Leavine Family Racing and driver Scott Speed hope to prove that big things come in little packages when the team makes its 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut at the Samsung Mobile 500.
Speed and Leavine Family Racing are one of the small race teams competing against NASCAR’s heavyweights in stock car racing’s elite NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The team has spent the last few months preparing for their season opener event at Texas Motor Speedway.
“Texas has been, and always will be, very special to our race team,” team owner Bob Leavine said. “Our first race as an organization was at Texas a year ago and it’s the highlight of our schedule. We may be a small team, but we think like Texans … we think big.”
The April 14 race at the Texas Motor Speedway, located in Fort Worth, is more than the beginning of a selected 14-race schedule, it’s a homecoming.
The team is headquartered in the East Texas city of Tyler, where team owners Bob and Sharon Leavine call home. Fellow Texan and Garland native Jarrett Gresham, a Leavine Family Racing crew member, started his career working on Sports Car Club of America cars at the Texas Motor Speedway and Texas World Speedway.
Speed will drive the No. 95 Tommy Williams Drywall (TWD) Ford Fusion in the 334-lap event. It will be his sixth career start at the 1.5-mile quad-oval.
“To say I am excited is an understatement,” Speed said. “We are all so pumped up for this weekend. Everyone in the shop has worked really hard in getting ready for this year and I can’t wait. We are ready to go and get this season rolling.”
“We don’t go to every race, but we’re ready when we do show up. This car has a good history, and we’ve fine-tuned it to make it even better. We’ve been eager to get our season started.”
The car was bought from Carl Edwards’ fleet at Roush Fenway Racing.
Crew chief Wally Rogers has been excited to get his season started. He was careful to develop a part-time schedule that best utilizes the strength of Speed and the rest of the race team.
“We decided to start our season at Texas for a couple reasons,” he said. “Of course it’s the home track for the Leavine family. But it’s also a good track for us and Scott. By running a limited schedule we can concentrate our efforts to be competitive everywhere we go. There’s been a lot of nervous anticipation for everyone at this race team to get things started.”
LFR PR
- Talladega Superspeedway Weekend Schedule - April 14, 2024
- Odd Tony Stewart Talladega Post Race Q&A - May 7, 2012
- Team Chevy Post Talladega Race Rundown - May 7, 2012