{"id":574277,"date":"2026-04-01T03:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T03:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/574277\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T03:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T03:12:11","slug":"nascar-team-abruptly-withdraws-from-upcoming-race-after-martinsville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/574277\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Team Abruptly Withdraws From Upcoming Race After Martinsville"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the upcoming NASCAR<\/a> O’Reilly Auto Parts race at Rockingham Speedway, Nick Sanchez and the AM Racing No. 25 team have withdrawn from the entry list. The driver and team were almost forced together just weeks before the 2026 season and the ride may be over already.<\/p>\n

In the offseason, AM Racing was supposed to sell its operation to Sigma Performance Services. That acquisition fell through. Now, it looks like Ford might be out of the NASCAR grand national series for at least this season. Only Hettinger Racing will run Fords if AM Racing has to bow out completely.<\/p>\n

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A really tough situation for this organization. Given the situation that they were put in for 2026, it isn’t shocking, but still unfortunate news to hear. Sanchez has a season best finish of P3 from Atlanta this season and three DNFs on the year as well. Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports confirmed the withdrawal on X\/Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Nick<\/p>\n

Nick Sanchez waits ahead of driver introductions at Darlington. &lpar;Photo by Jeff Robinson&sol;Icon Sportswire via Getty Images&rpar;<\/p>\n

(&lpar;Photo by Jeff Robinson&sol;Icon Sportswire via Getty Images&rpar;)<\/p>\n

In the 2025 season, Nick Sanchez won a race in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. He was with Big Machine Racing at the time, and it looked like a great partnership. However, in the offseason, it was announced that Patrick Staropoli would take over the 48 car.<\/p>\n

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Sanchez, without much notice, had to find a ride quickly. Given the circumstances at AM Racing, it seemed like an ideal fit. However, it was clear that funding and money were going to be massive hurdles to overcome. Suffering three DNFs in the first seven weeks probably didn’t help the team much in terms of being able to race at Rockingham.<\/p>\n

On top of his one win in NOAPS, Sanchez has two Craftsman Truck Series<\/a> wins. He has finished 5th in Truck Series standings in the past, and 11th in the O’Reilly Series just a year ago.<\/p>\n

It will be interesting to see if Nick Sanchez finds another ride, or if he tries to stick it out with AM Racing. Can AM Racing make it back to the track this season? Seeing a withdrawal on the entry list doesn’t scream confidence. As a result, there will be no DNQs at Rockingham. Cleetus McFarland will be in the field as well<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Mar 31, 2026, where it first appeared in the Racing<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the upcoming NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts race at Rockingham Speedway, Nick Sanchez and the AM Racing No.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[134564,49,48,220560,634,88251,163401,183499,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-574277","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-am-racing","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-hettinger-racing","12":"tag-nascar","13":"tag-nick-sanchez","14":"tag-rockingham-speedway","15":"tag-sigma-performance-services","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574277","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=574277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}