Raymond J. Ciccarelli (born January 20, 1970) is an American professional

stock car racing Stock car racing is a form of Auto racing, automobile racing run on oval track racing, oval tracks and road courses. It originally used Production vehicle, production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifical ...

driver. He last competed part-time in the

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), and is the only series in NASCAR to race production pickup truck-based stock cars. The series i ...

, driving the No. 49

Chevrolet Silverado The Chevrolet Silverado is a range of trucks manufactured by General Motors under the Chevrolet brand. Introduced for the 1999 model year, the Silverado is the successor to the long-running Chevrolet C/K model line. Taking its name from the to ...

for his own team,

CMI Motorsports CMI Motorsports (formerly Ciccarelli Racing) is an American professional dirt track racing team that competes in the World of Outlaws Late Model Series, fielding the No. 49 Rocket XR1 part-time for Ray Ciccarelli. The team also previously fiel ...

. He has also competed in what are now the

ARCA Menards Series The ARCA Menards Series is an American stock car racing, stock car series, the premier division of the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA). It is considered a minor, semi-professional league of stock car racing, used as a feeder series into ...

and

ARCA Menards Series East The ARCA Menards Series East (formerly known by other names) is a regional stock car racing series owned and operated by the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) and the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). Races are h ...

in the past.

Racing career

ARCA Racing Series

Ciccarelli drove part-time in the series in

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, and

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

for teams Carter 2 Motorsports, Kimmel Racing, Hamilton-Hughes Racing, and Hixson Motorsports. He started his own team, Ciccarelli Racing, for

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

. The team's first race came in the season-opener at Daytona where Ciccarelli finished 21st in his No. 38 Ford after a solid seventh-place qualifying run. The team returned at Talladega, although they used owner points from the full-time Hixson Motorsports No. 3 car to have a better shot of qualifying for the race (which they successfully did). Using that number instead of the No. 38 (which had only run Daytona), they picked up a thirteenth-place finish in the race. Ciccarelli had driven for the Hixson team in a few races in 2016.

Truck Series

In 2017, Ciccarelli made his Truck Series debut in the

Eldora Dirt Derby The Eldora Dirt Derby was a annual race in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series race held at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. During its existence from 2013 to 2019, the race was the only dirt track racing event on any NASCAR national ...

, driving the No. 10 truck for

Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing (also known as JJC Racing) is an American professional stock car racing team that currently competes part-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The team is based in Mooresville, North Carolina and is owned by Jennife ...

. He started 32nd and finished 22nd. After that, he start-and-parked the No. 0 truck for the same team in 4 races at Michigan, New Hampshire, Texas, and Phoenix. He finished 26th, 29th, 28th, and 26th respectively. He returned to the No. 10 truck at Homestead. He qualified 31st, but an engine malfunction before the green flag waved gave him a 32nd-place finish. In 2019, Ciccarelli acquired trucks, equipment, and owner points from the closed

Premium Motorsports Premium Motorsports (formerly Jay Robinson Racing) was an American professional stock car racing team that competed in the NASCAR Cup Series. The team last fielded the No. 15 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 LE full-time for Brennan Poole, and the No. 27 Cam ...

No. 49 truck and restarted his own team, now under the name

, which stood for "Ciccarelli Moving & Installation", a company owned by Ciccarelli and which is one of the team's sponsors. After running the first two races of the season, Ciccarelli and the CMI Motorsports team skipped the third round at Las Vegas with a planned comeback for the fourth round at Martinsville. Later in the year, he would score a career-best 9th-place finish at Michigan.

Planned departure from NASCAR announcement

Ciccarelli announced in June 2020 his retirement from NASCAR as a driver and a team owner at the end of the 2020 season. His announcement, which came in the form of a post on his

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

page on June 10, was made on the same day as NASCAR's decision to ban the display of the Confederate battle flag from their events, a decision they made in the midst of the

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests, riots, and demonstrations against police brutality that began in Minneapolis in the United States on May 26, 2020. The protests and civil unrest began in Minneapolis as Reactions to the mu ...

due to the flag's longtime association with

white supremacist groups White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wavelen ...

. While many NASCAR drivers praised the ban, Ciccarelli decried it, as he believed that it and other recent decisions by the sanctioning body ventured into the realm of politics. However, Ciccarelli's team, CMI Motorsports, posted on their Twitter account on October 30 that "We're not done yet. See you all in 2021", signaling he would not close down his team after the 2020 season as planned. On November 19, when it was revealed on TobyChristie.com that

Tim Viens Timothy Neil Viens (born October 10, 1976) is an American professional stock car racing driver and team owner. He competes part-time in the ARCA Menards Series, driving the No. 31 Toyota Camry for Rise Motorsports. He has also competed in the NAS ...

was to continue as a driver for CMI, Ciccarelli told the website that he planned on driving in three to four races in 2021.

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

( key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. ''Italics'' – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Camping World Truck Series

Busch East Series

ARCA Racing Series

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ciccarelli, Ray Living people 1970 births ARCA Menards Series drivers NASCAR drivers Sportspeople from Ellicott City, Maryland Racing drivers from Baltimore