NASCAR to be without a full-time driver at Daytona
By Asher Fair
B.J. McLeod, Live Fast Motorsports’ full-time driver for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season, will not compete for the team this weekend.
B.J. McLeod, who co-owns new NASCAR Cup Series team Live Fast Motorsports along with Matt Tifft, was slated to compete full-time for his team behind the wheel of the #78 Ford throughout the 36-race 2021 season.
However, he will not be behind the wheel of the car for this Sunday afternoon’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 253 at the Daytona International Speedway road course.
Set to take his place for this 70-lap race around the 14-turn, 3.61-mile (5.810-kilometer) road course in Daytona Beach, Florida is Scott Heckert.
Heckert is a road course ringer who competed in six road course races for B.J. McLeod Motorsports in the Xfinity Series from 2018 to 2020.
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The starting lineup for Sunday’s race was set based on a formula which was introduced last season in response to the cancellation of multiple qualifying sessions amid the coronavirus pandemic. McLeod was slated to start in 19th place. But with Heckert behind the wheel of the #78 Ford instead, he is set to start in 28th.
McLeod entered the 2021 season as one of 34 drivers with plans to run the full schedule. All 33 of the others competed in the season-opening Daytona 500 at the Daytona International Speedway oval this past Sunday evening/Monday morning and are set to do compete in Sunday’s race at the road course as well.
One of those 33 drivers, JTG Daugherty Racing’s Ryan Preece, drives an unchartered car. The cars of the other 32 full-time drivers are locked into every race on the calendar, thanks to their charters.
McLeod finished the Daytona 500 in 23rd place.
This driver change is one of two late changes ahead of this Sunday’s race, with the other being Garrett Smithley replacing Joey Gase behind the wheel of the #53 Ford for Rick Ware Racing. Both of those drivers are part-time drivers.
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Tune in to Fox at 3:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, February 21 for the live broadcast of the O’Reilly Auto Parts 253 from the Daytona International Speedway road course.