Six years after his last start in the series, David Starr will return to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at Texas Motor Speedway in an act of Double Duty. In addition to Saturday’s Xfinity Series race, he will drive the #66 Whataburger Chevrolet for MBM Motorsports in Sunday’s Cup race. The news was released on Tuesday.
“It’s really special to have the opportunity to run both races at my home track with longtime partner Whataburger and newcomer to the sport, Moore Freight Service. I couldn’t be more blessed,” Starr stated. “I’m also pretty excited that Whataburger opened a location across from Texas Motor Speedway, it’s become a staple of mine and I’m sure the race fans will love it as well!”
Starr races full-time in the Xfinity Series, driving the #99 Chevrolet for B.J. McLeod Motorsports, his first season with the team. He currently sits 25th in the points standings with a best finish of 4th at Daytona in July. During that race, Korbin Forrister was scheduled to drive the #99 until he was substituted for Starr due to illness. Outside of his 4th place, Starr’s best finishes of the year are 17th at Richmond and Mid-Ohio and 18th at Talladega. In 128 career Xfinity starts, he has three top-ten finishes (9th at Talladega in 2014 and 6th at the Daytona February race in 2015) and a best points finish of 16th in 2015.
In the Cup Series, Starr has four starts, all in 2011 with Leavine Family Racing. He tried to run Cup races in 2003 and 2009 for teams like Mike Starr Racing, BlackJack Racing, and Boys Will Be Boys Racing, but failed to qualify in every attempt. He finally made his Cup debut at the 2011 Samsung Mobile 500 in Texas, where he finished 38th. He ran three more races for LFR at Charlotte, Bristol, and Atlanta, where he finished 36th, 27th, and 29th, respectively. He failed to qualify at Kentucky, Chicagoland, Kansas, and the second Texas race.
Prior to racing in the Xfinity Series, the Houston native was a Camping World Truck Series veteran, running full-time from 2002 to 2011. He has four wins in the Truck Series, along with 117 top tens, five poles, and a best points finish of 4th in 2006. He began racing full-time in NASCAR’s second-tier series in 2015 for TriStar Motorsports, for whom he drove the #44 Toyota Camry. He continued driving the car for the first seven races of the 2016 season before he was released. Later in the year, he joined RSS Racing’s #93 car starting at Daytona and ended his RSS tenure with two top-20 finishes at Bristol and Chicagoland.
2017 is the first season for MBM Motorsports’ #66 team. Primarily running in the Xfinity Series, the #66 was formed by team owner Carl Long, who has run three races in the car this season; this marked Long’s first Cup races since 2006. The car has also been piloted by MBM Xfinity driver Timmy Hill in seven races, who drove the car to a team-best 14th at Indianapolis in July. Having run ten races, the #66 is 41st in the owners’ points.
The AAA Texas 500 will take place on Sunday, November 5.
Featured image from NASCAR.com
