At Texas Motor Speedway, Chad Finchum became the sixth different driver to be a part of Garage 66's NASCAR Cup Series program in some way, shape, or form this year, even though he was only the third driver to actually compete in a race behind the wheel of the No. 66 Ford.
The team attempted to enter the preseason Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, but Garrett Smithley failed to qualify. They then planned to have Mike Wallace attempt to qualify for the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, and after he was ruled ineligible, Chandler Smith failed to qualify.
Driver number four, Casey Mears, finally made the team's first actual start of the year at Martinsville Speedway in March, and to this day, his 35th place finish remains their best of the year.
Garage 66 not returning at Kansas after back-to-back DNFs
Josh Bilicki was knocked out of the race at Bristol Motor Speedway with an electrical issue and scored in 39th place, and Chad Finchum was taken out of this past weekend's race at Texas Motor Speedway in a wreck. He was scored in 37th.
It surprisingly marks the first time that Garage 66, formerly known as MBM Motorsports, have recorded DNFs in back-to-back starts since they concluded the 2021 season with three DNFs in a row at Kansas Speedway with Finchum and then at Martinsville and Phoenix Raceway with Timmy Hill.
The team do plan to return to the Cup Series later this year, though the exact races and dates have not yet been announced. However, they will not be competing in this Sunday afternoon's AdventHealth 400 at Kansas. The team have yet to make appearances on back-to-back weekends this season.
There are just two non-chartered (open) cars on the entry list for this 267-lap race around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Kansas City, Kansas oval, so all 38 cars are locked into the race.
Those two open cars are the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, which is set to be driven by Jesse Love, and the No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota, which is set to be driven by Corey Heim.
Love competed on Sunday at Texas for Beard Motorsports, which, like Garage 66, will not be back this weekend. Heim has not yet made any Cup Series starts this year.
The AdventHealth 400 is set to be shown live on Fox Sports 1 from Kansas Speedway beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, May 11. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action!