Fantasy NASCAR Racing

Rockingham.  Carrier was hired by Morgan McClure in 2002 to lead the efforts of Mike Skinner the 12th race of the season.  The pair struggled only producing one top ten finish.  2003 the pair gave it another try, but after 14 races and a best finish of eleventh; and ten finishes of 30th or worse; Carrier and McClure parted ways.  Ryan Pemberton was brought in to fill the void left by Carrier; but Skinner's results didn't improve.  In 2004, Carrier was back with Petree, leading the efforts of Paul Menard.  Once again, this marriage lasted but 14 races, as Menard had a best finish of 13th during that span.  Carrier was then hired by Tad Geschickter to lead Stacy Compton for the remainder of the year.  Compton did place second at Pikes Peak, and added two more top ten finishes.  McClure once again hired Carrier and promoted him back to the Cup series to work with Mike Wallace.  They produced one top ten, an eighth coming at Daytona in the summer.  McClure hired Scott Wimmer to drive in 2006, and run the majority of the races. McClure had a low budget team, and just couldn't match dollars with the power house teams of the day.  In five races, McClure's car wasn't fast enough to make the race, and Wimmers best finish came at the season ending race at Homestead, where he ended 12th.  The next season was even worse.  McClure replaced Wimmer with Ward Burton; but the poor quality of equipment really showed that season.  Out of 36 races, Burton only qualified to make the race 16 times.  In those starts; Burton had a best finish of 14th.  He also had four blown motors.  Roger Penske had enough confidence in Carrier to hire him, and paired him with Sam Hornish who was running his first full year in the Cup Series; after being a three time Indy Car Series Champion; winning 19 Indy Car, races including the Indy 500.  Hornish found the going tough in the Cup Series.  He finished 15th in the Daytona 500, and added a 13th at Charlotte in the Coke 600.  He added an 18th at Dover, and these would be his only top 20 finishes with Carrier.  After 24 races Carrier was replaced by Travis Geisler for the rest of the year.  But Hornish could only provide a best finish of 22nd with Geisler, and did not qualify at Talladega and Homestead.  2009 saw Carrier work only one race in NASCAR, as he led Parker Kligerman at Kansas, to a 16th place finish in the Xfinity series.  The rest of the time he worked with Kligerman in the ARCA Series and Cunningham Motorsports.  They had an impressive season, as Kligerman would win nine times in 21 starts.  He also had 14 top five, and 18 top ten finishes.  He had a streak of five wins in six races, with four wins in a row.  Even with all their success, Kligerman finished second in the points standings, as Justin Lofton would beat Kligerman by five points.  Kligerman moved to the Xfinity series in 2011, and ran as many races as he could get sponsorship for.  He ran 11 events in all; and Carrier helped him place in the top ten on two occasions.  They had six finishes inside the top 15.  Carrier went to work for Kevin Harvick Inc. in 2011.  He helped new comer Nelson Piquet Jr full time in the Truck series, and also worked with three different KHI drivers in the Xfinity series.  The Xfinity series drivers posted four top five finishes in nine starts.  With Piquet, he made 20 of the 22 series starts.  The other two were made by Harvick and Ron Hornaday.  Harvick gave Carrier his first Truck Series win when Harvick won at Texas.  Piquet added five top five, and eight top ten results.  2012 saw Carrier and Piquet again paired up; but not at KHI.  Both have moved over to drive for owner Steve Turner.  The pair posted two wins on the season; one at Michigan and one at Las Vegas.  The had nine top five, and 15 top tens, and finished seventh in points.  Turner would move this combo up to the Xfinity series in 2013.  Piquet attempted 22 races, and found the competition tougher in the Xfinity series.  They did post three top ten finishes, and had 14 top 15 finishes in those 22 starts.  To date, Carrier has remained in the Truck series leading drivers on a part time basis.  He hooked up with owner Charlie Henderson in 2015, and worked with driver Caleb Holman 2015-2017.  He also worked seven races with Kligerman in 2017; with one producing a win.  He has only been with Kligerman ever since, and the duo won again in 2022.  Kligerman acquired a full-time ride in the Xfinity series for 2023 driving the Big Machine Racing Chevy.  Patrick Donahue will be his crew chief.  Carrier worked part time as a crew chief for Kligerman who only race seven races in the Truck series.  His first four starts couldn’t have went much worse.  A crash at Daytona left them 32nd.  Electrical issues at COTA saw him finish 31st.  Another crash at Bristol on the dirt, and he finished 31st again.  An oil leak at Darlington before the half way points saw him fall out and finish 34th.  They completed all the laps at Pocono, but finished 22nd.  At Bristol they completed all the laps again, but could do no better than 18th.  Finally at Talladega they put together a great run, being in the top ten most of the day and even winning stage 2.  They finished ninth when the checkers fell.  Carrier also led the efforts of Jade Buford for two runs in the Xfinity series.  He finished 25th and 36th.  No word on what Carrier will do in 2024.