In the late 2000’s Carl Long was an interesting prospect behind the wheel, but he lacked the funding to give a proper showing of his talents. In an attempt to save his fledgling driving career, Long started his own race team in hopes of collecting enough purse money to string together enough resources to build a team capable of running a full-time NASCAR Cup Series schedule.
Driving car No. 46, Long was not fast enough to make it into the show in his first two outings — the 2008 Fall race at New Hampshire and the 2009 Daytona 500. However, Long saw an opportunity to snag some easy purse money, the Sprint Showdown which was the last chance qualifying race for drivers trying to make it into the All-Star race.
All Long had to do was start the race and he would guarantee a check.
Long cranked his car up, ran three laps before his motor quit. Long brought the No. 46 car to the garage. Unfortunately, this isn’t where the story ended. NASCAR tore down Long’s motor only to find out that the engine was slightly larger than it was supposed to be (likely due to overuse and most certainly not in an effort to circumvent the rules).
As a result of the over-sized motor, NASCAR fined Long a whopping $200,000. The penalty crushed Long and any chance he had at competing in the highest level of NASCAR.
The fact that Long was able to survive the massive penalty to stick in the sport is beyond incredible, but now a decade later the once driver now owner of MBM Motorsports is back and this weekend at Kansas Speedway so is the No. 46.
Joey Gase will drive what appears to be an all black car for Long this weekend. It will be one of two entries for MBM Motorsports (the No. 66 of Timmy Hill being the other) in this Saturday night’s Digital Ally 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series event at Kansas Speedway.
Will be driving the #46 Cup car for @MBMMotorsports this weekend @kansasspeedway! pic.twitter.com/r51jY1HNCI
— Joey Gase Racing (@JoeyGaseRacing) May 8, 2019
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Will the Long-owned cars win the race? No. Honestly, they’d probably have better odds at winning the lottery. In 37 starts since 2017, his team’s best Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race finish was a 14th in the 2017 Brickyard 400. The team also has 17 DNFs over that span.
However, the fact that Long has made it back to the Premier Series as a car owner is an incredible testament to the persistence of the 51-year-old North Carolinian. And who knows, if he keeps that persistent nature going forward MBM Motorsports may be a force to be reckoned with some day in the future. But for now, it’ll be fun to see the No. 46 back on the track.
