BUSCH: Broken camshaft early at Martinsville gives Jack Lagasee his sixth last-place finish of the season

Jack Lagasee picked up the 7th last place finish of his SCRL Busch Grand National Series career in Friday's Cardinal 250 at the Martinsville Speedway when his #28 Skoal Bandit Pontiac fell out with camshaft problems after completing 9 of the 40 laps.

The finish, which occurred in his 93rd career series start, was his first on the circuit since the Miller 150 at the Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway when he fell out with clutch problems after completing 6 of the 40 laps; 5 races ago. In the SCRL Busch Series, it's the 7th for car #28 and the 5th for camshaft issues. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 19th for the #28 and 39th for camshaft issues.

Since he finished last at Richmond, Jack would finish 20th at North Wilkesboro, 19th at Charlotte, 16th at the fourth Hickory event before finishing 20th in the last round at Rockingham. Entering the season finale, Jack had already locked up the SCRLASTCAR Championship by having a two last-place finish lead over Matt McIntyre while on the other side of the field, Jack's brother Al entered the finale with a shot of winning his second ever championship.

The entry list for the 17th time this season would have both full and part-time drivers racing against each other as the series traveled to Martinsville, Virginia for the second and final stop of the season at the 0.526 mile short track.

In qualifying, Riley Spurlytube would score his first career busch pole of the season with a lap time of 22.474 seconds. Jack would perform decent in qualifying, posting a time of 23.408, 0.934 seconds off Spurlytube's pole, placing him 15th overall. Starting last in the race was North Wilkesboro last-place finisher the #54 Burger King Buick of Ty Dent who posted a time of 23.704 seconds, 1.230 seconds behind Spurlytube's pole winning time.

On race day, Dent would struggle to keep up with the field for the first few laps before finally getting a handle on his car and knocked Bristol last-place finisher the #45 Luck Stone / Dryden Oil Pontiac of Boston Jones to last on Lap 5, a position that Jones would remain in for the next four laps when the battle for last came to a sudden end. While running in 19th, Jack was exiting Turn 2 in front of championship contender Chakat Whitelion, when Jack's car began to smoke heavily. Being the veteran that he was, Jack pulled to the inside of the track to prevent any oil from getting on the track before coming to a stop beside the inside wall, bringing out the first caution. Jack would be towed back to the garage for the sixth time this season as after a short look under the hood, it was discovered the camshaft was broken, and the team decided it wasn't going to be worth sending Jack back out multiple laps down, and so the car was listed as "out" by Lap 13.

It would be another nineteen laps before 39th and 38th was filled as spring Rockingham last-place finisher the #21 Chattanooga Chew Pontiac of Derrick Edison was spun out on the frontstretch as third South Boston last-place finisher the #47 Randolph Hope Insurance Pontiac of Celious Wolf had nowhere to go and slammed into the back of Edison's car as well as spring Charlotte last-place finisher the #17 Hodgdon Pontiac of Chakat Lightingblaze, as both drivers would pull off the track on Lap 28, done for the day.

37th went to second Orange County last-place finisher the #42 Benefit Development Pontiac of Jake Thomas nine laps after the retirements of Lightingblaze and Wolf, as Thomas was surprisingly told by officials that their car and driver had been parked, with the car not being scored past Lap 37, as Thomas drove into the garage in a understandable foul mood. It was then announced that Thomas's car had actually been disqualified for changing lanes when the race went back to green.

Rounding out the Bottom Five in 36th was the #16 Big Orange Market Pontiac of Juniper Skunktaur, who finished two circuits behind the race leaders when the checkered flag waved.

The Season 3 SCRL Busch Grand National Series Championship went to Al Lagasee, the second for Al and the first as well as his team owner, Ingram Racing. Al had no last-place finishes during his championship season, scoring one Bottom Five finish, with a worse finish of 39th at the fall Charlotte event. Congratulations to Al and the Ingram Racing team for having a great year.

SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first time the #28 has finished last in a Busch Series race at Martinsville.
*This is the first time a driver has trailed due to "camshaft" issues since the Season 2 Darlington 250 at the Darlington Raceway when Connor Hurley #24 Budweiser Ford fell out with camshaft problems after completing 16 of the 37 laps; 37 races ago.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #28-Jack Lagasee / 9 laps / camshaft
39) #17-Chakat Lightingblaze / 28 laps / crash
38) #47-Celious Wolf / 28 laps / crash
37) #42-Jake Thomas / 37 laps / disqualified
36) #16-Juniper Skunktaur / 48 laps / running