NASCAR has already lost a full-time team for 2021
By Asher Fair
NY Racing Team had planned to run full-time in the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season. Unfortunately, they won’t even compete in the season opener.
Back in early January, NY Racing Team, which haven’t competed in the Cup Series since 2018, announced that they planned to run the full 36-race 2021 NASCAR Cup Series schedule with the #44 Chevrolet.
This car would not have a charter and therefore would not be guaranteed a starting position in races for which the entry list contained more than 40 cars, including the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.
They haven’t competed in this race since 2015.
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They did not announce a driver or drivers for any of the 36 races on the schedule, but as time moved on, they still planned to travel to Daytona International Speedway to attempt to qualify and compete in the 63rd annual running of the “Great American Race” to open up the season.
However, they will not be competing at the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked oval in Daytona Beach, Florida, eliminating the possibility of them running a full-time schedule this year.
NY Racing will not field a car for Daytona. So it appears 44 entries with 8 open cars for 4 spots (still waiting on official entry list) ... Open cars: 13-Smithley 16-Grala 33-Cindric 36-Ragan 37-Preece 62-Gragson 66-THill 96-TDillon.
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) February 8, 2021
This means that the sport is slated to see 37 cars running full-time, including the 36 chartered entries and the non-chartered entry of JTG Daugherty Racing’s Ryan Preece, the #37 Chevrolet.
Among those 37 cars, there are slated to be 34 full-time drivers.
The three full-time entries without full-time drivers are the #15 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet, the #53 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet and the #77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.
There are 44 cars currently on the entry list for the Daytona 500, a total that likely won’t change before the official entry list is unveiled.
This means that the eight non-chartered cars will be battling for the remaining four open spots just to get into the 200-lap race in single-car qualifying on Wednesday, February 10 and in the Bluegreen Vacations Duels on Thursday, February 11.
Whether or not NY Racing Team, which have competed in just 17 Cup Series races all-time, will compete at all throughout the 2021 season remains to be seen.
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The Daytona 500 is slated to open up the 2021 season on Sunday, February 14, with Fox set to broadcast the race live beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET.