The finish came in his 2nd career series start. Entering Season 2 of the Busch Series, Stabilito had found limited success, scoring only one win in his entire career, when he drove the #99 Exide Batteries Ford to victory lane at the Stevens Beil / Genuine Parts 200 at the Flemington Speedway, in which he led every single lap from the pole. Making his Busch Series debut at Daytona one week ago, Stabilito would lead his first ever lap on his way to finishing 10th.
On race day, Stabilito would roll off the field in 6th, as he and the team had high hopes for their chances of returning to victory lane. Starting last was the #90 unsponsored Pontiac of Matt Bowyer, who, like Stabilito, was making his second career series start. Bowyer would trail the field the first few turns before defending champion the #28 Skoal Bandit Pontiac of Jack Lagasee would take over the last position and would hold it until lap 16 when the #32 Pet Dairy Pontiac of Ying Canario would make a pit stop during a caution period and she would hold onto last until Daytona last place-finisher the #63 Ashby Sheet Metal & Machine Pontiac of Maria Valera would take last on the 21st lap and if she didn't pass anyone, she would become the first driver to finish last in back-to-back races since Kyle Mests trailed the field at Charlotte and Asheville one season ago.
However Valera would knock the #17 Aladdin Industries Pontiac of Sammy Sabre Jr. to last on the 22nd lap as he would trail the field for two laps before handing the spot back to Ying Canario on Lap 24 as she would keep the position until the #62 1 Stop Food Store Pontiac of Marcos Yepez would take last on the 28th lap before he passed the #89 Plessinger Racing Pontiac of Toby Fox to last on the 29th Lap as no one had yet to retire from the race despite several big wrecks. However on the 34th lap, Stablito had fallen back to the 8th spot and was racing hard with the #19 Gardiner's Auto Parts of Nick Kennedy when Kennedy spun out Stabilito right in front of the rest of the field as drivers tried their best to avoid, but the #7 Mello Yello Oldsmobile of Matt Hamill had no where to go and slammed into the passenger side of the car with enough force that Stablito flipped over two times before landing on all four wheels.
Amazingly Stabilito was able to keep the car running, but drove around back to the pits and into the garage, his day done and his car officially listed as "out" on the 40th lap, just as the green came back out and would be the only driver to retire from the race.
The Bottom Five were filled by drivers who all were one lap behind race winner Samet Ozkan: 32nd went to Season 1 fall Bristol winner the #8 TGR Enterprises Pontiac of Eli Bright, 31st went to Season 1 season finale Martinsville race winner the #00 Thomas Brothers Country Ham Oldsmobile of Riley Spurlytube, 30th went to the #22 A.G. Dillard Pontiac of Danyal Gitirokh and rounding out the bottom five in 29th was the #95 Metro Pontiac of Sebastian Torres, who led one lap earlier in the race, but lost a lap when he suffered a flat tire just a few laps after Stablito's wreck.
SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first time the #98 has finished last in a Busch race as well as at Richmond.
*This is Stabilito's second last-place finish in the SCRL, his previous coming in the SCRL Rainbow Dash Truck Series Season 3 race at the Colorado National Speedway when he was involved in a single truck wreck in the Colorado 250 By Snap-On Tools after 7 of the 25 laps.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
33) #98-James Stabilito / 35 laps / crash
32) #8-Eli Bright / 49 laps / running
31) #00-Riley Spurlytube / 49 laps / running
30) #22-Danyal Gitirokh / 49 laps / running
29) #95-Sebastian Torres / 49 laps / running led 1 lap
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