Jay Jefferson picked up the 1st last place finish of his SCRL Grand National Series career in Saturday's Race 17 at the Martinsville when his #48 Ford fell out with gearbox problems after completing 8 of the 50 laps.
The finish came in his 17th career series start. In the SCRL Grand National Series, it's the 1st for car #48 and the 1st for gearbox issues. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 11th for the #48 and 14th for gearbox issues.
Jay is one of the most successful drivers in the SCRL that hasn't one a championship yet, having picked up a total of 10 career wins over various series, and was looking to bring that same success to the SCRL's highest division, a series he had yet to race in. Jay would sign up full time to complete in a full time schedule as usual, he would be joined by his brother Joe, as the two have been rivals since their early SCRL days. Jay would finish 41st in his debut at Daytona Beach after being caught up in a wreck that put Chase Miller in last. While Joe scored his first ever Grand National Series win in the next round at Charlotte, Jay would struggle once again by finishing 16th. A 36th at Langhorne, would be followed by a series best third at the spring Martinsville event. Jay would struggle over the next four events with a 28th at Canfield, 23rd at Vernon, 26th at Dayton and a 22nd at Monroe before scoring his second 3rd place finish of the season at the return trip to Charlotte.
A 29th at Hillsborough, would be followed by a 9th the the second Dayton event, 20th at Hamburg, 32nd at Darlington, 29th at the second Langhorne event, 32nd at North Wilkesboro before finishing 15th in the last round at Vernon.
The entry list for the eleventh time this season would be only the full-time drivers, as the track wasn't big enough to fit all the full and part-time drivers.
In qualifying, Nick Kennedy would score his record setting fourth career pole with a time of 26.413 seconds. Jay would struggle around the bumpy half mile track, posting a time of 26.748, while only 0.335 seconds off Kennedy's time, it would place Jay 22nd on the grid. Starting last in the race was two time last-place finisher the #91 Plymouth of AJ Jones, who posted a time of 26.918, 0.505 seconds behind Kennedy's pole winning time.
On race day, Jones would trail for two turns before knocking the #64 of Randy Mayhew into last, with Randy trailing for the first two laps before knocking AJ back to last on Lap 3. Jones would trail for two laps himself before he would knock the #14 Plymouth of Chris Kyle into last on Lap 5. Kyle would trail for the next three laps around the half mile track before he knocked Randy back into last on Lap 8, a position he would hold as the battle would come to an end one lap later. At this point, Jay had only gained one spot since the start of the race and was running in 22nd when he suddenly pulled to the inside of the track exiting Turn 2 and pulled onto the backstretch pit road and then quickly pulled behind the wall. The team would have to go to the makeshift infield garage and would look under the hood and discovered that the gearbox was broken beyond repair, and so the car was listed as "out" by the team by the 12th circuit.
Finishing in 29th was the #19 R & W Auto Service Oldsmobile of Justin Appleby, who would suffer a blown engine with two laps to go while running in 23rd and would coast back to pit road before pulling into the garage, being scored as having completed 48 laps.
Rounding out the Bottom Five were drivers who finished on the same lap as the race leaders: 28th was the aforementioned #64 of Randy Mayhew, 27th was the #98 Plymouth of Myron Felder and 26th was the #1 Fabulous Hudson Hornet Hudson of Johnston McClellan.
SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first time the #48 has finished last in a Grand National Series race as well at Martinsville.
*This marked the first time a driver has trailed due to "gearbox" issues in the Grand National Series.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
30) #48-Jay Jefferson / 8 laps / gearbox
29) #19-Justin Appleby / 48 laps / engine
28) #64-Randy Mayhew / 50 laps / running
27) #98-Myron Felder / 50 laps / running
26) #1-Johnston McClellan / 50 laps / running
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