NASCAR Xfinity Series: GMS Racing shutting down after 2019?

By Asher Fair | Sep 27, 2019

BRISTOL, TN - APRIL 05: John Hunter Nemechek, driver of the #23 Allegiant Chevrolet, drives during practice for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Alsco 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway on April 5, 2019 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /

GMS Racing entered the NASCAR Xfinity Series three years ago, but there are rumors that they will shut down after the 2019 season.

GMS Racing entered the NASCAR Xfinity Series in the 2016 season after previously competing in only the Truck Series since the 2013 season, and they did so with a part-time car driven by Spencer Gallagher, the son of team owner Maury Gallagher Jr.

In the 2017 season, they ran a car full-time for Spencer Gallagher and another car part-time. Ben Kennedy and Brett Moffitt combined to drive this car in eight of the season’s 33 races.

In the 2018 season, GMS Racing again fielded a car full-time for Gallagher, but after Gallagher was suspended for violating NASCAR’s Substance Abuse Policy, a total of eight drivers drove it throughout the 33-race season. Justin Haley, who drove for the team full-time in the Truck Series at the time, drove a separate car in two races throughout the year.

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Now this season, John Hunter Nemechek drives the team’s lone car, and he drives full-time.

But is there a chance that the 22-year-old Mooresville, North Carolina native won’t be back with the team next year.

In fact, there are rumors that the team will completely shut down their Xfinity Series program after the 2019 season.

Maury Gallagher Jr. is also the chairman and CEO of American discount airline Allegiant Air, which has served as the primary sponsor of Nemechek’s #23 Chevrolet in four races so far this season and has served as the primary sponsor for the team’s cars in previous years as well.

Allegiant Air was announced last month as the naming rights sponsor for the new stadium of the Raiders of the National Football League (NFL) when they relocate from the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, California to their new stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada ahead of the 2020 season.

This sponsorship deal is said to be worth between $20 million and $25 million, and given the fact that GMS Racing have no plans to shutter their Truck Series program after the 2019 season, the discontinuation of their Xfinity Series team would make sense.

Of course, the emergence of a driver who brings additional funding to continue running the #23 Chevrolet could prevent this discontinuation. But as of now, that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.

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Will GMS Racing return for a fifth season of NASCAR Xfinity Series competition next year, or will they leave the series and focus only on the Truck Series within NASCAR in 2020?

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