during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motorspeedway on July 23, 2017 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Cup series team running out of time to add another car


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It's been a very busy month for Leavine Family Racing.

The took made a driver change for its No. 95, bringing in Kasey Kahne and removing Michael McDowell.

At the time, LFR owner Bob Leavine praised the move as a chance to take his team to the next level.In a press release posted on his website,  he said, "this deals partially with performance, because obviously, Kasey is a playoff-caliber driver. He has a wealth of information being with a larger organization like Hendrick Motorsports, and we think that will help us. We also look at this as an opportunity for marketing to be able to sell sponsorship."

But one piece of that plan may not happen, ESPN reports that LFR us running out of time to find sponsorship to run a second car. Any deal would have to be in place by mid-October in order to get a car on the track at Daytona.

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So it could be that LFR will only have Kahne, who does have an impressive Cup series record, with 18 wins, 174 top 10 finishes.

But Kahne's performance did lag in 2017. Yes, Kahne won the Cup series race at Indianapolis, and has three top-5 and four top-10 finishes. But his average start this year is 18, and his average finish, 20.

Still, that's better than McDowell, who hasn't won this year, only has one top -5 and one top-10 finish, with an average start of 24 and av average finish of 22.

"What may help our small team more will be the sponsor side and selling a playoff driver," Leavine told ESPN.  "That's not a knock against Michael, and he knows that, but reality is reality -- [Kahne] is a playoff driver."

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