Throwback ARCA: Broken gearbox ends Tayon Kennedy's night just seconds after the green flag waves at Lucas Oil

Tayon Kennedy picked up the 1st last place finish of his SCRL Lucas Oil ARCA Racing Series career in the Season 1 Messina Wildlife Animal Stopper 200 at the Lucas Oil Raceway when his #02 Southwest Florida Cable Construction Ford fell out with gearbox problems after completing 1 of the 20 laps.

The finish came in his 13th career start.

Kennedy was just starting his SCRL career when he signed up to compete in the ARCA Series, looking to have a decent season, with a goal of finishing in the Top 20 in points. In his ARCA debut, Kennedy would qualify an impressive 10th but would crash out and finish 29th at Daytona. A 9th at Atlanta would follow, 27th at Charlotte, 7th at Talladega, before scoring a series career best 2nd at Gateway. A 17th at Kentucky, 12th at Pocono, 21st at Michigan and Texas, 5th at NJMP, 17th at Iowa before finishing 22nd in the last round at Chicagoland. 

On race night, Kennedy rolled off starting an impressive 10th while starting off in the final spot was Talladega last-place finisher the unsponsored #77 Cunningham Motorsports Dodge of John Racer but as the field entered Turn 4 to start the race, Kennedy pulled down to the low lane, with his car starting to smoke, as he made contact with the #1 ModSpace Ford of Grayson Acevedo, starting a chain reaction that would start a five car wreck in Turn 1, bringing out the first caution of the day. Kennedy would limp back around to the pits, crossing the start/finish line before pulling his car behind the wall, with the team looking under the hood and discovering that the gearbox was broken, with the car being listed as "out" on Lap 3.

Rounding out the Bottom Five were drivers who would struggle during the night: 40th was the aforementioned #77 of John Racer, 39th was the #35 Venezuela Tourism Toyota of Mike Pearson, 38th was Atlanta last-place finisher the #09 Hudson Performance Drivelines Dodge of Richard Torres and 37th was Daytona last-place finisher the #32 Win-Tron Racing Chevrolet of Dinkdrinker.

SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first time the #02 had finished last in a ARCA Series race as well as at Lucas Oil.
*This is the first time gearbox issues has forced a driver to finish last in the ARCA Series.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
41) #02-Tayon Kennedy / 1 lap / gearbox
40) #77-John Racer / 18 laps / running
39) #35-Mike Pearson / 18 laps / crash
38) #09-Richard Torres / 18 laps / running
37) #32-Dinkdrinker / 19 laps / running