Friday, May 18, 2018

BUSCH: Christian Vargas's single car wreck makes him only retiree at South Boston

Christian Vargas picked up the 1st last place finish of his SCRL Wrangler Jeans Busch Grand National Series career on May 3rd's Roses Stores 200 at the South Boston Speedway when his #21 Chattanooga Chew Pontiac was involved in a single-car accident after 16 of 30 laps.

The finish occurred in his 16th career series start. In the SCRL Busch Series, it's the 1st for car #21 and the 19th for crash. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 11th for car #21 and the 179th for crash.

Christian Vargas is a relative rookie when it comes to racing in the SCRL, having never made a single start until this series second season. Vargas finished a respectable 24th in his series and league debut at Daytona and has a best finish of 4th at Langley in the first 15 races as the field travled to the South Boston Speedway for the 3rd time in season two, a track where Vargas's best finish was 11th in the first event.

On race day, Vargas would roll off the field in 32nd while starting last was North Wilkesboro last-place finisher the #45 Luck Stone Pontiac Patrick Smith, a spot he would hold on only during the first two turns as he passed the #88 unsponsored Pontiac of Ryan Bowyer who trailed the field for the first four laps before he passed the #6 Mason Day Paving Chevrolet of Henry Urchman who would trail for the 5th lap before the previous South Boston last-place finisher the #15 Wrangler Jeans Pontiac of Chris Kyle took last and trailed for Laps 6 through 8 before he knocked the #3 unsponsored Pontiac of Jay Jefferson to last on the 9th lap as Jefferson lost touch for the field, if the battle for last was over, Jefferson would have picked up his first last place finish since the Season One Dogwood 500 at Martinsville when he suffered Camshaft problems after completing only 6 of the 50 laps.

Lucky for Jefferson, on Lap 15 he bumped two time last-place finisher the #33 Dalton Chevrolet Dealers Pontiac of Alexio Antonio into last but Antonio's stay was short lived as he knocked the aforementioned #88 of Ryan Bowyer to last, who was trailing the field when the lone caution of the day quickly settled the battle. Vargas at this point had slowly moved up to 28th when he ran high in Turn 1 and Turn 2, his car making contact with the part of the track were it would open to allow haulers to enter the track. Vargas's right front was heavily damaged as the car spun out in Turn 2, bringing out the lone caution of the day. Vargas would limp back to pit road as by the time he had, the car had already fallen back to last and by the end of Lap 17 the car was officially listed as "out" giving the rookie his first last place-finish.

41st went to the aforementioned #15 of Chris Kyle, trapped a lap down due to tire problems late in the event, 40th went to the #68 unsponsored Pontiac of Eric Wayne the only other car who was a lap down, losing a lap in the last five laps due to damage after running into the back of another car while in 15th.

The remaining Bottom Five was filled by drivers who finished on the same lap as race winner Chakat Whitelion; 39th went to the aforementioned #3 of Jay Jefferson and 38th went to the #42 unsponsored Pontiac of Derek Hamill.

SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first time the #21 has finished last in a Busch Series race as well as at South Boston.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
42) #21-Christian Vargas / 16 laps / crash
41) #15-Chris Kyle / 29 laps / running
40) #68-Eric Wayne / 29 laps / running
39) #3-Jay Jefferson / 30 laps / running
38) #42-Derek Hamill / 30 laps / running

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