SHORT TRACK: Juniper Skunktaur crashes out near halfway at North Wilkesboro; SCRLASTCAR Championship goes to Rebecca Zeal

Juniper Skunktaur picked up the 1st last place finish of his SCRL Short Track Division career in Sunday's Season 1 Race 11 at the North Wilkesboro Speedway when his #32 Crazy Dave's Chevrolet was involved in a multi-car crash after 7 of the 20 laps.

The finish came in his 11th career start. In the SCRL Short Track Division, it's the 1st for car #32 and the 3rd from a crash. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 16th for the #32 and the 290th from a crash.

Entering the first ever Short Track Division season, Juniper had raced in only two series in his entire SCRL career, with his first being in the ARCA Midget Series and then in the Busch Grand National Series, and it was in the Busch Series that Juniper would score his first ever victory by winning at Darlington. Competing for the first time in over a year, it was expected Juniper would have lost his edge but that was quickly debunked when he finished 6th in his first race at Dayton before scoring an 8th at Charlotte. A disappointing finish of 13th at Greenville-Pickens would be followed by a season best of 4th at Hickory, before finishing 10th at Bowman-Gray, 11th at Martinsville, 10th at Monroe County, before scoring his worse finish of the season of 17th at Richmond. A 7th at Langley would be followed by Juniper's best race of the season, starting a decent 10th, Juniper would work his way into the lead on Lap 7 and would lead for eight laps and scored his second ever career win heading into the season finale 8th in points, unable to win the championship, but a shot at becoming the first driver to win back-to-back races in the Short Track Division.

In qualifying, Brantley Higdon scored his first career pole, posting a time of 20.079 seconds. Starting last in the race was Juniper, who posted the slowest time of 20.547, 0.468 seconds behind Brantley's pole winning time.

Rebecca Zeal heads to pit road at the start.

On race day, Juniper's stay in last didn't even last more than a full lap as two-time last-place finisher the #17 Carling Dodge of Rebecca Zeal suffered a flat right front tire on the pace lap and was forced to pull into the pits as the field went to green. A massive sixteen car wreck would break out in Turn 4, preventing Rebecca from going a lap down and she was able to catch up to the rest of the field under yellow. When the field went back to racing on Lap 6, she was still trailing the field and was in the final spot when the battle for last came to a sudden end.

While battling for 14th, Langley last-place finisher the #9 Coors Ford of Bailey Leigh would make contact with Bowman-Gray last-place finisher the #13 Smokey's Chevrolet Chakat Blackpaw, sending both cars into the inside wall before bouncing across the track, right in front of Juniper, sending Juniper and Blackpaw nearly head on into the concrete wall. Juniper would limp around to the pits and would pull behind the wall, being scored as last, on Lap 8, and when his car was retired it would give the SCRLASTCAR Championship to Rebecca Zeal.

Limping around for an extra lap, Blackpaw would compete one more lap on track before pulling behind the wall on Lap 8, hir day and season done just before halfway.

Finishing in 20th was the aforementioned #9 of Bailey Leigh, who would lose a lap during repairs and with no more cautions or cars having problems over the final ten laps, she was the lone car to not be running on the same lap as the race leaders.

Rounding out the Bottom Five on the same lap as the race leaders were; 19th was the #98 Super America Ford of Amber Mayhew in 18th was the #3 Goodwrench Chevrolet of Austin Greenwood.

The Season 1 SCRL Short Track Division Championship went to rookie R.T. Smith, the first time he had ever competed in any SCRL season. Smith scored no last-place finishes in his championship season but did finish in the Bottom 10 three times, with his worst finish being a 16th at Charlotte. Congratulations to Smith on making history by winning the championship in his first ever attempt.

SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first time the #32 had finished last as well at North Wilkesboro.
*This was the first time a driver had crashed out of a race since Race 8 at Richmond when Chakat Whitelion's #7 Coca Cola Dodge was involved in a multi-car crash without completing any of the 20 laps; 3 races ago.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
22) #32-Juniper Skunktaur / 7 laps / crash
21) #13-Chakat Blackpaw / 8 laps / crash
20) #9-Bailey Leigh / 19 laps / running
19) #98-Amber Mayhew / 20 laps / running
18) #3-Austin Greenwood / 20 laps / running

SCRL LASTCAR SHORT TRACK DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP