Meet NY Racing Team: New York's Only NASCAR Cup Series Team
- Dominic Konareski
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
When it comes to sports New York is known for its historical background and decades of dominance and producing hall of fame players. You have the Yankees and their 27 rings and the mecca of basketball that is Madison Square Garden, but one thing – one team – that isn’t fairly known is NY Racing Team.
NY Racing Team, or New York Racing Team in its long-form name, is the only New York-based NASCAR Cup Series team, and just one of two New York-based NASCAR teams when it comes to the top three series (FDNY Racing)
NY Racing is a product of Xxxtreme Motorsport that was originally opened in 2009 as a O’Reilly (formally Nationwide) Series team, and also went under the team name of Team Xtreme Racing. The team would break into the Cup Series in 2012 and was a regular backmarker team racing part-time with a series of different drivers.
Despite going through multiple team names and hiatuses, NY Racing has been owned by John Cohen since their beginnings. Cohen is one of just a small handful of African-American team owners in NASCAR, and is currently just one of three African-American owners in the Cup Series in 2026. John Cohen, Brad Daugherty (HYAK Motorsports) and Michael Jordan (23XI Racing) are the only Cup owners that are African-American, which makes the New Jersey native part of a small, but very elite list in 2026.
John Cohen got his start in business being an entrepreneur in nightclubs and taverns before dipping his feet into the 200mph business that is stock car racing.
The team has fielded the No.7 car in the Coca-Cola 600 during the 2018 season, the No.30 car in a one-off Richmond Race in 2014, but has primarily used the No.44 number historically. The No.44 was first driven by David Reutimann in the team’s first-ever Cup race in 2012 at Phoenix, in what was the second-to-last race of the 2012 season. Since 2012, NY Racing has completed 46 races with the No.44, using several different part-time drivers with the most notable being Greg Biffle, who ran his final 5 Cup Series races with NY Racing in 2022.
The present-day No.44 has mainly seen the driver’s seat split between J.J. Yeley and Joey Gase from 2024. Yeley recently gave NY Racing their best finish ever in the team’s history with a 21st-place finish at Michigan on June 7th, 2026, which also saw Yeley lead a lap. Yeley would lead another lap in his next Cup race for NY Racing on July 5th, 2026, marking the first time in his 22-year Cup career that he has led laps in consecutive races.
Despite being called NY Racing, the team’s operations is based in Statesville, North Carolina, which the majority of NASCAR Cup teams are also based in as well. The team does pay homage to New York by showcasing a city skyline in their primary logo, and has “New York Racing” on several articles of merchandise.
NY Racing gets their car bodies supplied by RCR and their engines supplied by Hendrick Motorsports. The team has been affiliated with Chevrolet since 2014, but did formally race with the blue ovals and even a brief stint with Toyota. The team is considered as an “Open team” in what is the chartered era of NASCAR Cup Series competition, meaning the team is not guaranteed a spot in the races they enter and earn a smaller percentage of race prize money compared to chartered teams.
With that, the team operates on a much smaller budget compared to top teams such as Hendrick and JGR.
Despite being part-time for their entire existence and battling with adversities, NY Racing has become a household team name and a familiar garage presence over the course of the 2020s. Fans have occasionally recognized the team with their eye-popping paint schemes that always showcases their logo on both the front and back ends of the car.