Arnold Motorsports
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Arnold Motorsports was a NASCAR Nextel Cup Series team owned by Don Arnold. 1983 Winston Cup champion Bobby Allison was the Vice President of operations and also served a consultant. The team debuted in 2003 as the #79 car (originally Ford), with All-Pro driver Billy Bigley Jr. driving, the team originally planned to run 34 races, but eventually scaled back its plans. After Bigley failed to qualify for the three events he attempted, he was released. The team returned full-time in 2004 with Derrike Cope at the wheel. (This car made it onto NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup by EA Sports). Cope co-owned the team and merged his Quest Motor Racing team with Arnold's. The team briefly received sponsorship from Redneckjunk.com (unrelated to a RacingJunk.com that sponsored Carl Long during this same time frame), but was forced to remove its decals by NASCAR because a spokesperson didn't believe it "projected the proper image of [the] sport." [1]
After twelve starts, Cope was replaced by Mike Wallace at Dover. Wallace, along with P.J. Jones, Jeff Fuller, and Todd Bodine finished out the year. In 2005 Jimmy Spencer drove the car in what was a limited schedule due to lack of sponsorship. The team announced Allied Buildings sponsor for the rest of 2005 and all of 2006 at the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Arnold also owned a share of a Craftsman Truck Series team with Germain Motor Company as the #30 Toyota. But Arnold sold the interest in that team to focus on Cup. The team's only attempt in 2006 came at the Daytona 500 with Larry Foyt as driver, but the team missed the race. In May 2006, the team announced it was shutting down.
