The finish came in his 34th start. In the SCRL NASCAR Legends Series, it's the 2nd for car #27 and the 16th from a crash. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 4th for the #27 and the 214th from a crash.
Despite going winless in his first Legends Series, Nixey had consistency, scoring 7 Top 5's and 10 Top 10's and won the championship, the first for the Nixey family in the SCRL. Nixey returned for Season 4 driving for the same team that had won him the championship and was determined to become the first ever back-to-back champion. Nixey would struggle in the series first event at Riverside, finishing 27th, finishing 11th at Ontario, 23rd at the series first short track event at Richmond, 31st at Rockingham, a 13th at Atlanta and a disappointing 23rd in the last round at Bristol.
The entry list was bumped back up to 42 cars as Petty Enterprises brought back the #43 Plymouth By Petty Plymouth of Oreius Centaur who was competing to score his first win at the 2.500 mile superpeedway.
On race day, Nixey rolled off starting in 23rd while starting last was the #99 Dow Chemicals Dodge of Joshua Rush. Rush's stay in the final spot would only last two turns as he knocked Richmond last-place finisher the #98 Jim Robbins Co. Ford of Chris Kyle took the final spot and trailed for the first lap but the very next lap the #70 unsponsored Ford of Brock Beard fell back to the last spot. Much like with Kyle, Beard would only remain in last for one lap when he knocked the #32 Bestline Products Plymouth of Derrick Edison into the final spot on Lap 3 but Edison would work his way past Beard to make him be last on Lap 4 as the battle would be over by the Backstretch.
As drivers entered Turn 2, Beard made contact with the #75 Kentucky Fried Chicken Special Plymouth of Dilan Ebrahimian, starting a ten car pileup in Turn 2 and down the backstretch. Nixey was stuck on the high side and had nowhere to go as Ebrahimian's car slid up the track and right in front of the #27 car as Nixey's front end was crushed. While Nixey was able to limp back around to pit road, his crew didn't even try to attempt to repair the car as the radiator had been damaged and their car was done for the day.
Finishing 41st through 39th were drivers also involved in the same Lap 4 "Big One", 41st was the #40 7-Up Plymouth of Brian Fox, 40th was the aforementioned #75 of Dilan Ebrahimian and 39th was the #32 of Derrick Edison, as all three cars were stalled on the backstretch and had to be towed back to the garage, with none of the cars coming back out on track.
Rounding out the Bottom Five in 38th was the #21 60 Minute Cleaners Mercury Cyclone of Bryan McKayson, who was taken out coming to the start/finish line on the last lap and never made it back to the line to compete the final lap.
SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first SCRL NASCAR Legends Series last-place finish for the #27 at Talladega.
*This was only the second time the #27 had trailed a field in the SCRL NASCAR Legends Series; the only other time it had trailed the field was in the Season 2 Virginia 500 at the Martinsville Speedway when dragonboy suffered engine problems after completing 18 of 50 laps; 50 races ago.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
42) #27-Cole Nixey / 4 laps / crash
41) #40-Brian Fox / 4 laps / crash
40) #75-Dilan Ebrahimian / 4 laps / crash
39) #32-Derrick Edison / 4 laps / crash
38) #21-Bryan McKayson / 17 laps / crash
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