Team release says that assets have been purchased
Photo courtesy of Viva Motorsports
Viva Motorsports, which fields the No. 55 entry in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, announced on Monday that the team is ceasing operations effective this week, according to a release issued by the organization.
The team was on track at Michigan International Speedway last weekend, where Jeffrey Earnhardt was behind the wheel of the No. 55 Chevrolet and finished in 34th place.
The organization made its NASCAR debut in 2009 and competed in both the XFINITY Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
“It takes a tremendous level of commitment to compete at this level of auto racing, especially when striving to get better on limited resources, week in and week out,” team owner Jamie Dick said in a release provided by the team. “It has come to a point where my family and I cannot continue to make the personal and financial commitments that this sport requires. I have always been proud of the quality of race team we brought to the track. Instead of lessening that quality, we decided to take a step back from the sport.”
“I want to thank the whole NASCAR community for allowing me to be part of the family. I want to thank our sponsors and our fans for all the support through the years. But most of all, I want to thank the employees of Viva Motorsports, both past and present, for making this team the best it could be.”
All the team assets have been purchased and the No. 55 car will appear in a handful of races in the 2015 season, according to the release.
This season, Earnhardt (six races), Dick (five races) and Brandon Gdovic (two races) split driving duties in the No. 55 car. Dick missed some time after being diagnosed with new onset diabetes after the Phoenix race in March. The team’s best result in 13 races this season was a 12th-place showing by Earnhardt at Talladega in May.
A few weeks ago, Dick sat down with NASCAR.com at the team’s shop in China Grove, North Carolina, to discuss the challenges of running a single-car team.
“I do (have a single-car team, “us against the world” mentality). I don’t try to make it a point to spread that opinion throughout our employees and everyone else, but I certainly have that opinion,” Dick said. “Because of that mentality, I’m glad we do our own single-car team. Not that we want to be a single-car team, I just mean that we’re independent and we own it and we do it.”
Dick also reflected on where his own driving career was heading. The 26-year-old has made 60 XFINITY Series starts and 14 Camping World Truck Series starts in his career.
“The trajectory and the path of the mountain of my driving career and Viva Motorsports have already started to split and have more and more over the past year or two. I think they’ll continue to split more. I don’t think that my driving career will blossom into something greater than it is right now. I still like driving and I want to be the best race car driver I can be, but I don’t foresee any opportunities coming along to advance my driving career beyond what it is now, which I’m perfectly OK with. I’m happy with where I am and where I’ve made it.”
The Albuquerque, New Mexico native had big hopes for the organization, telling NASCAR.com in May that he would love to work his way into the Sprint Cup Series one day.
“The potential for Viva Motorsports to grow with other drivers and other partners and other sponsors, the sky is the limit,” Dick said last month. “I’d still love to venture into the Cup Series if the right opportunity presented itself, but I realize how difficult it is and I don’t want to go in there with a half-hearted effort. I want the right opportunity to do it right way. That probably will never mean the ‘right way’ compared to Joe Gibbs or Rick Hendrick, but at least the right way as something that we can be proud of.”
And those hopes extended to the team’s XFINITY efforts.
“I hope in three to five years we’re no longer a single-car team. I hope we’re a two or three car XFINITY car team competing for better finishes, top-10 finishes, and continue to present ourselves professionally like we do now.”
— Pat DeCola contributed to this report.