I recently had the honor of talking to Rebecca Auchmoody, co-owner of the recently rebranded NASCAR Cup Series team, Team AmeriVet. Auchmoody and her husband recently entered their #50 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in this past Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway with driver Ty Dillon, who brought the car home with a clean 36th place result. For a young race team in NASCAR, finishing the race, having a car in one piece at the finish and learning as much as they can is crucial when a full-time season is possibly on the radar the following year. Despite the challenges of NASCAR’s NextGen car and the cost it takes to be competitive in modern NASCAR, this family is far from new to racing as a whole. Auchmoody was ecstatic to discuss how her family-owned team makes it happen in the Cup Series and provided an inside scope of what it takes to become an established name in professional auto racing.
Origins in Racing
Racing is something that people are born to do. It’s in your blood and nothing stops you from finding your way out to the track, whether it’s turning a wrench, putting a helmet on and strapping behind the wheel or even managing the behind the scenes aspect of the team. This family has done it all.
“My husband started dirt racing around 1995 or ’96. It was one of those things where if you couldn’t beat them, you join them. We were going to the races every Saturday and figured that we might as well jump in.” Auchmoody recalls. “Growing up, my family were drag racing fans and we cheered for John Force”.
Racing requires a lot of attention away from the track and takes hard work and dedication. “If we weren’t racing on Saturday, we were fixing the car during the week and that’s where we started. From there, my husband won the championship and then the following year, we ran dirt again before going asphalt racing. We ran the trucks, he’s run a late model down in Concord (North Carolina) for a couple of races. Really, over the last 26 years, I can’t think of a year where we weren’t helping someone else, or building a team”. Auchmoody was transparent about her family’s entrance into the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
“We actually started the Halmar Racing team, Stewart Friesen’s NASCAR Truck team and had eight or nine drivers at one point before Stewart started with the trucks. He’s helped Beard Motorsports with their social media platforms, as well a my kids’ go karts. We’re always at a race track.”
Partnerships and Transitions
Team AmeriVet was scheduled to run their first race this season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March for the Pennzoil 400, but finally made it to the track this past weekend for their season debut. They hired Ty Dillon as the driver, whose family also has deep ties in racing, making the pairing a natural fit for their season debut.
“We really want longevity in the series. We actually first talked to Ty years ago, around when COVID-19 happened to be exact. My husband told me he was going to quit his job as a full time construction salesman to try to pursue this full time but we’ve always been a fan of RCR and we came up as Dale Earnhardt fans over 20 years ago and got to watch Austin (Dillon) and Ty grow up. So for us, we’re race fans turned team owners and we had to look at who was available around 2021, when we started entertaining the idea of opening up a race team.”
The team made their anticipated debut on February 20, 2022 in the season-opening Daytona 500 with the team being named “The Money Team Racing”, as Floyd Mayweather was partnered with the Auchmoody family to make this happen.
“We started with Kaz Grala, which was just an opportunity that came about since my husband and I know people in the industry. Kaz was great because he really helped us get started and through Kaz, we met Tony Eury Jr., who is now part of our family so that was a really great connection. When we were approached by our sponsor two years ago, they were racing in the Indianapolis 500 with Conor Daly, so those connections kinda came to us.”, Auchmoody elaborates.
“Since we hadn’t raced in a year, we obtained ECR engines and received a pit crew from Richard Childress Racing, who also did our graphics and wrapped our car. We remained connected with RCR and we reached out to Ty (Dillon) after he raced for Spire Motorsports last season and took a step back to race trucks this year, but everyone wants to race Cup. We asked if this is what he’d like to do and he offered to try it. We wanted to run Vegas, but it just did not come into fruition. This was before our rebrand and we really took that time to figure out what changes we needed to make. Once we talked to Ty’s father, Mike Dillon, he said he feels as if it will be a good fit for Ty. I’m really excited for Ty and our goal is to race full time and we would love to have him in our car next year.
When asked about the former partnership with boxing legend, Floyd Mayweather, Auchmoody was honest and transparent, as racing is a business at the end of the day and sometimes, partnerships have run their course.
“He (Mayweather) is no longer involved with us and we are thankful that we were able to hook up with him back in 2019. Prior to COVID-19 happening, the rumor surfaced that we would make our debut. He helped us get into the sport, but it was time for us to move on. We would’ve really loved for him to get to the track and get that same thrill and adrenaline we have pumping for us. When it was time to make a decision, it was either fold completely or figure out how we can make this work. We had to push forward, but we’re still thankful he helped us get started.
Future Goals and Races
The Coca-Cola 600 is not the only race that Team AmeriVet has planned for the season. With the Auchmoody family being based in the State of New York, the summer stretch of the NASCAR schedule always has races in the northwest, which warrants a homecoming for the young team.
“We’re really hoping to do Pocono, since we teamed up with AmeriVet Securities. They attended their first race last weekend and unfortunately, with us going two laps down, we were ready to be the lucky dog and set up our strategy to get back on the lead lap, but at least we brought the car home back in one piece, on the trailer. They were really excited to meet Ty (Dillon), leading up to this and it was an honor having two Gold Star families there”. Auchmoody emphasizes. “Pocono Raceway is a home track for us, with both us and AmeriVet being out of New York and Pocono is only a few hours from us. We’re hoping to get out there and we are a small team who’ll pull anyone together. My brother and brother-in-law takes off to help us, my son is on the pit crew and my younger son is doing social media stuff. It’s really just a family affair, so we look forward to getting to the track as much as we can.”
Team AmeriVet is proof that with the right amount of dedication, those that believe in you and never giving up, that anything is truly possible. Anyone who’s a fan of underdogs in sports should anticipate more from this team in the summer, when the Great American Getaway 400 takes center stage on Sunday, July 14th at 2:30PM on USA Network. This team is making a huge impact on the sport, having their family involved, building and maintaining relationships to make these efforts happen. They will be around for a minute and this team will make some noise in NASCAR sooner or later, be sure to look out for them on track. Follow their Instagram and Facebook to get a glimpse of what they’re up to behind the scenes.
Every Man on Every Crew 
Great read, always love learning how connected some owners really are with the sport!
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I would love to work with you guys in the future !!
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