Tyler Jet Motorsports
| Owner(s) | Tim Beverly |
|---|---|
| Base | Harrisburg, North Carolina |
| Series | Winston Cup |
| Car numbers | #35, #45, #10 |
| Race drivers | Johnny Benson, Darrell Waltrip, Rich Bickle, David Green |
| Sponsors | Aaron's, Inc., 10-10-345, Tabasco, Lycos |
| Manufacturer | Pontiac, Chevrolet |
| Opened | 1998 |
| Closed | 2000 |
| Career | |
| Drivers' Championships | 0 |
| Race victories | 0 |
Tyler Jet Motorsports was a NASCAR Winston Cup race team.
Tyler Jet Motorsports was owned by Tim Beverly, owner of the airplane sales company that shared a name with the race team, and was formed in 1998 after Beverly purchased the assets of DarWal, Inc. and ISM Racing and merged them into one team.
Tyler Jet's original car was the #35 Tabasco Pontiac, which had been ISM's car, and was driven by several drivers (including Darrell Waltrip) before Tabasco pulled out of NASCAR following the 1998 season.
In 1999, the team fielded Pontiacs and switched to the #45, with sponsorship from the 10-10-345 long distance telephone service. Rich Bickle, (who incidentally, had driven for Darrell Waltrip in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series was hired as the driver, but was released late in the season, and was replaced by David Green. Green recorded the best finish of his Cup series career, a 12th at Phoenix, and won the only pole in his (and the team's) Cup career, the following weekend at the inaugural Cup series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
For the 2000 season, Tyler Jet switched to the #10 and hired Johnny Benson to pilot the car. Their first exposure came at the Daytona 500, where Benson's unsponsored Pontiac took the lead late in the race and held the lead for 39 laps, only to be passed by cars that had made full pit stops under a late race caution (Benson was playing strategy, having only stopped for two tires and fuel his last stop) and finish 12th.
Lycos signed on as sponsor for the #10 and stayed with them until the 2000 Pepsi 400, where Tyler Jet pulled them off the car due to nonpayment. They would run unsponsored for the next four races, but Beverly was forced to sell the team afterwards. The car, which had just acquired sponsorship from Aaron's, was sold to MB2 Motorsports, where it would continue to be run until the end of the 2005 season when the car number, sponsor (Valvoline), and driver (Scott Riggs) would move to Evernham Motorsports. The successor team and car were Ginn Racing's #14, which was sold to Dale Earnhardt, Inc. and merged into its #15 team, which in turn was folded after the merger that created Earnhardt Ganassi Racing.