Beard Motorsports Announces Plans
for 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Season
MT. PLEASANT, Michigan (Dec. 20, 2023) – Beard Motorsports announced today its plans for the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season. A total of four races make up the 2024 schedule for Beard and it begins Feb. 18 with the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. Manning the cockpit of the No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet in the 2024 edition of the Great American Race will be driver Anthony Alfredo.
Beard Motorsports, a generational race team, was founded by the late Mark Beard Sr. Since his passing in early 2021, his wife Linda Beard has served as the team owner with their children, Amie and Mark Jr., overseeing team operations and management. Beard Motorsports made its NASCAR Cup Series debut in the 2017 Daytona 500 with former driver Brendan Gaughan.
“The 2024 season marks our eighth year competing in the NASCAR Cup Series,” said Amie Beard, executive vice president of Beard Motorsports. “It’s surreal to even be referencing year number eight. This race team is a passion project for all of us. My dad loved the sport and it’s a passion that we now share as a family. It’s what drives this team.
“We are so excited to be back on track for 2024,” Beard added. “Our crew chief Darren Shaw and the majority our crew guys and pit crew are all back for this season. Darren has been busy getting the car ready, and preparations for the Daytona 500 are well underway. Our schedule will go beyond the Daytona 500 and we have some exciting things in the works that we look forward to sharing a little later. Overall, though, we are just looking forward to getting back to the track and doing what we do best – competing while having fun.”
In addition to the Daytona 500, the No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet is scheduled to compete in the NASCAR Cup Series GEICO 500 on April 21 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, the Aug. 24 Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona, and the Oct. 6 YellaWood 500 at Talladega. Alfredo will also pilot the No. 62 Chevrolet in the April Talladega race.
A NASCAR Next alumnus, Alfredo has been making a name for himself in the racing world since he debuted in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2019. He has competed in all three of NASCAR’s top touring series, including the Cup Series, where he has a total of 38 career starts.
“I’m so thankful for this opportunity,” said the native of Ridgefield, Connecticut. “Every driver that runs stock cars wants to race in the NASCAR Cup Series and the Daytona 500. I’ve been blessed to race at this level against drivers that are childhood heroes of mine. This opportunity with the Beard family is very exciting. They have always fielded great cars in these superspeedway races, so I’m thrilled to get behind the wheel of their No. 62 Chevrolet.”
Plans for the remaining events making up the 2024 schedule for the No. 62 Beard Motorsports team will be announced later in the season.
Brad Keselowski, RFK Racing Considering Expansion to IMSA SportsCar Series
Brad Keselowski’s future expansion of RFK Racing outside NASCAR’s Cup Series possibly won’t take the conventional route. Instead of fielding a Xfinity or Truck series entry, Keselowski is looking at IMSA.
A professional sports car racing series in the United States, IMSA made RFK Racing co-owner Jack Roush a household name in that form of motorsports before his NASCAR team made its debut in 1988. After returning to IMSA and the Sports Car Club of America in 1984, Roush won 24 national championships and titles in those two series. That included 12 manufacturer’s titles, 119 race wins and 10 consecutive sedan-class victories in the 24 Hours of Daytona.
“As NASCAR continues to get heavier and heavier into road course racing, I think that pedigree (IMSA) offers a lot of advantages to the ecosystem of a successful Cup team,” Keselowski says. “I don’t see us on a path to a Xfinity or Truck team in the near future.”
Keselowski views expansion into IMSA as part of a long-term plan. First on his agenda is developing a third Cup team. The Concord, N.C.-based team is tipping its toe in that water in 2024 with its #Stage60 project, which will focus on superspeedway and road course races. David Ragan will drive the No. 60 Ford Mustang at Daytona in February.
In regards to IMSA, Keselowski cites his interest in that series as focusing on its hybrid engine program even though he considers NASCAR a “separate brand” that focuses on American horsepower.
“There’s no reason for NASCAR to compete with its own product of IMSA,” Keselowski says. “You look at their (IMSA) car counts at some of these races and their interest, it’s through the roof. I think it’s good to have those as two separate products and ecosystems.”
NASCAR owns IMSA, whose LMP2 cars are eligible to compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship.