Thursday 13 June 2013

Finch shuts up shop - Phoenix Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup team to close

Phoenix Racing are likely to close it's doors for good after team owner James Finch revealed that he will be done with racing after this summer.

The team, which runs the #51 car in the Sprint Cup has struggled with sponsorship over the last few seasons, failing to secure a full time backer whilst the team's entry has shared between three different drivers through out 2013 so far with Regan Smith, AJ Allmendinger and Austin Dillon all sharing Phoenix Racing's Chevrolet after Kurt Busch departed as full time driver towards the end of last season.

Finch revealed the news earlier today, stating "This is my last year racing hopefully it will be in July in the Brickyard." Finch however stopped short of confirming that the team would be disbanded completely, continuing to say "I am talking to some people that might buy the race team and if they do I might stay with them a few months.  After that I will not invest any more money in it after this race in July."

Phoenix racing will compete in this weekend's Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway with 2000 Sprint Cup champion Bobby Labonte behind the wheel.

Labonte becomes Phoenix's fourth driver of the 2013 season so far, taking the drive after loosing his seat at JTG Daugherty, coincidentally being being replaced by AJ Allmendinger at the Toyota team. The agreement is currently for one race only.



Image credit - Phoenix Racing 

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