BAM Racing was a NASCAR racing team based in Charlotte, North Carolina, owned by Beth Ann and Tony Morgenthau. The team began racing in the ARCA RE/MAX Series in 2000 before moving to NASCAR in 2001.
Sprint Cup Series
Car No. 49 history
BAM Racing attempted its first Cup race at the Talladega 500 in 2001 with Andy Hillenburg, but failed to qualify. They also attempted the Pepsi 400, Pennsylvania 500 and the Brickyard 400 with Hillenburg, as well as the Pennzoil Freedom 400 with Rich Bickle, but did not qualify for any of those races.
BAM switched to Dodge for 2002, and acquired equipment from American Equipment Racing owner Buz McCall, who also provided the shop for use. The team qualified for the 2002 Daytona 500 with Shawna Robinson as its driver, who was scheduled to compete in 24 races. However, she struggled and her last race for the season was at the second Daytona race where she would finish 40th. Kevin Lepage, Stuart Kirby, Ron Hornaday, Stacy Compton and Derrike Cope would finish out the season with a best finish of 22nd at Talladega.
For the 2003 season it was announced that Ken Schrader would drive the No. 49. The team was forced to run with multiple sponsors throughout the year but most of the year the car was sponsored by AT&T through its 1-800-CALL-ATT collect call service. The team qualified for 32 races and had a best finish of 8th at Michigan. In 2004, it was announced BAM Racing had secured a deal with Schwan Food Company for multiple years. They were able to achieve a best finish of 6th during the season, had three less DNF's, and improved their average finish by two places.
Schwan's and Schrader again returned for the 2005 season and BAM had its best season to date with three top tens and an average finish of 25th place. After the conclusion of the 2005 season, Ken Schrader left to join Wood Brothers/JTG Racing. For 2006, Schrader was replaced by Brent Sherman who brought along sponsorship from Serta Mattresses. Sherman was to run for the Rookie of the Year award. However, after struggling through the start of the season he was released in favor of veteran Jimmy Spencer. Spencer was also an advisor for BAM and was a mentor for Sherman during his time there. However, Sherman's departure from the team left it unsponsored, as Serta had followed Sherman from ARCA racing to Busch Series and Cup series racing. Spencer raced from the spring Martinsville race until the spring Richmond race, when Mike Wallace took over. In May 2006, Kevin Lepage left Front Row Motorsports to take over the No. 49, before he was replaced by Mike Bliss in October. Chris Cook was hired to drive for the team to run the road course events, but failed to qualify for both events.
In 2007, BAM Racing was to race with Mike Bliss as the driver, using Evernham engines, but Bliss failed to qualify for 11 out of 15 attempts, and resigned midway through the season. Chad Chaffin was the team's interim driver at Loudon and Chicagoland, and Larry Foyt racing at Daytona. In the team's first attempt to qualify after Bliss' resignation at Loudon, Chaffin made the race after Brian Vickers and the No. 83 Team Red Bull Toyota were disqualified after failing post-qualifying inspection. Journeyman road racer Klaus Graf attempted several races in the No. 49, but didn't qualify for any of them due to engine blowups and a rain shower cancelling qualifying. Bliss briefly returned for a few races, before journeyman John Andretti was hired to complete the rest of the season for BAM. John Andretti was signed to drive the full 2008 season, but the contract was nullified just days before 2008 Daytona testing to put Ken Schrader in the seat in hopes of attracting more sponsorship.Ken Schrader and the BAM team failed to qualify for the Daytona 500 and the following race at California Speedway. Schrader drove in the Budweiser Shootout, but failed to qualify for the first two races of the season.
The team switched from Dodge to Toyota before the Goody's Cool Orange 500, along with announcing Microsoft's Small Business division as their sponsor. BAM promptly announced that they would be withdrawing from the next two races at Texas and Phoenix to refocus the team's efforts. Both the expenses of switching manufacturers and the pullout of Microsoft to Michael Waltrip Racing have forced BAM Racing to push their scheduled return further back, with NASCAR.com reporting on April 15, 2008, that the team may not return to racing until the fall. However, BAM made a minor attempt at a comeback in the Sprint All-Star Race. BAM fielded a ride for Petty Enterprises developmental driver Chad McCumbee, the car was a Dodge with sponsorship from Marathon Oil. McCumbee finished 13th.
On July 11, 2008, Sports Illustrated reported that BAM Racing was in talks with Barack Obama regarding a one-race sponsorship at Pocono, through BAM spokesman Rhett Vandiver. However, Obama spokesman Bill Burton told Yahoo! Sports that the sponsorship would not happen. The team took the 2009 season off due to the economy and its unwillingness to be a start and park operation.
Warner Music Nashville announced a strategic marketing alliance that gave WMN exclusive promotional opportunities with the NASCAR Sprint Cup racing team. Under the agreement, WMN artists had the opportunity to participate in branding and promotional programs at NASCAR events. The team planned to attempt a full schedule in 2010 with the new partnership and to run Toyotas. Larry the Cable Guy was to be featured on the car for the Daytona 500, with WMN artists Blake Shelton, Whitney Duncan, Gloriana, Jessica Harp, Jason Jones and James Otto joining the team for later races.http://www.nascar.com/2010/news/headlines/cup/01/07/bam.racing.vip.artists/ BAM announces additional VIP artists
On January 8, the team announced it would align with Robby Gordon and his self-owned team for the 2010 season. The join contract stated that RGM/BAM would have at least one car present at each race and would jointly field Gordon's No. 7 Toyota at certain races with sponsorship from WMN. Although it was announced that BAM would field the #49 car alongside the #7 after the Daytona 500, the #49 car did not show up and Gordon ran the #7 under BAM/Warner sponsorship until the 2010 Coca-Cola 600. BAM was not seen afterwards; it was later announced that the RGM/BAM partnership had dissolved and that RGM is exploring taking legal action against BAM Racing and Warner Music Nashville. The team made no further attempts for the remainder of 2010.
In September 2019, former American Equipment Racing owner Buz McCall confirmed in an interview with a fan that BAM is now defunct.
Car No. 49 results NASCAR Sprint Cup Series results Year Driver No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Pts 2001 Andy Hillenburg 49 Pontiac DAY CAR LVS ATL DAR BRI TEX MAR TALDNQ CAL RCH CLT DOV MCH POC SON DAYDNQ CHI NHA POCDNQ INDDNQ GLN MCH BRI DAR RCH DOV KAN CLT MAR TAL PHO CAR N/A - Rich Bickle Chevy HOMDNQ ATL NHA 2002 Shawna Robinson Dodge DAY24 CAR LVS42 ATL34 DAR42 BRI TEX36 MAR TALDNQ CAL42 RCH DAY40 41st 1004 Ron Hornaday Jr. CLT36 DOV POC MCH SON CHIDNQ NHA POC INDDNQ GLN Derrike Cope MCH37 BRI41 DAR RCH NHA ATL37 CAR PHO38 HOM34 Kevin Lepage DOV36 Stuart Kirby KAN37 Stacy Compton TAL22 CLT42 MAR 2003 Ken Schrader DAY42 CAR24 LVS28 ATL38 DAR17 BRI37 TEX24 TAL33 MAR10 CAL30 RCH24 CLT28 DOV26 POC43 MCH42 SON33 DAY41 CHI28 NHA36 POC26 INDDNQ GLNDNQ MCH8 BRI12 DAR38 RCH25 NHA37 DOV33 TAL21 KAN28 CLTDNQ MAR22 ATL26 PHO27 CAR36 HOMDNQ 38th 2569 2004 DAY40 CAR27 LVS32 ATL26 DAR22 BRI6 TEX19 MAR40 TAL23 CAL20 RCH23 CLT31 DOV34 POC25 MCH39 SON23 DAY35 CHI27 NHA37 POC21 IND18 GLN28 MCH28 BRI32 CAL33 RCH30 NHA16 DOV25 TAL20 KAN27 CLT21 MAR31 ATL23 PHO20 DAR30 HOM25 33rd 3032 2005 DAY39 CAL14 LVS34 ATL26 BRI23 MAR24 TEX23 PHO38 TAL8 DAR18 RCH30 CLT9 DOV37 POC20 MCH28 SON35 DAY10 CHI26 NHA26 POC31 IND22 GLN32 MCH25 BRI11 CAL29 RCH19 NHA40 DOV28 TAL26 KAN17 CLT34 MAR13 ATL34 TEX29 PHO30 HOM22 31st 3159 2006 Brent Sherman DAY21 CAL37 LVS34 ATL36 BRI42 TEXDNQ PHO32 TALDNQ 40th 1865 Jimmy Spencer MAR Mike Wallace RCH35 Kevin Lepage DAR36 CLTDNQ DOV39 POC31 MCH34 DAYDNQ CHIDNQ NHA30 POC34 INDDNQ MCH41 BRI21 CAL38 RCH33 NHA30 DOV37 KANDNQ Chris Cook SONDNQ GLNDNQ Mike Bliss TAL26 CLT42 MARDNQ ATL26 TEX23 PHO41 HOM39 2007 DAYDNQ CALDNQ LVSDNQ ATL21 BRI17 MAR30 TEX41 PHODNQ TALDNQ RCHDNQ DARDNQ CLTDNQ DOVDNQ POCDNQ MCHDNQ POCDNQ 47th 1502 Klaus Graf SONDNQ GLNDNQ Chad Chaffin NHA36 CHI31 Larry Foyt DAYDNQ Ken Schrader IND25 John Andretti MCH37 BRI40 CAL37 RCH37 NHADNQ DOV37 KAN33 TAL33 CLT42 MAR33 ATL28 TEXDNQ PHODNQ HOMDNQ 2008 Ken Schrader DAYDNQ CALDNQ LVS21 ATLDNQ BRI41 48th 276 Toyota MAR37 TEX PHO TAL RCH DAR CLT DOV POC MCH SON NHA DAY CHI IND POC GLN MCH BRI CAL RCH NHA DOV KAN TAL CLT MAR ATL TEX PHO HOM 2010 David Gilliland DAYDNQ CAL LVS ATL BRI MAR PHO TEX TAL RCH DAR DOV CLT POC MCH SON NHA DAY CHI IND POC GLN MCH BRI ATL RCH NHA DOV KAN CAR CLT MAR TAL TEX PHO HOM N/A -
Car Nos. 59 and 70 history The team fielded a second car for Klaus Graf at Infineon in 2004, the No. 59 SEM Products/Color Horizons Dodge. He finished 17th. The team attempted a number of races later in the year, but failed to qualify for all of them. Larry Foyt also attempted a number of races late in the 2004 season, instead running the No. 70 due to the system of the 2004 provisional points. The team shut down at the conclusion of the 2004 season. Before shutting down, the team was looking to run a second or even a third car in 2005 but sponsorship never materialized.
Car No. 59/70 results NASCAR Nextel Cup Series results Year Driver No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Pts 2004 Klaus Graf 59 Dodge DAY CAR LVS ATL DAR BRI TEX MAR TAL CAL RCH CLT DOV POC MCH SON17 DAY CHI NHA POC IND GLNDNQ MCH BRI CAL RCH NHA DOV TAL KAN MARDNQ 61st 188 Larry Foyt CLTDNQ ATLDNQ PHO DAR HOM 70 DAY CAR LVS ATL DAR BRI TEX MAR TAL CAL RCH CLT DOV POC MCH SON DAY CHI NHA POC IND GLN MCH BRI CAL RCH NHA DOV TAL KAN CLT MAR ATL PHO DAR HOMDNQ N/A -
ARCA Re/Max Series
Car No. 49 history The team was created in 2000 from the remnants of the ISM Racing that was not being used by Tyler Jet Motorsports. NASCAR Winston Cup Series team. Tony Morgenthau gave the team as a birthday present to his wife, Beth Ann, whose initials comprised the name of the team. BAM Racing attempted 6 races late in the 2000 ARCA Season with Matt Mullins. The team would have a best start of 10th at Charlotte in October and a best finish of 13th at Pocono in June. The team ceased operations upon BAM's move to Winston Cup.
Car Nos. 69 and 99 history BAM Racing returned to ARCA in 2004 as part of Klaus Graf's development program. The German driver made his debut in the No. 69 BAM Racing Dodge at Nashville Superspeedway in October, starting 5th and finishing 3rd. He ran a second race in the No. 99 BAM Racing Dodge at Talladega in October, where he started 7th and finished 29th after a crash.
References
9. Interview with a Former NASCAR Team Owner Buzz McCall, R-U Relentless and Unstoppable? https://youtube/7tRDgE3xqDU
External links BAM Racing Homepage[defunct] BAM Racing's Ownership Statistics sportsillustrated.cnn.com https://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/news;_ylt=AsvBhwjCx62EGfn9lrEkd.Pov7YF?slug=ap-nascar-obamasponsorship&prov=ap&type=lgns