Alpha Prime Racing

Owner(s)	Craig Martins Tommy Joe Martins Caesar Bacarella
Principal	Tommy Joe Martins(President)
Base	Mooresville,North Carolina
Series	NASCARXfinity Series
Race drivers	O'Reilly Auto Parts Series: 4. TBA 5. TBA 44.Brennan Poole 45. TBA
Manufacturer	TBA
Opened	2009
Career
Debut	O'Reilly Auto Parts Series: 2014Blue Jeans Go Green 200 (Phoenix) Truck Series: 2009AAA Insurance 200 (Lucas Oil Raceway) ARCA Racing Series: 2010Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 (Daytona)
Latest race	O'Reilly Auto Parts Series: 2025NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race (Phoenix) Truck Series: 2017Ford EcoBoost 200 (Homestead) ARCA Racing Series: 2011Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 (Daytona)
Races competed	Total: 250 O'Reilly Auto Parts Series: 207 Truck Series: 41 ARCA Racing Series: 2
Drivers' Championships	Total: 0 O'Reilly Auto Parts Series: 0 Truck Series: 0 ARCA Racing Series: 0
Race victories	Total: 0 O'Reilly Auto Parts Series: 0 Truck Series: 0 ARCA Racing Series: 0
Pole positions	Total: 0 O'Reilly Auto Parts Series: 0 Truck Series: 0 ARCA Racing Series: 0

Alpha Prime Racing (formerlyMartins Motorsports) is an American professional stock car racing team that competes in theNASCARO'Reilly Auto Parts Series. Founded in 2009 by Craig Martins, the team is co-owned by Martins and Caesar Bacarella, and currently fields multiple full-time entries, including the No. 44 driven byBrennan Poole. The team was inactive from2018 to2019, and in 2022 the team rebranded as Alpha Prime Racing and has since expanded operations and driver lineup.

On December 18, 2024, it was announced that the No. 43 team would be renumbered to the No. 4, with newcomerParker Retzlaff announced as the driver for 2025.^[1] On April 19, 2025 atRockingham, Retzlaff scored the team's best finish with a third place finish, also tying his own best finish in an NXS race. However, just hours later, race winnerJesse Love got disqualified in post race inspection, bringing Retzlaff's finish to second place, now overtaking the2024 season opener as the best finish in his Xfinity Series career.

On August 18, 2025, it was announced that the team would field a fourth car, which would be the No. 5 at the summer Daytona race, withCaesar Bacarella driving.^[2] The team obtained owner's points from the No. 5 fromOur Motorsports.Stefan Parsons was due to join the team atGateway Motorsports Park, but withdrew the entry prior to the race. The car was again entered into the Bristol race, but withdrew prior to qualifying when Parsons switched to the No. 35.

On September 15, 2022, Alpha Prime Racing announced thatRyan Ellis would return for an increased number of races in 2023 with specific partnership announcements coming at a later date.^[3] On December 20, the team announced it would be starting a third car with Ellis being the primary driver in 25 races with potentially more races being announced at a later date. He would complete 30 of the 33 races in the 43.^[4]Caesar Bacarella drove the car to a sixth place finish atTalladega.Leland Honeyman finished 28th atPortland, whileDylan Lupton finished 24th atSonoma.

On August 4, 2023, APR announced that Ellis will run full-time in2024.^[5]

On December 24, 2019, two years after shutting down its operations, Martins Motorsports announced its return to theNASCAR Xfinity Series in2020, with longtime sponsor and family friend Rodney Riessen joining Craig Martins as the team's co-owners. The team will field the No. 44Chevrolet Camaro SS forTommy Joe Martins.^[6] The team bought chassis fromGMS Racing andJGL Racing to help bolster its inventory, which already included a road course car Martins ran forMBM Motorsports in 2019.^[7] The team failed to qualify for the season-opening race atDaytona, and had to temporarily lay off all of its employees during theCOVID-19 pandemic.^[8] Midway through the season, the team hired Buddy Sisco as crew chief and results turned around.^[8] On October 24, Martins recorded both his and the team's first top-10 finish atTexas Motor Speedway with a 10th-place finish; Martins had confirmed a 2021 return earlier that month.^[9][10]

On August 30, 2021, the team announced it had formed a partnership withCaesar Bacarella, renaming the team to Alpha Prime Racing (after Bacarella's fitness brand) beginning with the 2022 season. Martins, Bacarella andRajah Caruth are signed to drive for the team in 2022.^[11][12][13] On November 22, 2021, Bacarella was suspended indefinitely by NASCAR for a violation of the sanctioning bodies substance abuse policy. A team statement issued by Tommy Joe Martins (in his capacity as General Manager) said that Bacarella had taken a workout supplement that he was unaware was on the banned substance list and that Bacarella is expected to be reinstated in time for the first race of 2022.^[14] On February 14, 2022, Bacarella was reinstated by NASCAR;^[15] Martins would drive the car in the opening race atDaytona, with Bacarella instead driving the No. 45.^[16]

On December 13, 2022, Alpha Prime Racing said in a press release thatJeffrey Earnhardt will be competing full time for the team in 2023. One of Earnhardt's long-time sponsors, ForeverLawn, will serve as the primary sponsor for the entry for multiple events.^[17] However, in therace atCOTA, Earnhardt was swapped out in favor ofSage Karam, who only completed 23 laps before engine issues kept him from finishing the race. Earnhardt continued to race the #44 untilDarlington in May, when he was swapped to the No. 45 permanently. Several drivers then drove the No. 44 car, including Karam,Rajah Caruth,Daniel Dye, andGreg Van Alst. The car failed to qualify for 6 races in the season. AtMartinsville in October, Caruth drove the No. 44 Chevrolet to a twelfth-place finish, the best finish of the season for the team.

On November 9, 2023, Alpha Prime Racing announced thatBrennan Poole would drive for the team full-time in 2024 with primary sponsorship from Finance Pro Plus (twenty races) and Macc Door Systems (ten races).^[18]

On March 29, 2025, Poole got Alpha Prime their first ever top-five finish on a non-superspeedway with a fourth place finish atMartinsville, while also running in the top-ten for the last twenty laps. Three weeks later atRockingham, Poole once again got APR a top-five on a non-superspeedway with a fifth-place finish (fourth after a post-race inspection disqualification).Parker Retzlaff also finished third (second after the disqualification), giving APR their first ever double top-five.

On November 18, 2025, Alpha Prime Racing announced that Poole would be returning for the 2026 season.^[19]

On April 14, 2017, the team announced a nine-race Xfinity slate for 2017^[20] withTommy Joe Martins,^[21] car No. 45^[22] and sponsor Diamond Gusset Jeans,^[23] starting with the spring race atRichmond and focusing primarily on short to intermediate tracks with the exception of theIndianapolis race.^[24] After failing to qualify and withdrawing from the first two planned events, the No. 45's schedule was folded into a ride withB. J. McLeod Motorsports, which culminated with a career-best 11th-place finish atIowa for the driver.^[25]

On January 5, 2021, Alpha Prime Racing announced the number for their second full-time entry to be 45 and on January 6 announcedSage Karam to be one of the drivers.

On December 2, 2022, Alpha Prime Racing announced that Sage Karam would be returning in 2023 for seeventeen races, starting with the spring race atAtlanta.^[26] On December 23, 2022, Alpha Prime announced that Stefan Parsons would also be returning for select races in 2023.^[27] Caesar Bacarella would also be driving the car atDaytona andTalladega.

The No. 45 scaled back to a part–time schedule in2024. Confirmed drivers are Bacarella for at least four superspeedway races, andBrad Perez for the race at theCircuit of the Americas.^[28][29] On July 16, Alpha Prime acquired the owner points from theJD Motorsports No. 4 for the No. 45 atIndianapolis, after JD Motorsports filed forChapter 11 bankruptcy.^[30]

This car was the team's secondary focus in their2014 foray, withClay Greenfield behind the wheel atDaytona. However, he along withWillie Allen failed to qualify, making Martins Motorsports 0 for 2 in that race.^[31] The car withdrew the next week after no driver was found to drive it. The team then took time off to prepare for the springBristol race, whereTommy Joe Martins crashed in qualifying and withdrew.^[32] To recoup from that, the team did not return untilMichigan, whenBenny Gordon qualified the car but then switched to Martins when he failed to qualify the No. 76.^[33]

The primary focus in 2014, Nationwide veteranWillie Allen failed to qualify the No. 76 atDaytona andBristol.^[34]Tommy Joe Martins then took over the reins of what was left as the team's only entry after the demise of the No. 67, making eight races in the No. 76 and failing to qualify for four, including its last three attempts. The team primarilystart and parked, but ran full races at higher-paying events like atTalladega andCharlotte.^[35] The team's last attempt was atIndianapolis Motor Speedway.^[36]

The team debuted the No. 42 in 2011 atLucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park with Tommy Joe Martins behind the wheel. The team returned atIowa Speedway in 2017 withMatt Mills behind the wheel and additional races to be determined.^[37] Though the car never hit the track that weekend, the scheme was included in the original version ofNASCAR Heat 2. The additional races were in the team's No. 44 entry. Martins returned for the 2017Jag Metals 350 but a possible suspension problem led to a wrecked truck in practice, and a blown right-front tire three laps into the race ended Martins' weekend. The backup truck was loaned from fellow independentMike Harmon.^[38]

The first race for Martins Motorsports was in 2009, whenTommy Joe Martins ran a four race schedule, recording a best finish of 21st atChicagoland.^[39] The team and driver returned for one race as the No. 42 in 2011, finishing 33rd atLucas Oil Raceway.^[40] After taking all of 2015 off to recover from a failed Xfinity Series effort, the team returned in 2016 with Martins as the full-time driver except for a qualifying crash atMartinsville (spot sold toAustin Wayne Self),^[41]Eldora (dirt racerJ. R. Heffner),^[42] and a DNQ atHomestead-Miami.^[43]

On February 13, 2017, Martins Motorsports announced a partnership with another family Truck team,Brandonbilt Motorsports,^[44] to put driverBrandon Brown in the 44 truck for "select races".^[45] However, the operations of the 44 truck ceased with the 2017 Xfinity announcement except for Heffner again piloting the truck at Eldora.^[46] After ceasing operations, owner points of the 44 truck were sold toFaith Motorsports. When that team ran into organizational trouble mid-season,Matt Mills drove the truck for a race atKentucky but crashed out. The much-anticipated return of Heffner the following race^[47] was derailed due to a blown engine early in the weekend, the entry never making it to the grid. After the Eldora race, the 44 became a joint-prepared effort between Martins andAM Racing.^[38] That relationship lasted through the end of the season except for Faith andTed Minor running aLas Vegas shooting paint scheme at Texas.^[48][49]

Following reports two days earlier that longtime crew chief Kevin Eagle had left the team, primary driver and ownerTommy Joe Martins took toTwitter,Periscope and the media to announce the team's closure in late December 2017. The team had plans to compete in a full2018 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series schedule; however, two drivers signed to drive on handshake deals failed to follow through, leaving the team's financial security in doubt.^[50] Tommy Joe, commenting on the situation, noted the irony of the situation that the team had been founded as an underdog, family team and now had to rely onpay drivers to survive, the antithesis of what the team was founded on. Once those drivers with sponsors backed out, Martins said that his family was unwilling to take the $300,000 or $400,000 loss that the team took in 2017. At different points, he called the decision "hard" to give up on a dream, yet "easy" to make financially.^[51] He also did not rule out a return to the Xfinity Series but the return did not seem likely at the time of closure.^[50] Martins later disclosed that the team had approachedFord Performance to become a partner team but that the manufacturer turned the team down.

In 2011, the team fielded the No. 42Dodge at Daytona withTommy Joe Martins behind the wheel. He finished fourteenth.

The team debuted in the ARCA Series in 2010. They fielded the No. 95Ford for Tommy Joe Martins at Daytona. He finished eighth.

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