The finish, which came in his 54th start, was his first on the circuit since the Season 2 ModSpace 125 at the Pocono Raceway when he was involved in a multi-car crash after 5 of the 22 laps, 31 races ago. In the SCRL Lucas Oil ARCA Racing Series, it's the 2nd for car #55 and the 16th where the car was still running. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 7th for the #55 and the 271st where the vehicle was still running.
Entering Season 3 of the ARCA Series, Jay has scored a total of 9 career wins in the entire history of the SCRL, while having scored one career win in the ARCA Series, coming in Season 1 at the Talladega Superspeedway, finishing 35th in the overall points in Season 1. In Season 2, Jefferson would struggle once again throughout the season, finishing 37th in the overall point standings, and would be returning to come back for his third straight season with hopes of finishing better in points. A disappointing 25th at Daytona would be followed with a 21st at Atlanta. Jay would come back with redemption by finishing 10th in the series first short track at the Nashville Fairgrounds, a 15th in the next round at Salem, a disappointing 32nd at Talladega and Charlotte, a 13th at Gateway, a 8th at the first Pocono event, a 5th at Chicagoland, 29th at Lucas Oil, 8th at Kentucky, 6th at Iowa, 29th at DuQuoin, 9th at Michigan, 35th at the 2nd Pocono event before finishing 26th in the last round at Salem.
In qualifying at the four mile road course, Jay would struggle on his one qualifying lap posting a time 129.496 seconds(111.200 mph), a full four and a half seconds off his brother's Joe's pole time, placing Jay in the 32nd position, the worst starting spot of his ARCA career. Starting last would be the #90 Motor Honey / Advance Auto Parts Ford of Max Anderson, nearly a full five seconds off of Joe's pole time.
Anderson would trail around in the final spot for the first six turns before he moved up and knocked the unsponsored #6 Eddie Sharp Racing Chevrolet of Colin Dryburgh, who would trail for the first eight miles of the race. Dryburgh would fight back and would knock the #88 Tricar Ford of Bulut Ozkan into the final spot on Lap 3. Ozkan would remain in last for the next lap before knocking Dryburgh back into last on the final lap. Dryburgh would fight back over the next 14 turns and on the 7th turn, Dryburgh would knock Jay back into last. Over the next seven turns, Jay tried as best he could to get past Dryburgh, but would fail and run out of his time, finishing last for the first time in the ARCA Series in two years.
Rounding out the Bottom Five were: 39th was the aforementioned #6 of Colin Dryburgh, 38th was the unsponsored #29 Chevrolet of Ray Jones, 37th was the #90 of Max Anderson and 36th was the #88 of Bulut Ozkan.
SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first time the #55 has finished last in a ARCA Series race at Road America.
*This marked only the second time in the ARCA Series the #55 has trailed the field; the most recent time it had happened was in the Season 2 ARCA Texas 500k at the Texas World Speedway when Jay's brother Joe Jefferson's turn in the Venturini Motorsports entry was involved in a multi-car crash after 2 of the 25 laps; 32 races ago.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #55-Jay Jefferson / 5 laps / running
39) #6-Colin Dryburgh / 5 laps / running
38) #29-Ray Jones / 5 laps / running
37) #90-Max Anderson / 5 laps / running
36) #88-Bulut Ozkan / 5 laps / running
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