Stanton Barrett is back in the NASCAR Xfinity Series as he hopes to make his first start since 2019 when he enters Saturday’s Road America event. He will drive the #35 Toyota GR Supra for Emerling-Gase Motorsports.
“Looking forward to racing at my favorite road course and with a quality team behind me,” said Barrett. “This is an important race for my companies and as well for the team to gain valuable points.”
Barrett has competed in NASCAR since the 1990s, making starts in all three national divisions with over 200 at the Xfinity level. His last race was at Watkins Glen in 2019 where he finished twenty-third for MBM Motorsports after a two-year absence. He joined Mike Harmon’s team (now known as CHK Racing) for the 2022 Watkins Glen event but failed to qualify.
In five Xfinity starts at Road America, his best finish is seventeenth at the inaugural race in 2010.
Between his last two Xfinity races run (2016 at Road America and the aforementioned 2019 Watkins Glen), he did a pair of Cup Series races for Rick Ware Racing but retired from both. The two starts were his first at NASCAR’s top level in a decade, and he did another Cup one-off on the Daytona Road Course in 2020.
Since 2021, Barrett has served as a road course ringer in the ARCA Menards Series and raced at Nashville in the Stadium Super Trucks. During this period, he scored top tens in both of his ARCA starts at Mid-Ohio and came close at The Glen where he placed twelfth. In SST, his best finish is a fourth in the second 2022 race.
“We are excited to have Stanton and his partners on board for this weekend,” commented EGM co-owner Joey Gase. “His wealth of experience is a huge asset for the team, and we can’t wait to see what Stanton can do behind the wheel of the #35.”
Outside of racing, he works as a film stuntman and director. Among his recent works are as a stunt driver in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and NCIS: Hawaii, while also overseeing stunts for the upcoming thrillers 57 Seconds and Rebel Ridge.
The #35 is thirty-second in owner points with owners Gase and Patrick Emerling, Parker Chase, Leland Honeyman, Alex Labbé, C.J. McLaughlin, and David Starr making starts. Gase holds its lone top ten of a ninth at Talladega. Chase, Honeyman, and Labbé piloted the cars at the first four road course races of the year, with Chase and Honeyman respectively missing the show at COTA and Sonoma while Chase and Labbé finished thirty-fifth and twenty-first at Portland and Chicago.