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Sharp Gallaher Racing

Owner(s)	Eddie Sharp Bill Gallaher
Base	Mooresville, North Carolina
Series	Camping World Truck Series
Race drivers	6.Justin Lofton/Danny Efland 8.Max Gresham
Manufacturer	Chevrolet
Opened	2005
Closed	2013
Career
Debut	2010Mountain Dew 250
Latest race	2013Ford EcoBoost 200
Races competed	118
Drivers' Championships	0
Race victories	2
Pole positions	1

Sharp Gallaher Racing (formerly known asEddie Sharp Racing) is a disbandedNASCAR team based inMooresville,North Carolina that competed in theARCA Racing Series and theNASCARCamping World Truck Series. The team fielded the No. 6Chevrolet Silverado forJustin Lofton and various other drivers and the No. 8 Chevrolet forMax Gresham.

The team was formed by former driver and crew chiefEddie Sharp in 2005, who had formerly fielded his ownASA team and was the crew chief forBill Baird during his championship-winning 1999 ARCA season. The team made its debut in 2006 with formerGrand-Am driverMichael McDowell running a limited schedule. McDowell and Sharp ran full-time in 2007, running the No. 2Make-A-Wish Foundation Dodge. McDowell grabbed four wins in his rookie season but finished second in the championship toFrank Kimmel. ESR also fielded the No. 22 Dodge, withJosh Wise andKen Butler III sharing the ride, with Butler winning atToledo Speedway. With McDowell moving on toMichael Waltrip Racing, Sharp expanded to three teams and switched to running Toyotas, hiring formerScuderia Toro RossoFormula 1 driverScott Speed to drive the No. 2, while retaining Butler for the full season and fielding a third car (No. 93) in a number of races for Canadian NASCAR driverPierre Bourque. The team soon changed numbers to the No. 20 withJustin Lofton for the rest of the year. ESR dominated the season, with Speed winning four races en route to a second-place finish in the championship and Lofton won at Michigan.

With Speed heading to the Sprint Cup Series, ESR gained a reputation of fielding championship-caliber drivers. In 2009, Lofton stayed on with ESR for the full season as the team expanded to a fourth car, the No. 81 forCamping World Series East driverCraig Goess. The No. 2 would be driven by anotherGrand-Am driver,Tim George Jr., and the No. 20 would be driven by CanadianSteve Arpin on a part-time basis. Lofton won ESR's first ever championship that season, grabbing an impressive four wins, while Goess and Arpin impressed many. Like his predecessors, Lofton moved toRed Horse Racing to run for theCamping World Truck Series title in 2010, while Goess returned for the full season. ESR ran only Goess' 81 for the full season, while continuing to field the 6 for a bevy of drivers, including another former F1 driver,Nelson Piquet Jr.,Blake Koch,Brandon McReynolds (son ofFox broadcasterLarry McReynolds), and others. Goess had a solid season, winning only once atPocono but finishing second in points toPatrick Sheltra.

ESR made its first foray into NASCAR in 2006, when he partnered with co-owner Rick Woodard to field a full-time Truck Series team that year with formerHendrick Motorsportsdevelopment driverBoston Reid running full-time in the No. 25. Woodard did not join Sharp's existing ARCA team as a co-owner, and their Truck team was operated separately from it. After the first four races of the season, Sharp left WSR, leaving Woodard as the team's only owner. Reid would be replaced by ARCA driverDamon Lusk as the team's driver with five races to go in the season. Although the team supposedly was preparing to return for at least theDaytona season-opener, Woodard Racing closed down before the start of the2007 season.^[1]

Sharp would not be an owner in the Truck Series again until 2010, where he returned to the series with another co-owner, Carl Hartman, to field a No. 41Toyota Tundra forSteve Park in two events.

Late in the season, ESR had purchased the assets ofTeam Gill Racing No. 46 and had intended to runCraig Goess for Rookie of the Year in 2011. After only 9 races, Goess was released from the team and Sharp was reunited with Lofton, who had sponsorship fromCollegeComplete.com and a new crew chief in Daniel Bormann.

For 2012, Eddie Sharp purchased the spun-off assets ofKevin Harvick Incorporated that were not acquired in the race team's merger withRichard Childress Racing, specifically the 8 and 33 trucks driven by Piquet andRon Hornaday.Cale Gale drove the 33 in 2012 with sponsorship fromRheem, and a technical alliance with Childress. The 8 truck was driven byMike Skinner at Daytona, but he wrecked early alongside Gale. In Martinsville, Eddie Sharp sold the No. 8 Truck's owners points toJennifer Jo Cobb, who swapped manufacturers and numbers (Cobb had the No. 8 as a Dodge, whileChris Lafferty drove the No. 10 Chevrolet). Sharp then gave the owners points to Cobb for the rest of 2012 in order to allow the truck to eventually be used part-time if a third driver was necessary.^{[citation needed]} On May 18, 2012, Justin Lofton won his first race in the No. 6 truck. Gale would win the season finale at Homestead in a photo finish.

For 2013, Lofton would reduce his schedule to only a few races, while Gale andRheem departed forTurner Scott Motorsports.Max Gresham would run the full schedule for the team, with Truck Series veteran crew chief Gary Showalter.

In August of that year, Eddie Sharp announced a partnership with California businessman Bill Gallaher, changing the team name to Sharp Gallaher Racing. Soon after this, it was also announced that the team would relocate fromDenver, North Carolina to the stock car racing hotbed ofMooresville, North Carolina.^[2] On December 17, 2013, reports arose that the team had shut down with immediate effect until later in the day when it was confirmed that the team had shut down with the remaining staff being laid off.

• Sharp Gallaher Racing owner statistics at Racing-Reference

• American auto racing teams
• Defunct NASCAR teams
• ARCA Menards Series teams
• 2005 establishments in North Carolina
• Auto racing teams disestablished in 2013
• 2013 disestablishments in North Carolina
• Auto racing teams established in 2005

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