Floyd Mayweather’s The Money Team Racing Prepares For Second Nascar Cup Series Season

Floyd Mayweather's Nascar team is preparing to make waves in its second season of competition. The Money Team Racing — coined after Maywather's lifestyle brand — just announced it will attempt to qualify for the Daytona 500 with Conor Daly later this month.

Mayweather co-owns the No. 50 Chevrolet team with longtime Nascar executive Willy Auchmoody and ONE Entertainment CEO Brent Johnson, who's Mayweather's marketing manager. The part-time organization spent several years and the majority of the Covid-19 pandemic to overcome hurdles before qualifying into the 2022 Daytona 500 with Kaz Grala to make its debut.

"The Money Team Racing shocked the world by making the Daytona 500 last year and I believe in this team and know we will prepare a great car for this year’s race," Mayweather said in a statement. "Like a fighter who's always ready to face the best, Conor has the courage to buckle into this beast without any practice and put that car into the field. Conor is like a hungry fighter and my kind of guy. I sure wouldn't bet against him."

With Auchmoody's leadership and persistence, The Money Team Racing competed in its first four races last year. Daly, who usually competes in the NTT IndyCar Series, made his Nascar Cup Series debut for the team at the Charlotte Roval, finishing 34th. Bitnile, which backs Daly in the NTT IndyCar Series, will be the No. 50 car's primary sponsor in the Daytona 500.

"If you took every scenario of what could go wrong with this race, we checked every box," Auchmoody said of Daly's first Cup race. "We had a part failure that caused Conor to bounce off the wall. From there, it just snowballed. We had a wire in the rearview mirror go bad during the race. Looking at where we started the race with lap times and looking at where we ended, once we got the car driving and he got the brakes figured out, we were laps down but he ran with those guys."

Over the offseason, speculation loomed over the future of the No. 50 team. Fellow IndyCar Series driver Helio Castroneves was reportedly in talks to attempt to qualify for the Daytona 500 with Mayweather's team, but the deal fell apart late in the offseason. Castroneves did not, however, close the door on competing in a Nascar race at some point during the 2023 season.

"Unfortunately for me, lack of experience, no testing," Castroneves said during the Rolex 24 media availability . "A lot of things. I believe it would be a little bit tough throwing myself in such a short notice, and to go in a place that you've got to race yourself into it. I might just come and see and watch it and continue to take a look and see what's going to be in the future."

Left scrambling to put a deal into place, even with the risk of not qualifying for the Great American Race, Auchmoody inked a deal to have Daly return to the team. Daly will attempt to compete in six more Nascar races throughout the year, all while running the full IndyCar Series slate for Ed Carpenter Racing.

How Did Floyd Mayweather Enter Nascar?

Mayweather loves getting his brand out to anyone and everyone. His entrepreneurial mindset has led him to expand the Money Team well outside of the boxing realm.

Auchmoody managed the Halmar Friesen Racing team in the Nascar Craftsman Truck Series with Stewart Friesen from 2014-18. At the same time, nine-time Emmy Award winning producer Alicia Zubikowski, was attending a Nascar race. Zubikowski worked on multiple of Mayweather's Showtime productions, including Inside Mayweather v. Pacquiao in 2015 and All Access Mayweather v. Canelo in 2013.

"We were in Texas and she happened to be in Texas and checked out the Truck Series race," Auchmoody said, recalling his first memory of Zubikowski. "While she was there, I started talking to her and she was taking pictures of the trailers, specifically of Paul Menard's hauler. She took a picture of it and she said, 'I need to send this to Floyd.' I said, 'Floyd who?' She said Floyd Mayweather and I said get me a meeting and we can set something up."

The meeting happened. And it did so in grand Mayweather style at his Los Angeles condo in the Ritz Carlton, just a few steps away from the Crypto.com Arena. Auchmoody, a casual New Yorker who also worked in construction, went into the meeting like any other New Yorker would. He was just meeting another guy who wants to know about the business of Nascar.

Auchmoody recalled, "He [Mayweather] asked, 'How much money is this going to cost me?' I said, 'There's an opportunity for you to get involved in our sport with minimal expenses. I need startup money to get going, but with your fame and your social media following, we can build off of that.' He said, 'So it's not going to cost me a lot of money?' I said, 'It can cost you whatever you want it to cost you. But I'm not sitting here saying give me 5, 10, 15 million dollars.' He looked at me and said, 'I respect that.'"

Come the end of 2019, Auchmoody wanted to get a deal done. He wanted to be the guy to bring Mayweather into Nascar. They set up the team and divided up the shares, and Mayweather gave the seed money to get the team going.

At the start of the 2020 season, Auchmoody arrived at Daytona looking for partner organizations — mainly Richard Childress Racing — that could help the team get started.

"I went to Daytona, got an owner's license and we were down the road with RCR to run a few races with them as an open team," Auchmoody said. "A month and a half later, the world came to an end. Even though we were having good conversations with major corporations doing something with us, we very quickly got boxed out because Nascar went to points and there was nothing we could do."

As Nascar, attempted to get fans back into the stands in 2021, Auchmoody and Mayweather had to come up with a plan. On New Year's Eve of 2021, Auchmoody signed the team's first sponsorship deal with Pit Viper and Grala.

"Together, we learned lessons of what to do and what not to do," Auchmoody said.

Mayweather has entrusted Auchmoody to run the day-to-day operations of the team. As they prepare to qualify for their second Daytona 500 together, their relationship has blossomed.

"I developed a good relationship with Floyd in a short amount of time," Auchmoody said. "More importantly, I developed a good relationship with Floyd's inner circle. A lot of that has to do with Day 1, I never lied to him.

"Floyd appreciates it and the guys who ultimately have to pick up the pieces when he decides to do something appreciates that. It's nice to know that being brutally honest and transparent with people holds weight."

The No. 50 team will attempt to qualify for the Daytona 500 on Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. ET on FS1 during the Bluegreen Vacations Duel.