From the age of two, BJ McLeod knew he wanted to be a part of racing. Come Sunday (May 17), McLeod will have taken his team to the top of motorsports, as BJ McLeod Motorsports will start its first NASCAR Cup Series race.
McLeod, 36, is set to drive the No. 78 Chevrolet this weekend at Darlington Raceway in NASCAR’s return to racing, the same number he began racing with in go-karts. The team got its chassis from Rick Ware Racing in an alliance that could see McLeod on track for upwards of 15 races throughout the 2020 season.
As of now, the BJMM plan is to run the next four races at the Cup level (Darlington, May 17 and May 20; and Charlotte Motor Speedway, May 24 and 27) with veteran Crew Chief Todd Parrott leading the charge atop the pit box. However, McLeod isn’t ruling out running the entire schedule, but says the team will race “easily 15” races, with chassis for short tracks, downforce tracks, superspeedways and road courses.
With NASCAR moving to one-day shows for the immediate future, it also becomes cheaper to start up a Cup team with fewer parts and pieces to buy, specifically tires, which are roughly $2,200 per set.
“I have a chance right now to be able to go run some races and get used to the way things work. And right now, there’s no qualifying and no practice, so it’s less expensive to try,” McLeod said. “There’s less wear and tear. It’s a good chance to go figure things out and get used to the system before it takes more money to do that.
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