Go Fas Racing car owner Archie St. Hilaire says his team is negotiating to be aligned with a Sprint Cup organization next season.
“We’ll definitely be affiliated with a bigger team next year,’' St. Hilaire said Friday at Daytona International Speedway. “You can’t survive in the charter system without it. We’ll probably be in the bottom three this year and we won’t be next year. We will make the improvements needed to not do so. I think you’ll see in ’17 some improvement. We’re negotiating currently to do so.’'
Charter teams are held to a minimum performance standard. NASCAR can remove a team’s charter if the team ranks in the bottom three among all 36 Charter teams three consecutive years.
Go Fas Racing’s No. 32 team ranks next to last among Charter teams in the owner points standing heading into Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway. Bobby Labonte is driving for the team this weekend. The team also has had Jeffrey Earnhardt, Joey Gase, Jeb Burton and Patrick Carpentier drive its Fords in the season’s first 16 races.
The team will have OneOrlando.org on its car this weekend. The OneOrlando Fund was set up by the city of Orlando shortly after the nightclub shooting last month that killed 49 people. The purpose of the fund is to provide support for victims of the tragedy and their families. The car will promote how fans can donate $10 to the fund by texting Orlando to 501501.
“Being from the Northeast and just a couple of years ago having the Boston Marathon tragedy, whatever we could do to step up and help these people as everybody did the Boston area,’' St. Hilaire said for promoting the OneOrlando Fund.
