LEGENDS: Season 3 Champion Cole Nixey becomes the first driver to trail twice in Season 4 in caution free race at Bowman-Gray

Cole Nixey picked up the 2nd place finish of his SCRL NASCAR Legends Series career in the Season 4 Bowman Gray 250 at the Bowman Gray Stadium when his #27 unsponsored Ford completed all 25 laps under power.

The finish, which came in his 47th start, was his first on the circuit since the Season 4 Alabama 500 at the Alabama International Motor Speedway when he was involved in a multi-car crash after 4 of the 18 laps, 13 races ago. In the SCRL NASCAR Legends Series, it's the 3rd for car #27 and the 44th where the car was still running. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 5th for the #27 and the 198th where the car was still running.

Just one race after finishing last for the first time in this series at Talladega, Nixey bounced back by scoring his first win in the very next race at North Wilkesboro. However the Banjo Matthews owned team would go back to struggling on track, scoring only a best finish of 17th at Darlington and the fall Michigan event before finishing 29th in the last round at Talladega.

The Bowman-Gray event would be one of the most unusual events of the season, due to a track that could only fit 29 cars, the first 28 drivers in points would race in the main event while drivers 29th through 42nd would race for those points.

On race day, Nixey rolled off starting in the final spot, a position he would hold for the first two turns before knocking fall Michigan last-place finisher the #70 unsponsored Ford of Brock Beard into the final spot. Brock would hold the position for one lap before he passed Nixey back on Lap 2. Nixey would trail for the next two laps as he passed the #99 Dow Chemicals Dodge of Joshua Rush on Lap 5. Rush would also remain in last for two laps as well, knocking fall Bristol last-place finisher the #68 Auto Specialists / Auto Lad Ford of Trevor Collins into the final spot on Lap 7. Collins would be in last for only one lap, before passing Darlington last-place finisher the #43 Plymouth By Petty Plymouth of Oreius Centaur for last. Oreius would lose ground for the next three laps until he fought back and knocked Nixey back into last on Lap 11, and has hard as Nixey tried, he would be unable to gain any position over the next fourteen laps and became the first driver to trail the field in two races in Season 4.

Rounding of the Bottom Five was 41st the aforementioned #43 of Oreius Centaur, 40th the #68 of Trevor Collins, 39th the #99 of Joshua Rush and 38th the #70 of Brock Beard.

SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first SCRL NASCAR Legends Series last-place finish for the #27 at Bowman-Gray.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
42) #27-Cole Nixey / 25 laps / running
41) #43-Oreius Centaur / 25 laps / running
40) #68-Trevor Collins / 25 laps / running
39) #99-Joshua Rush / 25 laps / running
38) #70-Brock Beard / 25 laps / running