Total: 0 Cup Series: 0 Xfinity Series: 0 Camping World Truck Series: 0
B. J. McLeod Motorsports is an American professional stock car racing team that currently competes part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. The team is owned by B. J. McLeod and his wife, Jessica. The team currently fields No. 78 part-time for B. J. McLeod.
Founding
On February 3, 2016, team owner B. J. McLeod said that the team fielded two full-time cars, including the No. 78 Ford Mustang driven by himself. Batteries Plus Bulbs sponsored the car for three races in 2016.[1]
On October 23, 2020, McLeod and Matt Tifft purchased Archie St. Hilare's half of Go Fas Racing's charter. McLeod, Tifft, and Joe Falk used the charter to form Live Fast Motorsports as a full-time Cup team in 2021.[2] Although McLeod became Live Fast's driver, B. J. McLeod Motorsports continued to operate as an Xfinity team.[3] On April 26, 2021, the team returned with the 55 with fellow Xfinity driver Matt Mills.
In 2020, it was announced that B. J. McLeod would make his first attempt in the NASCAR Cup Series at Darlington.[5][6] B. J. McLeod would drive his own No. 78 Chevy to a 39th-place finish in the team's Cup debut. He improved to a 36th-place finish at the next race at Darlington. The No. 78 switched to a Ford for the next three races before running a Chevy again at Atlanta. The No. 78 skipped the next two races (Withdrawing from both events) and returned with Garrett Smithley behind the wheel at Talladega, where he scored a 34th-place finish.[7] After that, B. J. McLeod returned to the No. 78 for the two Pocono races, and Indianapolis, where he scored a season-best 22nd-place finish.[8]
Matt Mills was announced as the full-time driver of the No. 8 in 2019, though the number was changed to 5 after JR Motorsports acquired No. 8 from McLeod.[10][11][12] Mills would drive for the first 19 races of the season, driving a mix of Chevy's and Toyota's, only getting four top 20's, and 1 top 10 at Daytona.[13] He would be replaced at Watkins Glen by road course ace Scott Heckert who would finish 13th.[13]Vinnie Miller would drive the car at Mid-Ohio and would finish 25th a lap down.[13] Mills would return to the No. 5 at Bristol.
In 2020, Mills returned for full season while Miller drove at Road America and Darlington.
In 2017, it was announced that Jeff Green would drive the No. 8 full-time. The team used owner points of the No. 99 from last year, so the team needed to qualify in the Top-33 to make the field. As Green had a Past Champion Provisional, he was locked in the field for the season opener at Daytona. The number was expected to be the No. 15, but Green asked to renumber to No. 8 because he and his brother David Green had both used it in the past. Despite the initial announcement of a full-time campaign for Green, Matt Mills brought sponsorship from Thompson Electric and he drove the car at Phoenix and Richmond. After Charlotte, B. J. McLeod started driving the No. 8 in every race besides the Daytona July race when Green returned to the team for one race. Josh Bilicki drove the No. 8 at the road course races. Tommy Joe Martins drove at Richmond's fall race and Caesar Bacarella ran the final two races (Phoenix and Homestead-Miami) for the team.
Team owner McLeod drove this car as an owner-driver in 2016. He made the first ten races and scored one top twenty finish, a nineteenth at Dover International Speedway. McLeod also had two engine failures, at Auto Club and Talladega Superspeedway.[22]
In 2023, BJMM announced that Anthony Alfredo would join the team as the full-time driver in the No. 78 Chevrolet. Alfredo finished the season 24th in the points standings. On November 15, BJMM parted ways with Alfredo.[26]
In 2024, although the team started the season with three top-20s through the first four races of the season, including two top-15s, BJMM announced early in the season that the team would scale back to a part-time schedule.[27] The team sold its owns points to the No. 07 for SS-Green Light Racing and didn't attempt any races for the rest of the season.
In 2015, McLeod fielded a part-time team in partner with King Autosport, sharing the owner points of the 90/92 team. In 2016, Todd Peck returned to the No. 90 team at the Richmond spring race.
* Finished 25th in owner points with 477 points as it was their own entry however the points were owned by King Autosport.
Car No. 99 history
In 2016, the No. 99 car entered Daytona with Chris Fontaine at the wheel, missing the show. The car qualified the following week at Atlanta, with Todd Peck driving. However, Peck also failed to qualify the car in two races. The No. 99 team shut down the rest of the season because they missed most of their races. They returned at Road America with Stanton Barrett. The team returned as the No. 25 at the second Kentucky race, because Chris Cockrum crashed the only car he had for the weekend. Peck replaced him the No. 25 (McLeod's third entry, Blake Jones was in the No. 15, and McLeod in the No. 78). The No. 99 returned at Kansas, Phoenix and Homestead with Jeff Green.
In February 2017, it was announced that David Starr would drive the No. 99 Chevrolet Camaro with help from SS-Green Light Racing full-time with sponsorship Striping Technology and Whataburger. The No. 99 used the owner points from the No. 15 from last year to make the field in the first three races. Despite a slow start to the season, Starr recorded a fifth-place finish at the July Daytona race; Starr was originally not entered in the race, as the No. 99 had been scheduled to be driven by Korbin Forrister, but Forrister came down with the flu and Starr was summoned from Texas to race at Daytona.[34]
On January 20, 2018, Ray Black Jr. was announced to drive the No. 99 car starting at Daytona. However, without SS-Green Light Racing's help, the team became part-time. Black attempt the season-opener at Daytona but failed to qualify. B. J. McLeodstart and parked the car at Charlotte. Ray Black returned at July's Daytona race and finished 22nd.
In late 2018, Stephen Leicht drove the No. 99 part-time.
In 2023, Garrett Smithley was announced to drive No. 78 car full-time.[35] However, it was announced in January that he will move to the No. 99 car. Smithley left the team following the race at Las Vegas and joined DGM Racing to drive the No. 91 instead.
Regan debuted this truck in 2014, making one start with it at Iowa Speedway.[43] Tifft made two starts in it later in the season.[44]Chris Fontaine ran this number for the Eldora Speedway race in 2015[45] and also ran in Talladega late in the season. McLeod made ten other starts, receiving funding from Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery.[46] Regan also made two starts with the truck at Iowa and Gateway.[47]
McLeod ran this truck for two races in 2011, with a best finish of 20th at Nashville its team debut in NASCAR.[48] He also made one race with this truck in 2013.[49]Tommy Regan returned at Texas (fall) in 2016 but failed to qualify.