Top 5 Defunct NASCAR Grand National Series Teams

Top 5 Defunct Grand National Teams

By Brian Cotnoir

The Grand National Series was once a place where Average Joe’s could build and enter their own cars for select races, or run the entire season if they had enough money & sponsorship.   It was a time to give rising young talent a chance to compete against Premier NASCAR talent…and then the Cup Regulars and their Cup Teams started entering and winning every race, and it made us all hate watching racing so much that NASCAR had to institute rules to limit the amount of races a Cup Series Regular could enter and give the Grand National Series Regulars a fighting chance.   So before Every Cup Series Team had their own Grand National Team, there was a slew of Independently Owned Grand National Teams and these are the 5 that I—personally—wish were still around

5.)  Brewco Motorsports

Brewco Motorsports was owned by the Clarence Brewer and his wife Tammy.  Brewco Motorsports competed in the NASCAR Busch Series from the mid 1990’s to early 2000’s.   In their 13 years of existence the managed to score 10 races wins with David Green, Greg Biffle, Jeff Purvis, Jamie McMurray, and Casey Atwood.  In 2003, the team finished Runner-Up in the drivers’ standings with driver David Green losing the drivers’ championship to Brian Vickers by just 14 points.  In 2007, the team would sell its assets to Mike Curb and Gary Baker who would form Baker-Curb Racing

4.)  Whitaker Racing

I don’t know much about Owner Ed Whitaker, but he must have been well liked and very popular with drivers.   A native of Bristol Virginia, Whitaker never ran a full-season in the—then Busch—Series, but still found a lot of success in the sport and had some of the most famous drivers in NASCAR History run for him.  Davey Allison, Alan Kulwicki, Harry Gant, Morgan Shepherd, Mark Martin, and Dale Earnhardt Sr. & Jr. all made starts for Ed Whitaker.   Whitaker’s team won 28 total races in the Grand National Series between 1982-2002, with Morgan Shepherd winning the first 8, and Harry Gant winning the other 20 races.

3.)  BACE Motorsports

BACE Motorsports in the only Grand National Team to have won 3 drivers championships in a row.  Think about how incredible that is; Penske, Gibbs, Childress, Roush, JR Motorsports have all won multiple championships in the series, but have never won 3 Grand National Championships in a row.   Roger Penske has only managed to tie BACE Motorsports winning 3 consecutive Owners titles in the series, but never 3 Consecutive Drivers Titles. 

Johnny Benson's 1995 ride for BACE Motorsports

BACE Motorsports was started by Bill Baumgardner in 1993 and found success early on.  In 1995, Johnny Benson piloted the teams #74 car to the 1995 Busch Series Championship, before leaving the team to sign with Bahari Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series.  Randy Lajoie was tabbed to replace Benson and he went on to win back-to-back drivers championships for BACE Motorsports.  Lajoie would be responsible for 11 of BACE Motorsports 16 career wins in the NASCAR Grand National Series.   BACE Motorsports last win came in 1998, and after Lajoie left the team ran decent enough with drivers like Tim Fedewa, Chad Little, and Tony Raines, but they were never able to recapture the glory of their championship years.

Randy Lajoie

2.)  ppc Racing

PPC Racing was started by Greg Pollex (father of Sherry Pollex; girlfriend of Martin Truex Jr.) in 1993, and over the next decade they would be one of the strongest full-time participants in the Grand National Series without a Satellite Cup Series team.  Like many other teams on this list, ppc Racing had a lot of success early.   Chad Little won 6 races for the team in 1995 and finished runner-up to Johnny Benson in the Championship.   Only 5 years later driver Jeff Green would win his first and only championship in the Grand National Series while driving for Pollex.   In fact, Green won the championship by a then-record 616 points. 

Green would finish runner-up the following season, and after he left the team they would still find success with drivers Scott Riggs and Jason Keller.  The team just down at the beginning of the 2007 season after 1 start with drivers John Andretti, due to a lack of funding.   The team finished with 33 career wins in the Grand National Series and the 2000 Drivers Championship

1.)  DEI/Chance 2 Motorsports

Dale Earnhardt Incorporated was a team set up by Dale Earnhardt Sr. and his wife Teresa in the 1980’s.    The team would run part-time in the Busch Series, with Dale running a handful of Busch Races each season, but by the 1990’s they were running full-time in the Truck Series, the Busch Series, and were starting to expand into the Cup Series.

The team really took off in the late 1990’s with drivers Steve Park and Dale Earnhardt Jr. having many successful runs and winning races for the team in the Blue #3 AC Delco car.   When Park was moved to the Cup team at DEI Dale Jr. was put in the seat of the teams Busch Car.  He drove it to back-to-back championships in 1998 & 1999 before making the jump to the DEI Cup Series team. 

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Busch Series Champion 1998 & 1999

Sometime in 2003, Chance 2 Motorsports as it came to be known, became a subsidiary of Dale Earnhardt Incorporated and was run by Dale Jr. and his stepmother Teresa.  Now, I don’t know why there was a change name because this was still pretty much the DEI Busch Series team.   With driver Martin Truex Jr. behind the wheel, the team would back-to-back championships with the #8 Bass Pro Shop Chevrolet in 2004 & 2005, and once again another DEI Busch Series driver got promoted to the DEI Cup Series team.

Martin Truex Jr. Busch Series Champion in 2004 & 2005

Dale Jr. and his sister Kelly had a falling out with their stepmom and Dale Jr. decided to leave the team that bore his father’s name, to join Hendrick Motorsports and with the help of his sister Kelly and hew new car owner, Rick Hendrick, they formed the very successful JR Motorsports team.  In 2009, one year after Dale left the team, Teresa Earnhardt merged the team with Chip Ganassi Racing to form Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, and eventually Ganassi would buy her out of her ownership of the team.   One of the Most Successful racing teams in the garage over the previous 30 years had shut down.