Landon Cassill is back in a NASCAR Cup Series car for the first time in two years. On Monday, Gaunt Brothers Racing announced he will drive the #96 Toyota Camry in Sunday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway and at Talladega Superspeedway on 3 October.
Cassill last made a Cup start in 2019 when he ran the full schedule for StarCom Racing. He has competed in the division since 2010 and was a regular between 2011 and 2017. A journeyman driver, he raced for multiple Cup teams including Front Row Motorsports; FRM and StarCom are the only teams still active today for whom Cassill has driven (Circle Sport‘s owner Joe Falk shares a charter with Live Fast Motorsports). His best finish is fourth at the 2014 fall Talladega race for Circle Sport.
He currently races full-time in the Xfinity Series for JD Motorsports, his first full Xfinity campaign since he ran every race in 2014 with JDM. After twenty-two races, Cassill sits twenty-second in points with a best run of twelfth on two occasions (Daytona Road Course and Darlington).
“Landon and I have often talked about finding a way to work together,” said GBR owner Marty Gaunt. “He’s a scrappy, determined racer and I’m thrilled to finally have him in our race car. Daytona and Talladega are two tracks where it’s supremely important to stay out of trouble and be there at the end for any chance at success, and that’s one of Landon’s strong suits. Being able to bring Landon back to the Cup Series while introducing Carnomaly to our sport is something we take a lot of pride in.”
Carnomaly, a blockchain and cryptocurrency brand aimed at automobile owners, will sponsor the #96. The company has close ties to Cassill and former GBR driver Parker Kligerman by sponsoring the two’s sim racing programmes. With cryptocurrency dominating the online hemisphere in recent times, Cassill is no stranger to the topic as Xfinity sponsor Voyager exclusively pays him in Bitcoin.
“Landon is at the forefront of cryptocurrency’s use in the auto racing industry,” commented Carnomaly founder Scott Heninger. “He’s the perfect partner to team up with on this endeavour in order to further revolutionise the auto finance industry and expand our consumer base.”
After running every race in 2020 with Daniel Suárez, GBR has scaled back to a limited schedule for 2021 with Ty Dillon and Harrison Burton attempting select races such as the superspeedways, some road courses, and the Bristol Dirt round. Dillon failed to qualify for the Daytona 500 but finished nineteenth on the Daytona RC for the team’s best finish of the year to date, while Burton placed twentieth in his series début in the Talladega spring race. GBR’s best finish historically is thirteenth with D.J. Kennington at Daytona in 2018.