Whelen: Cole Nixey's hard first lap crash at Spencer gives him 9th last-place finish of his career

Cole Nixey picked up the 1st last place finish of his SCRL Icebreakers Whelen Series career in the Meisenzahl / Firecracker 100 at the Spencer Speedway when his #23 unsponsored Chevrolet was involved in a single-car crash after completing 1 of 20 laps.

The finish came in his 8th career start. In the SCRL Icebreakers Whelen Series, it's the 1st for car #23 and the 3rd from a crash. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 4th for the #23 and the 193rd from a crash.

Entering Season 1 of the SCRL Icebreakers Whelen Series, Cole is the most successful member of the Nixey Family, having scored 6 career wins across various series as well as being the only Nixey family member to date to have won a championship in the SCRL, that coming in the SCRL NASCAR Legends Series. Nixey's Whelen career started off by finishing 17th at Thompson, before scoring his first Top Ten at Martinsville in the next race by finishing 6th. Nixey struggled in the next two events, finishing 20th at Stafford and 13th in the return trip to Martinsville. A finish of 9th at the first ever dirt race at New Egypt and a 11th Waterford seemed to motivate Nixey as in the last round at New Egypt, Nixey scored his best finish to date, a 3rd.

On race day, Nixey would roll off starting in the 3rd spot while starting last was Stafford last-place finisher the #50 SMG Motoring Chevrolet of Samet Ozkan. Ozkan trailed the field for the first lap and just as the field entered Turn 1, chaos broke out as Nixey was spun out by the #10 Chevrolet of Sammy Sabre Jr. as Nixey's car slammed hard into the Turn 1 wall head on, the car was instantly destroyed and any hopes of a good finish was over by the second Lap as the car was listed as "out" by the second lap.

Finishing 23rd was the #0 Stakey's Pumpkins / Jessup Chevrolet of Carter Friesen, who was the only other driver to not finish the race, falling out on Lap 7 due to a broken gearbox while running in 6th just before the race was to be restarted.

The remaining Bottom Five finished on the same lap as the race leaders; 22nd was summer New Egypt last-place finisher the #57 M-M Stone Chevrolet of Danyal Gitirokh, 21st was the #71 Draco / Purple Spring / Fluidyne Chevrolet of Daniel Bouchard and 20th was the #121 of Ryan Pritchard.

SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first time the #23 has finished last in a Whelen race as well as at Spencer.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
24) #23-Cole Nixey / 1 lap / crash
23) #0-Carter Friesen / 7 laps / gearbox
22) #57-Danyal Gitirokh / 20 laps / running
21) #71-Daniel Bouchard / 20 laps / running
20) #121-Ryan Pritchard / 20 laps / running