Chad Bryant, a three-time cosmetic Crew Chief of the Year, has bought the assets of Cunningham Motorsports. The team had previously been owned between a partnership of Briggs Cunningham and Kerry Scherer.
Bryant has been a component in the success of the team being the crew chief for driver Case Briscoe’s 2016 ARCA national championship.
“Same team, new name,” said Bryant. “We’re open for business as Chad Bryant Racing (CBR)…still the 77 and the 22.”
Not much is expected to change according to Bryant as reported on ARCA’s website.
“I’m excited and blessed to keep this group of guys together. It’s the same nucleus all-star group from Cunningham that held this thing together for years…making Cunningham the highly successful organization it is today.”
“I’ve never missed a day’s work since this deal went down,” Bryant continued. “We’re working out of the same shop with basically the same guys. I’ll be working side by side with Paul (Andrews) like we always have…I just have to pay more attention to the ownership side. Bob Melvin, the car chief on the 77 for the last five years, will continue to be the car chief on the 77.
“As soon as the sale took place, we went ahead with plans to run Daytona, starting with the open test. We felt like with the team’s past success, we’d have somebody step forward that wanted to race our equipment.”
Driver Bo LeMastus will drive the No. 77 Crosley Brands Ford in the season opening Lucas Oil 200 Driven by General Tire at Daytona on Feb. 10. He’s expected to be part of an open test this weekend as well.
“I don’t think there are betters guys in the ARCA garage to be working with than Chad Bryant and Paul Andrews,” said LeMastus. “Totally top shelf. I could not have found a better opportunity. I’m so pumped to be in that car (77). For me, it was a simple decision. I like the way they run things…I think it’s going to be a great fit.
Seat time of the No. 22 could be split between multiple drivers.
“Joe Graf, Jr. and Chad Finchum are also going to be testing with us. Finchum is there to get approval to run the Xfinity race at Daytona but we expect Joe (Graf) to run a number of races with us throughout the year.”
