Brian Scott will hang up his helmet and depart from the world of motorsports when the checkered flag flies at Homestead.
Richard Petty Motorsports announced today that the driver of the No. 44 Ford will retire from full-time NASCAR competition at the end of the 2016 Sprint Cup Series season. The team announced that they will continue to run the No. 44 car in 2017. No driver has been announced to replace him.
Scott cited that he wants to focus more on his family and other opportunities outside of racing.
“This was a difficult decision, but one that I made myself for my family,” said Brian Scott. “Racing and specifically NASCAR has been and will always be in my heart, but right now, I want to turn all my attention to my family and to be able to spend more time with them. Racing has blessed me with great opportunities, and I’m very grateful for everything that it has allowed me to do, but for me, it’s time to move on. I can’t thank everyone enough who helped me in my career. I would not have made it to where I am at today without their trust and commitment.”
The 2016 season was Scott’s rookie season in the Sprint Cup Series. In 34 races, he’s amassed one top-five, one top-10, six laps led, a finishing average of 28th, six lead-lap finishes and was running at the finish in 29 of the 34 races this year. He’s been as high as 23rd in points, after finishing 24th in the season-opening Daytona 500, and currently, sits in 32nd place.
The highlight of his season was a runner-up finish two weeks ago in the Hellmann’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. It was the first top-five and top-10 finish of his Sprint Cup Series career, topping a previous high of 12th at Auto Club Speedway.
His highest levels of success in NASCAR came in the lower national touring series.
His best season in XFINITY Series competition was 2014 with Richard Childress Racing where he collected six top-fives and 23 top-10s. His best finish was a runner-up to Brendan Gaughan in September at Kentucky Speedway on his way to finishing fourth in points.
He also had success in the Camping World Truck Series driving for Xpress Motorsports (owned by his father J.B. Scott), which became Kyle Busch Motorsports following the 2009 season.
That same season, he finished seventh in points with a win, seven top-fives and 13 top-10s.
The team, via CEO Brian Moffitt, also released a statement saying that Scott “made it to and competed at a level that very few do in NASCAR. Brian became part of the Petty family this year, and he committed himself to making our organization better. We feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to get to know Brian and wish him nothing but the best for him and his family.”
