After fielding Toyotas for most of its history, the team fielded Ford Fusions in 2012 and 2013. Then in 2014, the team switched to Chevrolet, ending a two-year partnership with Ford, and formed a technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing.[3][4][1]
Following the announcement that longtime sponsor GEICO would not renew their partnership after the 2020 season, Germain Racing sold their charter to Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan on September 21, 2020.[5] Jordan and Hamlin would use the charter for their team 23XI Racing starting in 2021.[6]
Germain entered into Sprint Cup racing through a technical alliance with Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR) beginning with two races during the 2008 season, with MWR supplying Toyota Camrys and technical support for Germain and driver Max Papis.[7] Papis had previously driven for MWR vice president Cal Wells in the CART series.[7]
In 2009, Germain Racing attempted to run a limited schedule in the Sprint Cup Series with Papis driving the No. 13 with sponsor GEICO. The team qualified for 15 races in 21 attempts. Germain planned to run full-time in 2010, but it was required to start and park some events due to its limited sponsorship from GEICO and lack of additional sponsorship.
[8] In the first event of the 2010 season, Papis qualified for the Daytona 500,[9] where he was involved in an early wreck before finishing 40th due to engine woes. After Watkins Glen, the team announced that Papis would be replaced and reassigned to the Camping World Truck Series. Max Papis ran the following week Michigan in a start and park effort, the following week Casey Mears took over as the full-time driver at Bristol in another start and park effort. Papis ran 17 races in 2010, with 10 DNFs and 5 DNQs. Mears then finished out the 2010 season starting and parking in some events.
For 2011, Germain Racing announced that Mears would take over the ride full-time for the 2011 season. Mears and the team missed the Daytona 500, but no other events. The team finished 32nd in owners points.
On January 6, 2012, Germain Racing announced that Mears would return as the driver of the No. 13 GEICO Ford Fusion. GEICO is signed with the team through 2014.[10] Mears led during the middle portions at Talladega, but crashed out. He finished 29th in points.
The team had a rebound year in 2013 with 1 Top 10 at Daytona and 7 Top 15s. Mears also improved to 24th in the standings, his best finish in the points since 2009. GEICO also plans to sponsor the team full season next year as well.
In 2014, Germain formed a partnership with Richard Childress Racing to field Chevrolets. Mears had previously driven for RCR in 2009.[3] The team started the new season off with a top-10 when Mears finished 10th in the 2014 Daytona 500. Mears eventually recorded fourteen top-20s and three top-10s during the season, and finished 26th in driver points, although on a much more competitive landscape than the 24th place in 2013.
Mears began 2015 with a 6th-place finish in the Daytona 500. It was the team's 4th consecutive top-10 finish at Daytona. In 2016, it was announced that Ty Dillon would replace Mears in the No. 13 starting in 2017.[11] Mears found a ride by driving part-time with Biagi-DenBeste Racing in the 98 GEICO Military car.
On November 28, 2016, Ty Dillon was named the new driver for the No. 13 car for the 2017 season. In the 2017 offseason, Twisted Tea came on board for four races, the first time Germain had two sponsors on the same car in a year. After running solidly in 2017, Dillon's best runs included Dover, where he was fourth on a late restart, only to be taken out by his teammate by alliance Ryan Newman. He also led very late in the 2017 Coke Zero 400, where he got shuffled and finished 16th. Dillon's 2018 season was mediocre at most, with sixth place at the 2018 Coke Zero Sugar 400 being his highest finish.
On August 26, 2019, crew chief Matt Borland was indefinitely suspended for violating NASCAR's Substance Abuse Policy. Germain Racing confirmed that Justin Alexander, who serves as crew chief for the part-time No. 21 Xfinity Series car for Richard Childress Racing (who Germain has an alliance with), served as interim crew chief beginning at Darlington and until Borland's suspension was lifted.[12] On September 24, NASCAR reinstated Borland after he completed the Road to Recovery Program.[13][14] In Germain Racing's final season, the No. 13 managed to score a third-place finish in the fall Talladega race and ended up 26th in the points standings.[15]
The No. 60 Toyota Camry debuted in 2011 with Todd Bodine driving and received sponsorship from Tire Kingdom for the Daytona 500. Bodine and team did not qualify for the event. For the rest of 2011, Landon Cassill and Mike Skinner ran the car with sponsorship from Big Red as a start and park ride to gain enough funds for the No. 13 to race on weekends that GEICO is not the sponsor. From Atlanta No. 60 has switched to Chevrolet . In October 2011, Germain Racing parked the No. 60 ride for the remainder of the season after running 20 races, but never finishing better than 38th.
The team's second car returned as the No. 27 for the 2019 Daytona 500 with Casey Mears as the driver. As a result of an accident on lap 104, Mears finished 40th in the race.
Germain debuted in the Nationwide Series in 2007 with the No. 03 Germain Toyota Camry with Todd Bodine driving. He finished in the top-ten in his first two attempts, and ran three more races after that. The car did not run again until 2008, when Bodine drove to a fourth-place finish. Michael Annett made the next attempt at the season-ending race at Homestead, where he finished 36th after a crash.
Germain Racing fielded its first full-time entry in the Nationwide Series in 2008, with Mike Wallace driving. Wallace brought his car number, 7, and his sponsor, GEICO, with him from Phoenix Racing. The team purchased the legal assets of the former Busch Series team of Yates Racing for purposes of an exemption as part of NASCAR's all-exempt tour policy in the three national series. Wallace finished eighth in his first and only season with Germain with 1 top-5 and 8 top-10s. After the end of the 2008 season, GEICO moved to the Cup Series due to a conflict of interest with series sponsor Nationwide.
At the start of the 2009 season Germain changed the No. 7 team to No. 15 and hired Michael Annett for the season. Annett drove the No. 15 full-time in 2009, with HYPE Energy and Pilot Flying J sponsoring. Annett went on to finishing third in the Rookie of the Year battle and 10th in the overall driver points. He collected 4 top-10 finishes in his first full-time season.
In 2010, Annett continued driving for the team. Pilot Travel Centers continued their sponsorship of Annett and the team. Annett finished the year with 2 top-10s en route to a 13th-place finish in the final standings.
Transfer to Rick Ware Racing (2011)
For 2011 Annett moved to Rusty Wallace Racing's No. 62 for 2011, bringing Pilot Travel Centers with him. Todd Bodine drove the No. 15 at Daytona with Tire Kingdom as the sponsor, as rookie driver Timmy Hill was under 18 and not eligible to run in a national touring series. After Daytona, the No. 15 owner points were sold to Hill's team Rick Ware Racing.
The No. 9 Toyota Tundra debuted at Daytona in 2005 with rookie Shigeaki Hattori behind the wheel in a partnership with Arnold Motorsports, the team was called Germain-Arnold Racing. Although he had two seventh place starts, Hattori struggled in his transition to stock cars, and was released towards the end of the season, and replaced by Justin Hobgood, whose best finish was a 20th at Phoenix.
Ted Musgrave (2006-2007)
2005 champion Ted Musgrave, whose team, Ultra Motorsports, had shut down only days before preseason testing, came to the team with a sponsor in Team ASE. He went the entire 2006 season without a win, before picking up a win at Texas in 2007. Musgrave, in 2007, was also suspended for one race for intentionally running into Kelly Bires under a caution flag, which resulted in Germain putting Brad Keselowski in the #9 truck, ultimately launching Keselowski's career off the ground.
The No. 9 only ran a limited number of races in 2009 and 2010 with Max Papis, and sponsor GEICO.
Papis drove the No. 9 full-time in 2011 with GEICO sponsoring, but only managed two top-10 finishes and finished 18th in points. For 2012, Germain shut down their truck operations and GEICO moved up to the Sprint Cup Series with Mears.
Germain debuted with this truck in 2004 at the Kroger 200, where Todd Bodine finished fourth after starting third in the No. 30 truck. Bodine won two races that year Fontana and Texas, before missing the field at the Ford 200.
Chad Chaffin (2005)
Bodine left for Fiddleback Racing in 2005, and was replaced by Chad Chaffin. Chaffin recorded four top tens with the team before he left to join upstart team Wyler Racing after Michigan.
Todd Bodine returns (2005-2011)
Bodine would return to the team after Fiddleback Racing shut down. The Bodine-Germain combination would win five races together, ending up with a third-place points finish.
Lumber Liquidators became the team's new primary sponsor in 2006, and Bodine and crew would take home 3 victories along with the Truck championship. In the 2007 season, Bodine won at Texas and Talladega and finished fourth in points. He won an additional three races in 2008 and moved up to third in points. Lumber Liquidators left the team after 2008, but Bodine still won the first race of the season in 2009. Copart and Ventrilo sponsored the team for most of the season, and Bodine finished 4th in points. GEICO sponsored the truck for the first race at Daytona, but the team ran without sponsorship for most of the season. Bodine won his second championship in 2010.
Bodine and the No. 30 team ran the first ten races of the season before parking the truck due to lack of sponsorship. Bodine ran the No. 5 truck due to a new partnership between Germain Racing and Randy Moss Motorsports. In 2012, Germain Racing shut down its truck operations due to a lack of sponsorship. Bodine moved to Red Horse Racing, while Germain sold its Truck Series equipment to former manager Mike Hillman Sr., who started his own race team.
The No. 77 truck was started off as the No. 03 truck. The No. 03 truck debuted in 2007 at Lowe's Motor Speedway with Justin Hobgood racing. He qualified eighth, but finished last after an early wreck. The next race for the team came at New Hampshire, but Sean Caisse did not qualify for the race. The following month, Justin Marks made his Truck Series debut at the Easy Care Vehicle Service Contracts 200, with voodoo ride sponsoring, finishing 22nd. Marks ran the final three races of the season, posting a best finish of eighth place at the Ford 200.
In 2008, the No. 03 truck again ran part-time, with Chrissy Wallace driving for four races, with her best finish being 18th in her debut at Martinsville Speedway. Dustin Skinner drove one race later in the season at Martinsville, but wrecked and finished 34th.
Chrissy Wallace was supposed to drive the No. 03 full-time in 2009, but failure to obtain sponsorship negated those plans, and the No. 03 shut down operations.
In 2010, Germain Racing ran the No. 77 truck part-time with many drivers. Miguel Paludo was the first to drive in 2010, qualifying for the second races at Bristol and Kentucky with sponsorship from Stemco/Duroline. Paludo finished 9th and 20th respectively. Next in the seat of the No. 77 was Jason Bowles who drove unsponsored at Las Vegas, bringing home a 16th-place finish. Tom Hessert III drove the truck at Homestead with sponsorship from Cherry Hill Classic Cars. He finished 29th.
The No. 77 began the 2011 season as a full-time team driven by ARCA Champion Justin Lofton. However, Lofton and Germain parted ways after Texas, with Lofton taking his sponsorship to Eddie Sharp Racing. The No. 77 was shut down following Lofton's departure.
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