Leavine Family Racing to close at end of season
CHARLOTTE, N.C. » Leavine Family Racing has sold its NASCAR team but will finish the season with driver Christopher Bell.
Team owner Bob Leavine made the announcement Tuesday, saying he could not risk his 41-year-old construction business by continuing to fund the team.
Leavine is the second team owner to close its doors after aligning with Joe Gibbs Racing. Furniture Row Racing won a championship with driver Martin Truex Jr. in partnership with Gibbs.
But when Gibbs raised the price and Furniture Row lost a critical sponsor, owner Barney Visser pulled the plug and closed the team. Truex moved to a Gibbs car and Leavine signed on as a Gibbs partner.
The partnership provided a landing spot for Bell, a JGR development driver who needed a promotion to the Cup Series but couldn’t get into one of Gibbs’ four seats. Bell, a rookie, has just one top-five finish this season and is ranked 23rd in the standings driving the No. 95 Toyota.
Leavine has not revealed who purchased the charter, which guarantees entry into the 40-car field each race.
“It’s a bad taste in my mouth to be perfectly candid,” Leavine said.
Ganassi makes crew chief change for Kenseth
CHARLOTTE, N.C. » Chip Ganassi Racing has made a crew chief change for the No. 42 driven by Matt Kenseth, with engineer Phil Surgen taking over for the remainder of the season.
Surgen has been with the Ganassi organization since 2016. He replaces
Chad Johnston, who had been the crew chief for the No. 42 team since 2016.
Kenseth’s status for 2021 is not clear, but Ganassi is believed to be courting Bubba Wallace.
Xfinity team penalized for illegal test at Daytona
CHARLOTTE, N.C. » NASCAR has fined an Xfinity Series team $50,000 because driver Alex Labbe violated the testing policy for the road course at Daytona International Speedway.
NASCAR will race on that configuration for the first time later this month and is not holding any practice sessions before the events.
In an attempted workaround of the rules, Labbe went to an SCCA event last weekend at Daytona. NASCAR officials caught wind of his presence and ordered Labbe off the track.