BUSCH: Race long battle for last ends with Chakat Whitelion last at Orange County; picks up record 20th last-place finish of hir career

Chakat Whitelion picked up the 3rd last place finish of hir SCRL Busch Grand National Series career in Saturday's Miller 200 at the Orange County Speedway when hir #5 Advance Auto Parts Buick completed all 30 laps under power.

The finish, which occurred in hir 81st career series start, was hir first on the circuit since the Season 2 Goody's 200 at the Caraway Speedway when shi was involved in a multi-car accident without completing any of the 20 laps; 34 races ago. In the SCRL Busch Series, it's the 3rd for car #5 and the 33rd for running at the finish. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 18th for the #5 and 300th for running at the finish.

Entering Season 3 of the Busch Series, Whitelion is the greatest SCRL driver in the seven year history of the league, having scored 35 career wins and 7 overall championships and is the defending Busch Series Champion, and is a future first ballot Hall of Famer when one is made. Whitelion came back for hir third season in the busch series to the same team, looking to become the second driver to win back-to-back championships in one series. Whitelion's season started off with a 10th at Daytona, 6th at Richmond, 7th at Rockingham, before scoring hir first win of the season at the spring Hickory event. A disappointing 31st at Martinsville would be followed by a 20th at Darlington before scoring back-to-back wins at Orange County and Nashville. A runner up finish to Rohan Marmot at Langley would be followed by a 8th at Milwaukee Mile, 6th at Dover, 9th at Charlotte, 32nd at South Boston, 10th in the second event at Hickory, 12th in the second Orange County event before finishing 3rd in the last round at South Boston.

The entry list for the eighth time this season would have only full time drivers as the series returned to Rougemont, North Carolina in the series third and final stop at the 0.375 mile short track in Season 3.

In qualifying, Jack Lagasee won his fourth career busch pole with a lap time of 16.761 seconds. Whitelion would surprisingly struggle in qualifying, posting a time of 16.976, 0.215 seconds off Jack's pole, placing her 15th overall. Starting last in the race was the #23 Miller High Life Oldsmobile of Samet Ozkan who posted a time of 17.073 seconds, 0.312 seconds behind Jack's pole winning time.

On race day, Ozkan would trail for the first lap before knocking first South Boston last-place finisher the #19 West Hartford Tool & Die Pontiac of Finn Smith into last on Lap 2, a spot he would hold for two laps before knocking the unsponsored #97 Hill Racing Pontiac of Blaine Hayes into last on Lap 4. Hayes would struggle around the 0.375 mile track for the next four laps before he knocked the #32 Econo Lodge / Budweiser Pontiac of Riley Spurlytube into last on Lap 9. Spurlytube was determined to not finish last for the first time in his busch career, as he would trail for only one lap before knocking Hayes back to last on Lap 10. Hayes would trail for two laps once again before knocking first Hickory last-place finisher the #07 Bob Banning Pontiac of Jeff White into last on Lap 12. 

White would trail for the next seven laps before knocking the unsponsored #1 Lindy White Racing Pontiac of David Beyers into last on Lap 20, a spot he would hold for three laps before knocking Whitelion into last for the first time on Lap 24. Whitelion would trail for three laps as well before knocking White back to last on Lap 28. White would remain in last for three turns before making a move in Turn 4 coming to the white, knocking Whitelion back to last, and as much as shi tried to pass him back, Whitelion would finish last for the 20th time in hir career.

Rounding out the Bottom Five were: 24th was the aforementioned #32 of Riley Spurlytube, 23rd was the #07 of Jeff White, 22nd was the #1 of David Beyers and 21st was second Orange County last-place finisher the #42 Benefit Development Pontiac of Jake Thomas.

SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first time the #5 has finished last in a Busch Series race at Orange County.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
25) #5-Chakat Whitelion / 30 laps / running
24) #32-Riley Spurlytube / 30 laps / running
23) #07-Jeff White / 30 laps / running
22) #1-David Beyers / 30 laps / running
21) #42-Jake Thomas / 30 laps / running