From a 2008 Cup start with Max Papis to a 2020 charter sale, the team raced in three national series and changed brands along the way.
Germain Racing was a NASCAR team run by Bob Germain, whose family owns Germain Motor Company dealerships. It competed in the Cup, Xfinity and Truck series for more than a decade, and it ended its Cup involvement by selling its charter in September 2020.
Germain Racing was an American stock car team owned by Bob Germain, whose family runs the Germain Motor Company dealership group across the United States. The team last ran full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, and it ended after selling its charter in September 2020 to Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan.
How did Germain Racing start and who ran it?
The team was run by Bob Germain, a dealership owner. Over the years it fielded Cup, Xfinity and Truck cars with Toyota, Ford and Chevrolet, worked with Richard Childress Racing from 2014, and sold its Cup charter in September 2020.
The operation grew out of Germain-Arnold Racing, a partnership with the former Cup team Arnold Motorsports that lasted until 2005. After that Bob Germain ran the team on his own, with the backing of the dealership family and a steady stream of sponsors and drivers across the three national series.
Toyota was the brand for most of the team's existence. Fords arrived for 2012 and 2013, after which Chevrolet took over and the alliance with Richard Childress Racing gave those cars technical support. Sponsorship shortfalls shaped nearly every season, and GEICO was the most important backer over the team's later years.
A dealership-backed team that spent most of its life chasing sponsors, then sold its place on the grid.
What happened in the Cup Series?
Germain first raced in the Cup Series in 2008, working with Michael Waltrip Racing, which provided Toyota Camrys and technical support for two events with driver Max Papis. The team then ran a limited schedule in 2009 and planned a full season in 2010 that never fully materialised.
In 2009 Papis drove the No. 13 with GEICO sponsorship. The team qualified for 15 of 21 attempts. Its 2010 plans were undermined by limited sponsorship, so several events were started and parked. Papis ran 17 races that year, with 10 DNFs and five DNQs, and Casey Mears took over at Bristol.
In the first event of 2010 Papis qualified for the Daytona 500, but an early wreck and engine trouble left him 40th. The team's sponsorship gaps meant that several of its later starts were run as start-and-park efforts, with no racing at all.
| Years | Driver | Notable result |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 to 2010 | Max Papis | 40th at the 2010 Daytona 500; 17 races in 2010 |
| 2010 to 2016 | Casey Mears | 10th at the 2014 Daytona 500; 6th at the 2015 Daytona 500 |
| 2017 to 2020 | Ty Dillon | 6th at the 2019 Daytona 500; third at fall Talladega in the final season |
Mears was full-time in 2011 and missed only the Daytona 500, finishing 32nd in owner points. In January 2012 GEICO's Ford Fusion returned for the No. 13 with Mears behind the wheel. He led at Talladega before crashing out, and he finished 29th in points that year.
The 2013 season was a rebound, with one top-10 at Daytona, seven top-15 finishes and Mears up to 24th in points. In 2014 the Chevrolet partnership with Richard Childress Racing produced a 10th-place finish in the Daytona 500, and Mears ended the season 26th in driver points.
Mears followed that with a sixth-place finish at the 2015 Daytona 500, the team's fourth consecutive top 10 there. Ty Dillon was named to succeed Mears in the No. 13 car for 2017, a choice confirmed in late 2016, and Mears moved to a part-time ride with Biagi-DenBeste Racing.
What were the No. 60 and No. 27 entries?
Germain also ran a second Cup car, the No. 60 Toyota Camry, which debuted in 2011 with Todd Bodine. It was parked after 20 races that October, never finishing better than 38th. A No. 27 reappeared at the 2019 Daytona 500, where Casey Mears drove it to 40th after an accident on lap 104.
Did Germain Racing race in the Nationwide Series?
Yes. The team's Nationwide debut came in 2007, when Todd Bodine drove a No. 03 Toyota Camry, and it ran its first full-time entry in 2008 with Mike Wallace. Michael Annett then drove the No. 15 from 2009 to 2010 before the entry was sold on.
Bodine's first two starts both ended inside the top ten, and he drove to fourth in 2008. Wallace brought his car number and GEICO sponsorship from Phoenix Racing, finished eighth with one top-five and eight top-10s, and then the team lost its sponsor when GEICO moved to the Cup Series after the 2008 season because of a conflict with the Nationwide Series sponsor.
In 2009 Annett ran the No. 15 for the whole season, backed by HYPE Energy and Pilot Flying J. He collected four top-10s, placed third among rookies and ranked 10th in points. In 2010 he managed two top 10s and finished 13th. For 2011 the owner points were sold to Rick Ware Racing after Daytona.
What happened in the Truck Series?
Germain's Truck Series program ran from 2004 until it was shut down in 2012, and Todd Bodine's No. 30 was the most successful of its entries. Bodine won races for the team and took the 2006 championship, followed by a second title in 2010.
The first truck debuted at Daytona in 2005, when Shigeaki Hattori drove the No. 9 Toyota Tundra in the Germain-Arnold partnership. Hattori found the move to stock cars hard going, and he was let go late that season in favour of Justin Hobgood.
The No. 03 truck, which later became the No. 77, debuted at Lowe's Motor Speedway in 2007 with Justin Hobgood, who started from eighth but ended last following a crash early on. Chrissy Wallace raced it four times in 2008. Miguel Paludo ran the No. 77 at Bristol and Kentucky in 2010, finishing ninth and 20th, and Justin Lofton drove it full-time in 2011 until Texas, when he left and the truck was shut down.
Ted Musgrave joined the No. 9 with sponsor Team ASE after his own team, Ultra Motorsports, closed. In 2007 he was suspended for one race after deliberately running into another driver under a caution flag, and Germain put Brad Keselowski in the truck, a move that launched Keselowski's career.
Bodine's No. 30 won at Fontana and Texas in 2004. In 2006 Lumber Liquidators sponsored the team, and Bodine and the crew took three victories and the championship. He won at Texas and Talladega in 2007 and finished fourth in points, and in 2008 he added three more wins and moved up to third.
The truck operation shut down in 2012 when sponsorship dried up. Bodine moved to Red Horse Racing, and Germain sold its truck equipment to Mike Hillman Sr., a former manager who went on to start a team of his own.
How did Germain Racing end?
The Cup charter changed hands on 21 September 2020, when Hamlin and Jordan took it over after the longtime sponsor GEICO said it would not renew after that season. Hamlin and Jordan used the charter for 23XI Racing from 2021, and the sale brought the team's own operations to an end.
Ty Dillon's 2019 season also included a suspension for crew chief Matt Borland. On 26 August 2019 NASCAR suspended Borland indefinitely for violating its substance abuse policy. Justin Alexander, the crew chief of a part-time Richard Childress Racing Xfinity entry, filled in from Darlington until Borland was reinstated on 24 September after completing the Road to Recovery Program.
GEICO's departure removed the team's main backer. The team's final season ended with a third-place finish at the fall Talladega race and 26th in the points standings.
