{"id":330021,"date":"2025-12-07T09:22:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T09:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/330021\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T09:22:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T09:22:15","slug":"former-nascar-driver-dies-at-39-racing-team-confirms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/330021\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NASCAR driver dies at 39, racing team confirms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Annett<\/a>, a former NASCAR driver known for winning the organization\u2019s Xfinity Series season opening race in 2019, has died. He was 39. <\/p>\n

Annett\u2019s former team, JR Motorsports<\/a>, announced his death on Friday via a social media post<\/a> on X. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur thoughts and prayers are with the entire Annett family with the passing of our friend Michael Annett,\u201d JR Motorsports posted. <\/p>\n

The cause of Annett\u2019s death has not been disclosed. <\/p>\n

Annett, an Iowa native, began his race car driving career in 2007. He became a two-time winner in the ARCA Menards Series<\/a>, earning his first win at the Talladega Superspeedway<\/a> in Alabama during his racing debut year, AP News reported<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In 2008, Annett then won the series\u2019 opening race at Daytona International Speedway<\/a> in Florida. <\/p>\n

Annett went on to drive for JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series<\/a> for five seasons from 2017 to 2021. <\/p>\n

During his racing career, Annett made 321 starts in NASCAR\u2019s Xfinity Series, 158 of which came with JR Motorsports, according to NASCAR\u2019s website<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Annett also made over 100 starts in the NASCAR\u2019s Cup Series, the organization\u2019s top racing series.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Annett won the Xfinity Series\u2019 opener at Daytona International Speedway, his first and only win at that level, according to NASCAR\u2019s website. <\/p>\n

\u201cMichael was a respected competitor whose determination, professionalism, and positive spirit were felt by everyone in the garage,\u201d NASCAR said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Annett retired after the 2021 season after dealing with a stress fracture in his right leg for a majority of the season. He missed seven races that same year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Annett, a former NASCAR driver known for winning the organization\u2019s Xfinity Series season opening race in 2019,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-330021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}