Tyler Jet Motorsports was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series team.

Tyler Jet Motorsports
Owner(s)Tim Beverley
BaseHarrisburg, North Carolina
SeriesWinston Cup Series
Race driversJohnny Benson, Darrell Waltrip, Rich Bickle, David Green
SponsorsAaron's, Inc., 10-10-345, Tabasco, Lycos
ManufacturerPontiac, Chevrolet
Opened1998
Closed2000
Career
Drivers' Championships0
Race victories0

History

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Tyler Jet Motorsports was owned by Tim Beverley, owner of the airplane sales company that shared a name with the race team, and was formed in 1998 when Beverley bought Darrell Waltrip's race team after Waltrip could not find sponsorship to continue running as an owner-driver. Beverly later bought the NASCAR operation of ISM Racing after owner Bob Hancher backed out of the Cup Series at the midway point of the season, having failed to qualify for the majority of events they had entered with the #35 Tabasco Pontiac.[1] Beverley combined the two operations into one, fielding the former ISM car with Waltrip, who had spent the interim period as a long term substitute at Dale Earnhardt, Inc., starting to drive the #35 at Indianapolis. However, Beverley had inherited problems that began when Hancher, against the wishes of Tabasco maker McIlhenny Company, had fired Todd Bodine earlier in the season. McIlhenny became even more furious when Beverley switched manufacturers from Pontiac to Chevrolet immediately after signing Waltrip to drive the #35, and a court battle ensued that forced Beverley to resume running Pontiacs beginning with the Pepsi 400 at Michigan. The team's best finish was in its first race, with Waltrip finishing thirteenth in a Chevrolet. The #35 only ran in the top 20 once more before the season ended, and after the season McIlhenny, who had been using the race team more as a marketing tool than anything else, pulled its sponsorship from the #35 and left NASCAR altogether; this ended what has been referred to as the "Tabasco Fiasco" in NASCAR circles in the years since.[2] Waltrip left the team as well following the 1998 season, joining Haas-Carter Motorsports for what would be the last two years of his career.

In 1999, the team fielded Pontiacs and switched to the No. 45, with sponsorship from the 10-10-345 long-distance telephone service. Rich Bickle, (who incidentally, had driven for Darrell Waltrip in the Craftsman Truck Series) was hired as the driver, but was released late in the season, and was replaced by David Green. Green recorded the best finish of his Cup series career, a 12th at Phoenix, and won thee only pole in his (and the team's) Cup career, the following weekend at the inaugural Cup series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. During the team's first two seasons of operations, four drivers and three crew chiefs were hired.[3]

For the 2000 season, Tyler Jet switched to the No. 10 and hired Johnny Benson to pilot the car on November 22, 1999.[3] Their first exposure came at the Daytona 500, where Benson's unsponsored Pontiac took the lead late in the race and held the lead for 39 laps,[4] only to be passed by cars that had made full pit stops under a late race caution (Benson was playing strategy, having only stopped for two tires and fuel his last stop) and finish 12th.

Lycos signed on as sponsor for the No. 10 and stayed with them until the 2000 Pepsi 400, where Tyler Jet pulled them off the car due to nonpayment; Lycos would eventually sue Tyler Jet on July 16, 2001.[5] They would run unsponsored for the next four races, but Beverley was forced to sell the team afterwards. The car, which had just acquired sponsorship from Aaron's, was sold to MB2 Motorsports on July 20.[4] The team would continue to be based in Tyler Jet's shop located near Lowe's Motor Speedway,[6] and ran until the end of the 2005 season when the car number, sponsor (Valvoline) and driver (Scott Riggs) moved to Evernham Motorsports. The successor team and car were Ginn Racing's No. 14, which was sold to Dale Earnhardt, Inc. and merged into its No. 15 team, which in turn was folded after the merger that created Earnhardt Ganassi Racing; the resulting team, by 2014 was simply known as Chip Ganassi Racing, was in turn purchased by Trackhouse Racing Team in 2021.

Car No. 10 results

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Year Driver 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 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Owners Pts
1998 Darrell Waltrip 35 Chevy DAY CAR LVS ATL DAR BRI TEX MAR TAL CAL CLT DOV RCH MCH POC SON NHA POC IND
13
GLN
25
41st 2180
Pontiac MCH
25
BRI
27
NHA
32
DAR
38
RCH
18
DOV
21
MAR
21
CLT
22
TAL
23
DAY
28
PHO
31
CAR
32
ATL
38
1999 Rich Bickle 45 DAY
33
CAR
DNQ
LVS
23
ATL
30
DAR
DNQ
TEX
12
BRI
DNQ
MAR
11
TAL
14
CAL
32
RCH
10
CLT
25
DOV
33
MCH
24
POC
24
SON
21
DAY
18
NHA
14
POC
7
IND
DNQ
GLN
36
MCH
28
BRI
DNQ
DAR
23
35th 2723
Jack Sprague RCH
DNQ
David Green NHA
40
DOV
42
MAR
36
CLT
42
TAL
17
CAR
24
PHO
12
HOM
22
ATL
21
2000 Johnny Benson Jr. 10 DAY
12
CAR
14
LVS
6
ATL
DNQ
DAR
24
BRI
2
TEX
42
MAR
16
TAL
13
CAL
23
RCH
25
CLT
16
DOV
15
MCH
24
POC
34
SON
18
DAY
13
NHA
14
POC IND GLN MCH BRI DAR RCH NHA DOV MAR CLT TAL CAR PHO HOM ATL 13th 3741

Car No. 17 results

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Year Driver 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 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Owners Pts
1998 Ron Hornaday Jr. 17 Chevy DAY CAR LVS ATL DAR BRI TEX MAR TAL CAL CLT DOV RCH MCH POC SON
14
NHA POC IND GLN MCH BRI NHA DAR RCH DOV MAR CLT TAL DAY PHO CAR ATL 55th 121

References

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  1. ^ Waltrip, Darrell; Larkin, Nate (February 7, 2012). Sundays Will Never Be the Same. Simon and Schuster. p. 186. ISBN 978-1451644890.
  2. ^ Glick, Shav (February 15, 2002). "NASCAR Teams Racing to Find Sponsors". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 8, 2020. [Junie Donlavey] could have been describing what happened to a lucrative sponsorship deal that Bobby Hancher's team had from Tabasco a few years ago. A buildup that started nearly a year earlier at Indianapolis ended when Todd Bodine failed to qualify for the Daytona 500. It's still referred to as the "Tabasco Fiasco" in NASCAR circles.
  3. ^ a b "Back Surgery Goes Well For Mark Martin". Orlando Sentinel. November 25, 1999. Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  4. ^ a b "MB2 acquires Tyler Jet Motorsports assets". Motorsport. July 20, 2000. Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  5. ^ "LYCOS V. TJ MOTORSPORTS". CaseText. Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  6. ^ Miller, Henry (July 29, 2000). "Benson and Schrader pool their efforts to find victory lane". Lodi News-Sentinel. Retrieved August 6, 2015.