Jeffrey Earnhardt's tenure with StarCom Racing is over
The combination of Jeffrey Earnhardt and StarCom Racing lasted five races.
The team announced Sunday night that it had parted ways with Earnhardt following a 36th-place finish in Sunday’s race at Auto Club Speedway. StarCom’s No. 00 has consistently been one of the worst cars in the Cup Series. While Earnhardt finished 21st in the Daytona 500 by virtue of staying out of the trouble all of the top cars got in, he finished 31st or lower in each of the next four races.
We want to thank @JEarnhardt1 for his time with SCR, we have mutually agreed to move in different directions at this time. It was a pleasure working together & we wish success to Jeffrey & his team. Stay tuned this week for more information on who will be at the wheel of the 00!
— StarCom Racing (@StarcomRacing) March 19, 2018
When StarCom announced Earnhardt as the driver of its car, the team said Earnhardt would drive in the Daytona 500 “and the rest of the season.” His presence in the 500 meant an Earnhardt competed in the race for the 40th-straight year. The last Daytona 500 without a driver named Earnhardt came in 1978.
The team said Monday afternoon that Landon Cassill would pilot the car at Martinsville and Texas. Cassill has been without a ride in the Cup Series since he was replaced at Front Row Motorsports by Michael McDowell at the end of the 2017 season.
StarCom entered the Cup Series at the end of the 2017 season and ran two races. Derrike Cope, who is currently serving as the team’s manager, drove the car and finished 40th and 32nd.
The team is leasing a charter from Richard Childress Racing and has a guaranteed entry into every race on the Cup schedule. The charter is from RCR’s now-defunct No. 27 car that isn’t running in 2018 because Paul Menard went to Wood Brothers Racing.
– – – – – – –
Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
Follow @NickBromberg on Twitter
More from Yahoo Sports:
• Better than 28-3? Nevada stuns Cincy with all-time comeback
• Tiger Woods nearly pulls off Sunday charge at Arnold Palmer Invitational
• Patriots pick up former first-rounder in deal with Raiders
• Historic tourney upset could be worth $119M to UMBC
