Tyler Jet Motorsports

Tyler Jet Motorsports

Owner(s)	Tim Beverley
Base	Harrisburg, North Carolina
Series	Winston Cup Series
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 Series team.

History

Tyler Jet Motorsports was owned by Tim Beverley, owner of the airplane sales company that shared a name with the race team, and was formed in 1998 when Beverley bought Darrell Waltrip's race team after Waltrip could not find sponsorship to continue running as an owner-driver. Beverly later bought the NASCAR operation of ISM Racing after owner Bob Hancher backed out of the Cup Series at the midway point of the season, having failed to qualify for the majority of events they had entered with the #35 Tabasco Pontiac. Beverley combined the two operations into one, fielding the former ISM car with Waltrip, who had spent the interim period as a long term substitute at Dale Earnhardt, Inc., starting to drive the #35 at Indianapolis. However, Beverley had inherited problems that began when Hancher, against the wishes of Tabasco maker McIlhenny Company, had fired Todd Bodine earlier in the season. McIlhenny became even more furious when Beverley switched manufacturers from Pontiac to Chevrolet immediately after signing Waltrip to drive the #35, and a court battle ensued that forced Beverley to resume running Pontiacs beginning with the Pepsi 400 at Michigan. The team's best finish was in its first race, with Waltrip finishing thirteenth in a Chevrolet. The #35 only ran in the top 20 once more before the season ended, and after the season McIlhenny, who had been using the race team more as a marketing tool than anything else, pulled its sponsorship from the #35 and left NASCAR altogether; this ended what has been referred to as the "Tabasco Fiasco" in NASCAR circles in the years since. Waltrip left the team as well following the 1998 season, joining Haas-Carter Motorsports for what would be the last two years of his career.

In 1999, the team fielded Pontiacs and switched to the No. 45, with sponsorship from the 10-10-345 long-distance telephone service. Rich Bickle, (who incidentally, had driven for Darrell Waltrip in the 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 thee only pole in his (and the team's) Cup career, the following weekend at the inaugural Cup series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. During the team's first two seasons of operations, four drivers and three crew chiefs were hired.

For the 2000 season, Tyler Jet switched to the No. 10 and hired Johnny Benson to pilot the car on November 22, 1999. 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 No. 10 and stayed with them until the 2000 Pepsi 400, where Tyler Jet pulled them off the car due to nonpayment; Lycos would eventually sue Tyler Jet on July 16, 2001. They would run unsponsored for the next four races, but Beverley was forced to sell the team afterwards. The car, which had just acquired sponsorship from Aaron's, was sold to MB2 Motorsports on July 20. The team would continue to be based in Tyler Jet's shop located near Lowe's Motor Speedway, and ran until the end of the 2005 season when the car number, sponsor (Valvoline) and driver (Scott Riggs) moved to Evernham Motorsports. The successor team and car were Ginn Racing's No. 14, which was sold to Dale Earnhardt, Inc. and merged into its No. 15 team, which in turn was folded after the merger that created Earnhardt Ganassi Racing; the resulting team, by 2014 was simply known as Chip Ganassi Racing, was in turn purchased by Trackhouse Racing Team in 2021.

Car No. 10 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	Owners	Pts
1998	Darrell Waltrip	35	Chevy	DAY	CAR	LVS	ATL	DAR	BRI	TEX	MAR	TAL	CAL	CLT	DOV	RCH	MCH	POC	SON	NHA	POC	IND 13	GLN 25															41st	2180
			Pontiac																					MCH 25	BRI 27	NHA 32	DAR 38	RCH 18	DOV 21	MAR 21	CLT 22	TAL 23	DAY 28	PHO 31	CAR 32	ATL 38
1999	Rich Bickle	45		DAY 33	CAR DNQ	LVS 23	ATL 30	DAR DNQ	TEX 12	BRI DNQ	MAR 11	TAL 14	CAL 32	RCH 10	CLT 25	DOV 33	MCH 24	POC 24	SON 21	DAY 18	NHA 14	POC 7	IND DNQ	GLN 36	MCH 28	BRI DNQ	DAR 23											35th	2723
	Jack Sprague																											RCH DNQ
	David Green																												NHA 40	DOV 42	MAR 36	CLT 42	TAL 17	CAR 24	PHO 12	HOM 22	ATL 21
2000	Johnny Benson Jr.	10		DAY 12	CAR 14	LVS 6	ATL DNQ	DAR 24	BRI 2	TEX 42	MAR 16	TAL 13	CAL 23	RCH 25	CLT 16	DOV 15	MCH 24	POC 34	SON 18	DAY 13	NHA 14	POC	IND	GLN	MCH	BRI	DAR	RCH	NHA	DOV	MAR	CLT	TAL	CAR	PHO	HOM	ATL	13th	3741

Car No. 17 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	Owners	Pts
1998	Ron Hornaday Jr.	17	Chevy	DAY	CAR	LVS	ATL	DAR	BRI	TEX	MAR	TAL	CAL	CLT	DOV	RCH	MCH	POC	SON 14	NHA	POC	IND	GLN	MCH	BRI	NHA	DAR	RCH	DOV	MAR	CLT	TAL	DAY	PHO	CAR	ATL	55th	121