Sponsor shortage forces Joe Gibbs team to miss Nationwide race

The top Nationwide Series car on the circuit won’t race this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway, and another one of the series regular entries won’t compete next weekend as teams continue to seek sponsorship.

The No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team, which leads the series owners standings by 15 points over the JGR No. 18 team, won’t race this weekend as sponsorship did not materialize for the stand-alone event at Chicagoland Speedway.

JGR will still field the No. 18 car with Kelly Bires as the driver and the No. 11 team of Brian Scott, but the No. 20 has withdrawn from the event, according to NASCAR.

The No. 20 team’s status to run every race this year was uncertain, and the team almost didn’t go to Nashville Superspeedway in April until last-minute sponsorship materialized.

That didn’t happen this week for Chicago, so that team will stay at home.

Another Nationwide regular, Pastrana-Waltrip Racing, announced this week that while it will compete with Ryan Truex this weekend at Chicagoland, it will run only eight of the remaining 20 races unless it obtains more sponsorship. Scenedaily.com