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HScott Motorsports shuttering operations for the near future
After the departures of drivers Michael Annett and Clint Bowyer to other teams for the 2017 season, HScott Motorsports won’t be competing in NASCAR for the upcoming season.
The team announced the decision Monday. With no drivers or sponsors lined up for a season that begins in less than 100 days, the news wasn’t incredibly surprising.
“Over the past several months I considered a number of options for moving forward with the team. Regrettably there are no viable sponsor/driver options immediately available to allow the team to participate in 2017,” team owner Harry Scott said.
Annett is set to drive for JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series next season while Bowyer is replacing Tony Stewart at Stewart-Haas Racing. HSM expanded to two teams to accommodate both drivers in 2016 after fielding a single car for Justin Allgaier in 2014 and 2015.
In three-plus seasons in the Cup Series, HSM cars made 189 starts and had four top 10s. Three of those came via Bowyer, who had his worst season ever. He was 27th in the points standings while Annett was 36th.
The team announced last week that it had settled the lawsuit Bowyer filed regarding missed payments.
The team leased a charter from Premium Motorsports before the season to ensure Annett had entry into every race in 2016. HSM said in its statement that the leased charter was given back to Premium and subsequently sold to Furniture Row Racing. FRR is expanding to two cars for 2017 and Erik Jones will join Martin Truex Jr. on the team.
The charter for Bowyer’s No. 15 car in 2016 has been sold to Premium, ostensibly after it sold its charter to Furniture Row. Premium fielded the No. 98 and No. 55 cars driven by Reed Sorenson, Cole Whitt and others in 2016.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
