NASCAR Cup Series: Spencer Gallagher to make debut at Watkins Glen

By Asher Fair | Aug 2, 2018

RICHMOND, VA - APRIL 20: Spencer Gallagher, driver of the #23 Allegiant Chevrolet (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images) /

Spencer Gallagher is set to make his NASCAR Cup Series debut in this Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International.

Spencer Gallagher, who drove the #23 GMS Racing Chevrolet full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series last season and for the first nine races this season before he was suspended for violating NASCAR’s substance abuse policy, is set to make his Cup Series debut this weekend.

Gallagher, 28, is set to make his Cup Series debut in the Go Bowling at The Glen at the eight-turn, 2.454-mile (3.949-kilometer) Watkins Glen International road course in Watkins Glen, New York. He is set to do so as the driver of the #23 BK Racing Toyota, which was driven full-time by Gray Gaulding this season until he lost his ride last month.

Gallagher was reinstated by NASCAR early last month, but he has only driven in one of the four Xfinity Series races that have taken place since then. He competed in the race at Kentucky Speedway over two weeks ago and finished in a season-low 20th place.

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In the first nine races of the 2018 Xfinity Series season, Gallagher was on a roll, and it appeared as though he had secured his first career Xfinity Series playoff berth. He finished in the top 10 in five of those races, and he finished in the top five in two of them. Not once did he finish in lower than 17th place.

Gallagher, who finished in 19th place in the Xfinity Series championship standings last season, entered the 2018 season having competed in 40 Xfinity Series races in his career, and he had recorded just two top 10 finishes with a career-high finish of eighth place in the race at Daytona International Speedway in the 2016 season, so his success to start the season was the highest amount of success that he had ever had in his Xfinity Series career.

In one of those first nine races of the season, the race at Talladega Superspeedway, which was the final race before he was suspended, Gallagher was victorious for the first time in his Xfinity Series career, which would have clinched him his first career Xfinity Series playoff berth except for the fact that he became ineligible for the playoffs as a result of the fact that he was issued a suspension and not issued a waiver.

Prior to last season, Gallagher drove the #23 GMS Racing Chevrolet full-time in the Truck Series in the 2015 and 2016 seasons. He finished in 10th and 12th place, respectively, in the championship standings in those two seasons.

In the 46 races in which Gallagher competed during those two seasons, he racked up 14 top 10 finishes and two top five finishes, which were both second place finishes. In the other 13 races in his Truck Series career so far, he has not been victorious, so his win at Talladega was his first career win in a NASCAR series.

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Tune in to NBC this Sunday, August 5 at 3:00 p.m. ET to watch Spencer Gallagher make his NASCAR Cup Series debut driving the #23 BK Racing Toyota in the Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, New York.

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