A NASCAR team president has died. His cars are ‘David competing against the Goliaths’
Beard Motorsports president Mark Beard Sr. has died, the NASCAR team announced Monday evening. He was 72.
The team said in a statement on Twitter that it will still field the No. 62 Chevrolet entry in an attempt to qualify for this year’s Daytona 500. Full-time Xfinity driver Noah Gragson was previously named as the driver.
“Mark was passionate about racing and the businesses he built with his family, and even though he will be terribly missed, his work ethic and kind heart lives on with the many people he influenced,” the statement said. “While the family requests privacy at this time, they want to reaffirm Beard Motorsports’ commitment to compete in this year’s Daytona 500 where the team will race in Mark’s honor.”
Beard formed the single-car Cup team in 2014, but the then-No. 75 Chevy didn’t start a race until the 2017 Daytona 500 with driver Brendan Gaughan behind the wheel.
The team, self-described as “a modern-day David competing against the Goliaths of the NASCAR Cup Series,” typically enters only the superspeedway races at Daytona and Talladega and competes without a full-time charter. Gaughan made 17 Cup starts for Beard Motorsports and finished seventh in last year’s Daytona 500 before his retirement last year. He hand-selected Gragson, 22, to be his replacement driver in the No. 62.
“Racing is our passion project,” Beard said three weeks ago around the news of the team naming Gragson as its next driver. “... On top of that, racing has proven to be a very valuable asset for our companies, like Beard Oil Distributing. We’re very passionate about what we do, and the Daytona 500 is an excellent platform to show our customers the level of commitment we put into all of our work.”
Beard was also a former driver who made two Xfinity Series starts in the 1980s.
“Heavy hearts today,” Gragson wrote on Twitter Monday evening. “Thinking about the Beard Family Time to go ‘drive the piss out of it’ and do it for Mr. Beard in the 500. #RIP”
