Landon Cassill will be locked into the Daytona 500
Landon Cassill will be locked into the Daytona 500 after an ownership group formerly involved with the now defunct TRG Motorosports team bought the assets and owner's points from Red Bull Racing.
Cassill said he has a deal with the new team to drive all year.
"It's my first time going into a NASCAR season with a signed deal knowing I'm going to be in the car every week," Cassill said. "It's my first time attempting the Daytona 500—wait, I am locked into the Daytona 500. That's a pretty big dream came true."
Team name and sponsorship information is still to come. While owner's points are involved in the deal, this is much different than the points swap — a tactic unliked by many — that got Danica Patrick's No. 10 guaranteed into the field for the Daytona 500. (Patrick is in the field via the points from Tommy Baldwin's No. 36 car.)
Cassill will have the points from Brian Vickers' No. 83 last year, while the possibility remains for the team to field a second car at Daytona, as it would be locked in via Kasey Kahne's owner points from the No. 4.
The move, which had been in the works for a few weeks, officially means that all 35 of the guaranteed starting positions from 2011's owner points are spoken for if the team runs a second car.
In January, Michael Waltrip Racing attempted to buy the owner's points from Red Bull but a deal didn't work out. If the team that just acquired the Red Bull points fields a second car, one of Waltrip's cars will need to qualify for the 500 on speed. Martin Truex Jr.'s No. 56 is locked in, and the team has the owner points from David Reutimann's No. 00, for either new MWR driver Clint Bowyer or the No. 55 that Waltrip is sharing with Mark Martin.
Roush Fenway Racing is running the No. 6 for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the Daytona 500 because the team has the points from David Ragan last year. And while Richard Childress Racing has scaled back to three full-time teams, it's running the No. 33 for Elliott Sadler at Daytona and Brendan Gaughan for the next four races.
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