Sam Hunt Racing

Sam Hunt Racing is an American professional stock car racing team that currently competes in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, fielding the No. 24 Toyota Supra part-time for Jeffrey Earnhardt and the No. 26 Toyota Supra full-time for Ryan Truex, Jeffrey Earnhardt, John Hunter Nemechek, Parker Chase, Derek Griffith, Chandler Smith, and several other unannounced drivers.

Sam Hunt Racing
Owner(s)Sam Hunt
Principal(s)Allen Hart (Technical dir.)
BaseMooresville, North Carolina
SeriesNASCAR Xfinity Series
ARCA Menards Series East
Race driversXfinity Series:
24. Jeffrey Earnhardt (part-time)
26. Ryan Truex, Jeffrey Earnhardt, John Hunter Nemechek, Parker Chase, Derek Griffith, Chandler Smith
SponsorsXfinity Series:
24. ForeverLawn
26. Circle-B-Diecast, ForeverLawn, Berry's Bullets, Stillhouse Whiskey, Bahnbrecker, Toyota, Charge Me
ManufacturerToyota
Opened2013
Career
DebutNASCAR Xfinity Series:
2019 Ford EcoBoost 300 (Homestead-Miami)
K&N Pro Series East:
2013 DRIVE4COPD 150 (Bristol)
Latest raceNASCAR Xfinity Series:
2022 A-GAME 200 (Dover)
K&N Pro Series East:
2019 General Tire 125 (Dover)
Races competed108
Drivers' Championships0
Race victories0
Pole positions0

The team is currently based in Mooresville, North Carolina, although they have Virginia roots and their original shop was located in Chester, Virginia.[1]

History

The team, first known as DRIVE Technology, was founded in 2013 by Sam Hunt and Virginian Shayne Lockhart, a former NASCAR driver-turned crew chief. In 2013 they acquired assets from Joe Gibbs Racing's NASCAR K&N Pro Series East No. 18 team, which was closing down after the 2012 season. They kept using the No. 18. The team picked up sponsorship from the Denny Hamlin Foundation for most of the races.[1]

At the end of 2019 Hunt announced the team would move up to the NASCAR Xfinity Series with their driver Colin Garrett in the season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway with Joe Gibbs Engines under the hood.

Xfinity Series

They started fielding the No. 26 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2019 in the season finale at Homestead–Miami Speedway for Colin Garrett, he started 15th and would end up finishing 21st.

For the 2020 season, SHR formed a partnership with Toyota Racing Development in continuation with their partnership on engines with Joe Gibbs Engines.[2]

In 2022, SHR began operating out of The Motorsports Group's former shop just up the road from the shop they had rented from Rette Jones Racing from 2020-2021 as well as forming a larger partnership with TRD on the technical side.

2021

Starting at the Indy RC, SHR started fielding a 2nd entry in the No. 24 for Will Rodgers with continued Partnership from GoodRx where he finished 28th after starting in 9th.

2022

Jeffrey Earnhardt would drive the No. 24 at Daytona and would finish 15th.

Car No. 24 results

Year Driver No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 NXSC Pts
2021 Will Rodgers 24 Toyota DAY DAY HOM LVS PHO ATL MAR TAL DAR DOV COA CLT MOH TEX NSH POC ROA ATL NHA GLN IND
28
MCH DAY DAR RCH BRI LVS TAL CLT TEX KAN MAR PHO 47th 9
2022 Jeffrey Earnhardt DAY
15
CAL LVS PHO ATL COA RCH MAR TAL DOV DAR TEX CLT PIR NSH ROA ATL NHA POC IND MCH GLN DAY DAR KAN BRI TEX TAL CLT LVS HOM MAR PHO TBA TBA

2019

On October 28, 2019, the team announced that they would field an Xfinity team for the first time in 2020, the No. 26 Toyota, with Garrett driving. Brian Keselowski became the team's crew chief, moving over from the Brandonbilt Motorsports No. 68 car.[3] They later attempted the season finale at Homestead in 2019, where they qualified 15th and finished 20th in preparation for their 2020 schedule of races.

2020

In 2020 Colin Garrett ran select races for the team with a best finish of 14th at Homestead-Miami in June of that year.

Brandon Gdovic would join the team for 2 races at the Indianapolis Road Course and Daytona Road Course finishing 12th and 28th respectively.

On October 26, 2020, it was announced that TD2 driver Mason Diaz would drive the No. 26 Toyota for the final two races of the 2020 season at Martinsville and Phoenix.[4]

2021

In 2021 the team ran the full schedule with a huge rotation of drivers Brandon Gdovic, Kris Wright, Santino Ferrucci, Colin Garrett, John Hunter Nemechek. Grant Enfinger, Will Rodgers, and Dylan Lupton splitting the seat.

The team recorded their first ever top 10 with Brandon Gdovic at the season opener at Daytona.

In September at Richmond Raceway the team scored their first ever top 5 with John Hunter Nemechek battling for the win in the closing laps with Justin Haley and eventual race winner Noah Gragson going on to score a 3rd place finish.

2022

On January 13, 2022 Ryan Truex was announced to drive the No. 26 at Daytona as well as several other races throughout the season and the next day Jeffrey Earnhardt was announced to compete in at least 7 races bringing sponsorship from ForeverLawn.

On January 25, 2022 it was announced John Hunter Nemechek would drive the car at both races at Las Vegas in the season with sponsorship from Berry’s Bullets.

Car No. 26 results

Year Driver No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 NXSC Pts
2019 Colin Garrett 26 Toyota DAY ATL LVS PHO CAL TEX BRI RCH TAL DOV CLT POC MCH IOW CHI DAY KEN NHA IOW GLN MOH BRI ROA DAR IND LVS RCH CLT DOV KAN TEX PHO HOM
21
47th 16
2020 DAY
DNQ
LVS CAL PHO DAR
37
CLT BRI ATL HOM
21
HOM
14
TAL
35
POC KAN
16
ROA 38th 127
Brandon Gdovic IND
12
KEN KEN TEX DAY
28
DOV DOV DAY DAR RCH RCH BRI LVS TAL CLT KAN TEX
Mason Diaz MAR
20
PHO
24
2021 Brandon Gdovic DAY
8
MAR
17
DAR
36
TEX
23
NHA
16
BRI
21
23rd 485
Kris Wright DAY
18
COA
32
MOH
32
ROA
25
GLN
17
IND
30
Santino Ferrucci HOM
30
LVS
13
PHO
15
ATL
15
POC
14
ATL
33
TAL
17
Colin Garrett TAL
15
MCH
20
DAY
37
DAR
17
MAR
14
John Hunter Nemechek DOV
32
RCH
3
Grant Enfinger CLT
36
Will Rodgers NSH
14
CLT
29
Dylan Lupton LVS
35
TEX
38
KAN
27
PHO
15
2022 Ryan Truex DAY
12
DAR TEX CLT PIR NSH ROA ATL NHA POC IND MCH GLN DAY DAR KAN BRI TEX TAL CLT HOM MAR PHO TBA TBA
Jeffrey Earnhardt CAL
29
ATL
13
John Hunter Nemechek LVS
12
PHO
5
LVS
Parker Chase COA
19
Derek Griffith RCH
26
MAR
21
Chandler Smith TAL
38
DOV
21

K&N Pro Series

2013

In 2013 Sam Hunt along with former-driver turned crew chief Shayne Lockhart formed DRIVE Technology after they had acquired assets from Joe Gibbs Racing's NASCAR K&N Pro Series East No. 18 team, which was closing down after the 2012 season. Sam Hunt, ran the full season, moving over from Precision Performance Motorsports. They kept using the No. 18. The team picked up sponsorship from the Denny Hamlin Foundation for most of the races.[1] The team later ended up running only part-time, skipping the races at Five Flags, Winston-Salem, both Iowa races, and New Hampshire. Also, Sergio Peña drove the car at the season-finale at Road Atlanta instead of Hunt.

2014

In 2014, Hunt ran another part-time schedule. One of his races was set to be Daytona, but after full-time driver Brandon Jones failed to qualify in his own No. 33 car for Turner Scott Motorsports, he replaced Hunt in the No. 18. Other drivers for the team that year were Mason Massey in two races at the Langley and Columbus Speedways. Venezuelan female driver Milka Duno drove the No. 18 at the season-finale, now at Dover as a result of Road Atlanta being taken off the schedule.

2015

The team attempted fewer races in 2015. Peyton Sellers drove two races at Greenville-Pickens Speedway and at Dover. Full-time ARCA Series driver Sarah Cornett-Ching drove the car at Bristol in a partnership between DRIVE Technology and her ARCA team, RACE 101.[5][6] Justin LaDuke made his only start of the year and to-date of his career at Winston-Salem. Hunt returned for two races at tracks in his home state of Virginia: Langley and Richmond.

2016

The team continued to scale back in 2016, with Peña returning to DRIVE Technology for the first time in three years after he was released from Rev Racing. He ran the road course race at Virginia International Raceway, and it is his last NASCAR start to date. The team withdrew with Hunt at the next race at Dominion Raceway, another track in Virginia.

2017

Hunt became the sole owner of the team in 2017. He and Peyton Sellers ran two races apiece that year. The new team name was Hunt-Sellers Racing.

2018

HSR ran nearly the full season in 2018, with yet another driver from Virginia, rookie Colin Garrett, running all but the first two races of the season. Garrett originally signed on for four races but extended it to the remainder of the schedule after strong initial runs.[7] He finished tenth in points. His best finish was a third at the first of the doubleheader races at South Boston, his only top-5 of the year. Garrett did score four top-10's as well. Clinton Cram served as crew chief in 2018.[7]

2019

The team announced on January 17, 2019, that Garrett would return to Sam Hunt Racing to run the full season with them in 2019. In addition, the team switched from Toyota to Chevrolet that year.[8]

References

  1. McConnell, Jim (May 8, 2013). "James River grad at home with Drive Technology". Chesterfield Observer. Observer Inc. Retrieved January 15, 2020.
  2. "Sam Hunt Racing announces partnership with TRD". Jayski's Silly Season Site. February 4, 2020. Retrieved February 4, 2020.
  3. Kristl, Mark (October 28, 2019). "Sam Hunt Racing, Colin Garrett Attempting Move To Xfinity Series". Frontstretch. Retrieved January 14, 2020.
  4. "Mason Diaz Joining Sam Hunt Racing for Final 2 Races of Season". Frontstretch. 2020-10-26. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
  5. "KNPSE: Sarah Cornett-Ching Set to Make Her K&N Pro Series Debut at Bristol This Weekend". Race Chaser Online. April 13, 2015. Retrieved January 6, 2020.
  6. Donnelly, Doug (April 17, 2015). "On off ARCA weekend, Cornett-Ching, others take talents to Bristol". ARCARacing.com. Retrieved January 15, 2020.
  7. Segal, Davey (September 6, 2019). "Behind Sam Hunt's resilient NASCAR journey to stay on track". Autoweek. Retrieved May 11, 2020.
  8. "Speed51.com". January 17, 2019. Retrieved January 14, 2020.
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