It was rather short notice, but when opportunity rings, you take the call.
Stanton Barrett received a phone call from Rick Ware about going back racing in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series five days before the inaugural Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course race in September.
The original driver for the car was not approved to run the race, and Ware turned to Barrett, a driver with over 25 years of experience across NASCAR’s top-three series.
It had been over 12 years since Barrett had strapped in for a Cup Series race but he was up for the challenge.
If the trends holds up on intervals between Cup Series starts, Barrett’s next Cup Series race would be in 2030.
Barrett, however, hopes that trend won’t continue. Sponsorship will be pivotal in making the next start come a lot sooner.
“I’m going to be talking to some teams and see what they have available, and try to run some of the road course races, if not all of them,” he said.
In 2019, Barrett’s ideal Cup Series schedule would be to compete at all the road courses, Martinsville, New Hampshire and the superspeedway races along with road courses races in the Xfinity Series races. He will be talking with teams to see what races can be done.
“Hopefully it won’t be another 12 years before we get in a Cup car,” Barrett said jokingly.
Barrett does not have any more Cup Series races lined up for 2018, but would be open to running another race.