Fantasy NASCAR Racing

Blaney and winning at Charlotte.  He would lead a variety of drivers at Braun Racing through 2011.  Such drivers as Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, and Brian Vickers all went win-less.  It wasn’t until 2011 that he won for the second time.  Mark Martin would win at Las Vegas; while Reed Sorenson would grab them a win at Elkhart Lake.  In 2012 Owens would move to work for owner Steve Turner who was providing a car for his son-in-law James Buescher.  They would win the season opening Xfinity race at Daytona.  They also finished second at Michigan while only running 15 races that season.  In 2013 Turner hired Kyle Larson to drive for him and they raced the entire Xfinity series schedule.  They posted nine Top 5 finishes; including four second place finishes; as they would pair up to win Larson the Xfinity Rookie of the Year title.  For 2014 Owens moved up to be a full time Cup crew chief working for Richard Petty Motorsports and driver Aric Almirola.  They would win in their first season; grabbing the checkered hankie at the 400 mile race in Daytona.  They also had a third place finish at Bristol.  In 2015 and 2016 they would only be able to have three Top 5 finishes; and Owens was released from his contract at Richard Petty Motorsports at the end of the season.  He was then hired to oversee the JTG Daugherty Racing #37 team of Chris Buescher, on January 2, 2017.  They had four Top 10 finishes that season.  This pair remained together for most of 2018. Owens and Buescher only posted two Top 5's; both coming at Daytona. It was also their lone Top 10's. With team mate AJ Allmendinger also struggling; JTG Daugherty Racing decided to swap crew chiefs for the season's final nine races. The results proved to be pretty much the same.  2019 just proved to be a struggle for Owens as he tried to make the #37 car fast.  It was a bad year in 2018 when Owens only saw his driver finish in the top five twice; but 2019 was even worse as they didn't post a single top five and had a season best finish of sixth at Charlotte.  They were only able to amass four Top 10 finishes all season.  Bueschers teammate Ryan Preece wasn't able to do any better.  Buescher was hired to drive for Roush Fenway Racing in 2020 and Preece will move to the #37 car vacated by Buescher.  Owens would head up his efforts Owens driver produced one of his worst seasons since he led Aric Almirola who ran a limited schedule in 2016.  Preece only was able to finish in the Top 10 twice, with a best of ninth at Bristol.  They finished 29th in the points which is the worst one of Owens drivers has done since he started being a full time crew chief in 2014.  It was thought that since Preece had such a poor performance that he may lose his Cup ride; but he managed to retain his job and was paired with Owens again in 2021.  They had slightly better results that season; and had the added pressure of not having a Charter to guarantee them a starting spot.  Preece finished sixth in the Daytona 500 and follow that up the next week on Daytona’s Road Course.  They had a fourth place finish when they returned to Daytona and added an eighth at Pocono.  Trent Owens and Haley were together in 2022.  Kaulig racing was still in their growing stages; just having one full time car/driver combo in the Cup Series.  Haley has shown to be a good driver on the super speedways and road courses.  And their strengths showed there.  Haley finished eleventh at the newly reconfigured Atlanta Speedway in the Spring and seventh in the Summer.  They were 15th at COTA, with 12th at Sonoma, but a season best road finish at the Roval of fifth.  They put together a couple surprisingly good runs at Darlington and Texas where they finished third.  They will be back together again in 2023 and Kaulig Racing adds AJ Allmendinger as a full time team mate in 2023.  It was expected that Allmendinger's experience will help both Kaulig as a team, and Haley as a team mate to make improvements in the coming year.  However, they ended up not being the case.  They only had two top ten finishes in the first twelve events.  They had a great run at Chicago on the street course; but Haley was no match for road course ace, Shane van Gisbergen, who swept by Haley with eight laps to go and steal the win.  Haley finished second.  It proved to be their only top five for the year, and they only had five top tens.  Near the end of the season Haley announced he was leaving Kaulig Racing at the end of the season to go drive for Rick Ware Racing.  Daniel Hemric will move up from the Xfinity series to take over controls of the #31 car; with Owens as the lead wrench.