CMI Motorsports

CMI Motorsports (formerly Ciccarelli Racing) is an American professional stock car racing team that currently competes part-time in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series, fielding the No. 49 Chevrolet Silverado for Ray Ciccarelli (who is also the team's owner) and Bayley Currey and the No. 83 for Stefan Parsons. The team also previously fielded a car in the ARCA Menards Series, the No. 38, part-time in 2017.

CMI Motorsports
Owner(s)Ray Ciccarelli
SeriesNASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series
Race drivers49. Ray Ciccarelli, Bayley Currey
83. Stefan Parsons, T. J. Bell, Tim Viens
Sponsors49. Ciccarelli Moving & Installation, Springrates
83. Springrates
ManufacturerChevrolet
Opened2017 (ARCA)
2019 (Trucks)
Career
Debut2019 NextEra Energy 250
Latest race2020 Pocono Organics 150 (Pocono)
Races competed21
Drivers' Championships0
Race victories0
Pole positions0

Although the team is currently in operation, Ciccarelli announced on June 10, 2020 that he would be closing down the team and selling off all its equipment after the conclusion of the 2020 Truck Series season. His decision to shut down his race team came in response to NASCAR's announcement on the same day that they would be banning the display of the Confederate flag from all tracks following the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests happening in the world at the time. Ciccarelli believed that the sport was getting too political and unnecessarily taking sides in those matters.[1]

History

ARCA Racing Series

Car No. 38 history

Ciccarelli ran the season-opener at Daytona in 2017 with his own team, the No. 38 Ford, under the name Ciccarelli Racing. It was not his first race in the series, as he previously drove part-time in the series in 2014, 2015, and 2016 for teams Carter 2 Motorsports, Kimmel Racing, Hamilton-Hughes Racing, and Hixson Motorsports. Ciccarelli returned with his team to Talladega, although he drove the No. 3 instead of the No. 38, using owner points from Hixson (a team he drove for in a few races the prior year) to have a better shot of qualifying for the race, which he successfully did. The No. 3 was running the full season while the No. 38 had only attempted Daytona. He started his team after buying a superspeedway Ford car from Lira Motorsports,[2] an ARCA team which fielded multiple cars in 2016 but had downsized to one car due to financial problems for the 2017 season and therefore was selling off equipment.

NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series

Truck No. 49 history
Ciccarelli standing beside his No. 49 at Daytona in 2019, the team's first race.

The team was restarted in 2019 when Ciccarelli, who previously drove in the Truck Series part-time for Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing, bought trucks and equipment from Premium Motorsports, which closed down their Truck Series team after the 2018 season. He kept the same number that Premium ran with, the No. 49, and the owner points that their No. 49 (driven mostly by Wendell Chavous) accumulated the prior year. The name of the team was CMI Motorsports, which stands for "Ciccarelli Moving & Installation", a company owned by Ciccarelli and which is one of the team's sponsors. The team made its debut at the season-opening 2019 NextEra Energy 250 at Daytona, where Ciccarelli successfully qualified for the race. However, he finished 28th after a crash ended his hopes of a good run.[3] Ciccarelli attempted a part-time schedule for the rest of that season, totaling about half of the races. This included an upset ninth-place finish at Michigan. The team had two other surprisingly strong runs that year at Texas in March and Pocono, both top-20 finishes.

For 2020, the No. 49 started the year with Ciccarelli himself behind the wheel of truck, failing to qualify for the season-opener at Daytona with Ciccarelli, unlike the previous year. The team signed Bayley Currey on January 30, 2020 to drive for them at the following race at Las Vegas. In that announcement, CMI indicated that the No. 49 would be attempting the first five races to start the year.[4] Currey ended up driving the next two races at Charlotte and Atlanta. He was supposed to have competed at Homestead but left the team in what was considered by many to be a one-screen departure after Ciccarelli made his remarks about the Confederate flag. [5]

Truck No. 83 history

CMI debuted a second truck, the No. 83, at the second race of the 2020 season at Las Vegas with Stefan Parsons driving it.[6] It was also entered in the next two races at Charlotte and Atlanta with T. J. Bell driving it.

References
  1. Fernandez, Gabriel (June 10, 2020). "NASCAR driver Ray Ciccarelli says he's leaving at end of the season, citing disagreement with flag policy". CBS Sports.
  2. "Ray Ciccarelli forming own team; to compete at Daytona & Talladega". ThePitLane. December 9, 2016. Retrieved June 11, 2020.
  3. "Driver Ray Ciccarelli 2019 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
  4. "Ray Ciccarelli plans to enter the first five Truck races; adds Currey to roster". Jayski's Silly Season Site. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. January 30, 2020. Retrieved June 11, 2020.
  5. https://twitter.com/BayleyCurrey/status/1271186989753270273. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. Eggert, Seth (February 20, 2020). "Stefan Parsons joins CMI Motorsports at Las Vegas". Kickin' the Tires.
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