Landon Cassill will drive in the Daytona 500 for a group of former TRG Motorsports investors who have purchased equipment from Red Bull Racing as well as have the points that organization earned for a locked-in spot in the field, the driver confirmed Thursday.
The 22-year-old Cassill, who has 48 career Cup starts with a best of 12th at Michigan while driving for Phoenix Racing last year, said he has a contract to drive the No. 83 car for the entire season.
The Red Bull energy drink company decided to sell its two-team operation after a five-year run as team owners. Kasey Kahne finished 14th in the standings and Brian Vickers was 25th while driving for the team in 2011.
Cassill said the new team owners, whom he declined to name, will announce a sponsor and team name in the coming days. Cassill and a yet-to-be-named teammate will have the points that Kahne and Vickers earned last year, meaning they will be locked into the first five races this season.
“We’re going to be locked into the Daytona 500, which is really exciting,” Cassill said. “This is a huge opportunity for me. I can’t tell you how excited I am – you know how hard it is to land stuff like this.”
Cassill said former Cup champion crew chief Doug Richert will guide the team and former TRG general manager Harry McMullen will have the same role. TRG Motorsports, which competed but struggled for its three seasons in NASCAR, shut down its Sprint Cup effort in the offseason, and former TRG principal Kevin Buckler is not involved. The new team plans to run the entire 2012 schedule and not start-and-park.
“They’ve shown me how serious they are about going racing and they’ve made it clear to me of their intentions and their passion,” Cassill said. “These guys have dabbled into NASCAR through TRG but have decided they want to do this the right way and be competitive. … They want to make a good impression on the sport and be a positive addition to NASCAR.”
McMullen, who was working out of Randy Moss Motorsports shop in Statesville, N.C., declined comment on the organization’s plans when contacted at the shop last week.
The team will get its engines from Triad, Cassill said.
“There’s a lot of things that are trying to come together in a short amount of time,” Cassill said.
Cassill originally had planned to drive a start-and-park car for Front Row Motorsports when the opportunity with this new team was offered to him.
“[They] gave me the opportunity that if I got a full-time ride, I could take it, which lo and behold happened before Daytona,” Cassill said. “We didn’t hardly expect that. It was very gracious of [Front Row] to give me that and allow me to move on to a full-time opportunity.”
