Ultra Motorsports

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Ultra Motorsports was a NASCAR Winston Cup and Craftsman Truck Series racing team. Jim Smith helped start the team and the Craftsman Truck Series. It ran full-time in the Craftsman Truck Series from 1995 to 2005, earning 31 series wins and a championship in 2005 with Ted Musgrave. Early in 2006, Ultra announced that they would close up shop after a fallout with Ford.

Car No. 7 results

Ultra Motorsports began running Winston Cup in 1994, when P. J. Jones drove the No. 06 Ford Thunderbird at Phoenix, finishing 29th, nine laps down. The next season, Butch Gilliland ran the No. 38 Ford at Sonoma, but finished 42nd after an early engine failure. Ultra returned to Cup in 1999 with the No. 32. Mike Wallace qualified at Richmond, finishing 24th.

Midway through 2000, Mattei Motorsports sold a partial interest in the team to Ultra and Smith, who bought out Mattei one month later. The team inherited the No. 7 Chevrolet Monte Carlo and its driver Michael Waltrip, and kept the team's sponsorship with construction equipment rental service NationsRent. Waltrip left the team after a 29th-place points finish.

In 2001, Ultra went back to fielding Fords and signed Mike Wallace to replace Waltrip. Wallace struggled and with the season entering its first road race at Sonoma, Ultra decided to go with a more experienced road course driver and hired Robby Gordon, who had been hired to replace Bobby Hamilton in the No. 4 Kodak car for Morgan-McClure Motorsports but was himself fired and replaced by Kevin Lepage early in the season, to drive the No. 7 on the road course. Gordon contended for the win most of the day, finally placing second and giving Ultra its best-ever finish. Wallace returned to the car afterward, but left the team to replace the fired Jeremy Mayfield at Penske Racing in October, and Lepage replaced him after leaving the No. 4 team.

For the 2002 season, Ultra underwent three significant changes. As the previous season was drawing to a close, Evernham Motorsports announced it had signed Jeremy Mayfield to drive for the team. Since Evernham's team, one of the charter teams in Dodge's return to NASCAR, already had two drivers under contract, this required some maneuvering to be done. Ultra and Evernham, therefore, struck an agreement. Mayfield would join Bill Elliott on Evernham's team and take over the No. 19 Dodge-sponsored car. The No. 19's incumbent driver, Casey Atwood, would then move over to Ultra and take over the No. 7. In return, Evernham and Ultra would enter into a partnership where Ultra would switch from Ford to Dodge and the team would become known as Ultra-Evernham Motorsports, with Sirius Satellite Radio coming on to sponsor the No. 7 and the team adopting Evernham's car numbering style.

The arrangement did not last the entire season. Atwood, who had finished third in the Rookie of the Year standings in 2001, struggled mightily in the No. 7, and Smith elected to release him with two races left in the season and promote Truck Series driver Jason Leffler to finish the season. Evernham responded by pulling their support from Ultra, and thus the team went back to simply being known as Ultra Motorsports.

Despite the troubles, Ultra remained with Dodge and Sirius for 2003. Leffler returned to the Truck Series and Smith hired Jimmy Spencer to pilot the No. 7. This was Spencer's third team in as many seasons; he had left the No. 26 Kmart-sponsored Ford Haas-Carter Motorsports to take over for Leffler at Chip Ganassi Racing at the end of 2001, only to be replaced by Casey Mears as driver of the No. 41 Target-sponsored Dodge after 2002. Despite being suspended for one race after an altercation with Kurt Busch, Spencer managed to improve the team's final positioning and finished 29th with four top ten finishes. Ultra even expanded to field a second car for Ted Musgrave in selected races, carrying Sirius sponsorship and No. 07. The team ran only two races in 2004 after struggling to find a sponsor.

In 2005, Robby Gordon purchased the team and named it Robby Gordon Motorsports.

Year Driver No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Owners Pts
1994 P. J. Jones 06 Ford DAY CAR RCH ATL DAR BRI NWS MAR TAL SON CLT DOV POC MCH DAY NHA POC TAL IND GLN MCH BRI DAR RCH DOV MAR NWS CLT CAR PHO
29
ATL
1995 Mike Bliss 08 DAY CAR RCH ATL DAR BRI NWS MAR TAL SON CLT DOV POC MCH DAY NHA POC TAL IND GLN MCH BRI DAR RCH DOV MAR NWS CLT CAR PHO
DNQ
ATL
1997 Mike Bliss 02 Ford DAY CAR RCH ATL DAR TEX
DNQ
BRI MAR SON TAL CLT DOV POC MCH CAL DAY NHA POC IND GLN MCH BRI DAR RCH
DNQ
NHA DOV MAR CLT TAL CAR PHO ATL 62nd 47
1999 Mike Wallace 32 Ford DAY CAR LVS ATL DAR TEX BRI MAR TAL CAL RCH CLT DOV MCH POC SON DAY NHA POC IND
DNQ
GLN MCH BRI DAR RCH
24
NHA DOV MAR CLT TAL CAR PHO
DNQ
HOM ATL 55th 129
2000 Michael Waltrip 7 Chevy DAY CAR LVS ATL DAR BRI TEX MAR TAL CAL RCH CLT DOV MCH
22
POC
43
SON
12
DAY
42
NHA
35
POC
17
IND
20
GLN
17
MCH
21
BRI
19
DAR
40
RCH
43
NHA
20
DOV
24
MAR
24
CLT
22
TAL
34
CAR
35
PHO
32
HOM
34
ATL
39
30th 2797
2001 Mike Wallace Ford DAY
6
CAR
40
LVS
32
ATL
40
DAR
32
BRI
37
TEX
24
MAR
31
TAL
9
CAL
16
RCH
25
CLT
DNQ
DOV
28
MCH
DNQ
DAY
10
NHA
10
POC
25
IND
DNQ
GLN
DNQ
MCH
35
BRI
31
DAR
12
RCH
42
DOV
23
KAN
19
32nd 3059
Ted Musgrave POC
29
Robby Gordon SON
2
CHI
35
Kevin Lepage CLT
13
MAR
21
TAL
10
PHO
32
CAR
16
HOM
29
ATL
19
NHA
35
2002 Casey Atwood Dodge DAY
35
CAR
39
LVS
41
ATL
32
DAR
26
BRI
18
TEX
35
MAR
38
TAL
26
CAL
28
RCH
22
CLT
17
DOV
14
POC
11
MCH
39
SON
21
DAY
20
CHI
28
NHA
36
POC
28
IND
38
GLN
27
MCH
42
BRI
18
DAR
28
RCH
24
NHA
34
DOV
32
KAN
42
TAL
34
CLT
30
MAR
21
ATL
38
CAR
29
38th 2697
Jason Leffler PHO
31
HOM
35
2003 Jimmy Spencer DAY
40
CAR
28
LVS
17
ATL
7
DAR
21
BRI
12
TEX
33
TAL
38
MAR
19
CAL
33
RCH
42
CLT
4
DOV
29
POC
39
MCH
29
SON
36
DAY
12
CHI
23
NHA
15
POC
22
IND
8
GLN
23
MCH
26
DAR
22
RCH
36
NHA
23
DOV
15
TAL
42
KAN
15
CLT
26
MAR
38
ATL
9
PHO
40
CAR
14
HOM
25
28th 3217
Ted Musgrave BRI
31
2004 Jimmy Spencer DAY
24
CAR LVS ATL DAR BRI TEX MAR TAL CAL 62nd 165
Dave Blaney RCH
40
Steve Park CLT
DNQ
DOV POC MCH SON DAY CHI NHA POC IND GLN MCH BRI CAL RCH NHA DOV TAL KAN CLT MAR ATL PHO DAR HOM

Car No. 07 results

Year Driver No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Owners Pts
2002 Ted Musgrave 07 Dodge DAY CAR LVS ATL DAR BRI TEX MAR TAL CAL RCH CLT DOV POC MCH SON DAY CHI NHA POC IND
21
GLN MCH BRI DAR
27
RCH NHA DOV KAN TAL CLT MAR
29
ATL CAR PHO
DNQ
HOM
16
46th 404
2003 DAY CAR LVS ATL DAR BRI TEX TAL MAR CAL RCH CLT DOV POC MCH SON DAY CHI NHA POC IND
DNQ
GLN MCH BRI DAR RCH NHA DOV TAL KAN CLT MAR ATL PHO CAR HOM 73rd 22

Craftsman Truck Series

References

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