Episode 12 - R&J Racing

Controversy surrounded R&J Racing – also known as Carter Racing – when they first arrived in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series garage in May of 2004. Founded by a sponsor who, just days earlier, had sponsored another “field filler,” R&J now competed against all of them. At first, the team struggled for speed and often failed to qualify. But with the hiring of Kevin Lepage, R&J made the most of their Ernie Elliott engines and fleet of progressively faster Dodges. The result was a series of surprising runs – not just in qualifying, but on race day.

INTERVIEWS
Kevin Lepage
Morgan Shepherd

PHOTOS
Bryan Hallman, BRH Racing Archives

SPECIAL THANKS
Jeff Droke, who shared his story of the FUBAR car on Facebook
  / 10158113404092307  

VIDEO CREDITS
   • FF04 Episode Credits Template - 2004 ...  

MUSIC CREDITS
“Get Tough” – Track Tribe
“Come On Out” – Dan Lebowitz

VIDEO FROM MY COLLECTION
2006 Sylvania 300 Qualifying
2008 Pepsi 500 Qualifying
2009 Toyota / Save Mart 350 Qualifying
2009 Ford 400 Qualifying

UNCREDITED ARTICLES
*Associated Press. “Jim Kelly to partner a racing team,” The Gainesville Sun, October 12, 2002. https://www.gainesville.com/story/new...
*Uncredited. “BUSCH: KEVIN LEPAGE JOINS BREWCO TEAM,” Motorsport.com, December 15, 1998. https://us.motorsport.com/nascar-xs/n...
*Uncredited. “KEVIN LEPAGE, STATE FAIR BRAND CORN DOGS TEAM UP FOR 2000, 2001,” Motorsport.com, August 8, 2000. https://us.motorsport.com/nascar-cup/...

OTHER SOURCES
*2005 Daytona 500 qualifying times: https://www.crash.net/nascar/results/...
*Carter’s Royal Dispos-all webpage: https://cartersroyaldisposall.com/Hom...
*EM Motorsports webpage (archived): https://web.archive.org/web/200805260...
*Racing-reference.info

CHAPTERS
0:00 – Intro
0:57 – Competition and Controversy
4:10 – Early Struggles
13:34 – Lepage
24:14 – A Good Qualifier
34:15 – Assault on Daytona
41:52 – A Literal Underdog
48:27 – Near Miss
51:01 – More Clout Than Us
56:05 – Merger
1:02:10 – Carter From 2006-2009