Phoenix Racing is a motorsports team that currently competes part-time in the ARCA Menards Series East fielding the No. 1 Toyota Camry and various Super Late Model events fielding the No. 51 Chevrolet SS for Jake Finch. Owned by Florida businessman James Finch, the team fielded NASCAR entries across the top three series from 1989 through 2013. The team fielded a wide variety of drivers and often changed manufacturers, though it often maintained a relationship with Hendrick Motorsports. In the Cup Series, Phoenix Racing was victorious just once in 251 starts over 24 seasons.
In 2013, Phoenix Racing was sold to Turner Scott Motorsports co-owner Harry Scott Jr., who renamed the team HScott Motorsports in 2014. Three years later, HScott Motorsports shut down. Phoenix Racing would reopen its doors in 2020 to help Finch's son Jake start his racing career in Outlaw Late Models locally in Florida, then moving up to Super Late Models in 2021, and moving up to the ARCA Menards Series East in 2022.
NASCAR Cup Series
Car No. 51 history
Early days
Phoenix Racing began racing in the Cup Series in 1990, when it fielded the No. 51 Plasti-Kote Chevrolet Lumina for Jeff Purvis. In four races, Purvis failed to finish a race, his best finishing being a 31st at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Phoenix attempted to run a full schedule in 1991, but soon cut back to a part-time schedule, completing six races in total. Due to a lack of funding, the team only ran two races in 1992, with Finch's company Phoenix Construction of Panama City, Florida, serving as sponsor. In 1993, the team ran all of the restrictor plate races on the schedule, except for the Daytona 500, for which they failed to qualify. For 1994, they picked up sponsorship from Country Time and had planned to run a limited schedule with Neil Bonnett driving. Bonnett was killed in a practice crash at Daytona before the 1994 Daytona 500, and Purvis was brought back to drive the car. In six races, his best finish was 21st. Phoenix changed its number to 44 in 1995, and ran six more races with Purvis and Jackaroo Sauce, only finishing one race. MCA Records became the new sponsor for 1996, and the team had two top-ten qualification starts, but could not finish higher than twelfth.
2000s: Part-time and Talladega win
After staying out of Cup for several years, Finch purchased a number of Ford Tauruses from Bill Elliott Racing, and ran all of the 2001 schedule's restrictor plate races with Purvis driving the No. 51, only finishing one race. In 2002, the team picked up funding from Miccosukee Gaming and switched to the No. 09. Driver Geoffrey Bodine had a third-place finish in the Daytona 500, and later had a 2nd-place qualification at the Pepsi 400. Mike Wallace ran a limited schedule for Phoenix in 2003, and had two top-ten finishes. Scott Pruett and Buckshot Jones also ran one race deals for the team that season, during which they switched to Dodge.
The team began 2004 with Johnny Benson Jr., who had also signed to drive the #1 car full-time for Phoenix in the Busch Series for 2002, scheduled to run at least a minimum of seven races, mostly at the longer speedways where the team was stronger. The team would attempt most of the schedule with Benson sharing the ride with Joe Ruttman, who had not raced full-time in the Cup Series since the early 1990s.
After Benson ran the Daytona 500, Phoenix came to Rockingham with their focus being on their Busch effort for the weekend. This was evident on the entry they filled out for the 09, where the team listed Ruttman as the driver but forgot to include Miccosukee as the sponsor. Finch did not even bring a proper crew to the race, with the intent being that they would run the Cup car for a few laps before pulling off and collecting the last place prize. Due to withdrawals from several teams, the potential field was reduced to 43 cars and this meant that every car that entered was assured of making the field.