BUSCH: Early crash damage at Darlington keeps Chris Kyle last; moves into fifth on all-time last-place finishing list

Chris Kyle picked up the 3rd last place finish of his SCRL Busch Grand National Series career in Wednesday's Dixie Cup 200 at the Darlington Raceway when his Mason Day Paving / Valvoline Oldsmobile completed all 20 laps under power.

The finish, which occurred in his 41st career series start, was his first on the circuit since July 24 2018, the Miller 300 at the South Boston Speedway when his #15 Wrangler Jeans Pontiac fell out with header problems after completing 10 of the 30 laps; 11 races ago. In the SCRL Busch Series, it's the 2nd for car #6 and the 25th for running at the finish. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 19th for the #6 and 292nd for running at the finish.

Entering the third season of the Busch Series, Kyle had found success in the SCRL before, having scored 10 career wins, as well as being the Season 2 SCRL Tim Horton's Canadian Series Champion, a series he has already expressed interest in returning to when the series comes back around. Kyle, who chose not to complete in the inaugural season would sign on to complete full time in Season 2 would have a decent season, visiting victory lane one time, at the first ever race at the legendary North Wilkesboro Speedway, and would finish 19th overall in the point standings. 

This season, Kyle would return with a new team, driving for himself, Kyle would start his season off with disappoint after being involved in the race's second "Big One" and would finish 22nd. A 21st at Richmond, 25th at Rockingham, 24th at Hickory and a 39th in the last round at Martinsville has Kyle currently in 26th in points, the lowest of all full time drivers as the series visited the legendary "Lady in Black" for the first time this season.

The entry list for Darlington for the second race in a row would be the would be the full field of 40 cars, both full and part-time drivers, including Celious Wolf, who had scored his first career Busch Series win in the last round on the legendary half mile track at Martinsville.

In qualifying, Season 1 Champion Jack Lagasee would win the pole for the first time in his Busch Series career with a lap time of 31.261 seconds. Kyle would struggle in qualifying around the 1.366 mile track, posting a time of 31.566, 0.305 seconds off Lagasee's pole, placing him 34th overall, the second worst starting spot of the season for him. Posting the slowest time in qualifying was the #22 Miller High Life Oldsmobile of Tyler Ferris, who posted a time of 23.791 seconds, 0.353 seconds behind Lagasee's pole winning time.

Ignazio Alberti heads toward pit road.

On race day, as the field began to pull off pit road for their lone pace lap, the #46 Hoopaugh Grading Pontiac of Ignazio Alberti was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop, reporting of a flat tire, as he was forced to travel down the backstretch pit road and to his crew. Had Alberti's crew not gotten him back out onto the track, he would have been the first driver to trail the field due to a tire problem since Gatlin Downey at IRP one season ago. 

Thankfully for Alberti, his team quickly replaced all four tires before sending him back out to catch the start of the race and would knock the #7 Wrangler Jeans Oldsmobile of Blaise Zebrataur into last place and would trail for the first lap. As the field made it's way down the backstretch to start Lap 2, the #71 Taylor Togs / Maxie's Vending Pontiac of Muhammad Zain Abdullah smacked the outside wall and came back across the track, getting hit by the #24 Komfort Koach / Budweiser Ford of Michael Brown, who came back across the track and hit the Daytona last-place finisher the #00 Thomas Bros. Country Ham Oldsmobile of Jeremy Ickle, causing the two cars to spin out right in front of the field as Kyle had nowhere to go and slammed into the back of Brown's car, severely damaging both Kyle's and Brown's car as well at the #13 D & D Tattooing Pontiac of Chakat Blackpaw, as Brown would limp back tp pit road, trailing for two laps as his crew made repairs before finally knocking Kyle back to last-place for the first time on Lap 4.

Kyle would trail as the field went back to racing, actually knocking the #3 Wendy's Chevrolet of Michael Creed into last on Lap 7, a position Creed would hold for two laps before passing Kyle back and dropping him to last on Lap 10. Kyle would try as hard as he could to gain another spot, but the damage to the right front of his car was too much, finishing three seconds behind the closest car in front of him and more then twenty one seconds behind the race leaders.

Rounding out the Bottom Five were; 39th was the aforementioned #3 of Michael Creed, 38th was the #13 of Chakat Blackpaw, 37th was the #4 Thurman Enterprises Pontiac of Corrie Scott and 36th was the #8 Wrangler Jeans Pontiac of Cassie Dent.

SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first time the #6 has finished last in a Busch Series race at Darlington.
*The only other time the #6 has finished last in a Busch Series race was the inaugural race of the series, the Season 1 Goody's 300 at the Daytona International Speedway when Colin Dryburgh's unsponsored #6 Pontiac was involved in a multi-car crash after 1 of the 20 laps; 69 races ago.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #6-Chris Kyle / 20 laps / running
39) #3-Michael Creed / 20 laps / running
38) #13-Chakat Blackpaw / 20 laps / running
37) #4-Corrie Scott / 20 laps / running
36) #8-Cassie Dent / 20 laps / running