Personnel challenges lead to team ownership for former NASCAR driver Matt Tifft

Matt Tifft is a racer. By 2014 he had made to the NASCAR Truck Series and by 2015 he was in an Xfinity car. Just as his career was taking off. he was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

“I was told I would never drive a race car again,” Tifft told us back in 2019 before his Cup Series debut. “Selfishly, I just wanted to know when I could get back in the race car again.”

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He would get back in the car in time for the 2019 Daytona 500, but more medical issues would arise later that year. Tifft would have a seizure prior to the October race in Martinsville. A diagnosis of Epilepsy would end his racing career.

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"There were a lot of dark months from the end of 2019 going into 2020," said Tifft. "I had worked since I was 11 or 12 years old to be a race car driver. That's all I knew, that all I knew to work towards."

During the pandemic however, opportunity knocked for the now former driver.

"It was not something I was expecting," said Tifft. "I was going out to dinner with my friend BJ McLeod. We got to talking and were like 'hey this is something we should look into eventually.' I the summer we had a chance to by a Charter."

That eventually turned into Live Fast Racing, a team that will begin competition at Sunday's Daytona 500, with McLeod as its driver.

"Doing this Cup venture, I wanted to have a partner I knew I could trust and could bring some valuable assets to the table that maybe I've struggled with," said McCloud "I know he makes me a better person to get this team to the best level possible."

For Tifft, who admits he struggled with depression after stepping out of the car, the opportunity to become an owner came at just the right time.

"The formation of this team was a new start and a new identity for me," said TIfft. "Really it felt like a brand new beginning."

The running of the 63rd Daytona 500 is February 14th on FOX.