UNION, Ky. – After years of building his own Club 29 Race Cars, as well as customer cars, Darrell Lanigan will embark on a new and different opportunity in 2020.
Lanigan, a three-time World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series champion, will move from his No. 29 dirt late model to be the driver of the Viper Motorsports-backed Barry Wright house car next season.
The news was broken by DirtOnDirt.com.
After finishing fifth in World of Outlaws standings this season, Lanigan began exploring his options for 2020 and found a new home with Wright’s team, based in Cowpens, S.C.
Wright’s house car competed on a regional basis this season with Ross Bailes, but will step back up to the national stage with Lanigan next year to contend for a championship.
“I’ve always been friends with Barry, and I know they’ve got a good enough piece to win a championship with,” Lanigan told Dirt on Dirt. “They’ve also got more (crew) manpower and he’s got more customers than we can get feedback off of. I’ve sat down the last couple weeks and really thought about it, and the more and more I look at it, the better it looks to me.”
Lanigan will cease building his Club 29 Race Cars, but will continue to provide current Club 29 customers with parts, repairs and technical assistance.
Viper Motorsports’ Shawn and Lisa Martin are stepping up their support of the Barry Wright house car for 2020 and the Martins are looking forward to having Lanigan as part of the BWRC house car program next season.
“It’s going to be a real honor to have an opportunity to do this on a national level with three Hall of Famers,” Shawn Martin told Dirt On Dirt. “There’s been a lot of backing and support that’s come in to allow this to happen, and I really think that Darrell Lanigan will have the opportunity to show the rest of the country that he still has the ‘it factor’ when he can focus on racing with a really good supporting cast around him.”
Martin confirmed to Dirt on Dirt that BWRC will continue to offer support to Bailes for Bailes’ regional racing program next season, in addition to Lanigan’s national effort.