FANTASY NASCAR Racin

MIKE CURB - 12/24/1944 -
is an American musician, record company executive, and NASCAR car owner. The team was founded as Curb Racing 1984, running Pontiacs in NASCAR's premier series. He is also the founder of Curb Records; and sponsored Dale Earnhardt Sr. during his 1980 Winston Cup championship winning season. Seven-time Cup champion Richard Petty drove the car, with Petty bringing his STP sponsorship and the No. 43 with him from Petty Enterprises. Buddy Parrott was the crew chief. In his first season with Curb, Petty scored two wins, including the Firecracker 400 for his 200th and final career win. Petty finished tenth in the final championship standings. In 1986, the No. 43 Pontiac switched to No. 98 and reduced to part-time, and Ron Bouchard became Curb's new driver. Valvoline replaced STP as the sponsor, and Beam remained crew chief. Curb has used the #98 ever since. He fielded cars part-time from

1986 and 1987. In 1988, the #98 Buick returned to full-time as Sunoco became the team's new sponsor; and hired to new drivers to wheel his car. Ed Pimm qualified for two out of the first three races of the season, but was replaced by rookie Brad Noffsinger. Noffsinger finished 14th at his series debut in Atlanta in the spring, however it would be his best finish of the season. Noffsinger failed to qualify for 8 races, while the No. 98 failed to finish 7 additional times. Noffsinger finished 38th in points, Sunoco left the team, and the team shut down. He stepped away from NASCAR ownership until 2012 when he returned as a full time owner with driver Michael McDowell. In 2012-2013 the team was

mostly a start-n-park team. McDowell did post their lone top ten finish in the 2013 Daytona 500. For 2014, Curb paired with past NASCAR driver Phil Parson's to field a Cup ride for Josh wise. Wise ran all 36 races in the #98, but wasn't able to finish inside the top ten on a single occasion and posted a season best finish of 20th. For 2015 Wise ran the early part of the season before being released and several drivers shared the ride the remainder of 2015. NASCAR went to the new Charter System in 2016 and Curb's team did not get a Charter and the Cup team was closed down. In the Camping World Truck series Curb started racing full time in 2009. Johnny Sauter was hired to wheel the #13 and the truck ran up front much of the time. Sauter won six races from 2009-2012 and posted 38 Top 5 finishes. He was also second in the points in 2011

after ending up third in 2010. Austin Dillon edged out Sauter by just six points in the 2011 championship hunt. In 2013 the truck was renumber from the #13 to the #98. Sauter won three races in 2013 including the season opening race at Daytona. He also added win at Martinsville and Talladega. However he couldn't put together a strong enough season to win the points as he finished in fourth. He had a win in 2014 and again finished fourth in the points. 2015 saw Sauter go win-less; but posted consistent finishes all season; well enough to once again finish fourth in points. Rookie Rico Abreu was brought on board from racing the midget and sprint car circuits to drive a stock car for the first time. Abreu put his dirt track knowledge to

good use posting a season best finish on the dirt at Eldora. He posted two top five finishes; and five top tens. He ran some races very strong; but rookie mistakes and crashes relegated him to a 13th place finish in the points. For 2017 Grant Enfinger would drive in the Truck Series for Curb. Although running just a majority of the schedule; Enfinger put the truck up front and in the hunt for the win. Even though he didn't pull off a win; Enfinger did manage to post nine top five finishes in only 20 starts. He had a best finish of third at Dover DE, and Ft Worth TX. Like in 2017, Mike Curb would have Grant Enfinger at the controls of his #98 Ford. At Las Vegas, Enfinger would get Curb's first team win since Johnny Sauter won at Michigan in 2014. The single vehicle team had a uphill climb racing against such multi-truck teams as Kyle Busch; GMS, and ThorSport Racing. However, along with Enfinger's win, he was able to add two second place finishes along with seven Top 5 results. He made it into the Chase and was eliminated the final race before the finale' at Homestead. He would end up fifth in the 2018 points. For the past few years Curb had joined forces with Duke Thorson at ThorSports to help make his team more

competitive. The team is listed under Curb; but ThorSports seems to supply the equipment. This keeps Enfinger competitive and together with the ThorSports drivers they were some of the toughest competition on the track. Enfinger failed to win a race; but made his way into the Chase via strong runs and amassing points; as did team mate Matt Crafton and Johnny Sauter. The final race of the second round saw Enfinger, Crafton and Sauter all have their power plants fail within 40 laps of one another. This eliminated Enfinger from further contention and he finished the season in seventh place in points. 2020 was a good year for Curb. Enfinger kicked off the year winning the season's biggest race at Daytona; as he edged out Jordan Anderson. He was in victory lane again in Atlanta. From there he was hit and miss. He'd have some good runs in

the Top 10, and then some runs finishing in the high teens. He won again at Richmond for his third win of the season, and had momentum as the Chase kicked off. But in the final round before the Championship race at Texas; his motor puked out thick black smoke and he was done for the day, finishing 32nd. This left him in a must-win situation going to the final race before the Championship. At Martinsville he had a strong truck and battled Sheldon Creed, Johnny Sauter, Ben Rhodes, and Zane Smith for the win. In the end Enfinger passed Rhodes to lead the final two laps and take the win to advance. At Phoenix his was never really in contention as he only led two laps and finished 13th; which placed him fourth in the season

points. But he had four wins on the year and also had eight Top 5 and 13 Top 10 finishes. In 2021, the #98 truck saw two drivers split time behind the wheel. For twelve races, Grant Enfinger drove; while Christian Eckes was at the controls for ten events. Enfinger was the most consistent driver, posting five Top 5 and eight Top 10’s in his twelve starts. He almost pulled off a win finishing second at Bristol. Meanwhile Eckes would be the one to visit victory lane when he won at Las Vegas. He only had two Top 5 and five Top 10 finishes. Christian Eckes run full time for Mike Curb with support from ThorSport Racing in 2022. The #98 kicked off the season with a third place finish at Daytona. Eckes had a strong run starting at Kansas where he finished fifth. In a nine race span he only had one finish worse than 12th; and finished second twice with strong runs at Gateway and Texas. He made the play-offs and strung together enough good finishes to advance to the semi-final round with a shot to run for the Championship. But even with finishes of eighth, fifth and seventh; he

didn't score enough points to make the final round. He finished eighth in series points. Curb saw Ty Majeski take over controls of the #98 truck in 2023 after Christian Eckes moved to drive the #19 for Bill McAnally. Majeski had a good start to the season as all of his finishes the first seven races were eleventh or better. Good runs continued, and he broke into the win column at IRP leading 179 of 200 laps. They made it into the playoffs, but in the Round of 8 a couple bad finishes saw Majeski eliminated just before the championship race. At Phoenix, he led the first 48 laps and had a strong truck. But he got caught up in a late race wreck eight laps from the end and finished 14th. He finished eighth in season points. The team had eight top five and 14 top ten finishes