Cunningham Motorsports: The ARCA Team Behind Chase Briscoe's 2016 Title

Cunningham Motorsports was an American stock car team that raced mainly in the ARCA Racing Series, with spells in the Camping World Truck Series and the Busch Series. The team operated under several names over its life, including CSG Motorsports and CHS Motorsports. It won the 2016 ARCA championship with Chase Briscoe, and it closed at the end of 2017 before its assets were sold to Chad Bryant.

How did Cunningham Motorsports begin?

The team was formed in 1997 as CSG Motorsports, a three-way partnership between Briggs Cunningham III, Kerry Scherer and Mark Gibson. Gibson split from the team in early 2000 to form his own operation. The team kept its focus on ARCA events and dabbled in Busch Series races while it developed its driver line-up.

The partnership later became CHS Motorsports after Eddie Hartman joined the team in 2007. The team also signed a development contract with Team Penske in 2008, and it went on to win several Rookie of the Year awards in the late 2000s and early 2010s.

A small ARCA operation that built a champion, drove many development talents through its cars and ended with a sale to its crew chief.

What did the CHS years in the Truck Series involve?

CHS competed in the Camping World Truck Series for three years, running the No. 41 with Hartman as co-owner. The Truck effort was part-time for much of that period, and it was aligned with Ganassi Racing in late 2007, when Dario Franchitti made his first NASCAR start in the car and did not finish.

Tayler Malsam and Ryan Mathews drove for the team in 2008, and the team started and parked with various drivers in 2009. Hartman and Cunningham parted ways in 2010, and Hartman then partnered with Eddie Sharp. Steve Park ran two races in a Toyota Tundra that year, while the team had run Dodge Rams until 2009.

How did the 2016 ARCA championship come about?

Cunningham won the ARCA Racing Series championship in 2016 with Chase Briscoe at the wheel. It was Briscoe's first season in stock car racing, and he won six races during the title year, including four in a row during the summer.

Briscoe drove the No. 77 entry to that championship, and Dalton Sargeant took the car in 2017 after winning the 2016 ARCA Rookie of the Year award. The title was the high point of a long run in ARCA. The team had built its reputation through a steady flow of Dodge-backed drivers and Penske development talent, and the 2016 season brought that work to its peak.

What was the No. 4 car's story in ARCA?

The No. 4 car was the team's early workhorse. Marc Brenner ran a partial schedule in 2000 with backing from Outdoor Channel, and Roger Blackstock made the top ten at Flat Rock and Winchester while running the short tracks. Justin Labonte signed a development contract to drive the car at select superspeedways in 2001, and he led fifty-two laps at Nashville before problems left him in the mid-teens.

Labonte scaled back to a single race in 2002, and the car ran a crowded list of drivers that year. Austin Cameron gave the team its lone top ten of 2001 with an eighth at Kansas, and sixteen-year-old Justin Allgaier ran one race for the team in 2002 in association with his family team.

For the next three years the team ran a limited schedule as a start-and-park operation, while Morgan-McClure Motorsports used the number four for, among others, Eric McClure.

The No. 4 returned full-time in 2005 with Michael Guerity as the primary driver. Guerity recorded top tens at both restrictor plate tracks and finished second at Michigan. Ronnie Hornaday led 14 laps and finished eighth at Lanier Speedway, and Scott Lagasse Jr. ran ten races with a Truck schedule alongside, leading almost 50 laps at Kansas before running out of fuel.

The 2005 effort was run with Hantz Group Racing and Mike Guerity Racing. Steve Wallace ran two races for the team while also running a partial Truck schedule, and he scored as many top tens as his starts. Bob Strait led a lap and finished second at a dirt track race.

Who were the Dodge-era drivers at Cunningham?

Cunningham aligned itself with Evernham Motorsports and Ganassi Racing after its strong 2005 season, both as part of a Dodge development program. Chase Miller ran a mix of short tracks and superspeedways, scoring a pole at Gateway and winning at Pocono, which made him the youngest winner in ARCA history.

Juan Pablo Montoya was brought in through the Ganassi deal for two starts, at Talladega and Iowa, and he logged a top five at Talladega. Tayler Malsam ran the No. 4 full-time in 2008 and recorded three top fives in the season. Patrick Long won the race at New Jersey Motorsports Park from the pole in 2009, in his only ARCA start.

In 2007 Tim Andrews won a pole at Pocono, and his father served as crew chief when he took a top ten at Nashville. Rob Bunker had trouble finding speed in his races, and Ray Mooi drove the car in three races.

Who defined the No. 22 car?

The 22 began as a part-time entry in 2009, when Drew Herring and Dakoda Armstrong each drove a race. Armstrong took the entry full-time the following year, with the No. 4 folding, and he won at Talladega while still in high school. He also won at Salem and scored ten other top tens.

The 22 and the 77 became part-time in 2011. Armstrong continued as the primary driver, running six races and winning at Winchester, while Ryan Lynch and Chrissy Wallace also made starts in the car.

Alex Bowman ran all 19 events in the 22 in 2012 and won at Salem, Winchester, Iowa and Kansas. He claimed three poles in the first six races and was named Rookie of the Year, on a team that was in danger of shutting down midway through the season. Kyle Weatherman was the primary driver in 2015, when Trevor Bayne won at Pocono in the car and Weatherman won at New Jersey Motorsports Park.

Blake Jones also won the race at Talladega Superspeedway in 2015 and ran other races in the 22. The combined success of the drivers carried the car to second in owners' points that year.

Ryan Blaney ran three races for the team in 2013 while also running a full Truck schedule. He captured two poles and was the fastest car at Michigan, but he finished third after running out of fuel.

Local Minnesota short track driver Jonathan Eilen drove for the 22 at Elko Speedway in 2013 and finished third, although he did not return to the team after that race.

In 2016 Myatt Snider won his ARCA debut at Toledo Speedway, and Parker Kligerman won at New Jersey Motorsports Park for the team's 30th ARCA victory. Shane Lee drove the 22 full-time in 2017, scoring a pole and fourteen top fives on the way to third in points behind teammate Dalton Sargeant.

Ken Schrader, Brady Boswell and Clayton Weatherman also drove the 22 that year. The team rotated through that many names and still finished seventh in owners' points.

How did the Nos. 59, 77 and 99 fit in?

The team's original No. 59 debuted in 1997 with Mark Gibson as driver. Gibson took the first Gateway win in the sixteenth race of the opening season, and he returned the next year to win at Texas and lead over 100 laps. Justin South ran the No. 59 full-time in 2007 with a third at Toledo.

The No. 77 was the team's other Penske-linked entry. Parker Kligerman won nine of the 21 races in the car in 2009, but he lost the title to Justin Lofton by five points. Tom Hessert III won a race and finished third in points in 2010, and he returned to the car for 2013 and 2014, winning at Salem and at Talladega Superspeedway.

The No. 72 was a part-time entry in 2014. It debuted with Austin Wayne Self at Daytona, where the car failed to qualify. Tom Hessert III ran it at Mobile International Speedway, Madison and Winchester when the regular drivers were in the 77, and Brandon Gdovic brought the car home in the top ten in the season finale.

The No. 99 entry was split in 2017 between Austin Cindric and Ty Majeski, who drove for five events. Cindric had won at Kentucky in the car in 2016 and grabbed the pole at Road America in 2017.

Why did the team close and who bought it?

The team closed at the end of the 2017 ARCA Racing Series season, because of the ailing health of its owner, Briggs Cunningham. The closure ended a long run of driver development work with Dodge, Penske and Roush Fenway Racing.

The sale was announced on 9 January 2018. Longtime crew chief Chad Bryant bought the assets of the team and formed Chad Bryant Racing, which kept the same numbers and personnel from the old Cunningham team.

What happened to the team after the sale?

Bryant signed Bo LeMastus and Joe Graf Jr. as his first drivers for the new operation. Keeping the numbers and crew meant the operation stayed recognisably the same team, although it now had a new owner.

Which partnerships shaped the team?

From 2001 to 2007 the team took part in a Dodge driver development program in ARCA. The team then announced a partnership with Team Penske in June 2008, covering ARCA, USAC Midgets and the Truck Series.

Seven years later, the team announced an ARCA-specific development program with Roush Fenway Racing to put Kyle Weatherman in a car. Both relationships continued until the closure, and in 2017 Penske's Austin Cindric and Roush Fenway's Ty Majeski split the No. 99 entry.