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NASCAR: 10 small-team drivers who deserve Danica Patrick’s ride

By Asher Fair

LOUDON, NH - JULY 14: Danica Patrick, driver of the #10 Aspen Dental Ford, practices for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Overton's 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 14, 2017 in Loudon, New Hampshire. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images)
LOUDON, NH - JULY 14: Danica Patrick, driver of the #10 Aspen Dental Ford, practices for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Overton's 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 14, 2017 in Loudon, New Hampshire. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images) /
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SPARTA, KY – JULY 07: Landon Cassill, driver of the #34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)
SPARTA, KY – JULY 07: Landon Cassill, driver of the #34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images) /

#8 – Landon Cassill, Front Row Motorsports, No. 34 Ford

Landon Cassill, 28, like Reed Sorenson and Cole Whitt, has switched teams frequently throughout his NASCAR Cup Series career, which began back in the 2010 season but did not become a full-time gig until the 2011 season.

In the 2010 season, Cassill drove for Phoenix Racing, TRG Motorsports and Gunselman Motorsports before driving for Germain Racing and Phoenix Racing the following season in his first full season, although he still did miss four of the 36 races on the 2011 season schedule.

After the 2011 season, Cassill has never driven for more than one team in a season. However, he has still changed teams plenty of times. In the 2012 season, he drove for BK Racing before hopping over to Circle Sport for the 2013 season.

In the 2014 season, Cassill drove for Hillman Racing and then continued with the team in the 2015 season when it was renamed to Hillman Smith Motorsports. In the 2016 season, he started driving for Front Row Motorsports, which is the team he currently drives for.

In most ways, Cassill’s statistics do not match up to those of Danica Patrick’s. He has driven 246 career races and has just one top 10 finish, while she has seven top 10 finishes in 177 races. However, she is driving for a top-tier organization and still failing to produce solid results.

Cassill, on the other hand, has driven for lots of small and underfunded teams, so it’s amazing that he has produced the small amount of solid results that he has. While he does only have on career top 10 finish, it was far better than a 10th place effort, which we’ll touch on below. He also has four other finishes of either 11th or 12th place, so he’s been solid given the fact that he has never driven for a team nearly as good as Patrick has in Stewart-Haas Racing.

Now about that lone top 10 finish Cassill has to his name. He, unlike Patrick, has actually finished a Cup Series race in the top 5. While Patrick’s career-high Cup Series finish is only a 6th place effort at Atlanta in the 2014 season despite the fact that she has driven and is driving for Stewart-Haas Racing, Cassill’s career-high finish is a 4th place effort at Talladega in the 2014 season, and he did it driving for Hillman Racing.

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