NFL Stars Owning Nascar Teams: Part 1--The Quarterbacks

The NFL and Nascar.  They both compete on Sunday.

NOTE: All graphics/pictures courtesy
Wikipedia and/or Pixabay

And that’s about where the comparisons end.

Pro football and stock car racing have little else in common, but that hasn’t prevented a litany of pigskin stars—some legends, some less-so—from crossing over in Nascar via team ownership.  Here’s a rundown of the football heroes who’ve stepped in Nascar—and how they’ve done.

The Quarterbacks—signal callers on the gridiron, check-signers for racers off it

Troy Aikman & Roger Staubach—Hall of Fame Racing

Hall of Fame Racing certainly lived up to its name—in a football sense.  The 

two greatest Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks of all-time in Aikman and Staubach brought plenty of attention to the new team (ironically later aligned with former Washington coach Joe Gibbs’s team) as well as business savvy and Texas Instruments sponsorship.  While the team showed flashes of brilliance, unfortunately they always seemed to be whenever regular driver Tony Raines wasyanked from the car on road courses.  A driver change to JJ Yeley and an alliance with Gibbs did little to improve matters and, shortly after Aikman and Staubach exited the ownership group, the team was merged into Yates Racing.  FUN FACT—the alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing allowed Troy Aikman to do what he does best—repeatedly say “You’re absolutely right, Joe”.

Mark Rypien—ppc Racing

Primarily owned by Greg Pollex, the ppc Racing team competed in all three of Nascar’s national touring series, seeing its greatest success in the then-Busch Series in the 90’s.  Rypien, the Super Bowl XXVII MVP, was an investor in the team, perhaps learning from former head coach Joe Gibbs that Nascar team ownership can be a fun diversion in the off-season.  However, the ppc Cup team would show little results until it was sold to Roush Racing, where it would eventually become Kurt Busch’s Cup championship car—with Rypien long having left the ownership group.  FUN FACT—Pollex is the father-in-law of Martin Truex Jr., because I guess people with X’s in their last names stay together.

Dan Marino—Elliott-Marino Motorsports

In a bid to stay competitive amidst the growing number of multi-car teams, Bill Elliott Racing sought to add a second car to its single-car operation for 1997.  Enter Dan Marino, who brought sponsorship from First Plus Mortgage and became co-owner of Elliott-Marino Motorsports, BER’s second team.  With a car decked out in Miami Dolphins colors and sporting Marino’s famous number 13, the team made quite an entrance…but did little else.  Driver Jerry Nadeau was released midway through the year, and a rotation of journeyman substitutes failed to improve performance.  The team was folded at the end of the year, with Elliott’s self-owned team eventually being bought out after 2000.  FUN FACT—Nadeau criticized the car’s lack of performance, and while most of his criticism was towards Elliott’s teams’ declining fortunes, one has to wonder if he blamed Marino for putting his tires on backwards—failing to put them “Valve Stems Out”.

Brett Favre—Jarrett/Favre Motorsports

Originally part of a deal to buy out Bud Moore Engineering with Tim Steele, Favre later became business partners with Dale Jarrett in 1999 and 2000 with this Busch Series team.  A continuation of Jarrett’s off-and-on self-owned team, the Rayovac-sponsored car had a number of drivers but failed to make its mark.  Unlike the spectacular careers of Jarrett and Favre, this team made minimal impact before folding before the 2001 season due to a lack of sponsorship.  FUN FACT—Favre must’ve been pretty intimidated coming into Nascar, knowing he’d always be the second-most-famous Mississippian in auto racing after the immortal Lake Speed.

Jim Kelly—Frank Cicci Racing with Jim Kelly

The Frank Cicci team was a major success in the Busch Series throughout the 90’s with support from business partners Jeffrey and Scott Weilliver.  Amid struggles (and without outside support at the time), Cicci brought in Buffalo Bills legend Jim Kelly as a business partner in 2002 in a bid to attract sponsorship.  While on-track success was unattainable (the team even skipped a year in 2004), the team would attain a certain level of notoriety for bringing Dollar General into the sport.  So there’s that.  FUN FACT—Jim Kelly got his pro start in the USFL, which was a bit like the forthcoming Superstar Racing eXperience except that it was extremely poorly run and didn’t have Ray Evernham involved.

Terry Bradshaw—FitzBradshaw Racing

Originally started by Armando Fitz (son-in-law of Cup team owner Felix Sabates), Steelers legend Terry Bradshaw joined the ownership group in 2002, bringing a slew of new sponsors.  Despite a high-profile, several drivers, and major exposure through Speed Channel’s “NBS 24/7” show, the team failed to post a single win during its existence.  FUN FACT—remember that terrible faux-Spanish accent Terry did doing an impression of Armando?  Yeah, that wasn’t very good.

Part 2 Tomorrow!