Stephen Leicht

Stephen Leicht
Leicht in 2009
Born	(1987-01-09) January 9, 1987 Asheville, North Carolina
Achievements	2005 American Speed Association Late Model Champion
Awards	2012 Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year
NASCAR Cup Series career
18 races run over 4 years
Car no., team	No. 83 (BK Racing)
Best finish	41st (2012)
First race	2006 Pennsylvania 500 (Pocono)
Last race	2017 Overton's 400 (Pocono)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 0 0
NASCAR Xfinity Series career
82 races run over 7 years
Car no., team	No. 97 (Obaika Racing) No. 39 (RSS Racing)
Best finish	7th (2007)
First race	2005 Sam's Town 250 (Memphis)
Last race	2017 Ford EcoBoost 300 (Homestead)
First win	2007 Meijer 300 (Kentucky)
Wins Top tens Poles 1 16 0
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career
4 races run over 1 year
Best finish	98th (2012)
First race	2012 VFW 200 (Michigan)
Last race	2012 Lucas Oil 150 (Phoenix)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 0 0
Statistics current as of November 18, 2017.

Stephen Leicht (born January 9, 1987) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He has over 150 feature event wins in quarter midgets and go-karts, and was the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year. He currently drives the No. 83 Toyota Camry for BK Racing in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series on a part-time basis.

Early racing career

When he was seven years old, he began racing quarter midgets, and began advancing into go-karts. At the age of 11, Leicht was participating in the Go Kart Nationals, when he collided with the flag stand and was sent flying from his racecar. He suffered a burst spleen as a result of the accident, and was kept out of racing for six months.

At the age of 12, he began racing stock cars, and got his GED to focus full-time on racing, and was named Motorsports Magazine's Rising Star of the Year in 2000. At the age of 15, he ran his first full year in the American Racing Association, and was named Rookie of the Year.

NASCAR & ARCA career

In 2005, he moved to Wisconsin to work with veteran American Speed Association crew chief Howie Lettow. Leicht collected five wins en route to winning the national championship in the American Speed Association Late Model series for WalTom Racing. He won both races that he attempted in the American StockCar League. He finished first or second in thirteen of sixteen events that entered between the two series. He started eighth in his Busch series debut at Memphis Motorsports Park, and finished thirteenth. He ran another race at Phoenix, starting seventeenth and finishing nineteenth.

In 2006, Leicht ran ARCA Re/Max Series events for Yates Racing and WalTom Racing. He earned his first career ARCA series win in his second career start at Nashville Superspeedway in April. [1]. He also made four Busch series starts in 2006, posting two top-ten qualifying efforts. On July 23, he made his first Nextel Cup Series start in the Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway for Yates Racing, qualifying 36th and finishing 33rd, one lap behind.

In 2007, Leicht ran the full NASCAR Busch Series schedule. He won his first race at Kentucky Speedway and finished 7th in the final drivers points ranking. At the end of the season, Robert Yates Racing released Leicht from his contract because of sponsorship and finance issues. 2008 saw Leicht land a part-time stint in Richard Childress' No. 21 Nationwide car, sharing driving duties with Bobby Labonte. Leicht ran 4 races with a best finish of 7th at Phoenix International Raceway. However, after Talladega, a lack of sponsorship sidelined Leicht until Texas in the fall, where he finished 18th.

Leicht's Nationwide car in 2009 at Milwaukee

In 2009, Leicht drive the No. 29 Chevrolet Impala in 13 races. Leicht was originally slated to run 23 events, but his races were nearly halved by the addition of Clint Bowyer as co-driver. He ran nine total races and had six top-ten finishes. He was released from RCR at the end of the year and signed to attempt 29 races for D'Hondt Humphrey Motorsports in the No. 91 car in 2010, but was released after two races.

Leicht competed in his first NASCAR race since 2009 (and his first Sprint Cup start since 2006) in Tommy Baldwin Racing's No. 36 Chevrolet, while Blaney piloted the team's second car, the No. 35 Chevrolet. The move gave Leicht a guaranteed start while Blaney had to qualify on time. Blaney finished 19th while Leicht finished 24th despite running in the top 10 most of the race.

Leicht drove for Joe Falk at Richmond in April 2012, qualifying 40th and finishing 35th, running at the end but finishing nine laps down. After skipping Talladega, he filed to compete for Rookie of the Year in the Sprint Cup Series, with plans to run the majority of the remainder of the season in the No. 33, except for the June race in Michigan, when Richard Childress Racing driver Austin Dillon drove the No. 33.

Leicht's best finish of 2012 was 26th at Watkins Glen, ending on the lead lap. He attempted 21 races and competed in 15, and won the series Rookie of the Year award for 2012. After a four-year absence in NASCAR, on January 10, 2017, Leicht received a ride to drive the No. 77 Chevrolet Camaro for Obaika Racing starting at Daytona. However, Leicht moved to Obaika's primary No. 97 car for Daytona, causing the No. 77 to withdraw. Leicht attempted the first 6 races in the 97 as a start and park operation. Leicht only qualified for 4 races, failing to qualify at Daytona and Texas. Leicht was left without a ride when the 97 scaled back its schedule after the 6th race. Leicht raced at Charlotte in the No. 93 for RSS Racing, start and parking the car. In July, Leicht made his return to the Cup Series at Pocono, driving the No. 83 for BK Racing.

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.)

Monster Energy Cup Series

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	MENCC	Pts
2006	Robert Yates Racing	90	Ford	DAY	CAL	LVS	ATL	BRI	MAR	TEX	PHO	TAL	RCH	DAR	CLT	DOV	POC	MCH	SON	DAY	CHI	NHA	POC 33	IND DNQ	GLN	MCH	BRI	CAL	RCH	NHA	DOV	KAN	TAL	CLT	MAR	ATL	TEX	PHO	HOM	78th	0
2011	Tommy Baldwin Racing	36	Chevy	DAY	PHO	LVS	BRI	CAL	MAR	TEX	TAL	RCH	DAR	DOV	CLT	KAN	POC	MCH	SON	DAY	KEN	NHA	IND	POC	GLN	MCH	BRI	ATL	RCH 24											46th	20
		35																												CHI DNQ	NHA	DOV	KAN	CLT	TAL	MAR	TEX	PHO	HOM
2012	Circle Sport	33	Chevy	DAY	PHO	LVS	BRI	CAL	MAR	TEX	KAN	RCH 35	TAL	DAR DNQ	CLT 39	DOV 35	POC 33	MCH	SON 41	KEN 41	DAY 42	NHA 32	IND 31	POC DNQ	GLN 26	MCH DNQ	BRI 40	ATL DNQ	RCH 36	CHI	NHA 34	DOV	TAL	CLT	KAN	MAR 34	TEX DNQ	PHO 35	HOM DNQ	41st	117
2017	BK Racing	83	Toyota	DAY	ATL	LVS	PHO	CAL	MAR	TEX	BRI	RCH	TAL	KAN	CLT	DOV	POC	MCH	SON	DAY	KEN	NHA	IND	POC 32	GLN	MCH	BRI	DAR	RCH	CHI	NHA	DOV	CLT	TAL	KAN	MAR	TEX	PHO	HOM	-*	-*

Xfinity Series

NASCAR Xfinity Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	NXSC	Pts
2005	Robert Yates Racing	90	Ford	DAY	CAL	MXC	LVS	ATL	NSH	BRI	TEX	PHO	TAL	DAR	RCH	CLT	DOV	NSH	KEN	MLW	DAY	CHI	NHA	PPR	GTY	IRP	GLN	MCH	BRI	CAL	RCH	DOV	KAN	CLT	MEM 13	TEX	PHO 15	HOM	86th	242
2006				DAY	CAL	MXC	LVS 18	ATL	BRI	TEX 20	NSH	PHO	TAL 31	RCH	DAR 25	CLT	DOV	NSH	KEN 10	MLW 13	DAY 26	CHI	NHA 33	MAR	GTY 38	IRP	GLN 36	MCH 33	BRI 35	CAL 33	RCH	DOV 23	KAN 12	CLT 14	MEM 19	TEX 19	PHO 27	HOM 27	32nd	1790
2007				DAY 33	CAL 20	MXC 27	LVS 18	ATL 29	BRI 20	NSH 8	TEX 20	PHO 28	TAL 28	RCH 24	DAR 26	CLT 10	DOV 34	NSH 33	KEN 1	MLW 14	NHA 25	DAY 27	CHI 10	GTY 23	IRP 24	CGV 5	GLN 17	MCH 26	BRI 20	CAL 29	RCH 21	DOV 41	KAN 19	CLT 18	MEM 12	TEX 10	PHO 19	HOM 5	7th	3603
2008	Richard Childress Racing	21	Chevy	DAY	CAL 10	LVS	ATL	BRI	NSH 12	TEX	PHO 7	MXC	TAL 34	RCH	DAR	CLT	DOV	NSH	KEN																	TEX 18	PHO	HOM	60th	577
		2																		MLW QL†	NHA	DAY	CHI	GTY	IRP	CGV	GLN	MCH	BRI	CAL	RCH	DOV	KAN	CLT	MEM QL†
2009		29		DAY	CAL	LVS	BRI	TEX	NSH 11	PHO	TAL	RCH	DAR	CLT	DOV	NSH 6	KEN 31	MLW 8	NHA	DAY	CHI	GTY 6	IRP 13	IOW 10	GLN	MCH	BRI	CGV 8	ATL	RCH	DOV	KAN	CAL	CLT	MEM 9	TEX	PHO	HOM	43rd	1185
2010	D'Hondt Humphrey Motorsports	91	Chevy	DAY	CAL DNQ	LVS DNQ	BRI	NSH	PHO	TEX	TAL	RCH	DAR	DOV	CLT	NSH	KEN	ROA	NHA	DAY	CHI	GTY	IRP	IOW	GLN	MCH	BRI	CGV	ATL	RCH	DOV	KAN	CAL	CLT	GTY	TEX	PHO	HOM	NA	-
2012	The Motorsports Group	47	Chevy	DAY	PHO	LVS	BRI	CAL	TEX	RCH	TAL	DAR	IOW	CLT	DOV	MCH	ROA	KEN	DAY 42	NHA 42	CHI 41	IND 43	IOW	GLN 42	CGV	BRI DNQ	ATL	RCH	CHI	KEN	DOV	CLT	KAN	TEX	PHO	HOM			128th	01
2017	Obaika Racing	97	Chevy	DAY DNQ	ATL 38	LVS 39	PHO 37	CAL 39	TEX DNQ	BRI	RCH	TAL																											-*	-*
	RSS Racing	93	Chevy										CLT 40	DOV	POC	MCH	IOW	DAY	KEN	NHA	IND	IOW	GLN	MOH	BRI	ROA	DAR	RCH	CHI	KEN	DOV	CLT	KAN	TEX	PHO
		39																																		HOM 35
† - Qualified for Clint Bowyer

Camping World Truck Series

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	NCWTC	Pts
2012	Hillman Racing	25	Chevy	DAY	MAR	CAR	KAN	CLT	DOV	TEX	KEN	IOW	CHI	POC	MCH 30	BRI								PHO 31	HOM	98th	01
		27															ATL 34	IOW	KEN	LVS	TAL	MAR	TEX 32

^* Season still in progress
¹ Ineligible for series points

ARCA Re/Max Series

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

ARCA Re/Max Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	ARSC	Pts
2006	Robert Yates Racing	66	Ford	DAY 25																							85th	345
		55			NSH 1*	SLM	WIN	KEN	TOL	POC	MCH	KAN	KEN	BLN	POC	GTW	NSH	MCH	ISF	MIL	TOL	DSF	CHI	SLM	TAL	IOW

External links

• Official website
• Stephen Leicht driver statistics at Racing-Reference