Chris Kyle picked up the 1st last place finish of his SCRL Grand National Series career in Wednesday's Southern 500 at the Darlington Raceway when his #22 Ford fell out with header problems after completing 23 of the 40 laps.
The finish came in his 43rd career series start. In the SCRL Grand National Series, it's the 1st for car #22 and the 2nd for header issues. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 18th for the #22 and 26th for header issues.
Kyle is a first ballot Hall of Famer when he finally hangs up his goggles, having scored 12 career wins in his career but his career highlight is winning the SCRL Tim Hortons Canadian Series Championship in his own country, but he had yet to make a name for himself in the SCRL's highest division under the NASCAR umbrella. With no wins in the Rainbow Dash Truck Series and two wins in the SCRL Busch Grand National Series, Kyle is still looking to join an exclusive club of winning in all three major series. Already having one season under his belt, where he scored 3 Top 5's and 5 Top 10's, Kyle was looking to improve on his points finish of 20th one season ago.
Kyle's second season started off on a rocky note, not scoring any points in the first four races as finishes of 23rd at Daytona Beach, 13th at Charlotte, 16th at Lakeview and a 17th at Carrell would be followed by a 9th at Hillsborough. A 12th at Arizona State would be followed by a 10th at North Wilkesboro, 17th at Martinsville, 21st at Canfield, 9th at Columbus and a 7th at Columbia before scoring his best finish of the season, a 2nd at Dayton. A 5th at the return trip to Carrell would be followed by a 13th at Grand Rapids, 18th at Bainbridge, 25th at Heidelberg, 5th at Asheville-Weaverville, 8th at Monroe County, 6th at Altamont-Schenectady, 3rd at Detroit, 14th at Fort Miami, 21st at Morristown before finishing 9th in the last round at Air Base Speedway.
The entry list for the 7th time this season would be filled with both full time and part-time drivers, the first time since Michigan State Fairgrounds, four races ago, a race which part-time driver Abby Russel would win, the second race in a row a part-time had won against the full time drivers.
In qualifying, Kyle would score his third pole of the season, with a time of 37.023 seconds. Securing the 42nd and final starting spot was Hillsborough last-place finisher the #83 Dantone Racing Stable Ford of James Blaiser, who, along with the #30 Plymouth of Jeremiah Weaver, did not post a time in qualifying.
When the race started, Blaiser would remain in the final spot for the first two turns before the race's lone caution came out when second Carrell last-place finisher the #77 Oldsmobile of McKenzie Dell was spun out while battle for sixth with the #41.5 Eanes Motor Co. Oldsmobile of Nick Holiday, with Dell trailing for the first lap. As the race remained under caution, Dell would remain in last-place throughout the entire caution period, but when the green flag waved, Dell would quickly rebound and knocked the #4 Blevins Motor Co. Studebaker of Austin Line into last on Lap 6. Line would trail the field for two laps before knocking Jeremiah Weaver into last on Lap 9. Weaver would struggle around the one groove 1.250 mile superspeedway, trailing for the next five laps before knocking Dell back to last once again on Lap 15. Dell would trail for three more laps before knocking Weaver back into last on Lap 19, a position he would hold for the next three laps.
After leading nine laps earlier, Kyle had fallen back to third and was running there on Lap 22 when entering Turn 3 his car started to smoke heavily, with Kyle pulling to the inside of the track and onto pit road. Kyle would make it to his pit stall with his team looking under the hood for three laps as their car dropped back to last, before pushing it before the wall, done for the day and listed as "out" on Lap 26.
The remaining Bottom Five would finish on the same lap as the race leaders: 41st was Columbus last-place finisher the #51 Cherokee Garage Oldsmobile of Austin Abilene, 40th was the #42 Petty Special Plymouth of Ty Westner, 39th was the aforementioned #30 of Jeremiah Weaver and 38th was three time last-place finisher the #120 Hudson of Brian Grigsby.
SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first time the #22 has finished last in a Cup race as well at Darlington.
*The last time a driver trailed the field due to "header" issues was in the Season 2 Wilkes 200 at the North Wilkesboro Speedway when his Zachary Fitzwater's #59 Lincoln fell out with header issues without completing any of the 40 laps; 28 races ago.
*This is the first time the #22 has finished last in a Cup race as well at Darlington.
*The last time a driver trailed the field due to "header" issues was in the Season 2 Wilkes 200 at the North Wilkesboro Speedway when his Zachary Fitzwater's #59 Lincoln fell out with header issues without completing any of the 40 laps; 28 races ago.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
42) #22-Chris Kyle / 23 laps / header led 9 laps
41) #51-Austin Abilene / 40 laps / running
40) #42-Ty Westner / 40 laps / running
39) #30-Jeremiah Weaver / 40 laps / running
38) #120-Brian Grigsby / 40 laps / running
42) #22-Chris Kyle / 23 laps / header led 9 laps
41) #51-Austin Abilene / 40 laps / running
40) #42-Ty Westner / 40 laps / running
39) #30-Jeremiah Weaver / 40 laps / running
38) #120-Brian Grigsby / 40 laps / running
S3 SCRLASTCAR Grand National Series Driver's Championship
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