NASCAR Cup Series: 3 teams not returning for the Southern 500

Three teams that have competed part-time during the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season made an appearance in this past Saturday night's Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

Beard Motorsports, Live Fast Motorsports, and NY Racing Team each fielded a non-charter entry in the overtime-extended 164-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona Beach, Florida oval.

But none of those three teams will be returning for this Sunday night's Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, the 26th and final race on the regular season schedule.

Three teams not returning at Darlington

Beard Motorsports fielded the No. 62 Chevrolet for Parker Retzlaff, who played an instrumental role in pushing Wood Brothers Racing's Harrison Burton to the win on the final lap.

It marked their third appearance of the 2024 season, and they have one more planned for the October playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway, when Anthony Alfredo is set to drive the No. 62 Chevrolet for the third time this year after competing at Daytona and Talladega earlier in the season.

Live Fast Motorsports fielded the No. 78 Chevrolet for team co-owner B.J. McLeod. It marked their fourth appearance of the year, though McLeod failed to qualify for the season-opening Daytona 500. He also competed at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Talladega.

The No. 78 Chevrolet is set to return for the upcoming September playoff race at Atlanta and October playoff race at Talladega, though drivers have not yet been confirmed.

Finally, NY Racing Team fielded the No. 44 Chevrolet for Joey Gase, who hadn't competed in a Cup Series race since 2021.

It marked their fifth appearance of the season, though they too failed to qualify for the Daytona 500 with J.J. Yeley behind the wheel. Yeley competed in their first three races of the year at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, and Pocono Raceway.

There are currently no more starts lined up for the No. 44 Chevrolet on the 2024 calendar.

Richard Childress Racing, which added the No. 33 Chevrolet for Austin Hill in Saturday night's race, are the only other team which fielded a non-charter entry at Daytona. They are set to scale back down to two cars at Darlington, fielding only the full-time No. 3 Chevrolet and No. 8 Chevrolet for Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch, respectively.

There is still set to be one non-charter car on the entry list for Sunday's 367-lap race around the four-turn, 1.366-mile (2.198-kilometer) egg-shaped Darlington, South Carolina oval, however. MBM Motorsports are set to return for their eighth start of the year, fielding the No. 66 Ford for Timmy Hill for a second time.

Darlington Raceway is scheduled to host the Cook Out Southern 500 beginning at 6:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, September 1, with live coverage set to be provided by USA Network. Begin a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss the final race before the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs!