Ty Dillon will officially race more than the season-opening Daytona 500 with the No. 96 Gaunt Brothers Racing team in the NASCAR Cup Series this season. In addition to attempting to make the field for this weekend’s Daytona 500, Dillon will run the Daytona Road Course event the following week.
“I really enjoy the challenge of road-course racing and I’m glad that I’ll be competing at the Daytona road course for Gaunt Brothers Racing,” Dillon said in a team release. “Ever since we announced that I’d be driving for them in the Daytona 500, I’ve been immersed with the team and Toyota. To be able to extend this relationship another week allows us to continue to feed off one another and apply all that we’re learning into on-track performance.”
Gaunt Brothers Racing, who struggled in a full-time capacity last season with Daniel Suarez driving their car, are expected to attempt a smaller schedule in 2021 with an emphasis on better performance over more starts.
According to the Monday morning press release from GBR, the team plans to start every road course race in 2021.
That all starts with getting started off on the right foot.
“It’s important for us to get a good start to the season and one of the ways we aim to achieve that is with consistency. Having Ty with us for back-to-back races gives us the opportunity to build on our learnings from one week to the next and apply them at the road course,” said Marty Gaunt, president, Gaunt Brothers Racing. “It’s obviously different disciplines going from a superspeedway to a road course, but the communication is the same. Ty brings youthful experience to our team and we want to maximize our time with him.”
Dillon led five laps and won a Stage in last year’s road course event at the Charlotte Roval. The 28-year old was left without a full-time ride in 2021 when his team of four years — Germain Racing — sold their charter and team assets at the conclusion of the 2020 season.
Dillon will also give 23XI Racing their first run in Tuesday’s Busch Clash at the Daytona Road Course, as Bubba Wallace was ineligible for the event. Dillon will drive the No. 23 Root Insurance Toyota Camry in that event.
