Who is Landon Cassill? That’s a good question.
He might be the most anonymous driver in the Cup series right now. I could probably count on one hand how often he was mentioned yesterday on FOX. But yet he spent most of the Daytona 500, the biggest race in America, in the top 15, finished 12th in a go or go-home car, and got an 18 race sponsor the day before the 500. Why isn’t anybody in the media talking about this? Who knows? But to his fans, this anonymous success isn’t new.
A quick biography on Cassill before 2012:
He was a development driver for Hendrick Motorsports for a few years, drove a limited schedule in the No. 5 car in the NASCAR Nationwide Series for JR Motorsports and won the 2008 Rookie of the Year in the Nationwide Series but was let go for unknown reasons. In 2009 he only made one start in the NNS before getting a chance in the Sprint Cup Series in 2010 for longtime owner James Finch. Finch, who won Talladega the year before with Brad Keselowski in the greatest finish, in my view, since the 1979 Daytona 500, needed a driver to make the Michigan race, as the No. 09 car was a go or go-homer. Landon made it and spent the remainder of the year driving for a variety of owners. In 2011 Cassill was the full time driver for Finch beginning with the Fontana race, excluding the road course events. He made every event and had four top 20s.
In 2012, Cassill joined the BK Racing team, a team formed from the ashes of the former Red Bull Racing NASCAR team. It came together about a month before Daytona, and somehow they put two cars on the track for all of 2012. Due to being such a young team Cassill underperformed this season, but he and the team began to show promise near the end of the season, starting ninth at Michigan and had nine top 30s in the final 10 races.
In 2013, Cassill left BK Racing over a major contract dispute and joined Joe Falk’s team after Daytona. Falk had made a return the previous season into Cup Racing when Richard Childress Racing closed down the 33 team and sold the assets to Falk. Falk had seen a lot of struggle in 2012. Even though his primary driver Stephen Leicht won the Rookie of the Year he did not qualify for 6 races. Leicht also had one single top 30 finish in 15 starts.
This is where Cassill really started to shine. He took the 33 car, didn’t miss a single race the entire season, and had five top 30s after the second Daytona race. Unlike Leicht he brought a variety of sponsors to the team, such as Moon Shine Attitude Attire, Justin Original Workboots, KCI Kansas City, Precon Machine, Bicycle NASCAR Trading Cards, Interstate Moving Services, CRC Brakleen, ERC Acquired TMone, and Pirate Oilfield Services. While most of these were one race deals, Moon Shine was on Landon’s car alone for nine races, and only Precon Machine had been with Leicht. Falk’s team eventually grew to include the 40 car, an R&D team that was usually shared by Cassill and journeyman Tony Raines. The two drivers alternated between cars, with Raines typically parking whatever car he was in.
Last week, not only did Cassill race his way into the Daytona 500 in the No. 40 while the No. 33 was being “rented out” by RCR, but he also got Falk a new sponsor for 18 races (Nabi Tablets), spent most of the Daytona 500 in the top 15, and tied his career best finish of 12th in the Sprint Cup series.
Now, a lot of people may believe that Cassill isn’t that great because he hasn’t had a top 10 or won a race in the Sprint Cup Series. But Cassill never had the equipment or the money to compete up front with guys like Jimmie Johnson or Kyle Busch, yet he is consistently making races. He’s only missed two Cup races in his entire career, woos sponsors, and finishes in the top half of the field more times than not. I think of it like the Olympics. Some events have like 50 people competing in them, and some people are going to write off the guy who finishes 20th or 22nd. The reality is that these are the top 50 people in the entire world at what they do and just being there is impressive enough, never mind beating 20 or 30 of them.
Can Cassill win races? Yes, eventually. The only question is if he’ll get an honest shot to. If he keeps doing what he has been doing the past few years though, I think it’s only a matter of time.
Leave a Reply