FANTASY NASCAR Racin

STARCOM RACING - announced in September of 2017 it's intentions to field a car in the NASCAR Cup Series. The team selected veteran driver Derrike Cope to drive the #00 StarCom Fiber Chevrolet, whom they've previously sponsored throughout the 2017 season at Premium Motorsports. StarCom Racing made it's Cup debut at Kansas in the Hollywood Casino 400 in October of 2017. The team would start 40th and finish 40th after numerous problems plagued the new team. In January 2018 StarCom announced that they had secured a charter and will run the full schedule, with Cope planning to drive the majority of the races. However, Jeffrey Earnhardt was later

announced as the driver for the 2018 Daytona 500. Earnhardt piloted the car for the first five races of the season with sponsorship from VRX Simulators. He earned a best finish of 21st at Daytona. On March 18, 2018, Earnhardt and StarCom Racing had agreed to part ways. Earnhardt was replaced by Landon Cassill, who brought two races of sponsorship from USFRA.org. Several different driver drove the car in 2018 with Cassill making 29 of the 36 starts. He had a best finish of 18th at Las Vegas. Joey Gase, Gray Gaulding and a few others also took turns behind the wheel that season. For 2019 Landon Cassill was at the controls full time. He made a couple

great runs on the restrictor plate tracks; posting an 11th place finish at Daytona in July and followed that up with a 14th at Talladega. Most finishes were in the high 20's andhe finished the season 33rd in points. At the end of the 2019 season it was announced that Quin Houff has signed a contract to pilot the #00 for the 2020 and 2021 season. In 2020, Houff had much the same results that Cassill had in 2019. He had a season best finish of 13th at Talladega; It was their only finish in the Top 20. The team had ten finish in the top 30. They finished all but six races in the season; so obviously the problems lay in the fact the car needs more speed. Usually that comes at a price of many dollars. Hard to do for an underfunded team. For 2021, Houff will be back and they will try to make major

improvements in their finishes. No doubt they are one of the teams looking forward to the release of the new NextGen car in 2022 so they will be on a more level playing field. The team's run in 2021 fared worse, with just one top-20 finish at Talladega. The #00 finished the season 38th in points; three places lower than the previous season. With the team struggling so much the last three seasons, the owners of StarCom decided to cease operations. I am certain the high demand for Charters and the high price they were getting pushed them toward this decision. StarCom sold their Charter to 23XI Racing who was looking for a second Charter. That way they could expand to a two car team. Kurt Busch was brought over to drive the second car and it would be #45