Floyd Mayweather Jr. is the newest celebrity to dip his feet into the world of NASCAR team ownership. On Tuesday, The Money Team Racing announced it will begin Cup Series competition at the Daytona 500 with the #50 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Kaz Grala will drive the car while veteran crew chief Tony Eury Jr. oversees the pit box.
“I love fast cars and I love to compete,” stated Mayweather. “I know NASCAR will not be easy, but anything easy isn’t worth doing to me. With that being said, this move into auto racing seems to be a perfect fit for the Mayweather brand.”
The Money Team, named after Mayweather’s lifestyle brand, initially planned to run the 2019 season finale at Homestead before aborting it in favour of preparing for 2020. At the time, Mayweather was simply lending his brand’s name to the team rather than having an actual commitment like what is suggested in Tuesday’s announcement. Presumably due to reasons like the COVID-19 pandemic and/or sponsorship, the team instead went without any statement over the next two seasons. During this stretch, TMT became somewhat of a running gag in the NASCAR community, with many fans regarding it as a sports version of vapourware. Now that the team has formally confirmed itself to be real and ready to race, the #50 will hope to make its Cup Series début at Daytona. As a part-time team, TMT is not locked into the race and therefore must qualify on speed or Duel performance.
The #50 Chevrolet will receive engines from ECR Engines; ECR is operated by Richard Childress Racing, who fielded a car for Grala in the Xfinity Series in 2019 and 2020. Executives from StarCom Racing, who folded after the 2021 season, have a “vested interest” in TMTR, particularly StarCom CFO William “Bill” Woehlemann, CEO Michael Kohler, and president Matt Kohler.
Grala has four Cup starts to his name, including his maiden series race with RCR as a subsitute for Austin Dillon in 2020, with top tens in two. Much of his NASCAR career has been as a part-timer after finishing seventh in Camping World Truck Series points in 2016 and running the first half of the 2018 Xfinity Series, and this will continue in 2022 as he intends to run four Xfinity races for Alpha Prime Racing. He is also APR’s reserve driver.
“It’s an honour to be behind the wheel for Floyd Mayweather’s entrance into NASCAR,” commented Grala. “It’s a really exciting time in our sport as it globalises and reaches new audiences. I know Floyd is here to win, and I absolutely feel that everyone involved in this programme is capable of making that happen. We know we will need some time to grow together as a new organisation, but I couldn’t be more thrilled to be a part of building this team from the ground up.”
Mayweather, a fifteen-time world boxing champion and 2021 inductee into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, is another face in a recent wave of high-profile NASCAR team owners. NBA legend Michael Jordan and recording artist Pitbull respectively co-own Cup teams 23XI Racing and Trackhouse Racing Team, while NFL great Emmitt Smith has a stake in Xfinity team Jesse Iwuji Motorsports; 23XI and Trackhouse formed in 2021 while JIM débuts in 2022.
