Long: A tale of two Cup teams

TALLADEGA, Ala. — The two biggest players in the most recent charter sale spent Saturday at Talladega in different ways.

Jeff Dickerson, co-owner of Spire Motorsports, challenged questions about the organization’s expansion, while BJ McLeod, owner/driver of Live Fast Motorsports, pondered how to make his car faster.

In the last two weeks, Spire Motorsports purchased the charter from Live Fast Motorsports for a reported $40 million and bought Kyle Busch Motorsports and its shop.

“I don’t know how many more of these deals we have to do before people know we are for real,” Dickerson said during a press conference.

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McLeod, relaxing in a lawn chair outside his motorhome after qualifying, looks to today’s race (2 p.m. ET on NBC) as a chance to score a top-10 finish and relishes the opportunities the charter sale could provide for his racing aspirations.

Neither McLeod nor Dickerson would confirm the $40 million sale price. The most previously paid for a charter was $13.5 million by 23XI Racing to StarCom racing in Nov. 2021.

Dickerson was befuddled about the reaction to the reported sale price.

“We’re a major league sport,” he said of NASCAR. “We’ve been around for 75 years. We portray ourselves to corporate America like we are major league and we are major league. That number that’s been, I guess, reported, I don’t know why it’s such a shock.”

Kyle Busch, seated next to Dickerson, interjected by saying the deal was “great for the sport.”

“I think it’s great for the sport,” Dickerson said. “We still have a ways to go.”

Spire’s purchase of the Live Fast Motorsports charter gives it three charters for next season. That third charter will be used for Zane Smith. He is signed with Trackhouse Racing but will drive for Spire since Trackhouse doesn’t have a charter to run him.

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With a three-car operation and wanting to expand its Truck operation, Spire needed a new shop. It gets that by purchasing Kyle Busch Motorsports, Rowdy Manufacturing and the 77,000-square foot facility that houses both and is appraised by Iredell County at more than $7 million.

The high-dollar amounts of the two recent deals led to questions Saturday about if Dickerson and co-owner T.J. Puchyr had added any partners. Dickerson denied it Saturday.

“TJ and I’s names are on the check,” Dickerson said.

In July, Spire announced a deal with Gainbridge to sponsor one of the team’s cars in 16 of the season’s final 18 Cup races. Gainbridge has a significant presence in IndyCar, partnering with Andretti Global and serving as the presenting sponsor of the Indianapolis 500. Gainbridge is a subsidiary of Group 1001. Dan Towriss, CEO and president of Group 1001, is a co-owner of Andretti Global.

“I don’t want to minimize Gainbridge’s involvement with us,” Dickerson said. “Obviously, it’s a big deal for us. … To make it anything more than that, I get it, they’re certainly making moves and making waves over there, but this is TJ and mine’s and will continue to be.”

Dickerson and Puchyr have surprised many in the sport often, starting when they purchased Furniture Row Racing’s charter in Dec. 2018 for $6 million to begin their operation.

The team won a race in 2019 with Justin Haley. The organization has four top-five finishes and nine top-10 finishes in its career. Three top times and four top 10s have come since last season.

“I think a lot of people, probably myself included … we didn’t take it all that serious, like they were just going to sell off it one day,” Kyle Larson said of when Spire Motorsports debuted. “I just didn’t think they were going to run like a legit team and they’ve done a really good job to prove all that differently.

"We got to win a Truck race for them earlier this year (at North Wilkesboro). They’re trying really hard to have a legit organization, and I respect that a lot. Jeff and TJ, they’re both very smart individuals and scrappy hard workers.”

McLeod also has been savvy. He joined former Cup driver Matt Tifft in creating Live Fast Motorsports when they acquired the charter from GoFas Racing after the 2020 season. The 3-year-old team has struggled to be competitive. McLeod has scored the team’s two top-10 finishes, including a career-best seventh in last year’s regular-season finale.

While McLeod declined to answer questions about selling the charter or anything related to it, he said he would continue racing. He looks to run a part-time Cup schedule next season that likely will have him compete in the superspeedway races and add another driver for road courses or any other events.

McLeod also will continue his Xfinity program and seeks to build that operation.

“I envision our team in Xfinity being a stepping stone for somebody that’s competitive in Trucks, has done well in Trucks or done well in ARCA and has a sponsor that likes the Xfinity Series that we can put something together to give them a platform to be able to step up to an RCR, a Gibbs, a JR (Motorsports), something like that in the Xfinity Series and then we get to know that we were a part of helping that driver’s career along.

“Eventually, I would like to be as strong as one of those teams that I just mentioned. But it’s something that you don’t just write a check for, it takes a long time to make it happen. It’s something that we’re really dedicated to try to make that happen. There’s a lot of stuff you have to work do to be able to pull that off. That’s where our passion lies.”