the SCRL by scoring wins in three different series, the SCRL Wrangler Jeans Busch Grand National Series(at Bristol), the SCRL Lucas Oil ARCA Racing Series(at Daytona) and the SCRL Formula E Series(at Osterreichring). Bright made his East series debut by finishing an uneventful 27th at Daytona and heading into Loudon his best finish was a 7th in the wreckfest at Road Atlanta.

On race day, Bright would start 18th while starting last on the field was the #32 Van Dyk Baler / Bollegraaf Chevrolet of Kevin McHugh. As the field completed the first lap the #0 Viva La Raza Racing Toyota of Alexander Rowe would trail the field but on the third lap the #31 Integrated Metal Products Toyota of Maria Valera would fall back to last and would trail the field for the next five laps. Bright at the time had only gained one spot since the start of the race and was running in 17th when his car began to smoke. While trying to get out of the way of drivers, Bright held up half the field before finally getting out of the way on the backstretch as he limped to pit road and then into the garage and he would be the lone retiree of the race.

Rounding out the bottom five were drivers who all completed the race under power; 35th was Bristol last-place finisher the #20 Rockstar / Royal Purple Toyota of Gustavo Arocha the only other driver to be down a lap. 34th through 32nd respectively was DuQuoin last-place finisher the #7 Woods Towing & Transportation Toyota of Evan Hunter, the aforementioned #31 of Maria Valera and the #96 Emco Gears / Blue Ox Chevrolet of Diego Yepez.

SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first time the #39 has finished last in a East Series race as well as at Loudon.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
36) #39-Eli Bright / 7 laps / camshaft
35) #20-Gustavo Arocha / 24 lap / running
34) #7-Evan Hunter / 25 laps / running
33) #31-Maria Valera / 25 laps / running
32) #96-Diego Yepez /25 laps / running