NASCAR Cup Series: No full-time driver for Spire Motorsports in 2019
By Asher Fair
Spire Motorsports will not have a full-time driver as the driver of the #77 Chevrolet for the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season, their first season of Cup Series competition.
After purchasing the charter that the now defunct Furniture Row Racing team used to field the #78 Toyota, which was driven by Martin Truex Jr. before the Denver, Colorado-based team shut down following the conclusion of the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season, Spire Motorsports appeared poised to enter the 2019 season with a full-time driver.
Spire Motorsports, the newest team in the Cup Series, were set to field the #77 Chevrolet on a full-time basis throughout the 36-race 2019 season.
Many signs, including the fact that the aforementioned charter sale was the most expensive charter sale in Cup Series history, pointed to the idea that the team would hire one driver to drive the #77 Chevrolet on a full-time basis in the 2019 season.
However, this will not be the case. In fact, the number 77 will not even be the number of the team’s car in all 36 of the 2019 season’s races.
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This became official upon the announcement that Spire Motorsports are set to partner with Chip Ganassi Racing to field the #40 Chevrolet for Jamie McMurray, who will not compete in the Cup Series no a full-time basis this year for the first time since the 2002 season, in the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida on Sunday, February 17.
With McMurray set to drive in the Daytona 500 but no other races this season, he will not be driving full-time for the team, meaning that the team will not have a full-time driver in their first season of Cup Series competition. McMurray is set to serve as an analyst on the Fox Sports NASCAR broadcast team this year.
The number 77 is still set to be used as the car number for the team’s car in the remaining 35 races on the schedule, but there is no official word regarding whether or not the team will use the number 77 as their car’s number for each of these 35 races. There is also no word regarding who the team’s other driver or drivers will be throughout the season.
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Which driver or drivers will end up driving the #77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet throughout the rest of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season? Will the number 77 be used as the car’s number in the 35 races on the schedule following the season-opening Daytona 500 next month?