JTG Daugherty cutting back to one car for 2022
Co-owner Brad Daugherty said JTG Daugherty Racing will drop to a single NASCAR Cup Series car in 2022, citing advice from Dale Jarrett that running two underperforming teams was harder than running one strong one.
JTG Daugherty Racing will downsize from two cars to a single NASCAR Cup Series entry for the 2022 season, co-owner Brad Daugherty confirmed during an NBC talent media availability on August 31, 2021, according to reporting from RACER, NBC Sports and Frontstretch. The team had operated two cars since acquiring a second charter from Furniture Row Motorsports in 2018, but will not pursue another charter to replace it going forward.
"We really want to be a strong, one-car race company, and that's what we are going to go back to next season. We can't wait," Daugherty said, according to reporting from empireSportsMedia's coverage of the announcement.
Why the team is scaling back
Daugherty attributed the original move to two cars to having excess sponsorship dollars on hand, according to the reporting reviewed for this story. He said advice from former driver Dale Jarrett about the difficulty of fielding multiple underperforming teams shaped the decision to return to one car: "if you have one bad race team, why have two? It just makes it more difficult."
What it means for the drivers
The charter tied to the team's No. 47 car, driven by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., was expected to continue -- Stenhouse had signed a multi-year deal with the team prior to the 2020 season, according to the reporting reviewed. The No. 37 car, driven by Ryan Preece and lacking charter status, faced an uncertain future; Preece was left without a confirmed ride for 2022 as a result of the move, per NBC Sports' coverage. Both cars had recorded just one top-five finish apiece in 2021 and missed the Cup Series playoffs that year.
The charter that left the team
The second charter itself did not simply expire -- Todd Braun, who held the rights to the charter JTG Daugherty had acquired from Furniture Row Motorsports, sold it to Spire Motorsports, according to RACER's reporting. That sale, rather than a leaguewide reduction, is what left JTG Daugherty without a second charter to field for 2022.
US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by RACER, NBC Sports and Frontstretch. It restores a story originally published on this site in August 2021; figures are as reported at the time.