Live Fast Motorsports are in the midst of their best ever NASCAR Cup Series season, even though it's only their second season as a part-time team following a three-year run with a charter to run the No. 78 car for the full 36-race schedule.
Unfortunately for them, team owner B.J. McLeod was knocked out of the regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway in a crash, marking the team's first DNF since McLeod's DNF at Talladega Superspeedway.
The DNF ended a six-race run of finished which included three top 20 results, matching the team's best ever output over an entire season.
Live Fast Motorsports not running at Darlington
After running six of the final 10 races of the regular season, Live Fast Motorsports will not compete in the playoff opener at Darlington Raceway this weekend.
There are just two part-time non-chartered (open) cars set to run Sunday night's 367-lap Cook Out Southern 500 around the four-turn, 1.366-mile (2.198-kilometer) egg-shaped Darlington, South Carolina oval.
They include the No. 44 Chevrolet for NY Racing Team and the No. 66 Ford for Garage 66 (MBM Motorsports), which are set to be driven by Derek Kraus and Josh Bilicki, respectively. Both are locked into the race.
As for Live Fast Motorsports, they do have plans to return later this year, first in the round of 8 opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for Katherine Legge, who leads the team with six starts so far this season, and then in the middle race of the round of 8 at Talladega for McLeod.
Legge was not initially planning to compete at Las Vegas, but when it was announced that she would run the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis, the Las Vegas start was also confirmed as the replacement for the start she had planned on making at Richmond Raceway earlier this month.
The Cook Out Southern 500 is scheduled to begin at 6:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, August 31, with live coverage from Darlington Raceway set to be provided by USA Network. Start a free trial of FuboTV today and don't miss any of the action from the track "Too Tough To Tame"!