NASCAR loses a full-time team just four races into the 2024 season

B.J. McLeod Motorsports have showed up to every race since the 2016 NASCAR Xfinity Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway, with their only missed events being a few DNQs here and there.

From 2017 to 2022, they ran multiple cars on a full-time basis, doing so with three from 2019 to 2021. After scaling down to two again in 2022, they scaled down to one just a few races into the 2023 season.

After the first four races of the 2024 season, each featuring team owner B.J. McLeod behind the wheel of the No. 78 Chevrolet, the team have confirmed an additional reduction in race count.

B.J. McLeod Motorsports will no longer compete full-time in the Xfinity Series, and their upcoming plans have not yet been announced.

McLeod, who also competes part-time for the team he co-owns in the Cup Series, Live Fast Motorsports, with Matt Tifft, sits in 19th place in the Xfinity Series point standings through the first four races of the season with three top 20 finishes, including a top finish of 14th in the most recent race at Phoenix Raceway two weekends ago.

He will not compete in this Saturday afternoon's race at Circuit of the Americas, as the No. 78 Chevrolet is not on the entry list.

The team's goal is to become more of a regular contender moving forward, and they believe that focusing on only select races, similar to Live Fast Motorsports' approach after selling their charter following three disappointing seasons in the Cup Series, will allow them to make the necessary gains to be able to run inside the top 15 each and every week.

Last season was the first season in which the team had a full-time driver since McLeod competed full-time in their debut season eight years ago. Anthony Alfredo drove the No. 78 Chevrolet last year and finished in 24th place in the point standings with a pair of eighth place finishes and an additional five top 15 results.

The part-time entry, the No. 99 Chevrolet, was intended to be a full-time entry, but it made just three appearances at the start of last season, all with Garrett Smithley behind the wheel. Smithley only managed to qualify for one of those three races, and the team ultimately stopped running the car.

McLeod himself did not compete for the team last year, though he did make one start for Emerling-Gase Motorsports. Prior to 2024, his most recent start with his team came in the 2022 season finale at Phoenix Raceway.