Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mike Beam to announce new Chevrolet driver development program
A new, joint driver development program between GMS Racing and JR Motorsports will be announced Thursday, January 24th at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
JR Motorsports co-owner and two-time Daytona 500 champion Dale Earnhardt Jr. will join GMS Racing president Mike Beam to announce the program’s initial driver lineup.
The event will be presented by Chevrolet.
GMS Racing is planning to run the full NASCAR XFINITY Series and NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series series in 2019, with drivers Brett Moffitt and Sheldon Creed in the Truck Series, and John Hunter Nemechek in the XFINITY Series. The team won 10 races in the Truck Series in 2018 and one race in the XFINITY Series.
JR Motorsports won the XFINITY Series championship in 2018 with driver Tyler Reddick, earning seven race wins between Reddick and Justin Allgaier.
Noah Gragson joins the team for the 2019 season, along with new teammates Michael Annett and Allgaier.
JRM’s current development drivers are Zane Smith, Josh Berry and Adam Lemke, while GMS Racing has a development program with drivers Bronson Butcher and Justin Whapham.
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NASCAR will allow sports betting organizations to sponsor race teams
According to SportsBusiness Journal’s Adam Stern, NASCAR will allow sports betting organizations to sponsor race teams at all tracks on the schedule, even in states where sports betting is not allowed.
NASCAR had previously considered only allowing sports betting sponsors to appear at tracks in states where betting is already legal, like Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Dover International Speedway.
The rules and regulations regarding the sports betting sponsors will be rolled out before the start of the 2019 season. NASCAR is currently looking into forming partnerships with sports betting companies for licensing and/or sponsorship purposes for the sanctioning body.
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Kyle Busch forms new short track chassis building group
2015 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch is combining his chassis-building business at Kyle Busch Motorsports known as “Rowdy Manufacturing” with Hamke Race Cars, a racecar and parts shop in Mooresville, North Carolina.
The two companies are merging to build Late Model and Stock Car chassis under the “Rowdy Manufacturing” brand. Hamke Race Cars was purchased by Justin Oertel just a few months ago.
Busch will serve as president of the company while Oertel will be the Chief Operating Officer.
“In order to keep the Truck Series side of the business consistent not only for KBM, but for the customers that we already have purchasing our truck chassis, the operation of making truck chassis will remain in our building with Rudy (Fugle) being a huge part of watching over that,” Busch said during an appearance on SPEED51.com’s “The Morning Bullring”. “The needs for Super Late Models, ARCA, K&N, Xfinity, Cup, all of that will be at the new location once we get that up and going.”
Busch said during the interview that he will not have a Kyle Busch Motorsports Super Late Model team for the “forseeable future”, and instead will focus on the chassis business.
Busch’s KBM team in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series will still compete full time in 2019 with driver Harrison Burton, among others.
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