LJ Racing was astock car racing team that competed in theNASCAR Winston Cup Series between 1997 and 2000. Owned byJoe Falk, the team posted a best finish of fifth with driverTodd Bodine, and a bestWinston West Series finish of second withMike Wallace driving. LJ Racing has since been revived asCircle Sport Racing.

Virginia businessmanJoe Falk entered NASCAR team ownership in theWinston Cup Series in 1997, fielding the No. 91 Chevrolet in a partnership withRon Neal under the LJ Racing banner. When the team began,Mike Wallace was the driver andSpam was the sponsor. Neal had been running the team as the No. 81 in theBusch Series as ProTech Motorsports.^[1]

That year, Wallace posted the team's best finish in any series, in the onlyWinston West Series race they ever entered, the 1997 Auto Club 200 atCalifornia Speedway. Having failed to qualify for the weekend's Winston Cup Series event, they posted a late entry to the West Series race, and Mike Wallace drove from the back of the field to finish second.^[2]

In the Winston Cup Series, the team struggled to make races,^[3] and Wallace was released midway through the season.^[4] Spam left the team shortly thereafter, and several other drivers drove the car later in the year, with little success. Towards the end of the year,Kevin Lepage joined the team. Lepage would drive the No. 91 through the first half of 1998 before leaving to joinRoush Racing.^[5] He was replaced byMorgan Shepherd, and thenTodd Bodine, who would score the team's best finish in the Cup Series, fifth, in the final race of the 1998 season, atAtlanta Motor Speedway.^[6]

LJ Racing began the 1999 season with driverSteve Grissom,^[7] but after Grissom failed to qualify for two of the first four races,^[8] he was replaced byDick Trickle.^[9] For the rest of the season, the team attempted the majority of the races, but only made it into eight: seven with Trickle, and theWinston 500 atTalladega Superspeedway withAndy Hillenburg.

In 2000, the team would qualify for two races (atAtlanta andRichmond) with Todd Bodine driving, before closing down.^[10] Later that same year, the team's shop was used byChip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates to house their threeNASCAR Busch Series teams. The two teams also entered a No. 91 Chevrolet forBlaise Alexander in two races near the end of the season, but Alexander failed to qualify for both of them.^[11]

ProTech Motorsports was founded byRon Neal and began competition in the NASCARBusch Series during the 1996 season, with driverTodd Bodine. Running the No. 81 for most of the season, Bodine finished third in series points, scoring one win atSouth Boston Speedway.^[13] In the final race of the year, atMetro-Dade Homestead Motorsports Complex, he ran the No. 82, while Ron Neal's sonJeff Neal ran the team's regular No. 81.

The team was in financial trouble throughout the season, and was partially bought out by Joe Falk to run Winston Cup in 1997.^[14] The team ran the first four races of the1997 NASCAR Busch Series season withStanton Barrett before switching fully to Winston Cup.

For the 2001 season, LJ Racing closed their Winston Cup Series team and moved to theARCA RE/MAX Series, competing in 21 of the 25 races held that season. The team's main drivers wereBlaise Alexander and Joe Falk's sonJeff Falk, with Brent Glastetter and Roger Blackstock each driving in two races,Josh Richeson driving atCharlotte Motor Speedway, andCasey Mears making his ARCA debut in the team's final race atTalladega Superspeedway.

• Joe Falk Owner Statistics - Racing-Reference.info
• Ron Neal Owner Statistics - Racing-Reference.info

• Defunct NASCAR teams
• Auto racing teams established in 1997
• 2000 disestablishments in the United States

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