About Carl Long

Carl Long began racing in 1983 at Orange County Speedway and South Boston Speedway. He won the track championship at South Boston in 1987 and the Street Stock championship at Orange County in 1990. In 1992, he raced in NASCAR-sanctioned competition for the first time, earning Rookie of the Year honors at Orange County in the Winston Racing Series. He was awarded the Best Sportsmanship award the following season. After competing at various Winston Racing tracks in the 1990's, he moved up to the NASCAR Slim Jim All Pro Series in 1997, grabbing a win at Bristol Motor Speedway in the #15 Austin Foods Chevrolet. In 1998, he began running in the ARCA Racing Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races for Mansion Motorsports.

Carl Long made his NASCAR debut in 1998 in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at Bristol, starting 21st but finishing 31st after the engine in his #91 Mansion Motorsports Ford F-150 expired. He began running in the NASCAR Sprint Cup races in 1999 with the #85 Mansion Motorsports team, but DNQ'd for every attempt throughout the season. He ran Bristol again the following year, in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series posting a career-best 9th place qualifying effort, as well as at Louisville Speedway, where an early accident ended his race. After more struggles in 2000, he finally qualified to make his NASCAR Sprint Cup debut in one of its most prestigious races, the Coca-Cola 600. However, Darrell Waltrip, one of the top drivers in series history, who was retiring at the end of the 2000 season, failed to qualify. Long gave up his ride to Waltrip for the Coca-Cola 600. He made another truck race in 2000 at Texas, where he started 33rd and finished 17th in a truck fielded by Team 23 Racing. Long would eventually make his NASCAR Sprint Cup debut at Dover, qualifying 42nd and finishing 41st after an accident on lap 12. He made one more start that year at the Rockingham Speedway, finishing 32nd. He ran three races in 2001, his best finish being a 29th place finsh at the UAW-GM Quality 500 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. He also made his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut in 2001 in the Aaron's 312 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway driving the #49 for Jay Robinson Racing Chevrolet where he started 41st but finished in 42nd.

In 2002, Long ran for Rookie of the Year honors, but failed to earn the award due to an incomplete season. Long attempted several races, but failed to qualify for all except two. Once again, Long started the season with the #85 Mansion Motorsports team, but when that team ran out of money, Long departed the team, first to the #79 Glenn Racing team, then to Ware Racing's #51 entry and then finally the #59 Foster Price team, with whom he finished 39th at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. In addition, he had a sixteenth-place qualifying effort at the Dover International Speedway for Mansion Motorsports in the Camping World Truck Series during which Long ran in the Top 10 before an engine failure and a 30th place finish at Richmond for Ware Racing in the #51 Revival Soy Dodge.

Long made two NASCAR Nationwide Series starts in 2003 for Creech Motorsports with a best finish of 28th at the Rockingham Speedway. He had another 28th at Rockingham the following year, as well as running the #07 for Moy Racing at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, with an early engine issue early in the race. He also ran another race for Ware Racing at New Hampshire, but finished in 43rd. He made his first race as a team owner that season, when Matt Carter drove his #96 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series entry to a seventeenth place finish at the Martinsville Speedway. After failing to make a Cup race in 2003, Long returned to the Glenn Racing Dodge in 2004. In their first race together, Long's car flipped several times in a violent accident at the final NASCAR race held at the Rockingham Speedway in Rockingham, North Carolina. Long was uninjured and the incident gained publicity for the virtually-unknown Long, whose popularity among the fans peaked to unprecedented levels, and also got him a ride in the following Cup event at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, driving for fellow independent Hermie Sadler. Long then drove at Pocono Raceway for the fledging McGlynn Racing organization, finishing 41st. After a final race for Glenn Racing, he ran two races with Hover Motorsports.

Long announced he would merge his #46 team with the McGlynn Racing team to run in 2005. Although he drove only the #00 from McGlynn, Long ran 9 races that year with a career-best qualifying effort of 20th at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Unfortunately, sponsors wanted a Daytona 500 winner to drive the car, which forced McGlynn Racing to release Long. Long closed out the year running at the Homestead-Miami Speedway in a personally owned chassis originally purchased from Petty Enterprises. The car was prepared in Stan Hover's shop with mostly volunteers and a leased motor from Bill Davis Racing was dropped into the car. Unfortunately, an accident in qualifying ended his weekend prematurely.

In 2006, Long ran the #80 for Hover Motorsports in the Daytona 500, but missed the race. He attempted three races for the #37 R&J Racing team, but also failed to qualify for those events. He returned to the NASCAR Nationwide Series driving the #23 for Keith Coleman Racing in six races and also ran a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race for the #28 Jim Rosenblum Racing truck. He attempted a race at Bristol with Long Brothers Racing, but did not qualify. He then joined a new NASCAR Sprint Cup team, Cupp Motorsports with the #46 Millstar Dodge. Long attempted three races for Cupp, but failed to qualify for each of them. He returned with help from McGlynn to attempt the Ford 400 at the end of 2006, but did not make the race.

In 2007, Long ran a limited schedule for Long Brothers Racing in the USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series, posting a best finish of second. He ran two races in the #54 Carter 2 Motorsports entry in the NASCAR Nationwide Series before the team shut down. He attempted the 2008 Daytona 500 for E&M Motorsports in the #08 with sponsorship from Millstar and Rhino's Energy Drink, but did not qualify. He fielding his own car with Red Line Oil sponsoring in the NASCAR Nationwide Series at the Darlington Raceway.

Long attempted the 2009 Daytona 500 with sponsorship from Romeo Guest Construction, one of Long's first sponsors in the mid 1990s when he was competing in Late Models. During the 2009 Sprint All-Star Race weekend, he was suspended from NASCAR for 12 races with a $200,000 dollar fine and lost 200 driver and owner points because of an engine that was discovered to be .17 cubic inches over the maximum size of 358 cubic inches, which NASCAR considers a serious violation of the NASCAR rulebook. Since he had not yet made a race and failed to do so, Long finished last in the points with -200 points. Long was the first driver since Michael Waltrip in the Speedweeks controversy in 2007 to have negative points at one point in the season and the first to end with negative points. Prior to the 2009 Pocono 500 weekend, the National Stock Car Racing Commission heard Long's appeal of the penalty and denied it. Long has a number of supporters helping him pay his fine, including David Reutimann. Although Long was suspended from racing, he was still allowed to keep his job as a crew member for the #34 Front Row Motorsports team.

In 2010, Long attempted the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event at the Atlanta Motor Speedway driving the #01 Koma UNWIND Chevrolet for Daisy Ramirez Motorsports, but did not make the race. He returned to the #01 at the Kansas Speedway where he qualified in 35th and finished 27th after an engine failure on lap 98. Long was able to lead his first career lap in NASCAR during the event. At the next event at the Dover International Speedway, Long qualified the #01 in 25th and ran in the top 20 most of the day before finishing on the lead lap in 11th. It was Long's career best NASCAR finish. In June, Long announced he would drive for the newly formed Fleur-De-Lis Motorsports team in the four "new car" races in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.