While it has been highly speculated that StarCom Racing has sold their charter to Spire Motorsports for the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season, and anonymous sources have disclosed to TobyChristie.com that the team will cease operations totally at the conclusion of the 2021 season, the team made an eye-opening statement on Twitter on Friday.
Kaz Grala will drive a Next Gen car for the team at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval test this week in an effort, “to assist in the development of the team’s NASCAR NextGen program.”
Here is the tweet from StarCom Racing on Friday:
StarCom Racing will have @KazGrala behind the wheel of the No. 00 Chevy to assist in the development of the team’s NASCAR NextGen program beginning with next week’s test at the ROVAL. #NextGen #NASCARTest pic.twitter.com/To8qRtfaZu
— StarCom Racing (@StarcomRacing) October 8, 2021
This could signal a pivot for the team in that they could potentially run part-time in 2022 with a driver, such as Grala, who could bring sponsorship funding. Or this could simply be the team tuning up their Next Gen chassis as part of the Charter / asset sales, as all Next Gen’s are produced by the same manufacturer.
Regardless, it was an interesting announcement by StarCom Racing on Friday, and it may be even more interesting to see who else opts to show up for the Charlotte Roval Next Gen test.
Grala, a Boston, Massachusetts-native, has four-career starts in NASCAR Cup Series competition. In those four starts, Grala has scored two top-10 finishes, including an impressive seventh-place finish in his series debut while subbing for Austin Dillon a season ago.
Grala also has nine top-10 finishes in 33 NASCAR Xfinity Seires starts to go along with a win and 17 top-10 finishes in NASCAR Camping World Truck Series competition.
