Empire Racing Group (often just called Empire Racing) is an American professional stock car racing team that currently competes in the ARCA Menards Series, fielding the No. 8 Chevrolet and Fords for driver Sean Corr and in late models with the No. 44 of Lexi Gay, the No. 46 of Thad Moffitt, and the No. 9 of Harrison Moffitt. The team has an alliance with Richard Petty Motorsports. They have also competed in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series in the past.
History
NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series
The team fielded the No. 82 Ford F-150 part-time in the Truck Series starting in 2012. They made their debut at Pocono with Sean Corr driving, finishing 25th. The team attempted one more race at Homestead, but they failed to qualify.
Sean Corr made his first Truck starts at Daytona (which was a DNQ) and Talladega in 2013 as well as Pocono for the second straight year.
The team had other drivers in addition to Corr in 2014, with Jake Crum racing at Charlotte and dirt driver Cody Erickson attempting to qualify for Eldora. After he failed to qualify to the race after just coming short in the last-chance qualifier, the team invited him back for a pavement start at Martinsville that October, which he did qualify for.
Empire fielded K&N Series driver Austin Hill for four races in 2015 at Daytona, Dover, Talladega, and Martinsville. Corr made his first start at Eldora that year in the No. 82, with Erickson driving a second truck for the team, the No. 35, where the team leased owner points from Win-Tron Racing instead of fielding a separate truck of their own so Erickson could have a better chance of qualifying (which he successfully did). They did the same thing at Martinsville with Jim Weiler since Austin Hill was already in the No. 82, but Weiler did not qualify for what would have been his debut race in the Truck Series.
With the team allying with Richard Petty Motorsports starting in 2016, they switched to run the famous Petty No. 43 for their primary truck. Austin Hill returned to Empire at Daytona, where he did not qualify for the race, which had a large entry list of 43 trucks for just 32 spots. Hill was set to leave after that to form his team, the No. 20, so he did not run any more races for the team after that.
The team picked up Korbin Forrister to drive the No. 43 at Eldora, who was making his first Truck attempt after his team, the No. 59 for Lira Motorsports, closed down after just two races. The team entered a second truck for that race again this year, with the team bringing back their old number, the No. 82, for Sean Corr. Both Empire trucks failed to qualify for that race.
The team has not attempted any more Truck Series races since then, as they have focused on expanding their ARCA team back up to three cars.
ARCA Menards Series
2009–2016
The first series the team raced in was the ARCA Racing Series. Beginning in 2009, the team fielded the No. 82 Ford for Sean Corr part-time. In 2009, Corr attempted Kentucky, both races at Pocono (his home track) and Chicago.
For 2010, the team switched numbers for unknown reasons to the No. 83 at Daytona, but they used the No. 82 again for the rest of their attempts, which were at Texas, Talladega, Michigan, and both Pocono races again with Corr and New Jersey Motorsports Park with road course ringer Robert Mitten.
In 2011, Corr ran for rookie of the year in ARCA and the No. 82 team ran full-time for the first time. Corr finished ninth in points and scored two top-tens at Iowa and Madison. Former driver Richard Johns was announced to serve as the team's crew chief that year.
Corr started the 2012 season with a bang by winning the pole for the season opener at Daytona after Bobby Gerhart's time was disqualified. However, they finished last because of engine issues. Due to sponsorship, the team announced they had to cut back to part-time after four races, and they only ran the first race at Pocono for the remainder of that year. After just that race, they decided to focus their attention on the Truck Series.
The team returned to ARCA at Daytona, Talladega, and Pocono in 2013. Corr got the team's first top-5 finish at Daytona. Empire did not attempt any more races until the second Pocono race, where rookie Mason Mitchell drove the No. 82 after he was released from Roulo Brothers Racing. The team would run the rest of the races with Mitchell in his quest for rookie of the year.