Road race ace Andy Lally has signed with the newly formed Alpha Prime Racing for multiple NASCAR Xfinity Series events in 2022. Pending scheduling conflicts, the veteran will compete in all six road course races at COTA, Portland, Watkins Glen, Indianapolis, Road America, & the Charlotte Roval.
Lally, the 2011 NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year, and five-time Rolex 24 at Daytona class winner, has competed part time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series the last few seasons with multiple teams while racing full time in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship for Magnus Racing.
Lally is excited about finding a NASCAR home with Alpha Prime Racing.
“I can’t wait to get started,” Lally said. “Caesar has been on me the past few months about what they’ve got going on with APR and how he wanted me to get involved. After spending some time at the shop and getting to know Tommy Joe a bit, I can tell they’re serious.”
For General Manager Tommy Joe Martins, the signing sends a message.
“We’re not messing around,” Martins said. “We want to be better. Caesar and I talked about bringing Andy on, and to me it was a no brainer. He’s one of the best road course stock car drivers in the world, and he’s going to be driving our racecar,” Martins said.
Owner Caesar Bacarella’s company Alpha Prime has sponsored Lally multiple times over the last few years in Xfinity Series competition.
“He’s a stud,” Bacarella said of Lally. “You look at what he’s done driving for other teams, smaller teams – he always makes them better. He’s going to make us better.”
Our Motorsports, BJ McLeod Motorsports, DGM Racing, and SS Greenlight Racing would have to agree. In Lally’s last 12 Xfinity Series starts he has seven top-10 finishes, including four top-5’s.
“I love these cars,” Lally said. “It’s the most fun I have racing anything all year. NASCAR racing is such a challenge and wrestling these things around a road course is just such a blast. And doing it for a smaller team and being able to overachieve and race for top10’s and top5’s, that makes it even better.”
The APR driver lineup includes Martins, who currently sits 20th in the Xfinity Driver Standings, who’s confirmed he will be running a partial schedule for the team. Bacarella will run a limited schedule focused on the speedways at Daytona & Talladega while competing for a Lamborghini Blancpain World Challenge America GT3 championship with TR3 Racing. Standout prospect Rajah Caruth announced a 5-6 race schedule with APR during the team’s inaugural press conference, and will be competing for an ARCA Championship with Rev Racing in 2022.
For Martins, Lally fills a need for the roster.
“He’s a truly elite level road racer,” Martins said. “As competitive as the Xfinity Series is going to be next year – plus we’re running six road course events – we had to bring someone in that can compete at the front of the field in those races. He’s going to be a leader on our race team.”
Martins also cracked the door open for an oval return for Lally.
“We’re not done finalizing his schedule,” Martins said. “There’s a few options besides just the road course stuff. We’ve just got to see how it all shakes out but I expect him to run six races for us.”
The first road course race of the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is Circuit of the Americas on March, 26th.
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