John Wes Townley will continue on his current track of running full-time in the Camping World Truck Series and part-time in the NASCAR XFINITY Series in 2015.
However, his Athenian Motorsports team will be switching manufacturers from Toyota to Chevrolet.
Thus, Townley will race a Chevrolet Silverado in the Truck Series and a Chevrolet Camaro in the XFINITY Series, where the team says he’s expected to run between 18-21 races next year.
Perhaps even bigger, Athenian will have engines supplied by Hendrick Motorsports, which helped Kevin Harvick and Chase Elliott claim the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series titles respectively this past season.
“I can’t wait to get to Daytona in February,” Townley said in a release. “I had a chance at the end of the 2014 season to work with my new crew chiefs. I think that time together is going to pay off big-time for us at the beginning of the new season.”
Mike Ford, a multi-time race winner in the Sprint Cup Series, will lead Athenian’s XFINITY team while Michael Shelton will lead its Truck Series operation.
Ford guided Townley in his last four XFINITY/Nationwide Series starts of 2014; Shelton became Townley’s Truck Series CC starting at Texas this past Halloween.
“Between the all-star lineup of talent we have put together, the new facility we’ll be working out next year and the fact that we will have access to the horsepower from the same company that produced the engines for this year’s Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series champions, I’m confident the pieces are in place for John Wes to have a breakthrough season in 2015,” said Mike Hamlin, Athenian’s vice president of operations.
The team is searching for a driver with sponsorship that can race its No. 25 XFINITY Series car in the events Townley won’t compete in.
In 2014, Townley finished 15th in Truck Series points with two Top-5s and four Top-10s. He also made 11 Nationwide starts with a top finish of 13th at Talladega.