Alpha Prime Racing

Alpha Prime Racing

Owner(s)	Craig Martins Tommy Joe Martins Caesar Bacarella
Principal(s)	Tommy Joe Martins (President)
Base	Mooresville, North Carolina
Series	NASCAR Xfinity Series
Race drivers	Xfinity Series: 43. Ryan Ellis 44. Brennan Poole 45. Caesar Bacarella, Brad Perez (part-time)
Sponsors	Xfinity Series: 43. Heartbeat Hot Sauce, Classic Collision, Rolling Plains Construction, Southern Elevator, Costa Oil, Eclipse Claims Consulting, Four Loko, Sweetwater Construction 44. Finance Pro Plus, Macc Door Systems, Prime Bites, CW & Sons Infrastructure, Direct PTT 45. Prime Bites, Weiss Sand & Clay, Apex Coffee Roasters
Manufacturer	Chevrolet
Opened	2009
Career
Debut	Xfinity Series: 2014 Blue Jeans Go Green 200 (Phoenix) Truck Series: 2009 AAA Insurance 200 (Lucas Oil Raceway)
Latest race	Xfinity Series: 2024 Ag-Pro 300 (Talladega) Truck Series: 2017 Ford EcoBoost 200 (Homestead)
Races competed	Total: 194 Xfinty Series: 151 Truck Series: 41 ARCA Racing Series: 2
Drivers' Championships	Total: 0 Xfinity Series: 0 Truck Series: 0 ARCA Racing Series: 0
Race victories	Total: 0 Xfinity Series: 0 Truck Series: 0 ARCA Racing Series: 0
Pole positions	Total: 0 Xfinity Series: 0 Truck Series: 0 ARCA Racing Series: 0

Alpha Prime Racing (formerly Martins Motorsports) is an American stock car racing team that competes in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. The team was founded in 2009 by Craig Martins, and fields the No. 43 Chevrolet Camaro SS for Ryan Ellis full-time, the No. 44 for Brennan Poole full-time, and the No. 45 part-time for multiple drivers. The team was inactive from 2018 to 2019 and changed to their current name starting with the 2022 season.

Xfinity Series

Car No. 43 history

Ryan Ellis in the No. 43 at Auto Club Speedway in 2023

On September 15, 2022, Alpha Prime Racing announced that Ryan Ellis would return for an increased number of races in 2023 with specific partnership announcements coming at a later date. On December 20, the team announced it would be starting a third car with Ellis being the primary driver in 25 races with potentially more races being announced at a later date., He would complete 30 the 33 races in the 43. Caesar Bacarella drove the car to a sixth-place finish at Talladega. Leland Honeyman finished 28th at Portland, while Dylan Lupton finished 24th at Sonoma.

On August 4, 2023, APR announced that Ellis will run full-time in 2024.

Car No. 43 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	NXSC	Pts
2023	Ryan Ellis	43	Chevy	DAY 35	CAL 34	LVS 27	PHO 19	ATL 23	COA 20	RCH 15	MAR 28		DOV 25	DAR 33	CLT 27			NSH 28	CSC 31	ATL 25	NHA 19	POC 18	ROA 35	MCH 23	IRC 29	GLN 30	DAY 32	DAR 29	KAN 17	BRI 18	TEX 13	ROV 36		HOM 24	MAR 24	PHO 26	28th	393
			Ford																														LVS 27
	Caesar Bacarella		Chevy									TAL 6
	Leland Honeyman															PIR 28
	Dylan Lupton																SON 24
2024	Ryan Ellis			DAY 11	ATL 25	LVS 22	PHO 21	COA 33	RCH 27	MAR 26	TEX 26	TAL 26	DOV	DAR	CLT	PIR	SON	IOW	NHA	NSH	CSC	POC	IND	MCH	DAY	DAR	ATL	GLN	BRI	KAN	TAL	ROV	LVS	HOM	MAR	PHO

Car No. 44 history

Tommy Joe Martins in the No. 44 at Daytona International Speedway in 2020.

On December 24, 2019, two years after shutting down its operations, Martins Motorsports announced its return to the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2020, with longtime sponsor and family friend Rodney Riessen joining Craig Martins as the team's co-owners. The team will field the No. 44 Chevrolet Camaro SS for Tommy Joe Martins. The team bought chassis from GMS Racing and JGL Racing to help bolster its inventory, which already included a road course car Martins ran for MBM Motorsports in 2019. The team failed to qualify for the season-opening race at Daytona, and had to temporarily lay off all of its employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. Midway through the season, the team hired Buddy Sisco as crew chief and results turned around. On October 24, Martins recorded both his and the team's first top-10 finish at Texas Motor Speedway with a 10th-place finish; Martins had confirmed a 2021 return earlier that month.

On August 30, 2021, the team announced it had formed a partnership with Caesar Bacarella, renaming the team to Alpha Prime Racing (after Bacarella's fitness brand) beginning with the 2022 season. Martins, Bacarella and Rajah Caruth are signed to drive for the team in 2022. On November 22, 2021, Bacarella was suspended indefinitely by NASCAR for a violation of the sanctioning bodies substance abuse policy. A team statement issued by Tommy Joe Martins (in his capacity as General Manager) said that Bacarella had taken a workout supplement that he was unaware was on the banned substance list and that Bacarella is expected to be reinstated in time for the first race of 2022. On February 14, 2022, Bacarella was reinstated by NASCAR; Martins would drive the car in the opening race at Daytona, with Bacarella instead driving the No. 45.

On December 13, 2022, Alpha Prime Racing said in a press release that Jeffrey Earnhardt will be competing full time for the team in 2023. One of Earnhardt's long-time sponsors, ForeverLawn, will serve as the primary sponsor for the entry for multiple events. However, in the race at COTA, Earnhardt was swapped out in favor of Sage Karam, who only completed 23 laps before engine issues kept him from finishing the race. Earnhardt continued to race the #44 until Darlington in May, when he was swapped to the #45 permanently. Since then, several drivers have driven the #44 car, including Karam, Rajah Caruth, Daniel Dye, and Greg Van Alst. The car failed to qualify for 6 races in the season. At Martinsville in October, Rajah drove the #44 Chevrolet to a 12th-place finish, the best finish of the season for the team.

On November 9, 2023, Alpha Prime Racing announced that Brennan Poole would drive for the team full-time in 2024 with primary sponsorship from Finance Pro Plus (20 races) and Macc Door Systems (10 races).

Car No. 44 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	NXSC	Pts
2020	Tommy Joe Martins	44	Chevy	DAY DNQ	LVS 32	CAL 18	PHO 28	DAR 26	CLT 24	BRI 23	ATL 22	HOM 31	HOM 20	TAL 15	POC 30	IND 35	KEN 33	KEN 27	TEX 15	KAN 18	ROA 18	DAY 13	DOV 21	DOV 15	DAY 14	DAR 26	RCH 15	RCH 26	BRI 24	LVS 22	TAL 15	CLT 27	KAN 14	TEX 10	MAR 16	PHO 34	22nd	481
2021				DAY 24	DAY 24	HOM 18	LVS 15	PHO 17	ATL 18	MAR 34	TAL 11	DAR 15	DOV 20	COA 35	CLT 29	MOH 39	TEX 21	NSH 20	POC 20	ROA 15	ATL 16	NHA 21	GLN 19	IND 21	MCH 19	DAY 18	DAR 37	RCH 37	BRI 23	LVS 14	TAL 18	CLT 33	TEX 18	KAN 23	MAR 40	PHO 24	22nd	497
2022				DAY 24	CAL 31																									TEX 14							25th	461
	Ryan Ellis					LVS 13	PHO 16					TAL 32			TEX 30	CLT 13		NSH 24					IND 36	MCH 27			DAR 22		BRI 19
	Sage Karam							ATL 32	COA 16											ATL 38						DAY 5
	Rajah Caruth									RCH 24			DOV 38									POC 38											LVS 20		MAR 12	PHO 17
	Howie DiSavino III										MAR 36										NHA 17							KAN 28			TAL 32
	Josh Bilicki													DAR 28					ROA 13													CLT 34
	Andy Lally																PIR 17
	Stefan Parsons																								GLN 12
	Julia Landauer																																	HOM 28
2023	Jeffrey Earnhardt			DAY 28	CAL 26	LVS 29	PHO 33	ATL 34		RCH 18	MAR 20	TAL 31	DOV 37																					HOM 18			35th	273
	Sage Karam								COA 35					DAR 31			SON 34	NSH DNQ	CSC 22			POC 38
	Rajah Caruth														CLT 25						NHA 37									BRI 17		ROV 19			MAR 12
	Dylan Lupton															PIR 29
	Greg Van Alst																			ATL 38
	Brad Perez																						ROA 19
	Mason Massey																							MCH DNQ
	Conor Daly																								IRC DNQ
	Stefan Parsons																									GLN 33
	Caesar Bacarella																										DAY 31
	Dawson Cram																											DAR DNQ
	Leland Honeyman																												KAN DNQ							PHO DNQ
	Daniel Dye																														TEX 17		LVS 21
2024	Brennan Poole			DAY 19	ATL 20	LVS 19	PHO 20	COA 15	RCH 28	MAR 14	TEX 21	TAL 5	DOV	DAR	CLT	PIR	SON	IOW	NHA	NSH	CSC	POC	IND	MCH	DAY	DAR	ATL	GLN	BRI	KAN	TAL	ROV	LVS	HOM	MAR	PHO

Team logo as Martins Motorsports

Car No. 45 history

Jeffrey Earnhardt in the No. 45 at Sonoma Raceway in 2023

On April 14, 2017, the team announced a nine-race Xfinity slate for 2017 with Tommy Joe Martins, car No. 45 and sponsor Diamond Gusset Jeans, starting with the spring race at Richmond and focusing primarily on short to intermediate tracks with the exception of the Indianapolis race. After failing to qualify and withdrawing from the first two planned events, the No. 45's schedule was folded into a ride with B. J. McLeod Motorsports, which culminated with a career-best 11th-place finish at Iowa for the driver.

On January 5, 2021, Alpha Prime Racing announced the number for their second full-time entry to be 45 and on January 6 announced Sage Karam to be one of the drivers.

On December 2, 2022, Alpha Prime Racing announced that Sage Karam will be returning in 2023 in 17 racing, starting with the spring race at Atlanta. On December 23, 2022, Alpha Prime announced that Stefan Parsons will also be returning for select races in 2023. Caesar Bacarella will also be driving the car at Daytona and Talladega.

The No. 45 will scale back to a part–time schedule in 2024. Confirmed drivers are Bacarella for at least four superspeedway races, and Brad Perez for the race at the Circuit of the Americas.

Car No. 45 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	NXSC	Pts
2017	Tommy Joe Martins	45	Chevy	DAY	ATL	LVS	PHO	CAL	TEX	BRI	RCH DNQ	TAL	CLT	DOV	POC	MCH	IOW	DAY	KEN	NHA	IND	IOW	GLN	MOH	BRI	ROA	DAR	RCH	CHI	KEN	DOV	CLT	KAN	TEX	PHO	HOM	*	*
2022	Caesar Bacarella			DAY 38								TAL 25								ATL 28						DAY 28					TAL 31						28th	415
	Kaz Grala				CAL 25	LVS 23	PHO 33
	Tommy Joe Martins							ATL 20						DAR 17
	Josh Bilicki								COA 35															MCH 28	GLN 17
	Howie DiSavino III									RCH DNQ																									MAR 28
	Ryan Ellis										MAR DNQ		DOV 20
	Stefan Parsons														TEX 17	CLT 30	PIR 24	NSH 15									DAR 17		BRI 8	TEX 13		CLT 25	LVS 23	HOM 34		PHO 28
	Sage Karam																		ROA 31			POC 20	IND 13
	Julia Landauer																				NHA 36
	Rajah Caruth																											KAN 25
2023	Stefan Parsons			DAY 13																																	27th	430
	Rajah Caruth				CAL 21	LVS 26							DOV 26															DAR 16	KAN 29				LVS 23
	Leland Honeyman						PHO 27			RCH 25	MAR 25												ROA 28									ROV 21		HOM 23
	Sage Karam							ROA 31																	IRC 15	GLN 15
	Jeffrey Earnhardt								COA 25					DAR 26	CLT 21	PIR 19	SON 36	NSH 27	CSC DNQ	ATL 23		POC 19		MCH 24			DAY 11			BRI 32	TEX 32				MAR 26	PHO 23
	Ryan Ellis											TAL 11
	Greg Van Alst																				NHA 38
2024	Caesar Bacarella			DAY DNQ	ATL	LVS	PHO					TAL 7	DOV	DAR	CLT	PIR	SON	IOW	NHA	NSH	CSC	POC	IND	MCH	DAY	DAR	ATL	GLN	BRI	KAN	TAL	ROV	LVS	HOM	MAR	PHO
	Brad Perez							COA 18	RCH	MAR	TEX

Car No. 67 history

This car was the team's secondary focus in their 2014 foray, with Clay Greenfield behind the wheel at Daytona. However, he along with Willie Allen failed to qualify, making Martins Motorsports 0 for 2 in that race. The car withdrew the next week after no driver was found to drive it. The team then took time off to prepare for the spring Bristol race, where Tommy Joe Martins crashed in qualifying and withdrew. To recoup from that, the team did not return until Michigan, when Benny Gordon qualified the car but then switched to Martins when he failed to qualify the 76.

Car No. 67 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	NXSC	Pts
2014	Clay Greenfield	67	Dodge	DAY DNQ	PHO	LVS																															63rd	6
	Tommy Joe Martins						BRI DNQ	CAL	TEX	DAR	RCH	TAL	IOW	CLT	DOV
			Ford													MCH 38	ROA	KEN	DAY	NHA	CHI	IND	IOW	GLN	MOH	BRI	ATL	RCH	CHI	KEN	DOV	KAN	CLT	TEX	PHO	HOM

Car No. 76 history

Martins in the No. 76 at Road America in 2014.

The primary focus in 2014, Nationwide veteran Willie Allen failed to qualify the 76 at Daytona and Bristol. Tommy Joe Martins then took over the reins of what was left as the team's only entry after the demise of the 67, making eight races in the 76 and failing to qualify for four, including its last three attempts. The team primarily start and parked, but ran full races at higher-paying events like at Talladega and Charlotte. The team's last attempt was at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Car No. 76 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	NXSC	Pts
2014	Willie Allen	76	Dodge	DAY DNQ			BRI DNQ	CAL																													44th	118
	Tommy Joe Martins								TEX 35	DAR 30	RCH 36	TAL 14		CLT 31	DOV 35	MCH DNQ	ROA 31	KEN DNQ	DAY DNQ	NHA	CHI
			Ford		PHO 35	LVS 39							IOW 36									IND DNQ	IOW	GLN	MOH	BRI	ATL	RCH	CHI	KEN	DOV	KAN	CLT	TEX	PHO	HOM

Camping World Truck Series

Truck No. 42 history

The team debuted in 2011 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park with Tommy Joe Martins behind the wheel. The team returned at Iowa Speedway in 2017 with Matt Mills behind the wheel and additional races to be determined. Though the car never hit the track that weekend, the scheme was included in the original version of NASCAR Heat 2. The additional races were in the team's No. 44 entry. Martins returned for the 2017 Jag Metals 350 but a possible suspension problem led to a wrecked truck in practice, and a blown right-front tire three laps into the race ended Martins' weekend. The backup truck was loaned from fellow independent Mike Harmon.

Truck No. 42 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	Owners	Pts
2011	Tommy Joe Martins	42	Ram	DAY	PHO	DAR	MAR	NSH	DOV	CLT	KAN	TEX	KEN	IOW	NSH	IRP 33	POC	MCH	BRI	ATL	CHI	NHA	KEN	LVS	TAL	MAR	TEX	HOM
2017			Chevy	DAY	ATL	MAR	KAN	CLT	DOV	TEX	GTW	IOW	KEN	ELD	POC	MCH	BRI	MSP	CHI	NHA	LVS	TAL	MAR	TEX 32	PHO	HOM

Truck No. 44 history

The first race for Martins Motorsports was in 2009, when Tommy Joe Martins ran a four race schedule, recording a best finish of 21st at Chicagoland. The team and driver returned for one race as the No. 42 in 2011, finishing 33rd at Lucas Oil Raceway. After taking all of 2015 off to recover from a failed Xfinity Series effort, the team returned in 2016 with Martins as the full-time driver except for a qualifying crash at Martinsville (spot sold to Austin Wayne Self), Eldora (dirt racer J. R. Heffner), and a DNQ at Homestead-Miami.

On February 13, 2017, Martins Motorsports announced a partnership with another family Truck team, Brandonbilt Motorsports, to put driver Brandon Brown in the 44 truck for "select races". However, the operations of the 44 truck ceased with the 2017 Xfinity announcement except for Heffner again piloting the truck at Eldora. After ceasing operations, owner points of the 44 truck were sold to Faith Motorsports. When that team ran into organizational trouble mid-season, Matt Mills drove the truck for a race at Kentucky but crashed out. The much-anticipated return of Heffner the following race was derailed due to a blown engine early in the weekend, the entry never making it to the grid. After the Eldora race, the 44 became a joint-prepared effort between Martins and AM Racing. That relationship lasted through the end of the season except for Faith and Ted Minor running a Las Vegas shooting paint scheme at Texas.

Truck No. 44 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	Owners	Pts
2009	Tommy Joe Martins	44	Ford	DAY	CAL	ATL	MAR	KAN	CLT	DOV	TEX	MCH	MLW	MEM	KEN	IRP 22	NSH 27	BRI	CHI 21	IOW	GTW 27	NHA	LVS	MAR	TAL	TEX	PHO	HOM
2016			Chevy	DAY 32	ATL 25		KAN 32	DOV 24	CLT 25	TEX 25	IOW 30	GTW 18	KEN 26		POC 17	BRI 31	MCH 15	MSP 19	CHI 24	NHA 21	LVS 22	TAL 16	MAR 25	TEX 31	PHO 30	HOM DNQ
	Austin Wayne Self		Toyota			MAR 15
	J. R. Heffner		Chevy											ELD 15
2017	Brandon Brown			DAY DNQ		MAR 27	KAN	CLT	DOV	TEX	GTW	IOW
	Tommy Joe Martins				ATL 23
	Matt Mills												KEN 29
	J. R. Heffner													ELD Wth
	Austin Wayne Self														POC 16	MCH 15	BRI 24	MSP	CHI 20	NHA 14	LVS 20	TAL	MAR 29	TEX	PHO 25	HOM 17

2017 closure

Following reports two days earlier that longtime crew chief Kevin Eagle had left the team, primary driver and owner Tommy Joe Martins took to Twitter, Periscope and the media to announce the team's closure in late December 2017. The team had plans to compete in a full 2018 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series schedule; however, two drivers signed to drive on handshake deals failed to follow through, leaving the team's financial security in doubt. Tommy Joe, commenting on the situation, noted the irony of the situation that the team had been founded as an underdog, family team and now had to rely on pay drivers to survive, the antithesis of what the team was founded on. Once those drivers with sponsors backed out, Martins said that his family was unwilling to take the $300,000 or $400,000 loss that the team took in 2017. At different points, he called the decision "hard" to give up on a dream, yet "easy" to make financially. He also did not rule out a return to the Xfinity Series but the return did not seem likely at the time of closure. Martins later disclosed that the team had approached Ford Performance to become a partner team but that the manufacturer turned the team down.

External links

• Official website