McLeod Garners Attention, Sponsorship After Making Daytona 500 Field

B.J. McLeod is one of the feel-good stories to keep an eye on during Sunday's Daytona 500. The underdog racer, who started the week with a blank No. 78 Chevrolet, has full sponsorship heading into the Great American Race.

B.J. McLeod's No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet looked a lot less blank during Daytona 500 final practice on Saturday, February 14. | Ricky Martinez | Racing America On SI

DAYTONA BEACH, Florida -- What a difference a few days have made for driver B.J. McLeod and the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports team. While the other 44 cars that came down to Daytona with aspirations of competing in the Daytona 500 did so with brightly colored billboards for corporate America, Speedweek at Daytona International Speedway started with the Wauchula, Florida, native carrying a completely blank, flat-black No. 78 Chevrolet.

A few days later, the unerdog racer is preparing to make his sixth start in the Great American Race. And as his race team pushes their car onto the grid for Sunday's race, it will now be fully sponsored. It just shows how big the impact can be when you make the Daytona 500 field.

Related: Official Starting Lineup for the 2026 Daytona 500

"It's really cool to be able to get some partners on board after the Duel the other night, and get ready for the race," McLeod said in an exclusive interview with Racing America On SI. "We've learned a lot in the last two practice sessions, and really it'll benefit us on races when we come back. Looking forward to that, and very happy with getting some sponsors on here. The flat-black car has got a little more decoration on it, and I'm going to go have some fun."

McLeod, a stout individual, who looks like he would hold his own in a bar fight, and has formed a cult fan following with his persistence to remain in the sport and his unique look, typically prefers a flat-black race car. But he says it doesn't cramp his style one bit when sponsors show up and want to change things up for him.

According to Leonard Motorsports Marketing, the company that helped put together the deals for RepairableVehicles.com, and St. Albans, Vermont-based Stone's Auto Repair to be plastered on McLeod's No. 78 racecar, they fielded more than 150 phone calls from prospective sponsorship partners after McLeod locked into the field for the Daytona 500.

McLeod, 42, says he also received a lot of kind words from his peers and fans after he was officially in the Daytona 500 field following the disqualification of Anthony Alfredo and the No. 62 Beard Motorsports team after the Duels.

"A lot. Like, I don't even know, like 100-plus. Just people congratulating us and [they were] very happy that we're getting a chance to race in the 500 again as an Open car," McLeod said. "Just the support from the fans that I have, and the family members and friends, and the garage itself. It means more to me than any race win ever could. I just want to say thank you to all of them, and we're going to go and try to get a solid finish for everybody."

While McLeod advanced into the Daytona 500 field by way of a disqualification from a competitor, don't let that cloud your judgement on his overall race pace. McLeod was very much in the lead draft during Thursday's Duel, and looked to have an out-right shot of battling for a Daytona 500 starting spot on his raw speed.

However, during the one pit stop sequence of the race, McLeod and his team had some hiccups, which cost them a little bit of time, and at Daytona, that's all it takes to lose the lead draft.

"To be honest, if you watch any Daytona 500, even somebody in the top-15 in points will make a mistake coming to pit road at some point under green flag conditions," McLeod said. "It really is the hardest thing to do in our sport to get down with the pack, get in, have several crew members come over the wall, service the vehicle, get out, and not have a second lost. We're talking four-tenths (of a second), maybe you get away with it, but you lose a second to a 1.5 seconds, and you've lost the draft. It's really crazy when you put it into perspective."

Once you lose the draft, which allows cars that are tucked up tightly together to pick up their pace from 183-miles-per-hour lap averages to 195-plus-miles-per-hour, you're officially dead in the water.

McLeod says while the issues getting to and from pit road were disappointing in the Duels, he feels confident that the No. 78 team has figured out where they went wrong, and that it won't be an issue in Sunday's race.

"We have corrected the mistake we made on Thursday," McLeod explained, "but we all really have to be focused and do our jobs. It's going to take all of us working together to be able to have a solid day tomorrow."

While he's never had a top-10 finish in the Daytona 500, McLeod has recorded a pair of top-10 finishes in the annual Summer event at Daytona. If he finds himself in a position to contend for a top-10, or even a win, he's going to pull into his bag of tricks, which he says independent teams have to do, to do everything in his power to get to the finish line.

"I can tell you, I will do my best to keep people behind me, pushing me," McLeod said. "Because, you know, being an independent team, it's really hard to block good enough to stay in front of a situation where they want to get around you and go just because of things being lined up with bigger teams, and more cars in their stable, and things like that. It's really up to you as a driver, when you're in an independent car, to be smart throughout the race. But if you're in a chance to finish well in the closing laps, you have to make your car wide, and force those guys to help you."

McLeod will start 38th in the 41-car field on Sunday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway, one spot ahead of William Byron, who comes into this weekend looking for an unprecedented third consecutive Daytona 500 victory. Perhaps McLeod can form a partnership with Byron deep in the pack, which can benefit him later in the race.

Regardless, it's impressive to see how much McLeod and his rag-tag Live Fast Motorsports team continue to accomplish, and it'll certainly be interesting to keep tabs on the fully-sponsored No. 78 Chevrolet throughout the 500-mile race at Daytona.

The Daytona 500 is scheduled for Sunday, February 15. Due to the threat of inclement weather in the evening hours, NASCAR has moved the start time of the race up to 1:30 PM ET. The race will be televised on FOX, and will be broadcast on the radio by the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.