TRUCKS: Early crash at Richmond gives Chakat Lightingblaze the second last-place finish of hir career

Chakat Lightingblaze picked up the 1st last place finish of hir SCRL Rainbow Dash Truck Series career in Monday's Virginia Is For Lovers 200 at the Richmond International Raceway when hir #7 Prime Performance Chevrolet was eliminated in a multi-truck accident after 2 of 22 laps.

The finish occurred in his 20th career series start. In the Truck Series, it's the 3rd for the #7 and the 33rd from a crash. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 16th for the #7 and 266th from a crash.

Entering his fourth ever season in the Truck Series, Lightingblaze had never driven a truck before, having made hir debut in the SCRL Sun Energy Whelen Euro Elite 2 series and would find success right off the bat by winning in hir first two starts, at Red Bull Ring and Monaco. Since making an impact since hir debut, Lightingblaze has gone on to score two other wins that moved hir up to a total of 4 wins, but along the way shi also scored the first last-place finish of hir career in the SCRL Formula E Series Presented by Twitter season finale the Surfers ePrix at Surfers Paradise when hir #77 Lucas Oil / Protect the Harvest fell out with fuel pump problems after completing 4 of the 6 laps. Lightingblaze would sign on to drive for originally Mattei Motorsports, the same team, under the original name of Geoff Bodine Racing, that Jay Barker had won the inaugural truck series Chapionship in Season 1. However for the race's first event of the season at Walt Disney World, where shi finished 27th after being caught up in a early crash, Mattei Motorsports was sold to Jim Clark and the team was renamed Prime Performance Motorsports. 

With the truck painted a new white color, Lightingblaze would debut the new truck in the next round at Homestead, a race shi finished 22nd. A 25th at Phoenix, 16th at Portland, before scoring the best finish of hir truck career, a 3rd at Evergreen. The next three races would be good for Lightingblaze with a 8th at I-70, a runner up finish at 2nd at Watkins Glen and a 5th at Texas, before finishing a disappointing 32nd at Bristol. A 4th at Milwaukee Mile, a 15th at Nazareth, 21st at Fontana, 26th at Pikes Peak, before scoring hir second runner up finish at IRP. A 33rd at Loudon, 7th at Flemington, 25th at Nashville, a 5th at Heartland Park before in hir 19th start at Louisville, Lightingblaze would score the first pole of hir career and would go on to lead flag-to-flag to score the fifth win of hir career.

The entry list for the 12th time this season, and the first since Loudon, would be 37 trucks. However there would be one driver change as Tyler Jet Motorsports decided to shut their team down due to sponsorship issues, just after Chakat Snowchaser, who finished 4th at Heartland Park, and was 2nd in points. With only a few days to find a ride before drivers headed to Richimond, Snowchaser was able to find a ride and would sign a contract to race for the remaining races o the season by driving for Gloy/Rahal Racing and pilot their #55 Icehouse Beer Ford. 

Celious Wolf would collect his series leading third career pole in qualifying, posting a time of 20.823 seconds, while Lightingblaze would struggle in qualifying, post a time of 21.042 seconds, 0.219 seconds behind Wolf's pole winning time, which would place Lightingblaze in the 35th position. Posting the slowest time during qualifying was the #28 Federated Auto Parts Ford of Jack Lagasee, who was 0.257 seconds behind Wolf's lap time.

Christian Russell stalls on pit road.

On race night, as the field began their lone pace lap around the twisting 0.750 mile short track, Nashville last-place finisher the unsponsored #60 Addington Racing Chevrolet of Christian Russell would stall on pit road, with the cause of the problem being a flat tire. As the field took the green flag, Russell's team would work on the truck as the race's first caution would come out rather fast when a multi-truck spin broke out on the frontstretch. As drivers raced back to the start/finish line, the #16 NAPA Brakes Chevrolet of Chris Kyle would make contact with Evergreen last-place finisher the #14 Circle Bar Motel & RV Park Ford of Mitchell Collins, sending both trucks for a spin that would also collect the #15 Acxiom Ford of Colby Harris and Texas last-place finisher the #90 NHL Dodge of Muhammad Zain Abdullah. As the trucks slid down the track, Lightingblaze tried to find a hole to get through but the space was gone when shi got there and slammed into Abdullah's truck. Lightingblaze would limp back around to pit road and then pulled into the garage, the truck was looked over by hir team briefly before it was retired, listed as "out" on Lap 4 but wouldn't fall into last on the race's seventh lap.

Russell's team was able to get his truck back out on track on the third lap and would start beside the leaders when the race went green to try and get his lap out, but while racing hard with leader Celious Wolf, Russell would be spun out and smacked the inside wall with the driver's door before coming back across the track in front of the the field, causing a multi truck crash in Turn 3 and Turn 4 as Russell's truck was destroyed, placing him 36th on the night.

The remaining Bottom Five would be taken out in the same crash but would be scored having competed 8 laps; 35th was the #50 Grainger Ford of Cameron Hathway, 34th was the #44 Federated Auto Parts Ford of Chase Harris and 33rd was points leader the unsponsored #09 Greenfield Racing Dodge of Season 3 Champion Zachary Fitzwater.

SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first time the #7 has finished last in a Truck Series race at Richmond.
*This is the first time the #7 has trailed Truck Series race since the Season 3 NAPACARD 200 at the Evergreen Speedway when Truttle's #7 Lovable Ford completed 19 of the 20 laps under power; 40 races ago.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
37) #7-Chakat Lightingblaze / 2 laps / crash
36) #60-Christian Russell / 7 laps / crash
35) #50-Cameron Hathaway / 8 laps / crash
34) #44-Chase Harris / 8 laps / crash
33) #09-Zachary Fitzwater / 8 laps / crash