The finish occurred in his 52nd career series start, was his first on the circuit since July 7, 2018 in the Mountain Dew 300 at the Hickory Speedway when he completed 10 of the 20 laps under power, 58 races ago. In the SCRL Busch Series, it's the 1st for car #71 and the 3rd for engine trouble. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 5th for the #71 and 31st for engine trouble.
Ever since trailing at Hickory in Season 1, Truttle has become the king of the busch series, much like he has the entire league the past five years. Truttle scored his first busch win just eight races after his first last place finish, at Asheville, before doubling down by scoring win number two at Rockingham two races after that, but several late race problems in the later half put Truttle 34th in the final points standings at the end of the season. Season 2 started off with Truttle announcing he would cut back his schedule, running only a part-time season to allow other drivers the chance to have the spotlight. Truttle's season started off by finishing 8th at Daytona, a position that would be his highest finishing spot until the series entered Charlotte for the 12th race of the season. Starting 26th, Truttle worked his way up into the lead in the final laps to pick up win number three in the series.
Victory number four was only eight races later as he would lead wire-to-wire at South Boston, but the all time race winner wasn't done yet as seven races later, he visited victory lane for the record setting fifth time in series history at Darlington. Since win #5, Truttle's has struggled, only able to pick up a best finish of 4th in the return trip to Charlotte and despite racing part time and scoring three wins, he currently sat 35th in points entering the final race of the season.
The entry list for the final race at Martinsville was a full field of 42 cars as both the driver's championship and the SCRLASTCAR Championships were up for grabs as points leader Chakat Whitelion entered the final race with a 92 point lead, while Maria Valera held a Bottom Ten finish over Alexio Antonio.
On race day, Truttle rolled off the starting grid in 32nd while starting last was current SCRLASTCAR Championship leader the #63 Ashby Sheet Metal & Machine Pontiac of Maria Valera as the field took the green flag, Valera quickly knocked two-time last-place finisher the #32 PET Dairy Pontiac of Ying Canario back to last spot, a position he would hold till Lap 3 when chaos broke out in Turn 3. Several cars spun out while Truttle worked his way through on the pit access road, his car began to smoke as the driver quickly shut off the engine and stalled just at the entrance of the front stretch pit road, bringing out the first of what would be six yellow flags. Truttle's car was towed behind the wall and into the garage, his team looking over it before calling it a day, reporting engine failure as the cause, but it wasn't until Lap 5 that his car was listed as "out" on the scoring board.
Finishing 41st was the #40 unsponsored Pontiac of Zapatos Amarados, who was involved in the first three cautions, suffered damaged to his car and was well off the pace before being flagged off the track for not maintaining minimum speed on Lap 20. 40th was the points leader and two-time last-place finisher the #5 unsponsored Pontiac of Chakat Whitelion, shi ran into the back of another car during a caution period, damaging the radiator and knocking hir out on Lap 26, as all shi could do is hope and pray hir championship rival Zachary Fitzwater didn't finish high enough to beat hir for the title.
Fall Charlotte last-place finisher the #41 Marvaco Inc. Pontiac of Marcus Saatchi finished 39th in points, he as well damaged the radiator during the same caution that knocked Whitelion out, but he was able to limp around for another five laps before the car began to overheat, the team calling their driver in just 19 laps from the finish.
Rounding out the Bottom Five was two-time last-place finisher the #87 unsponsored Chevrolet of Joe Jefferson, who suffered suspension problems with just tweleve laps to go.
The battle for the SCRLASTCAR championship ended as soon as Truttle's car was retired as Alexio Antonio needed to finish last in order to pass Valera, and since he didn't, Maria Valera is the SCRLASTCAR Champion for Season 2 of the SCRL Wrangler Jeans Busch Grand National Series.
Taking the Season 2 of the SCRL Wrangler Jeans Busch Grand National Series Championship on Sunday was Chakat Whitelion, winning the title by 77 points. Whitelion picked up two last-place finishes on the route to the championship, at Greenville-Pickens and Caraway. The championship is hir fifth in the entire SCRL League, the most of any other driver.
SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first time the #71 has finished last in a busch series race as well as at Martinsville.
*The last time a driver trailed due to engine problems was June 27, 2018 when Connor Hurley was unable to complete any of the 20 laps in the DAPCO 200 at the Greenville-Pickens Speedway, 11 races ago.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
42) #71-Truttle / 3 laps / engine
41) #40-Zapatos Amarados / 20 laps / disqualified
40) #5-Chakat Whitelion / 26 laps / crash
39) #41-Marcus Saatchi / 31 laps / crash
38) #87-Joe Jefferson / 38 laps / suspension
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