Landon Cassill plans to make his first NASCAR Cup Series start since 2019 Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway in the final race of the regular season. He’ll drive the #96 Gaunt Brothers Racing Toyota.
“Marty Gaunt is someone who I’ve always believed in,” Cassill said. “We’ve had a really good relationship for a long time, and we’ve talked about working together many times over the years. This is really good timing and a perfect opportunity to get in his #96 Toyota Camry and see what we can do.”
Cassill also is slated to drive the car at Talladega Superspeedway on Oct. 3, the final superspeedway race of the season. After a full season with Daniel Suarez in the car in 2020, GBR has scaled back to a partial schedule in 2021, focusing, primarily, on superspeedway and road-course races.
“Landon and I have often talked about finding a way to work together. He’s a scrappy, determined racer and I’m thrilled to finally have him in our racecar,” Gaunt Brothers Racing Resident Marty Gaunt said. “Daytona and Talladega are two tracks where it’s supremely important to stay out of trouble and be there at the end for any chance at success, and that’s one of Landon’s strong suits. Being able to bring Landon back to the Cup Series while introducing Carnomaly to our sport is something we take a lot of pride in.”
In 324-career Cup Series starts since 2010, Cassill has a best finah of fourth at Talladega in 2014. This year, he has been competing full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series as driver for JD Motorsports. In 166-career Xfinity races, dating back to 2007, he has one top-five, coming at Daytona in 2011, and 14 top-10 finishes.
Gaunt Brothers Racing has contested five Cup races, so far, in 2021, four with Ty Dillon as driver. The team has a best finish of 19th on the Daytona road course this season.
