The finish came in his 1st start. In the SCRL NASCAR Legends Series, it's the 4th for car #72 and the 3rd for camshaft issues. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 6th for the #72 and the 30th for camshaft issues.
Nathan was one several drivers who were making their first ever SCRL starts along with Bob Joseph, Jimmy Sampson, Leroy Jones, Ty Dent, Brayon McKayson Sylas Nixey and of course the creator of LASTCAR and the inspiration of this entire blog, Brock Beard who was driving the same car that J.D. McDuffie drove back in 1970. Among the drivers that were making their debuts several big names were also missing: Season 1 Champion Truttle, Season 2 Champion Bulldog67 and Nitahbk, who had all competed in all previous three seasons were not able to sign up for the season. Also starting in his 4th and final season was SCRL creator Oreius Centaur, who announced he would retire from driving in all leagues to full focus on the day to day operations of the SCRL.
On race day, Ormond rolled off starting in 35th while starting last was the #43 Plymouth By Petty Plymouth of Oreius Centaur, competing in his final spring Riverside event, a track he had never won at in his career. Oreius's stay in the final spot lasted only one turn as he knocked the #29 unsponsored Chevrolet of Marko Tellez into the final spot, but just like Oreius, Tellez wouldn't be in last for long, knocking the #6 unsponsored Dodge of Adam McDowell into the final spot. McDowell would struggle to find the balance on his car around the 2.620 mile road course, falling nearly five seconds behind the race leaders, and would be in the final spot till Lap 7 when he knocked the #22 unsponsored Dodge of Sebastian Torres into the final spot.
Torres would himself struggle around the road course for the next four laps until he knocked McDowell back into the spot for Lap 12 and it appeared McDowell would get his first ever SCRL last-place finish, however one lap later that would change. While running in 30th going down the long backstretch before Turn 8, Ormond's car began to smoke heavily before finally losing power entering Turn 9 and coasted into the pits and into his pit stall. His crew looked under the hood and discovered the camshaft was completely broken and with twelve laps in there wouldn't be enough time to repair it, so the team pushed the car behind the wall, the car officially being listed as "out" at the start of Lap 14.
The remaining Bottom Five would finished the caution free race on the lead lap; 41st was the aforementioned #6 of Adam McDowell, 40th was the #31 unsponsored Dodge of Carter Friesen, 39th was the #4 Mills Plumbing Dodge of Mitchell Collins and 38th was the aforementioned #22 of Sebastian Torres.
Making his SCRL debut was the owner and creator of LASTCAR, Brock Beard, driving the same #70 Ford J.D. McDuffie drove in 1970. Brock started 7th and remained in the Top 10 for the entire event, before scoring a 5th place finish in his first ever SCRL start.
SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first NASCAR Legends Series last-place finish for the #72 at Riverside.
*This is the first time the #72 has trailed a NASCAR Legends race since the Season 3 American 500 at the North Carolina Motor Speedway when Vinicius Nunes was involved in a multi-car crash after 1 of the 49 laps; 2 races ago.
*This is the first time "camshaft" has caused a driver to finish last at Riverside and only the third time in series history; The most recent being the Season 3 Michigan 400 at the Michigan International Speedway when Oreius Centaur's #43 Plymouth By Petty Plymouth fell out after he completed 1 of 19 laps; 10 races ago.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
42) #72-Nathan Ormond / 12 laps / camshaft
41) #6-Adam McDowell / 19 laps / running
40) #31-Carter Friesen / 19 laps / running
39) #4-Mitchell Collins / 19 laps / running
38) #22-Sebastian Torres / 19 laps / running
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