#64 car withdraws from Talladega

After much thought, team owner Larry Gunselman has decided to withdraw the #64 Gunselman Motorsports Toyota from this weekend’s Sprint Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway. Because of the financial demands required to get a competitive restrictor-plate motor for Talladega, Gunselman decided to focus the team’s limited finances and instead put forth their fiscal and physical energy towards the next three races. After this weekend, the Sprint Cup Series visits Richmond, Darlington and Lowe’s Motor Speedway. The unsponsored team already has two engines for those tracks ensuring they will enter those races; but couldn’t afford to rent a plate motor for Talladega.

“I hate, and I mean HATE, that we will not be in Talladega this weekend," Gunselman said. “This wasn’t an easy decision by no means as we were hoping to have some kind of partnership on the car by now through our earlier efforts. I’m disappointed for myself, the team and Geoff Bodine because now he won’t get a chance to compete. Of all the go or go-homers, we are the final one in the standings that would make a race if qualifying rains out. While that’s good, it’s not good enough to take a chance on taking the team to Talladega without the proper motor. This team wants to race and put forth a full-race effort each week. This team is made of racers who want to compete. But, right now, we have to race smart with what we have and that means we can’t race this weekend."

While the team has found limited one-race sponsorships for some races, their goal is to have a multi-race deal in place to ensure they can be competitive.

“We were hoping to attract a partner for $25,000 a race so we could be run races from start-to-finish. And, we are still looking to achieve that partnership with the right company right now. That’s what we need to be more competitive. Gunselman Motorsports offers a value that many other teams can’t and our goal right now is to find those companies who want to be part of racing on affordable terms. Here we are trying to save money by not going to Talladega and the hotel is still going to charge us for the three rooms for three nights down there. When we called the Budget Inn to tell them our situation, they basically said we couldn’t get out of them. So, if anyone wants some rooms for this weekend, I know where three are available less than two miles from the track." Gunselman Motorsports PR