Car number 77 has started 1,054 races and has 2 wins, 4 poles, 31 top 5s, and 109 top 10s in the NASCAR Cup Series.
In 2019, the newly formed Spire Motorsports started fielding car #77 after purchasing the charter from the now-defunct Furniture Row Racing’s #78 car. The team fielded car #40 in the Daytona 500 in a partnership with Chip Ganassi Racing and Jamie McMurrary, but began fielding car #77 the following week at Atlanta with Garrett Smithley behind the wheel. Smithley finished 36th in the teams true debut race, and Smithley would start a total of 4 races in the #77 2019.
Quinn Hoff (13 races), Reed Sorenson (11 races), Timmy Hill (2 races), Blake Jones (1 race), & D.J. Kennington (1 race) all made starts in the #77 car during the 2019 season. However the team’s crowning achievement of 2019 came with young Justin Haley behind the wheel in his 3rd of 3 starts. Haley and the #77 Spire team benefit from the happenings of a bizarre race at Daytona. Late in the race a yellow flag flew due to a massive accident started by Austin Dillon throwing a block while leading. During the caution flag, several cars incuding Haley, Landon Cassill, and Kurt Busch did not pit, hoping that the nearby storms would cause rainfall and possible shorten the race. The rain did not come, and NASCAR gave the indication that the race would resume by signaling “1 to go” for the end of the caution. Busch and Cassill pitted to prepare to for the restart, but Haley and the #77 team stayed out. This would prove to be the winning move, as a strike of lightning prior to the green flag would delay the race and eventually lead to the race being declared “official” prior to the advertised difference. The Spire #77 team earned their first win, which also happened to be their first top-25 finish.
On November 27, the Spire Motorsports team was docked 50 owner points and owner TJ Puchyr fined $50,000 for manipulating the results of the Homestead-Miami race: Reed Sorenson was heard ignoring multiple calls to pit late in the race before finally obliging. The team then retired the car with an official reason stated being mechanical issues. Along with Rick Ware Racing also exiting the race, this enabled the No. 27 of Premium Motorsports to secure the highest Open (non-chartered) team in the final point standings. Premium’s alliances with Spire & Ware were leveraged to help the #27 car finish ahead of the #96 car in the season standings, earning more prize money.
In 2020 the #77 team returned full-time with Sorenson, Yeley, Smithley, Chastain, Justin Haley, James Davison, Josh Bilicki, B.J. McLeod, and Stanton Barrett all making starts. The team’s best finish of the year was an 11th place effort at the fall Talladega race, with Haley behind the wheel. The only races without car #77 in 2020 was the double-header at Michigan, in which Sorenson piloted car #74 as part of a filming deal with the Netflix show “The Crew” staring Kevin James.
The Spire #77 car returned in 2021 along with a second Spire entry, the #7 car of Corey LaJoie. For the Daytona 500, the #77 was piloted to an 8th place finish by Jamie McMurray, in a partnership with Chip Ganassi Racing.
Justin Haley returned for 30 races in 2021, earning 2 top-10 finishes at the Indy Road Coarse and the Summer race at Daytona. Justin Allgaier started 2 races in the car, while Josh Berry, Ben Rhodes, and Stewart Freisen each made 1 start.
In 2022, Landon Cassill made the most starts in #77 with 17, followed closely by Josh Bilicki with 16. Mike Rockenfeller started 2 races and Justin Allgaier returned for one race.
For 2023, Ty Dillon drove the #77 for Spire, full time.
In 2016, Furniture Row Racing announced that it would field 2 cars for 2017 with young Erik Jones behind the wheel of the #77 Toyota. Erik Jones, a Joe Gibbs Racing development driver, is seen as one of the rising stars of the sport, but with JGR already fielding 4 full time cars there was no room for Jones to compete at the Cup level with that team. However, the recent technical alliance between JGR and FRR makes the #78 & new #77 car psuedo-teammates with the JGR stable.
Erik Jones made 36 starts in the number earning 5 top-5 finishes and a pole at Bristol. Unfortunately, Jones did not find victory lane in 2017. For 2018, Jones replaced Matt Kenseth as the driver of the JGR #20 car, and Furniture Row Racing ceased operation of car #77.
Jasper Motorsports was formed in 1991, but began running #77 in 1995 with Bobby Hillin Jr. running most of the races in the 1995 & 1996 seasons. After 10 starts in the 1997 season, Hillin was replaced. He has 67 total starts in the number.
In 1997, Hillin was replaced by Robert Pressley who has the most starts in #77 with 133.
In 1998 he had a then-career-best finish of 3rd at Texas. 1999 was a tumultulous year for the team, struggling with qualifying and finishing 39th in points. For the 2000 season, Ryan Pemberton came aboard as crew chief and made a huge difference as Pressley finished 25th in points the next two years, finishing 2nd at the 2001 Tropicana 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.
In 2002, Dave Blaney took the helm of the #77 Jasper Motorsports car. Earning 9 top-10s in 2 years, Blaney failed to gain consistency in the #77 car. His best finish would be a 3rd place at Darlington in 2003, behind one of the most spectacular finishes in NASCAR history. Blaney would be released following the 2003 season. In 2014, Dave Blaney started 4 races in #77 for Randy Humphrey Racing. Blaney has a total of 76 starts in the number.
For the 2004 season Roger Penske bought a majority stake in Jasper Motorports. The team would switch to Dodge as a manufacturer, Kodak came on as a sponsor, and Truck series star Brendan Gaughan was named as the driver. Gaughan earned 4 top-10s in his rookie year, finishing 28th in points. His best run came when he lead 7 laps and finishing 4th at Talladega. These 36 races would be Gaughan’s only full year in the Cup series, as he was unexpectedly replaced for the 2005 season.
In 2005 Travis Kvapil was named as the driver of the #77, however Kvapil struggled. He finished the year 33rd in points with only 2 top-10 finishes in 36 races. The #77 car would not be fielded in 2006 and the owner’s points would be sold to Bill Davis Racing.
The #77 team was revived for the 2008 season, now fully owned by Team Penske. Indy-car star Sam Hornish Jr. would be named the driver with Mobil 1 acting as primary sponsor.
Hornish undoubtably struggled during his time in the #77, earning 8 top-10 finishes in his 3 years. After 106 starts Mobil 1 left Penske for Stewart-Haas racing, essentially ending the #77 team. Hornish would be reassigned to the XFINITY series for Penske, where he would win 3 races. The highlight of his tenure in the #77 came at the 2009 Sprint All Star Race, where he won the Sprint Showdown.
Charlie Roberts started #77 a total of 67 times from 1971-1974. During this time he earned 3 top-10 finishes.
Greg Sacks started 13 races in #77 in 1985 and ran most of the full season in 1994 for a combined 44 races
Ken Ragan started 38 of his 50 career races in #77 from 1983-1990. At Darlington in 2015 Ken’s son David Regan ran a ‘throwback’ pain scheme to resemble Ken’s #77.
Joe Lee Johnson was an early NASCAR star, winning the 1959 NASCAR Convertible Series Championship in his #77 car. He also started 19 of his 55 career Grand National (Sprint Cup) races in #77. He won his first Grand National race at Nashville Fairgrounds in 1959 driving the #77.
Other notable names in #77
Marvin Panch, 8 starts
Dick Passwater, 7 starts
Morgan Shepherd, 5 starts
Boris Said, 2 starts
Steve Wallace, 1 start
PJ Jones, 1 star
Andy Lally, 1 start
Dale Earnhardt, 1 start
