 | |
| Owner(s) | Phil Parsons |
|---|---|
| Base | Mooresville, North Carolina |
| Series | Sprint Cup Series Nationwide Series |
| Race drivers | Phil Parsons Johnny Chapman Terry Cook Dave Blaney Danny O'Quinn, Jr. Michael McDowell Josh Wise |
| Manufacturer | Ford Toyota Chevrolet |
| Opened | 1991 |
| Closed | 2015 |
| Career | |
| Debut | Sprint Cup Series: 2009 Daytona 500 (Daytona) |
| Latest race | Sprint Cup Series: 2015 Ford EcoBoost 400 (Homestead-Miami Speedway) |
| Races competed | 178 |
| Drivers' Championships | 0 |
| Race victories | 0 |
| Pole positions | 0 |
Phil Parsons Racing, formerly named MSRP Motorsports, Prism Motorsports, and later HP Racing, was a NASCAR team that competed in the Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series. It was owned by former NASCAR driver Phil Parsons, and most recently fielded the No. 98 Ford for Josh Wise.
The team was formerly owned by Phil's wife Marcia as well as Randy and Stacey Humphrey (hence the original name MSRP: Marcia, Stacey, Randy, Phil). For the first few years of its Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup operations, the team was infamous for being a start and park organization, meaning that the team qualified a car for races, but eventually parked it after just a few laps to avoid the costs of running a full race, even though the car was perfectly able to continue on.[1] The bad publicity generated by the practice led to Phil Parsons`s refusal to answer questions about MSRP in 2008,[1] but subsequently Parsons justified the practice by saying that "we furnished a living for some families, so there was some good that came out of it."[2] In 2009, MSRP continued with two Nationwide Series teams and finally finished a race, while it also added a Sprint Cup team under the Prism Motorsports name that qualified for 30 races but only finished two. After the season, the entire team became known as Prism Motorsports.
In 2010, the team had two Sprint Cup teams, No. 55 and No. 66, led by drivers Michael McDowell and Dave Blaney, which fielded Toyota Camrys under a technical alliance with MWR. Three drivers rotated among the two Nationwide Series cars (90 and 91) in 2010: Danny O'Quinn Jr., David Gilliland, and Chase Miller.
Car No. 55 crew chief Zach McGowan tweeted on November 18 that the team would be shutting down after the 2010 season-ending race at Homestead,[3] But this was denied by team owner Randy Humphrey.[4] No information was available regarding PRISM's Nationwide teams. The team returned in 2011 as HP Racing with McDowell behind the wheel of the No. 66 Toyota with Gene Nead as crew chief. Unlike 2009, the team intended to run a limited schedule, running only a few full races but ended up running the full schedule. The team ran with Ford for 2012 and 2013 before switching to Chevrolet for the 2014 season.
The team and driver Josh Wise gained popularity in 2014 after an internet campaign with Dogecoin and Reddit, leading the No. 98 to be voted into the 2014 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race.
- ^ a b Rob Zeller, "The Quitting Game", Car and Driver, Feb. 2009, pp. 96–100.
- ^ Lee Montgomery (2009-02-04). "MSRP Motorsports to field two Nationwide teams". SceneDaily.com. Retrieved 2010-02-11.
- ^ PRISM might be gone? - Rubbin's Racin' Archived 2011-07-15 at the Wayback Machine Nov. 18th, 2010: "Our team will be shutting down after this week. I hate it for our guys. I have enjoyed working everyone. We all made the best out of bad situation. Good luck to everyone." - Zach McGowan.
- ^ Prism Motorsports to shut down operations; maybe not? Archived 2010-05-14 at the Wayback Machine Jayski, Nov. 20, 2010.