FANTASY NASCAR Racin

JODI GESCHICKTER - 7/9/1964
TAD GESCHICKTER - 9/24/1962
JTG Racing - later JTG Daugherty Racing (formerly ST Motorsports and JTG Racing) is an American professional stock car racing team that currently competes in the NASCAR Cup Series. The team is owned by former advertising executive Tad Geschickter and his wife Jodi, along with current ESPN analyst Brad Daugherty. Jodi is currently the only female Cup Series team owner. The team formerly had alliances with Wood Brothers Racing, then Michael Waltrip Racing, and currently has a technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing. JTG started fielding cars in the NASCAR Xfinity series in 1995; with Jeff Fuller in the cockpit. He posted one Top 5 that season; but gave the team their first win the following season by claiming the checkers at Bristol where Fuller won the pole and led 145 of 250

laps. Several quality drivers raced JTG's cars from 1997-2003. Drivers Mike Dillon, Phil Parsons, Robert Pressley and Stacy Compton were all competitive in JTG race cars; but none managed to find victory lane. In 2004 JTG expanded to a two car operation with Compton and Pressley as their lead drivers. In 2006 JTG added a Truck Series team to their operation and hired Marcus Ambrose to drive. He would drive 22 races with a best finish of second that season. Ambrose moved up to race in the Xfinity series full time in 2007 with a best finish of fourth that year. The following year Ambrose was able to give the team their second win by winning beating out Kyle Busch to win the Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen. JTG Daugherty had attempted to make their Cup Series debut in the third race of 2007 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with Ken Schrader behind the wheel, a second car to the Wood Brothers' #21,

but the team failed to qualify for the race. Jon Wood attempted to qualify the #47 in the season's 29th race at Kansas Speedway but also failed to qualify into the field. With the new ownership at JTG Daugherty Racing in 2008, the team attempted to qualify for the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard with Marcos Ambrose at the wheel and he qualified into the race in 24th position. Ambrose finished in the 22nd position. He finished 3rd in the No. 21 Ford Fusion of Wood Brothers Racing at the Centurion Boats at the Glen at Watkins Glen International. On October 1, JTG Daugherty signed a deal to enter into a technical alliance with Michael Waltrip Racing for the remainder of 2008 and the 2009 Sprint Cup season. At the end of the 2008 season; JTG

added owner Brad Daugherty to the organization. Daugherty; an American retired basketball player played college basketball at the University of North Carolina and professionally with the Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA from 1986-1994. During this technical alliance in 2008 and 2009, the #47 ran a Toyota Camry as the third car on the Michael Waltrip Racing team. For the rest of the 2008 season, the 47 switched to Toyota and leased the owner point's for MWR's #00 entry. Ambrose ran four races for the rest of the season and had a best finish of eighteenth. The 47 became a full-time entry in 2009, running with sponsorship mostly from Little Debbie and the Clorox Company. He had seven top-ten finishes, including a second at Watkins Glen, and finished eighteenth in

points. The alliance continued for 2010, with Ambrose again running as the third car for MWR. For 2011, however, Ambrose left JTG Daugherty Racing in the Cup Series to drive for Richard Petty Motorsports although he drove for JTG in a one race deal for Watkins Glen in the Nationwide Series. He was replaced by former series champion Bobby Labonte. Labonte proved a good replacement by scoring 4th in the Daytona 500 and pushing Trevor Bayne to the lead on the final lap. However, the 500 remained their sole high point, and they struggled throughout the season to a 29th-place points finish. As a result, crew chief Frankie Kerr was moved to the shop foreman position, and JTG hired former Richard Childress Racing crew chief Todd Berrier as their new crew chief and general manager. To improve the team's

performance beyond MWR, JTG moved back into the Geischeckter's old race shop it shared with the Wood Brothers. However, the team had very few good runs in 2012. For 2013, Labonte and JTG would have a best finish of 15th at Daytona before he was replaced at Kentucky by A. J. Allmendinger. Allmendinger would score a top 10 at Watkins Glen. On August 29, 2013, Sporting News reported that Allmendinger will be the full-time driver for JTG Daugherty Racing in 2014. The team will also be switching to Chevrolet and form a technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing. Allmendinger started 2014 slowly, but got hot with back to back top-10 finishes in May. He also raced his way into the Sprint All-Star Race. Allmendinger had the strongest car at Sonoma in June but was involved in an incident that left him a disappointing 37th. However he got redemption at Watkins Glen by winning the race, beating fellow road course ace Marcos Ambrose for the team's first Sprint Cup win. The win was also the first Chase birth for JTG. Ironically, Ambrose himself had nearly scored the team's first win in 2010. Allmendinger qualified for the Chase, the first Chase birth for JTG Daugherty, and finished 13th in the points standings. Both Allmendinger and all of the team's sponsors returned in 2015. Allmendinger and the #47 started 2015 off with four straight Top 20s, including a pair of Top 10s. Allmendinger also swept both road course poles, at Sonoma and Watkins Glen. However the team only scored one more Top 10, at Pocono in August, and Allmendinger finished 22nd in points. Allmendinger and Kroger inked a multi-year contract extension following the 2015 season. After starting the 2016 season slowly, the #47 picked up momentum with an 8th place finish at California in the spring. One

week later at Martinsville, Allmendinger finished runner-up to Kyle Busch. The team missed the Chase, but closed the season strong picking up six more Top 10's and a top-5 at Watkins Glen. Allmendinger finished 19th in points. In November 2016, the team announced plans to expand to two cars for the 2017 season. On November 29, Roush Fenway Racing leased their No. 16 charter to JTG, while also loaning driver Chris Buescher to the team; as JTG expanded to a two car team with Buescher piloting the #37 machine. For 2017, Allmendinger started the season off on a high note with a third place finish at the season opening Daytona 500. That was the highlight of the year however, as it would be the only Top 5 he posted. Meanwhile Buescher had a best finish of sixth (twice) coming at Kansas and Michigan. As 2018 kicked off the team had the

lone win garnered by Allmendinger and both Buescher and Allmendinger was back with the team. JTG entered into a deal to get technical alliance from Rick Hendrick Motorsports for 2018. JTG Daugherty Racing had a disappointing season. In many ways it mirrored the disappointing 2017 season. Driver Chris Buescher only had two finishes inside the top five, with a fifth being his best (in both Daytona races). AJ Allmendinger looked to be a threat on the road courses; In the race at Sonoma he won stage one, but eight laps into stage two he missed a shift and blew his motor. At Watkins Glen, untimely pit stops put Allmendinger back in the field and he was never able to recover. He finished on the lead lap but way back in 15th place. AJ did manage one finish inside the top five. It came at the July Daytona race. When the season was over, JGT

Daugherty decided they would make a driver change for 2019. Buescher would remain; but Allmendinger was released. For 2019 he was replaced by Ryan Preece. The young driver has showed a lot of talent in what few Xfinity series races he has ran; including getting a win at Bristol. In his other 15 starts he had seven top five finishes and ten top tens. In 2019 Preece had a respectable Cup season and was in a tight battle for Rookie of the Year with Daniel Hemric. He started off the season with an eighth place finish in the Daytona 500. He had some growing pains and crashed at the second race at Atlanta and two races later at Phoenix. From there he managed to right the ship somewhat and finished races and gained

experience. He even posted a surprising third place finish at Talladega. As the season wore on, he continued to improve and the final eight races of the season all of his finishes were inside the top 25. For the year he had one Top 5 and three Top 10 finishes. He had ten results inside the Top 20. Meanwhile Buescher failed to post a Top 5 but did have four Top 10 finishes. His best race came in the Coke 600 where he finished sixth. He did have a lot of good runs inside the Top 20; (28) not bad for a low funded race team. Before the end of the season it was announced that Buescher was going to go to drive for Roush Fenway Racing in 2020. Buescher had broke into NASCAR driving for Roush, and Jack had always promised he'd have him back in their Cup car. Roush announced they would

release Ricky Stenhouse at the end of the season; and it ended up that Stenhouse was picked up by JTG Daugherty Racing for 2020. As we went into the new race season Preece moved to the #37 car while Stenhouse will drove the #47. JTG-Daugherty Racing didn't see much improvement in 2020. Preece only managed to post two Top 10 finishes. One at Bristol and the other at Talladega. Stenhouse didn't do much better he had three Top 5's and four Top 10's. His best finish was second at Talladega. Neither driver came close to making the Chase and finished outside the Top 20 in points. However the team announced that both drivers will be back for 2021. Preece and Stenhouse couldn’t produce as very successful season. The team only had

one Charter, and Stenhouse had the car that owned it. That left Preece in a stressful situation as he would have to qualify to make it into the field each race. Luckily he kicked off the season with a sixth in the Daytona 500, and followed that up with a ninth on the Daytona road course. This gave him a nice points lead for the many races that were set by points due to Covid. When they returned to Daytona, Preece was fourth. He had four Top 10’s on the season. Stenhouse had a second place finish on the dirt of Bristol. He only had two Top 10 finishes. JTG Daugherty,

which had fielded two cars per season the previous five years, opted to mothball the #37 for 2022. It left Ryan Preece unemployed, and the team focused its attention on the #47 Chevy of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. One advantage to operating a multi-car team is that there is more data at the disposal of the drivers and crew chiefs. Two-car teams came away from races with twice as much insight; and four cars teams get four times as much data. They also collected more data on brake and acceleration zones and how well running different lines worked. But before we lay all the blame on the team; some of the blame has to go to it's driver Stenhouse. He can't seem to shake the derisive “Wrecky Stenhouse” label. Crashes took him out of both

Daytona stops this season as well as five other races. Certainly, he can’t be faulted for all of them. But he’s finished on the lead lap in just 47.2% of races over the past five seasons. For the sixth straight season he failed to place in the Top 20 in the points standings. The best finish Stenhouse posted in 2022 was a second at Dover. It was his only Top 5 result; and he only had five Top 10's. It appeared the team may have figured something out starting at Dover. After the second place finish he came home eighth the next race at Darlington; followed that with another eighth at Kansas and a seventh at Charlotte in the

Coke 600. But after that it all came crashing down as he only had three finishes in the Top 15 the rest of the year; and posted 14 finishes of 22nd or worse in that same span. Crew chief Brian Pattie left the team at the end of the year to work for Kyle Busch Motorsports in the truck series, and JTG Daugherty promoted Mike Kelley to fill the position. Everyone was flying blind the first time through a season in the Next Gen car. JTG Daugherty obviously still has a lot to figure out in 2023 and will start without the advantage of full 2022 data. Stenhouse was back in 2023, and the team really showed a lot of improvement. After not posting a win since 2014 when AJ Allmendinger won, Stenhouse got the season off to a great start when he won the Daytona 500. Folks figured this would be a flash in the pan, and the team would return to it’s normal running status. But that proved not to be the case. Although Stenhouse only had two top five runs on the year, they had an impressive nine top ten finishes; the most the team had since 2016. In the play offs, although he had a tenth and 16th place finish in the Round of 16, a lead lap, 23rd place finish left them just short of advancing to the Round of 12. It was certainly an impressive improvement over the previous seven years.