The finish occurred in his 28th career series start. In the SCRL Busch Series, it's the 1st for car #14 and the 34th from a crash. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 10th for the #14 and 280th from a crash.
Entering Season 3 of the Busch Series, Russel had made a name for himself in the short time he had been competing in the SCRL, winning the SCRL NASCAR Legends Series Championship in Season 3 in his first ever attempt at a full season and has scored a total of five career wins. Russel would continue to find instant success as he won in his first ever Busch Series start by winning the opener at Daytona before finishing a disappointing 24th in the next event at Richmond, 22nd at Rockingham, 6th at Hickory, 13th at Martinsville, 10th at Darlington, 23rd at Orange County before scoring back-to-back 8th finishes at Nashville and Langley. A 26th at Milwaukee Mile would be followed by a 35th at Dover, 16th at Charlotte, 5th at South Boston, 11th at the second Hickory event, 18th at the second Orange County event, 20th at the second South Boston event, 4th at the third Orange County event before finishing 3rd at the third Hickory event. A 25th at IRP would be followed by a 12th at the second Langley event, 5th at the third South Boston event, 6th at Bristol, 34th at the second Darlington event, 3rd at the second Richmond event, 8th at North Wilkesboro, 20th at the second Charlotte event before finishing 20th in the last round at Hickory.
The entry list for the 16th time this season would have both full and part-time drivers racing against each other as the series traveled to Rockingham, North Carolina for the second and final stop of the season at the 1.017 mile speedway.
In qualifying, Michael Brown would score his first career busch pole of the season with a lap time of 23.452 seconds. Russel would performance decent in qualifying, posting a time of 23.570, 0.118 seconds off Brown's pole, placing him 17th overall. Starting last in the race was the #26 Jackson & Johnson Oldsmobile of Nick Kennedy who posted a time of 23.728 seconds, 0.276 seconds behind White's pole winning time.
On race day, Kennedy would trail for two turns when the battle for last came to a sudden end, while racing for 5th #53 of John Smith made contact with the #71 Taylor Togs / Maxie's Vending Pontiac of Muhammad Zain Abdullah, causing a chain reaction as a "Big One" broke out on the backstretch. Russel, who was stuck on the inside line would hit the #13 D & D Tattooing Chevrolet of Chakat Blackpaw who came back across the track as Russel destroyed the front end of his car before losing control and hitting the inside wall with the driver side of the car. Russel would amazingly limp his car back to pit road, but pulled into the garage before the start/finish line, being scored having completed none of the laps and while his crew tried their best to repair it, the car was listed as "out" by Lap 5.
Finishing in 39th was the #87 Domino's Pizza Chevrolet of Dilan Ebrahimian, who tried to avoid the same wreck before hitting the back end of Dover last-place finisher the #3 Wendy's Chevrolet of Michael Creed, destroying Ebrahimian's car, and while he was able to limp around for one lap, he would pull behind the wall after only one lap.
Finishing 38th was the #8 Wrangler Jeans Pontiac of Cassie Dent, who would also hit Michael Creed's car, destroying the radiator of her car. Dent's crew would replace the water and sent her back out, completing two circuits before giving up the fight and pulling her in after two laps.
Finishing 37th was points leader and third Orange County last-place finisher the #5 Advance Auto Parts Buick of Chakat Whitelion, who was taken out in a Lap 9 crash after contact from first South Boston last-place finisher the #19 West Hartford Tool & Die Pontiac of Finn Smith, sending Whitelion down the track and hitting the inside guardrail driver's side first, destroying hir car and making hir lose hir championship lead which shi had held since Race #4 at Hickory.
Rounding out the Bottom Five was the last driver to finish on the same lap as the race leaders as 38th was spring Darlington last-place finisher the #6 Mason Day Paving / Valvoline Oldsmobile of Chris Kyle.
Heading into the season finale at Martinsville, Jack Lagasee has officially locked up the SCRLASTCAR Championship for S3 of the SCRL Busch Series by having five last-place finishes and even if second Matt McIntyre got a fourth he would still be one race behind, ending the battle for last one race early.
SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first time the #14 has finished last in a Busch Series race as well at Rockingham.
*This is the first time a driver has failed to complete a lap since the Budweiser 200 at the Dover Downs International Speedway when Michael Creed's #3 Wendy's Chevrolet was eliminated in a multi-car accident without completing any of the 30 laps; 17 races ago.
*This is the first time the #14 has finished last in a Busch Series race as well at Rockingham.
*This is the first time a driver has failed to complete a lap since the Budweiser 200 at the Dover Downs International Speedway when Michael Creed's #3 Wendy's Chevrolet was eliminated in a multi-car accident without completing any of the 30 laps; 17 races ago.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #14-Christian Russel / 0 laps / crash
39) #87-Dilan Ebrahimian / 1 lap / crash
38) #8-Cassie Dent / 2 laps / crash
37) #5-Chakat Whitelion / 9 laps / crash
36) #6-Chris Kyle / 20 laps / running
40) #14-Christian Russel / 0 laps / crash
39) #87-Dilan Ebrahimian / 1 lap / crash
38) #8-Cassie Dent / 2 laps / crash
37) #5-Chakat Whitelion / 9 laps / crash
36) #6-Chris Kyle / 20 laps / running
No comments:
Post a Comment