NASCAR Cup Series: Leavine Family Racing expanding to two cars in 2020?

By Asher Fair | Mar 31, 2019

FORT WORTH, TX - MARCH 29: Matt DiBenedetto, driver of the #95 Procore Toyota (Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images) /

Leavine Family Racing team owner Bob Leavine has stated that the team may become a two-car team beginning in the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Leavine Family Racing have competed in the NASCAR Cup Series since the 2011 season, and they have competed on a full-time basis since the 2016 season. In each of their first four seasons as one of the sport’s full-time teams, they have fielded one car on a full-time basis, the #95 car.

This #95 car was the #95 Chevrolet from the 2016 season through the 2018 season after it was the #95 Ford during the team’s days as a part-time team from the 2011 season through the 2015 season.

Ahead of the 2019 season, Leavine Family Racing formed a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing and switched their manufacturer from Chevrolet to Toyota in the hope of following in the footsteps of the recently folded Furniture Row Racing, which formed a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing ahead of the 2016 season and ended up winning the 2017 championship with Martin Truex Jr. driving their #78 Toyota.

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While the team have not made huge strides with Matt DiBenedetto, the driver who the team hired to replaced the recently retired Kasey Kahne as the driver of the #95 Chevrolet-turned-Toyota for the 2019 season, through the first six races of the season, they are definitely better than they had been as a whole prior to this season.

Through the season’s first six races, DiBenedetto has not finished outside the range of 18th through 28th place, and his average finish of 23.50 is a perfect indication of where he has run throughout much of the season, aside of the fact that he led a race-high 49 laps in the season opener, the Daytona 500, at Daytona International Speedway before a late wreck spoiled his chances of earning his first career Cup Series victory in that race.

The 27-year-old Grass Valley, California native currently sits in 24th place in the championship standings, which would be the highest finish for a driver in Leavine Family Racing history if he can hang onto it or improve upon it throughout the season’s final 30 races.

But switching their manufacturer from Chevrolet to Toyota, forming a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing and signing the promising DiBenedetto may only just be the beginning of the team’s journey to becoming more than a mid-pack to backmarker-type team in the Cup Series.

Leavine Family Racing are currently in the process of expanding to two full-time cars for the 2020 season. The 2016 season opener and the 2016 season finale are the only two races in team history during which they have fielded two cars, as they fielded the #59 Chevrolet along with the #95 Chevrolet in these two races.

Here is what Leavine Family Racing team owner Bob Leavine had to say about the matter, according to SportsMap.

"“Yes, we are working on expanding for 2020 right now. It’s just a matter of sponsorship because we can put the people on it, and we have the organization and Toyota Racing Development will support that. So yes, we are working to expand.”"

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Will Leavine Family Racing end up becoming a two-car team for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season? If so, who will the team’s drivers be?

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