NASCAR: Top 5 seats still open for 2021
By Asher Fair
Top open seats for 2021: No. 4 – #96 Gaunt Brothers Racing Toyota
The #96 Gaunt Brothers Racing Toyota is the only non-chartered car on this list, but the goal is for that to change in the near future.
It was confirmed in mid-September that Marty Gaunt’s team and Daniel Suarez would be parting ways after 2020, with Suarez set to join Trackhouse Racing Team, Justin Marks’s new team, behind the wheel of the #99 Chevrolet next year.
Gaunt Brothers Racing have not yet confirmed Suarez’s replacement, but there are bigger questions for this team following their first season of full-time competition.
They are one of only two Toyota teams in the Cup Series aside from the powerhouse Joe Gibbs Racing team for next year, and the other, 23XI Racing, is a new organization started by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin and is slated to have a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs’s team.
There have been other discussions about Gaunt Brothers Racing potentially landing additional investors, landing additional support from Toyota Racing Development and acquiring a charter, moves that would be made with the goal of eventually becoming as competitive as 2017 champions and 2018 runners-up Furniture Row Racing, which had a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing from 2016 to 2018 before folding after the 2018 season.
If that goal is attained, the #96 Toyota could easily be atop this list.