Raymond J. Ciccarelli (born January 20, 1970) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, driving the No. 49 Chevrolet Silverado 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 field ...

. He has also competed in what are now the

ARCA Menards Series The ARCA Menards Series is an American 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 the three nation ...

and ARCA Menards Series East in the past.

Racing career

ARCA Racing Series

Ciccarelli drove part-time in the series in

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

, 2015, and

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

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

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

. 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 nationa ...

, 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 Jennifer ...

. 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 Ca ...

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.

Planned departure from NASCAR announcement

Ciccarelli made headlines in June 2020 when he announced 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 an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

page on June 10, was made on the same day as NASCAR's decision to ban the display of the

Confederate flag The flags of the Confederate States of America have a history of three successive designs during the American Civil War. The flags were known as the "Stars and Bars", used from 1861 to 1863; the "Stainless Banner", used from 1863 to 1865; and ...

from their events, a decision they made in the midst of the

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests and civil unrest against police brutality and racism that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, and largely took place during 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of internat ...

due to the flag's longtime association with white supremacist groups. 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, would post on their Twitter account on October 30 that ''"We're not done yet. See you all in 2021."'', which indicated that 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 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving the No. 46 Toyota Tundra for his own team, G2G Racing. He has als ...

would continue as a driver for CMI, Ciccarelli told the website that he planned on driving in three to four races in 2021, and therefore cancelling his plans to retire as a driver.

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 People from Ellicott City, Maryland Racing drivers from Baltimore Racing drivers from Maryland