Beard Motorsports

Beard Motorsports
Beard Motorsports.jpeg
Owner(s)Linda Beard
Mark Beard Jr.
Annie Beard
BaseMooresville, North Carolina
SeriesNASCAR Cup Series
Race drivers62. Noah Gragson (part-time)
Sponsors62. Beard Oil, Wendy's
ManufacturerChevrolet
Opened2009
Career
Debut2017 Daytona 500 (Daytona)
Races competedTotal: 37
Cup Series: 19
Xfinity Series: 11
ARCA Racing Series: 7
Drivers' Championships0
Race victories0
Pole positions0

Beard Motorsports is an American professional stock car racing team that competes part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series with the No. 62 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for Noah Gragson. The team was created in 2009 by Mark Beard for competition in the ARCA Re/Max Series. Beard Motorsports attempted two races in the Cup Series in 2014, with driver Clay Rogers, making none. After going dormant in 2015 and 2016, the team returned part-time in 2017 with Brendan Gaughan.

History

Early years

During his driving career, Mark Beard raced for his own team in ARCA and the NASCAR Busch Series as an owner-driver, but also fielded cars in the 1990s for drivers like Gary Neice, Dana Patten, Bobby Dotter, L. D. Ottinger, Richard Lasater, Butch Miller, and Jim Brinkley Jr. The owner of the oil business Beard Oil, he founded Beard Motorsports in 2009 and began racing in ARCA with Clay Rogers; Beard acquired equipment from Hendrick Motorsports. The team split time between the numbers 42 and 45 and scored a best finish of fourth at Iowa Speedway.

Cup Series

Brendan Gaughan in the No. 62 at Talladega Superspeedway in 2019

Mark Beard founded the team during the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The race team's engine was built with old Hendrick Motorsports parts and with tests at various east coast tracks, including at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

The team was on the entry list for the July race at Loudon but withdrew their car before attempting to qualify. The team then attempted to run at Richmond International Raceway two months later with Clay Rogers in the No. 75 Beard Oil Chevrolet; however, they failed to qualify for the race. The last time Beard Motorsports attempted to qualify for a race was at Phoenix International Raceway with Rogers, but weren't able to make the race.

The team did not attempt any races in 2015 or 2016.

In 2017, Beard Motorsports announced it would run the Daytona 500 with Brendan Gaughan in the No. 75 Beard Oil Chevrolet. Gaughan's Richard Childress Racing Xfinity Series pit crew serviced the car and the team used a Childress engine. The team also bought a car from Leavine Family Racing, a Childress satellite; the car had finished 15th in the previous year's Daytona 500 with Michael McDowell. The team does not possess a NASCAR charter. As one of the two fastest non-charter cars in qualifying, Gaughan was able to make the field.

Gaughan then secured an 11th-place finish in the Daytona 500, the first race in the Cup Series for the team. The team announced it would enter the other three 2017 restrictor plate races. Gaughan and the team returned at Talladega, finishing 27th. Then on July 1 in the Coke Zero 400, Brendan Gaughan drove the team's car to a seventh-place finish, despite hitting the wall once in the race. The team's next race was the Alabama 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Gaughan led laps and ended up 17th after avoiding the big one then being collected in the next crash.

The team came back for the 2018 slate of restrictor-plate races, and did the same as well in 2019, using cars from Richard Childress Racing, engines from ECR Engines, and technical support from the Childress crew.

2020 marked Gaughan's final season as a driver. He made the field at the 2020 Daytona 500 by posting the second fastest qualifying speed of all the non-charter teams (188.945 mph; 33rd overall). Gaughan's tenure with the team and career ended in the YellaWood 500 at Talladega, where he finished 35th after being collected in a Stage 2 wreck.

On January 14, 2021, Beard announced Noah Gragson would attempt to make his Cup debut in the Daytona 500. On January 31, just 14 days before the 500, team owner Mark Beard died at age 72.

On September 7, 2021, Beard Motorsports announced they will return in the 2022 season, entering the No. 62 in all four superspeedway races with Gragson competing in the 2022 Daytona 500. Gragson finally made his debut, but he failed to finish being involved in a crash. He achieved sponsorship from Wendy's for Talladega and achieved his first ever top-20 finish in a Cup Series race.

NASCAR Cup Series results

NASCAR Cup Series results
Year Driver No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Owners Pts
2014 Clay Rogers 75 Chevy DAY PHO LVS BRI CAL MAR TEX DAR RCH TAL KAN CLT DOV POC MCH SON KEN DAY NHA IND POC GLN MCH BRI ATL RCH
DNQ
CHI NHA DOV KAN CLT TAL MAR TEX PHO
DNQ
HOM NA 01
2017 Brendan Gaughan DAY
11
ATL LVS PHO CAL MAR TEX BRI RCH TAL
26
KAN CLT DOV POC MCH SON DAY
7
KEN NHA IND POC GLN MCH BRI DAR RCH CHI NHA DOV CLT TAL
19
KAN MAR TEX PHO HOM 40th 85
2018 62 DAY
28
ATL LVS PHO CAL MAR TEX BRI RCH TAL
22
DOV KAN CLT POC MCH SON CHI DAY
12
KEN NHA POC GLN MCH BRI DAR IND LVS RCH CLT DOV TAL
12
KAN MAR TEX PHO HOM 40th 74
2019 DAY
23
ATL LVS PHO CAL MAR TEX BRI RCH TAL
8
DOV KAN CLT POC MCH SON CHI DAY
20
KEN NHA POC GLN MCH BRI DAR IND LVS RCH CLT DOV TAL
27
KAN MAR TEX PHO HOM 40th 71
2020 DAY
7
LVS CAL PHO DAR DAR CLT CLT BRI ATL MAR HOM TAL
21
POC POC IND KEN TEX KAN NHA MCH MCH DAY
39
DOV DOV DAY
8
DAR RCH BRI LVS TAL
35
CLT KAN TEX MAR PHO 40th 78
2021 Noah Gragson DAY
DNQ
DAY HOM LVS PHO ATL BRI MAR RCH TAL KAN DAR DOV COA CLT SON NSH POC POC ROA ATL NHA GLN IND MCH DAY DAR RCH BRI LVS TAL CLT TEX KAN MAR PHO NA 01
2022 DAY
31
CAL LVS PHO ATL COA RCH MAR BRI TAL
20
DOV DAR KAN CLT GTW SON NSH ROA ATL NHA POC IND MCH RCH GLN DAY DAR KAN BRI TEX TAL CLT LVS HOM MAR PHO
Daytona 500
Year Driver Manufacturer Start Finish
2017 Brendan Gaughan Chevrolet 39 11
2018 25 28
2019 30 23
2020 39 7
2021 Noah Gragson DNQ
2022 39 31

This page was last updated at 2022-06-16 16:46 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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