ARCA Sportsman: Rookie Ray Dent trails for the first time in his short career in caution free race at The Rock

Ray Dent picked up the 1st last place finish of his SCRL ARCA Sportsman Series career in Monday's Season 1 Carolina 200 at the Rockingham Speedway when his #11 Melling / Menards Chevrolet completed all 20 laps under power.

The finish came in his 6th start. In the SCRL ARCA Sportsman Series, it's the 1st for car #11 and the 3rd where the car was still running. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 13th for the #11 and the 254th where the car was still running. 

Ray Dent comes from a long line of racing Dent members in the SCRL after the first two original were Ty and TJ, now Taylor, Dent raced in the then ONL Classic Truck Series, with the family since then raking up a combined 13 career wins in the SCRL while still looking for their first ever championship, a task that Ray was looking to do in his debut season in ARCA's third highest division. Ray made a good first impression by staying out of trouble and finishing 13th in his first start at Toledo, struggling at Mansfield to a 26th place finish, 20th in his first road course event at Heartland Park, another 26th place finish at Lucas Oil Raceway before finishing a career best 11th in the last round at Iowa.

In qualifying at the one mile track, Dent would post a time of 23.608 seconds, 0.189 seconds behind Nitahbk's pole winning time, placing Dent 11th while starting last was the #22 Raybestos / Supergard Chevrolet of Erik Sieg.

When the race started, Lee would only be in last for the first two turns before knocking Lucas Oil last-place finisher the #36 O'Reilly Toyota of Derrick Edison as Edison trailed for the first lap before knocking the #38 Jani-King Ford of Josephi Krakowski into last on Lap 2, a position he would hold till lap three when he knocked the #79 Auto Value / Bumper To Bumper / Lucas Oil Dodge of Kenny Webster into last on Lap 4. Webster would struggle to keep up with the back half of the pack over the next few laps, staying in last until Lap 10 when he knocked Krakowski back into last on Lap 10.

Krakowski's stay in last would be short lived, knocking Webster back into last on Lap 11 for another four laps before Webster would pass the #97 John Deere Ford of Joshua Rush into the final spot on Lap 16, looking as if Joshua would trail the field for a SCRL race for only the second time in his career. However with one lap to go, Rush made his move and knocked Dent back into the final spot and as much as he tried, Dent was unable to gain the spot and would trail for the first time in his short career.

The remaining Bottom Five were: 28th was the aforementioned #97 of Joshua Rush, 27th was the #21 of Top Choice Lumper Products / Jackaroo Toyota of Karl-Jong Bensson, 26th was the #79 of Kenny Webster and 25th was the #38 of Josephi Krakowski.

SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first time the #11 has finished last in the SCRL ARCA Sportsman Series as well at Rockingham.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
29) #11-Ray Dent / 20 laps / running
28) #97-Joshua Rush / 20 laps / running
27) #21-Karl-Jong Bensson / 20 laps / running
26) #79-Kenny Webster / 20 laps / running
25) #38-Josephi Krakowski / 20 laps / running