NASCAR team decides not to compete at Talladega
By Asher Fair
Finish Line Motorsports Marketing will not be making their NASCAR Cup Series debut in Sunday afternoon’s race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Before the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season opened up with the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, there was some confusion over whether there would be 42 cars or 43 cars on the entry list.
Finish Line Motorsports Marketing had been reported as entering the race’s seventh non-chartered entry, the No. 80 Chevrolet, for J.J. Yeley. But Reaume Brothers Racing clarified that this would not be the case, meaning that there would be just six cars going for the final four spots in the Great American Race.
The organization did add that they had been working with Finish Line Motorsports Marketing to field the No. 80 Chevrolet in select Cup Series races throughout the season. Their plan was to make their series debut in the race at Phoenix Raceway back in March. The team is based in Arizona, and Yeley is a native of Phoenix himself. However, that did not pan out.
Their new plan was to make their NASCAR Cup Series debut in this coming Sunday afternoon’s race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Yeley was to drive the No. 80 Chevrolet in this race.
The Finishline Motorsports owner confirmed to me that their next attempt will be the spring Talladega race with @jjyeley1. The team has two Next Gen cars in their fleet with 6 full-time crew members working. #NASCAR @Frontstretch
— Jared Haas (@RealJaredHaas) March 10, 2023
However, the No. 80 Chevrolet is not on the entry list for Sunday’s 188-lap GEICO 500 at the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked Lincoln, Alabama oval. Yeley is still set to compete, but behind the wheel of the No. 51 Ford for Rick Ware Racing amid Cody Ware’s indefinite suspension.
The only two non-chartered cars on the entry list for this race are the No. 36 Ford for Front Row Motorsports, which is set to be driven by Todd Gilliland, and the No. 62 Chevrolet for Beard Motorsports, which is set to be driven by Austin Hill.
Finish Line Motorsports Marketing not competing in Sunday afternoon’s race continues a recent trend of new teams looking to make their Cup Series debut but not actually doing so. Last year, Team Stange Racing and 3F Racing both had plans to enter the series, but to this day, they have made a combined zero starts.
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Fox is set to broadcast the GEICO 500 live from Talladega Superspeedway beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, April 23. Begin a free trial of FuboTV today and don’t miss it!