Right on the tail of the NASCAR Cup Series is the NASCAR Xfinity Series, which is the “proving ground” for those wanting to race in the Cup Series and a spot for “journeymen” race car drivers and team owners who make a living there as well. The series is super competitive and full of hungry drivers looking to establish their names in history, as some of the greatest names in racing come from the NASCAR Xfinity Series, including Sam Ard, Jeff Green, Jack Ingram and Dale Earnhardt Jr., to name a few. With that being said, there’s plenty of room for success in the second-tier series and team owner/driver, Tommy Joe Martins, owner of Alpha Prime Racing, manages a busy schedule and runs two cars full time, and one car part time while getting better each and every week.
Who is Tommy Joe Martins?
Tommy Joe Martins is a professional race car driver and race team owner of Alpha Prime Racing and Martins Motorsports. He is from Mississippi and cut his teeth racing late models and go-karts during his younger years. Martins is synonymous with the #44, which he utilizes for his late model stock car and one of his NASCAR Xfinity Series entries. Outside of racing, Martins attended college at the University of Mississippi and proudly represents “Ole Miss” on his Twitter/X.com bio.
“I’ve been racing either at the amateur level or at the professional level in NASCAR since 2008 and go-karts since around 2005. So I’m going on about 20 years at this point”, Martins says recalling his longevity career in the industry.
Business and Racing: How Alpha Prime Racing balances the two to achieve success.
Racing is expensive and sponsorship is crucial for on-track success. Sometimes, it’s necessary for a team to scale back cars when either sponsorship scarce, or resources need to be redistributed to be more competitive. In this case, Alpha Prime Racing elected to scale back for the benefit of focusing on their two full time drivers, Brennan Poole and Ryan Ellis.
“I think part of our on-track success with both the #43 and #44 are attributed to consistency and us being able to keep the teams pretty well together. Last year, we were running three cars and all three ended up having multiple different drivers. Ryan Ellis ended up running 31 races in the #43 and was pretty much full time. But with the other two (drivers), we tried to get them full time, including Jeffrey Earnhardt, but we just weren’t able to make the sponsorship happen and we winded up having to change personnel and drivers. Anytime you do that, you’re bound to get in trouble”, Martins emphasizes. “I think consistency has been the biggest thing, regardless of the quantity of cars, since we’ve run Caesar Bacarella and Brad Perez in the #45. I feel like all three cars have been competitive, but having two full time drivers has been the difference maker.”
Race team ownership is like no other business venture in the world, with a lot of time, money, resources and traveling involved. Owners have to ensure that the pit crew members are able to get to races, the cost of tires ($2,400 per set), making the sponsors happy and distribution their race winnings to the drivers. This also means that they’re learning as they go and there’s always room for improvement.
“Right now, we have one car that’s in the top-20 in the owner’s points standings and I think that is a fantastic accomplishment. As tough as the field is right now, I think it’s amazing that we’ve got one of our cars in 19th place. There are a lot of cars that are really, really good B-level teams and I think that’s good because we are showing that we can compete with speed, at a high level with these other teams. If we’re lumped in a category with Jordan Anderson Racing, who’s won a pole and won a race last season and Sam Hunt Racing, who’ve had multiple top-5 finishes, Our Motorsports and Big Machine Racing, those are the next group of competitive teams. If we’re one of those consistently, week-in and week-out, I think we’re accomplishing a lot.”
What’s in store in the future?
Tommy Joe Martins is a race at the core. Despite taking on the full-time ownership role, he welcomes the opportunity to get back behind the wheel of a stock car.
“I haven’t shut the door on it completely, but my main focus right now is growing our business, which takes so much effort and I think being a competitive race car driver takes a lot of effort as well. Right now, I don’t feel comfortable just trying to race a whole lot while I’m focused on running Alpha Prime Racing. I have been called by several owners in the sport and I’ve been interested in getting back behind the wheel. If I get an opportunity to do it, I’m open to it, but I also know that I’ll have to do it on a limited basis. I would have to kind of spread that out, like I do racing in the CARS tour. I’ve run a late model recently, and I’m going to run another late model race at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. I still want to race, I still I love racing and I believe there’s still a possibility to run in the NASCAR Xfinity Series or in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and it’s something I’m open to, but it’s something I’m hoping to on a very limited basis and I don’t think that’ll be something I do full time.”
Alpha Prime Racing is on the rise in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, as Brennan Poole came away from Talladega Superspeedway with a fifth-place finish on April 20th, while Caesar Bacarella came home seventh. Poole had a shot a victory, but came up short, eight years after almost winning his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series race. Ryan Ellis has also shown a lot of improvement in his first full-time season with Alpha Prime Racing. Poole and Ellis are respectively 17th and 24th in the championship standings and have a realistic shot at top-20’s in the points this year, if they remain consistent. With Poole’s strong showing at Talladega and Alpha Prime bringing fast cars to the Superspeedway tracks, this team can make a lot of noise at Daytona International Speedway later in the summer (August 23, 2024 at 7:30PM EST on USA Network) and at Atlanta Motor Speedway (September 7, 2024 at 3:00PM EST on USA). Keep an eye out on this team, which has been on the rise since 2022 and will be a playoff contender in the NASCAR Xfinity Series before we know it.
Every Man on Every Crew 