NASCAR title-winning team shutting down after 2023
By Asher Fair
GMS Racing, a former championship-winning organization, plan to cease operations at the end of the 2023 NASCAR Truck Series season.
Both the GMS Racing NASCAR team and GMS Fabrication plan to close their doors at the end of the 2023 season, the race team confirmed in an announcement on Wednesday.
The team’s final Truck Series appearance is set to come in the season finale at Phoenix Raceway on Friday, November 3. They currently run the No. 23 Chevrolet for Grant Enfinger, the No. 24 Chevrolet for Rajah Caruth, and the No. 43 Chevrolet for Daniel Dye.
Neither Caruth nor Dye, both rookies this year, managed to qualify for the playoffs, but veteran Enfinger did so on the strength of two regular season victories and is looking to close out GMS Racing’s Truck Series stint with their third series championship.
GMS Racing, which shut down their championship-winning ARCA Menards Series team ahead of the 2023 season, have competed in the Truck Series since 2013, and they have racked up a total of 44 victories since then.
They won the 2016 championship with Johnny Sauter behind the wheel of the No. 21 Chevrolet, and they won the 2020 championship with Sheldon Creed behind the wheel of the No. 2 Chevrolet.
The team also competed in the Xfinity Series from 2016 to 2019, doing so as a full-time team from 2017 to 2019. Spencer Gallagher, the son of team owner Maury Gallagher, earned their lone victory at Talladega Superspeedway in April 2018.
Our time spent in @NASCAR has been incredible, and we are thankful for everybody's support throughout the years. We'll be giving it everything we've got from here on out till Phoenix!
— GMS Racing (@GMSRacingLLC) August 23, 2023
📰: https://t.co/Ozdw7zosTg#WeAreGMS pic.twitter.com/6Q9OLyHrak
The news of GMS Racing’s shutdown does not impact the future of Legacy Motor Club in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Legacy Motor Club was rebranded from Petty GMS Motorsports after the 2022 season upon Jimmie Johnson’s arrival as a co-owner. Petty GMS Motorsports formed after the 2021 season when Richard Petty Motorsports merged with GMS Racing, marking the latter’s entry into the Cup Series.
Legacy Motor Club announced in May that they will be switching from Chevrolet to Toyota for the 2024 season. Erik Jones is set to return for a fourth season behind the wheel of the No. 43 car and re-align with Toyota for the first time since his final season with Joe Gibbs Racing in 2020.
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Joe Gibbs Racing Xfinity Series driver John Hunter Nemechek, who re-aligned with Toyota in 2021 by leaving the Front Row Motorsports Cup Series team and joining the Kyle Busch Motorsports Truck Series team, is believed to be on his way to being announced as the full-time driver of the No. 42 Toyota next year.