Ty Dillon will have another shot at the NASCAR Cup Series. On Sunday, GMS Racing announced Dillon as the driver of the #94 Chevrolet for the full 2022 Cup slate. 2022 will mark the début Cup season for GMS, a longtime competitor in the Camping World Truck Series. ECR Engines, owned by Dillon’s grandfather Richard Childress, will provide engines for the team.
Dillon raced full-time in the Cup Series from 2017 to 2020 for Germain Racing, scoring six top tens, two top fives, a best finish of third in the 2020 fall Talladega race, and a highest points placement of twenty-fourth in 2017 and 2019. Upon Germain’s shutdown at the end of the 2020 season, Dillon landed in the Xfinity Series on a part-time basis with Joe Gibbs Racing, Our Motorsports, and Jordan Anderson Racing; in eleven starts, he has three top tens and a fifth-place finish at Atlanta.
His 2021 also included joining Gaunt Brothers Racing for a limited Cup campaign. After failing to qualify for the Daytona 500, he ran four short track and road course events with a best finish of nineteenth at the Daytona Road Course. Dillon was also technically the first driver to pilot a Cup car for the new 23XI Racing when he ran the exhibition Busch Clash on the Daytona RC as regular driver Bubba Wallace was ineligible.
“It’s such an honour to be able to drive for GMS Racing as they take the step into the NASCAR Cup Series for the first time, and that they have chosen me as their driver for the future,” said Dillon. “It’s been a challenging year off from racing full-time but I’m so excited to return. I don’t think that there is going to be another driver that is more hungry than I am next year to get back out there and prove what I am capable of in the Cup Series. I am excited for our future and am ready to get to work.”
GMS and Dillon have worked together in the past. In 2015, Dillon drove the #33 truck for GMS on a three-race schedule, winning the pole in the season opener at Daytona and never finishing lower than eleventh.
“We are excited to welcome Ty to the GMS Racing family,” commented GMS president Mike Beam. “Going full-time Cup racing in 2022 is a big step for us and I can’t think of a better driver than Ty to lead us into our first year in NASCAR’s top series.”
#94 has not been used at the Cup level since 2004 when Stanton Barrett drove for the backmarker W.W. Motorsports owned by Dave Watson. The number is most synonymous with Bill Elliott‘s six-year run as an owner/driver from 1995 to 2000.
The Dillon/GMS duo will participate in the two-day Next Gen car test on Monday and Tuesday at the Charlotte Roval. GMS announced their expansion into the Cup Series in June.
