West: Lap 10 "Big One" gives Steve Larker first last place finish at Twin Ring Motegi

Steve Larker picked up the 1st last-place finish of his SCRL CatDog Pro Series West career in Friday's Coca-Cola 500 at the Twin Ring Motegi Superspeedway when his #88 Pick-N-Pull Chevrolet was involved in a multi-car accident after 10 of the 21 laps.

The finish came in Larker's 8th career series start. Coming into the West Series Larker had yet to have made a mark in the SCRL history, having completed in a few series but had yet to get that first victory. Coming into Twin Ring Larker was 25th in points with a best finish of the season was a 7th in the series debut at Phoenix as the West series made their first ever international start outside of the United States.

On race day, Larker would roll off pit road starting in 26th. Starting last on the field was the #42 Freightliner of Arizona Chevrolet of Eddie Wycombe but by the time the field traveled down the backstretch for the first time, chaos broke out as the #2 WestWorld Computers Chevrolet of AJ Jones was spun out after contact from Willow Springs last place finisher the #14 Cooks / Holleran's Performance Toyota of Ryan Bowyer. If AJ Jones had gotten damage that would force him to retire, that would have been his first last place finish since he trailed the field at Iowa, two rounds ago.

Jones would trail the field until he passed Bowyer on the seventh lap and Bowyer would remain in last until chaos broke out again on the frontstretch as a ten car wreck would break out and during the wreck, Larker would try to slam on the brakes but misjudged the distance and ran into the back of Eddie Wycombe as the damage that Larker got was enough for the team to retire the car.

Rounding out the bottom five were: Finishing 28th was the aforementioned Ryan Bowyer also knocked out in the lap ten wreck. 27th was Fontana last place finsher the #36 PMC / Health Bridge Imaging Toyota of Jason Larker whose header broke one circuit later. 26th was Phoenix last place finisher #55 First Impression Press / Hinkley Lighting Toyota of Oscar Isaac and 25th was the #07 Colonial Countertops Chevrolet driven by Evan Rudd both of whom were several laps down behind race winner Riley Spurlytube.

SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first time the #88 has finished last in West competition as well as at Twin Ring Motegi

THE BOTTOM FIVE
29) #88-Steve Larker / 10 laps / crash
28) #14-Ryan Bowyer / 11 laps / crash
27) #36-Jason Larker /12 laps / header
26) #55-Oscar Isaac / 18 laps / running
25) #07-Evan Rudd / 20 laps / running