Scott Speed to drive for Leavine Family Racing in 2012
Leavine Family Racing announced on Tuesday that Scott Speed would drive for the team in 15 Sprint Cup events in 2012.
Speed, the former Red Bull F1 and Sprint Cup driver, made 13 of the 16 Cup races he attempted to qualify for in 2011 driving for Max Q Motorsports and Whitney Racing. Leavine Family Racing attempted eight races in 2011 and made four with Camping World Truck Series veteran David Starr behind the wheel. 2011 was the team's first year in the Cup Series.
While Max Q and Whitney attempted more races than Leavine did last year, LFR raced in the four races that it made.
In Speed's 13 races in 2011, he started and parked in 9 of them with a highest finish of 37th. However, his best finish in the four races that he attempted to race the distance in was 32nd — and that was when he finished 15 laps down thanks to an electrical problem. That's not an indictment of Speed; such is life with an underfunded Sprint Cup team. And you can see why it makes financial sense for many teams to start-and-park.
