From a 1999 Texas start to a Mooresville Nationwide and Truck operation, Turner Scott Motorsports won titles and developed drivers before its owners split in 2014.
Turner Scott Motorsports was a stock car team co-owned by Steve Turner and Harry Scott Jr., formed from Turner Motorsports in 1999 and based in Mooresville, North Carolina. It raced in the Nationwide and Truck series until its owners split after 2014.
Turner Scott Motorsports, known as TSM and formerly Turner Motorsports, was an American stock car team that competed in the NASCAR Cup, Nationwide and Truck series, as well as the K&N Pro Series East and ARCA. It was co-owned by Steve Turner of Texas and Harry Scott Jr. of North Carolina, and it ran Hendrick Motorsports engines from a base in Mooresville, North Carolina, until it collapsed in 2014.
How did Turner Motorsports begin?
Turner Motorsports was founded in 1999 in Hallettsville, Texas, by Steve Turner, the president and chief executive of RedHawk Energy, which owned the team's sponsor, Wolf Pack Energy Services. The team's first series was the ASA Late Model Series, which it entered in 2006 with James Buescher. A move to the USAR Pro Cup Series followed in 2007.
In 2009 the team moved its main operation to Mooresville. It entered the ARCA Racing Series at Chicagoland that October with Beau Slocumb, and its Camping World Truck Series debut came at Texas later that month with Scott Wimmer. For 2010 it ran two trucks, driven by Ricky Carmichael and James Buescher, and it built a working relationship with Kevin Harvick Incorporated.
A two-owner team that rose from a Texas start to Mooresville titles, then split in 2014 as its equipment moved to new homes.
Why did Turner buy Braun Racing?
In September 2010 Turner bought Braun Racing, a four-car Nationwide Series team and one of the most successful non-Cup-affiliated operations in the series. Turner switched the programme from Toyota to Chevrolet for 2011, kept Braun's sponsors and carried over the number logos Braun had used on its teams, except the 38.
In 2013 Harry Scott Jr., a North Carolina businessman from the medical billing industry who had held a minority stake in Braun since 2009, increased his share. He ran AccuDoc Solutions, the organisation's sponsor, and became manager of its marketing and business development. The team was then renamed Turner Scott Motorsports.
How did the partnership break down?
In August 2014 the co-owners filed lawsuits against each other. The dispute closed the No. 30 truck driven by champion Ron Hornaday Jr., the full-time K&N East team and a part-time truck driven by Brandon Jones. Turner sought more than $3 million and claimed Scott had not met his duties to pay vendors or the $2 million he owed Turner. Scott argued that Turner let the team's funds run dry and did not fund the entries. About 70 employees were dismissed on 27 August and asked to return the next morning.
At the end of 2014 Scott split from Turner and took control of the No. 42 Nationwide car and the K&N East operation. The Xfinity side moved to Chip Ganassi Racing as HScott Motorsports, while the truck programme was sold. The team's Mooresville facility was later taken over by Richard Petty Motorsports.
| Year | Series and car | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Nationwide No. 31, Justin Allgaier | Chicagoland win, third in driver points |
| 2012 | Truck No. 31, James Buescher | Four wins and the Truck Series championship |
| 2014 | Nationwide No. 42, Kyle Larson | Two wins, fourth in owner points |
| 2014 | Truck No. 42, Kyle Larson | Second at Homestead after leading 96 of 134 laps |
What did the Cup programme try in 2012?
In January 2012 Turner announced a No. 50 Chevrolet Impala for the Coke Zero 400 that July. Walmart sponsored the car, its first foray into NASCAR as a team sponsor, and Bill Elliott, the 1988 champion, drove it. The team used Hendrick Motorsports engines, and Trent Owens was crew chief.
Elliott qualified sixth and showed early speed, but a late crash left the car 37th. Later in 2013 Harry Scott Jr. bought the Phoenix Racing Cup team in Spartanburg, South Carolina, which began running as HScott Motorsports in September 2013. Although it fielded TSM drivers, the Cup operation was not connected to the Mooresville team.
How did the No. 30 and No. 31 cars perform?
The No. 30 began as the No. 10 Nesquik Chevrolet for ppc Racing, which Braun bought after ppc closed in 2007. Turner acquired it in 2010, and in 2011 it ran full-time with many drivers. Leffler, Buescher, Carmichael and Ryan Newman all drove it. Buescher finished second at Lucas Oil Raceway that year, and the car ended 18th in owner points with two top-fives and 10 top-tens.
In 2012 Buescher won the season-opening race at Daytona in the No. 30, and Nelson Piquet Jr. won at Road America. The team finished 11th in owner points. In 2013 Piquet ran the car full-time to compete for Rookie of the Year, scored five top-tens and finished 12th in points.
The No. 31 was rebranded for 2011 with Justin Allgaier driving full-time and BRANDT Agriculture as the main sponsor. Allgaier won at Chicagoland, where Carl Edwards ran out of fuel on the final lap and the No. 31 also almost ran dry before winning. He finished third in driver points with six top-fives and 17 top-10s, and the team was eighth in owner points.
Allgaier returned in 2012 and won at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, passing Jacques Villeneuve for the win after the Canadian slowed to save fuel. He finished fifth in points in 2013 before moving to HScott Motorsports for the Cup series in 2014.
What did the No. 38 and No. 42 cars do?
The No. 38 traced its roots to Akins Motorsports, and it switched from Dodge to Chevrolet when Braun took it over. Jason Leffler drove it from 2006 to 2011, usually sharing it with Kasey Kahne in 2010 and 2011. Great Clips sponsored the car from 2001. In 2011 the car ended 11th in the owner standings, with five top fives and eleven top tens.
The No. 42 began as the No. 32 for Braun, and Reed Sorenson drove the Dollar General Chevrolet in 2011. Mark Martin won at Las Vegas in March 2011, the first Nationwide victory for TSM, after Brad Keselowski blew a tyre while leading. In June Sorenson won at Road America after a NASCAR review confirmed he had kept proper caution speed, though Ron Fellows had passed him under caution.
Dollar General left after 2011 for Joe Gibbs Racing, and Turner Scott later shut the 32 down. In 2013 the team ran a No. 32 Camaro for Kyle Larson, a development driver from Earnhardt Ganassi Racing. He finished second to Kyle Busch at Bristol and won Rookie of the Year. On 22 March 2014 Larson won the Treatmyclot.com 300, holding off Busch and Kevin Harvick. He finished 2014 with two wins, a pole, 14 top-fives and 21 top-10s, and the car was fourth in owner points.
How did the trucks fare?
The truck programme began with the No. 4, which Ricky Carmichael drove in 2010 with 13th in points and a best finish of fourth. In 2011 he earned a pole at Atlanta and finished 16th in driver points. Kasey Kahne then won at Rockingham in 2012, starting from 36th. Jeb Burton, son of former Cup driver Ward Burton, was signed for 2013 and won at Texas on 7 June 2013, his first career NASCAR series win. He won seven poles and finished fifth in points before his sponsor defaulted six weeks before the 2014 opener.
The No. 30 truck had Nelson Piquet Jr., who won at Michigan and Las Vegas in 2012 and finished seventh in points. Kyle Larson won at Rockingham in 2013. In 2014 Ron Hornaday Jr. drove the season opener at Daytona and finished fifth, but the team shut the No. 30 down on 2 September 2014 and laid off 18 employees.
The No. 31 truck was driven by James Buescher from 2010. He won four races and the 2012 championship, and in 2013 he took two wins and finished third in points. He then left for RAB Racing's Nationwide programme. Ben Kennedy, the great-grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., drove the No. 31 in 2014 for Rookie of the Year. He finished third at Martinsville and earned the award, although he moved to Red Horse Racing for 2015.
What was the team's K&N and ARCA record?
TSM also fielded full-time K&N Pro Series East teams in 2013 and 2014. Dylan Dylan Kwasniewski won both the West and East titles, which no driver had done before, and matched a series record with six wins. Ben Rhodes won the 2014 East title with five wins, 11 top-five finishes and six poles, and he won four consecutive races, matching a 1991 record set by Ricky Craven.
In ARCA, Brandon McReynolds won at Talladega in 2012, and Kyle Larson finished second in the 2013 Daytona opener.
What is the legacy of Turner Scott Motorsports?
TSM's legacy is a team that developed drivers across several series. Kyle Larson, Justin Allgaier, Kasey Kahne, Ben Rhodes and Dylan Kwasniewski all passed through its cars on their way up, and the programme produced several Truck and K&N champions.
The team's collapse shows how a small operation can depend on the finances of two owners. When the partnership broke down in 2014, its equipment, staff and drivers moved to other teams, and the Mooresville facility went to another organisation.
Who sponsored the team's cars?
The team's sponsorship was a patchwork that moved from car to car. Great Clips backed the No. 38 for years, and Dollar General and Wolfpack Rentals carried the No. 42 and No. 30 entries. BRANDT Agriculture was the main sponsor of the No. 31 in 2011 and 2012, and Rockstar Energy came with Dylan Kwasniewski in 2014. Exide, Monster Energy, Duroline Brakes, Bass Pro Shops, Rheem, and Qualcomm and Autotrac appeared on other trucks and cars at various times.
Several sponsors came through the owners' own businesses. AccuDoc Solutions, the company run by Harry Scott Jr., backed a number of entries, and Arrowhead Electronic Cigarettes sponsored Jeb Burton's truck until it defaulted on payments six weeks before the 2014 season opener. When a sponsor left, the car often ran race to race, as the No. 30 truck did with Ron Hornaday Jr. in 2014.
What happened to HScott Motorsports?
Harry Scott Jr. owned a separate Cup operation, HScott Motorsports, which began running at Richmond in September 2013 after he bought the Phoenix Racing team in Spartanburg, South Carolina. That Cup team was unconnected to the Mooresville organisation, although it fielded TSM drivers such as Justin Allgaier and Kyle Larson. After the 2014 split, Scott's Nationwide car moved to Chip Ganassi Racing, and his K&N effort ran with the driver Justin Marks.
