Wednesday, September 2, 2020

TRUCKS: Early crash at Homestead gives Nathan Ormond the third last-place finish of his career

Nathan Ormond picked up the 1st last place finish of his SCRL Rainbow Dash Truck Series career on Wednesday's Florida Dodge Dealers 400K at the Miami-Dade Homestead Motorsports Complex when his #24 Quaker State Chevrolet was eliminated in a multi-truck accident after 2 of 31 laps.

The finish occurred in his 2nd career series start. In the Truck Series, it's the 4th for truck #24 and the 28th from a crash. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 15th for the #24 and 261st from a crash.

Nathan's career could be best described as a mixed bag with flashes of talent followed by races with horrible luck. Nathan's career started when he signed up to compete in Season 4 of the SCRL NASCAR Legends Series, and in his 10th career start, he would take the checkered flag for the first time in his career by winning the World 600 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway and in the next series he would compete in the SCRL Formula 3 Series, where he would score his second career win at the Kyalami Circuit. Since then Ormond had tried to find his way back to victory lane, and despite some good races, he's also had some horrible luck, and was hoping to turn that around as he made his truck series debut, signing up to drive for Hendrick Motorsports, Ormond finished 4th in the last round at Walt Disney World.

The entry list for the season's second event was bumped up from 30 trucks to a field of 37 trucks as with tracks that could fit more then 30 trucks would allow the part-time drivers to race. The first of those drivers was Chakat Raindancer, who had made hir debut in the season finale of the SCRL ARCA Sportsman Series at North Wilkesboro, only to trail the field in hir debut. Raindancer was originally signed to drive the #43 for Petty Enterprises but just hours before the season began, shi stepped away to allow Marcus Saatchi to take the seat for the third straight year, while Raindancer moved over to drive for Tyler Jet Motorsports. Also joining Raindancer was hir sister Chakat Stripepaws, who signed to drive for team owner Walker Evans. Carlos Rodriguez would sign up to drive for ThorSport Racing, Ryan Pritchard would drive for, reigning SCRL Formula 2 Champion Muhammd Zain Abdullah would drive for L&R Racing and lastly Darren Allen would be driving the #99 Exide Batteries Ford for Roush Racing.

For only the second time in Truck Series history, qualifying would determine the starting lineup, and with no drivers going home, all of the teams would have the pressure off their shoulders. Ormond would impress in qualifying, posting a time of 35.697 seconds, just over a hundredth of a second behind pole winner Ben Crouch. Starting last for the second race in a row was caused by a spin, as the #1 Team ASE Racing Ford of Michael Brown, who spun off Turn 2 during his qualifying lap and posted a time a full minute behind Crouch's lap time.

On race day, Brown would trail for the first two turns before coming off Turn 2 the #50 Grainger Ford of Cameron Hathaway was spun out by the #18 Dana Corporation Dodge of Carter Joey, sending Hathaway for a spin to the inside of the track and inside the inside wall. No caution would come out but Hathaway was behind the field when chaos broke out three turns ahead of him. Ormond had been shuffled up to the high side when entering Turn 2 he made contact with Walt Disney World race winner the #8 PBA Tour Chevrolet of Jay Jefferson sending both trucks up and into the wall. Jefferson would spin out Ormond and drive away with minor damage, going on to finish 26th, while Ormond would turn his truck to try and get going again when it was at this moment Hathaway had caught back up and ran into the back of Ormond. Ormond, who was already having a horrible day was understandably upset with the rookie. "If he can't see this big green truck in the middle of the track on a clear day, we all are in trouble" the driver said after his trip to the infield care center. Ormond and Hathaway would both drive their trucks to the garage and their trucks retired on Lap 5.

Finishing in 35th was the #26 Mittler Brothers Machine & Tool Ford of Derrick Edison, who would be involved in a massive 20 truck pileup on the Frontstretch that started when the #19 Pennzoil Ford of Chakat Raindancer was racing intensely with the #89 Precision Automotive Ford of Ryan Pritchard as both trucks came out of Turn 4 before making contact and going into the #4 All American Museum Dodge of Daniel Bouchard as the three trucks would block the track and would start the pileup. Edison would move to the inside of the track to try and avoid the wreck without slowing down but the hole closed up and he ran into Raindancer's spun truck with enough force that Edison's radiator was damaged and after going around for another lap, Edison pulled behind the wall and was done for the day, being listed at out on Lap 10.

Finishing in the 34th spot would be the Raindancer, who would pit for repairs and would lose a lap in the final stages before the race went into Green, White, Checkered and would finish as the only truck one lap down.

Rounding out the Bottom Five was the #98 Hastings Premium Filters Ford of Al Lagasee, who was running in the Top 20 on the final lap before he was spun out and crashed hard in Turn 4, bringing out a caution at the end of the race, but crossed the start/finish line to be running at the finish.

SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first time the #24 has finished last at Homestead.
*This is the first time the #24 has trailed in a Truck Series race since the Season 3 Kragen / Exide 151 at the Sears Point Raceway when Sebastian Torres completed all 12 laps under power; 6 races ago.
*This marked only the third time in his SCRL career that Ormond has trailed the field; the most recent was in the Season 4 of the SCRL NASCAR Legends Series career in the Season 4 Southern 500 at the Darlington Raceway when his #72 DeWitt Enterprises Mercury fell out with header problems after completing 9 of the 36 laps.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
37) #24-Nathan Ormond / 2 laps / crash
36) #50-Cameron Hathaway / 2 laps / crash
35) #26-Derrick Edison / 7 laps / crash
34) #19-Chakat Raindancer / 30 laps / running
33) #98-Al Lagasee / 31 laps / running

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