SHAKER MEMORIAL: Late race spin places Carlos Rodriguez last in the Shaker Memorial

Carlos Rodriguez picked up the 1st last place finish of his SCRL Shaker Memorial Race career in Tuesday's 6th Annual Shaker Memorial Race at the Atlanta Motor Speedway when his #48 Lowe's Chevrolet completed all the 30 laps under power.

The finish came in his 2nd start. 

The Shaker Memorial began in 2015 when the dog of this blog's author, Shaker, passed away in 2015, in her honor, a yearly race is held at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, the closest track to where she lived, with drivers completing in a one race showdown to see who is the best. The entry list for the 6th annual, but 7th running of the event, was for the third year in a 42 car field, as for the first time in the running of the event, there would be no former winners of this event in the field.

In qualifying, rookie Johnston McClellan would impress in his first ever attempt behind the wheel in the SCRL by winning the pole with a time of 26.757. Carlos would struggle around the 1.540 track, posting a time of 26.869, while it was only 0.112 seconds off McClellan's pole time, it would place Carlos 32nd on the starting line up. Starting last in the race was the #0 NetZero / Best Buy Chevrolet of Drew Stimpson, who posted a time of 27.047 seconds, 0.290 behind McClellan pole winning time.

With over one hundred twenty thousand people in the stands, the green flag waved as Stimpson would trail for the first two turns before knocking the #92 Taco Bell Chevrolet of Jonathan Dayne into the spot, a position he would hold for one lap before knocking the #4 Lucas Oil Products Chevrolet of AJ Jones into last on Lap 2. Jones would trail for two laps before knocking the #27 unsponsored Ford of John H. White, as White would also trail for two laps before knocking the #16 National Guard Ford of Chase Miller, who would continue the streak, trailing for the next two laps. Miller would finally make a move on Lap 8 as he knocked the #09 Miccosukee Gaming & Resorts Dodge of Dallas Carpentier, who would break the streak by trailing for only one lap as he would knocked the #1 Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Boats Chevrolet of Andrew Jones into the final spot on Lap 9, a spot he would hold for two laps before knocking Dayne back to last on Lap 11, a position he would hold for the next six laps as he struggled to stay with the field as it looked like he would trail in his first ever race until the battle for last came to a sudden end.

At this point in the race, Carlos had gained six spots and was running in 26th and was battling with the #73 ARC Dehooker / joinrfa.org Chevrolet of Tyler Mills as the pair entered Turn 3 with Mills not giving up the inside line and would slide up the track some into Rodriguez, causing him to spin out in Turn 3, sliding up the track and hitting the wall with the right side of the car, causing severe cosmetic damage to the right side and rear of the car, bringing out what would be the race's lone caution of the day. Rodriguez would decide to not pit and remained on track during the caution and when the green flag came back out, he would quickly lose touch with the pack and when the checkered flag waved, Rodriguez had fallen to a full twenty six seconds behind the closest car.

Rounding out the Bottom Five were: 41st was the aforementioned #92 of Jonathan Dayne, 40th was the #21 Motorcraft Genuine Parts Ford of James Zeleny, 39th was the #60 Year One Chevrolet of Joshua Wells and 38th was the #6 Viagra Ford of Brandon Mayhew.

SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the second time the #48 has trailed in the Shaker Memorial; the only other time it has happened was in the 4th running of the event when Nick Kennedy completed all 35 laps under power.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
42) #48-Carlos Rodriguez / 33 laps / running
41) #92-Jonathan Dayne / 33 lap / running
40) #21-James Zeleny / 33 laps / running
39) #60-Joshua Wells / 33 laps / running
38) #6-Brandon Mayhew / 33 laps / running