Ray Ciccarelli

Ray Ciccarelli
Ciccarelli at Pocono Raceway in 2018
BornRaymond J. Ciccarelli
(1970-01-20) January 20, 1970 (age 54)
Ellicott City, Maryland, U.S.
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career
33 races run over 5 years
2021 position67th
Best finish33rd (2019)
First race2017 Eldora Dirt Derby (Eldora)
Last race2021 UNOH 200 (Bristol)
Wins Top tens Poles
0 1 0
Statistics current as of December 30, 2021.

Raymond J. Ciccarelli (born January 20, 1970) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, driving the No. 49 Chevrolet Silverado for his own team, CMI Motorsports. He has also competed in what are now the ARCA Menards Series and ARCA Menards Series East in the past.

Racing career

ARCA Racing Series

Ciccarelli drove part-time in the series in 2014, 2015, and 2016 for teams Carter 2 Motorsports, Kimmel Racing, Hamilton-Hughes Racing, and Hixson Motorsports. He started his own team, Ciccarelli Racing, for 2017. The team's first race came in the season-opener at Daytona where Ciccarelli finished 21st in his No. 38 Ford after a solid seventh-place qualifying run. The team returned at Talladega, although they used owner points from the full-time Hixson Motorsports No. 3 car to have a better shot of qualifying for the race (which they successfully did). Using that number instead of the No. 38 (which had only run Daytona), they picked up a thirteenth-place finish in the race. Ciccarelli had driven for the Hixson team in a few races in 2016.

Truck Series

Ciccarelli in the No. 0 for Jennifer Jo Cobb at Homestead in 2018.
Ciccarelli's No. 49 for his own team at Daytona in 2019.

In 2017, Ciccarelli made his Truck Series debut in the Eldora Dirt Derby, driving the No. 10 truck for Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing. He started 32nd and finished 22nd. After that, he start-and-parked the No. 0 truck for the same team in 4 races at Michigan, New Hampshire, Texas, and Phoenix. He finished 26th, 29th, 28th, and 26th respectively. He returned to the No. 10 truck at Homestead. He qualified 31st, but an engine malfunction before the green flag waved gave him a 32nd-place finish.[1][2]

In 2019, Ciccarelli acquired trucks, equipment, and owner points from the closed Premium Motorsports No. 49 truck[3] and restarted his own team, now under the name CMI Motorsports, which stood for "Ciccarelli Moving & Installation", a company owned by Ciccarelli and which is one of the team's sponsors. After running the first two races of the season, Ciccarelli and the CMI Motorsports team skipped the third round at Las Vegas with a planned comeback for the fourth round at Martinsville.[4] Later in the year, he would score a career-best 9th-place finish at Michigan.

Planned departure from NASCAR announcement

Ciccarelli announced in June 2020 his retirement from NASCAR as a driver and a team owner at the end of the 2020 season. His announcement, which came in the form of a post on his Facebook page on June 10, was made on the same day as NASCAR's decision to ban the display of the Confederate battle flag from their events, a decision they made in the midst of the George Floyd protests due to the flag's longtime association with white supremacist groups. While many NASCAR drivers praised the ban, Ciccarelli decried it, as he believed that it and other recent decisions by the sanctioning body ventured into the realm of politics.[5][6]

However, Ciccarelli's team, CMI Motorsports, posted on their Twitter account on October 30 that "We're not done yet. See you all in 2021", signaling he would not close down his team after the 2020 season as planned.[7] On November 19, when it was revealed on TobyChristie.com that Tim Viens was to continue as a driver for CMI, Ciccarelli told the website that he planned on driving in three to four races in 2021.[8]

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Camping World Truck Series

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series results
Year Team 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 NCWTC Pts Ref
2017 Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing 10 Chevy DAY ATL MAR KAN CLT DOV TEX GTW IOW KEN ELD
22
POC HOM
32
38th 59 [9]
0 MCH
26
BRI MSP CHI NHA
29
LVS TAL MAR TEX
28
PHO
26
2018 DAY ATL LVS MAR DOV KAN CLT TEX IOW GTW CHI KEN ELD
DNQ
TAL
DNQ
MAR
DNQ
TEX PHO HOM
25
61st 31 [10]
Beaver Motorsports 50 POC
27
MCH BRI MSP
28
LVS
2019 CMI Motorsports 49 DAY
28
ATL
26
LVS MAR
DNQ
TEX
16
DOV
24
KAN CLT TEX IOW GTW CHI KEN
DNQ
POC
19
ELD MCH
9
BRI MAR
21
PHO HOM
31
33rd 130 [11]
Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing 0 MSP
29
LVS TAL
2020 CMI Motorsports 49 DAY
DNQ
LVS CLT ATL HOM
29
POC
27
KAN
32
KAN
24
RCH
31
BRI LVS
26
TAL
27
40th 111 [12]
83 KEN
32
TEX MCH
34
DAY DOV GTW DAR KAN
26
TEX
22
MAR
25
PHO
2021 49 DAY
DNQ
DAY LVS ATL
DNQ
BRI RCH KAN DAR
DNQ
COA CLT 67th 20 [13]
Toyota TEX
32
NSH POC
23
KNX GLN GTW DAR
Ford BRI
39
LVS TAL MAR PHO

Busch East Series

NASCAR Busch East Series results
Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 NBESC Pts Ref
2006 Glidden Motorsports 83 Ford GRE STA HOL TMP ERI NHA ADI
16
WFD
15
NHA
31
DOV
DNQ
LRP 35th 331 [14]

ARCA Racing Series

ARCA Racing Series results
Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 ARSC Pts Ref
2014 Carter 2 Motorsports 97 Dodge DAY MOB SLM TAL TOL NJE POC MCH ELK WIN CHI IRP
19
POC 44th 390 [15]
40 BLN
19
ISF
22
MAD DSF SLM KEN KAN
2015 Kimmel Racing 68 Ford DAY MOB NSH SLM TAL TOL NJE POC
32
MCH CHI WIN IOW IRP 90th 200 [16]
Carter 2 Motorsports 97 Dodge POC
20
BLN ISF DSF SLM KEN KAN
2016 Hamilton-Hughes Racing 63 Dodge DAY
DNQ
NSH
33
SLM TAL TOL NJE 74th 300 [17]
Hixson Motorsports 2 Chevy POC
26
MCH MAD WIN IOW IRP
24
POC BLN ISF DSF SLM CHI KEN KAN
2017 Ciccarelli Racing 38 Ford DAY
21
NSH SLM 66th 290 [18]
3 TAL
13
TOL ELK POC MCH MAD IOW IRP POC WIN ISF ROA DSF SLM CHI KEN KAN

References

  1. ^ "Ciccarelli makes NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut with JJCR at Eldora". ESPN.com. July 14, 2017. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
  2. ^ Frederick, Cole (November 10, 2017). "Truck catches fire during NASCAR practice at Phoenix and driver has to evacuate fast". alt_driver. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
  3. ^ Beard, Brock (February 14, 2019). "PREVIEW: The ARCA invasion beefs up Truck Series entry list while the XFINITY Series struggles". LASTCAR. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
  4. ^ Beard, Brock (February 28, 2019). "PREVIEW: "Something old and something new" the theme of Las Vegas entry lists". LASTCAR. Retrieved March 1, 2019.
  5. ^ Heim, Mark (June 10, 2020). "NASCAR's Ray Ciccarelli posts he's done at end of season, disagrees with Confederate flag policy". AL.com. Retrieved June 11, 2020.
  6. ^ "Bubba Wallace praises NASCAR's Confederate flag ban but one driver says he's quitting over decision". CBS News. June 11, 2020. Retrieved June 11, 2020.
  7. ^ "(Twitter post)". Twitter. CMI Motorsports. October 30, 2020. Retrieved December 14, 2020. We're not done yet. See you all in 2021.
  8. ^ Srigley, Joseph (November 19, 2020). "Timothy Viens returning to CMI Motorsports for full-time campaign in Truck Series". TobyChristie.com. Retrieved December 14, 2020. In addition, Ciccarelli has confirmed to TobyChristie.com that he expects to run three to four races himself in a second entry.
  9. ^ "Ray Ciccarelli – 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
  10. ^ "Ray Ciccarelli – 2018 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  11. ^ "Ray Ciccarelli – 2019 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved February 15, 2019.
  12. ^ "Ray Ciccarelli – 2020 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
  13. ^ "Ray Ciccarelli – 2021 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
  14. ^ "Ray Ciccarelli – 2006 NASCAR Busch East Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
  15. ^ "Ray Ciccarelli – 2014 ARCA Racing Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
  16. ^ "Ray Ciccarelli – 2015 ARCA Racing Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
  17. ^ "Ray Ciccarelli – 2016 ARCA Racing Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
  18. ^ "Ray Ciccarelli – 2017 ARCA Racing Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved March 1, 2018.