Chris Madden
On Monday evening rumors began to swirl on message boards and social media that Scott Bloomquist Racing and driver Chris Madden had parted ways. Those rumors were confirmed on Tuesday morning by Bloomquist’s business partner and president of Scott Bloomquist Racing Cody Sommer to DirtonDirt.com.
Madden had driven cars built out of Bloomquist’s Mooresburg, TN shop earlier in his career with success. No official word has yet been given regarding the driver’s future plans but rumors have placed him in a team with Longhorn Chassis cars.
In a recent release posted to ScottBloomquistRacing.com, it was stated that Madden has no specific racing plans for the time being.
“I’m not sure what/if I plan to do anything in the future racing wise, but I know I plan to spend a lot of time with family now and watch my son play a lot of baseball” said Madden.
The reuniting of Bloomquist and Madden had occurred midway through the 2019 season after Madden had separated from Iowa businessman Greg Bruening’s Skyline Motorsports team and the Capital Race Cars that organization employs. Shortly after, Madden began driving for the then-injured Bloomquist. That short-term deal gained permanency following Bloomquist’s full-time return to the driver’s seat with Madden taking a seat in a second car fielded by the team.
Madden’s move to SBR proved to be a fruitful one during the second half of 2019. The Gray Court, SC racer earned wins in three crown jewel races as well as other features. The USA Nationals at Wisconsin’s Cedar Lake Speedway, the North-South 100 at Kentucky’s Florence Speedway, and the Topless 100 at Arkansas’s Batesville Motor Speedway all fell to Madden’s late season domination along with main event wins on the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series and a championship in the revived Drydene Xtreme DIRTcar Winter Series.
Madden and Scott Bloomquist Racing secured sponsorship from Drydene Performance Products during the 2019-20 off-season for the purpose of racing for a championship on the WoO Late Models circuit as part of a three-way effort with Madden, Bloomquist and fellow Team Zero Race Cars driver Ricky Weiss all sporting the colors of that company.
Chris Madden won high profile races in 2019 for SBR
However, compared to the second half of the 2019 season, the results for Madden had been somewhat ordinary so far in 2020. The only victory for the No. 0M car came back in January in the WoO Late Models season opener at Vado Speedway Park in New Mexico. The 45-year-old driver currently sits fourth in the series standings trailing leader Brandon Sheppard by 214 points.
Sommer pointed out in the release that the challenges brought about by the coronavirus pandemic and expanding into a two-car team proved difficult for SBR.
“Expanding to a two-car operation is tough enough by itself, let alone during a tough time in the sport and when you maybe are not getting the results you had hoped for. I believe a lot of those results are simply just due to being spread too thin in certain areas and the economics of our sport” said Sommer
According to the release, SBR will continue on the World of Outlaws Morton Buidings Late Model Series with sponsorship from Drydene.
***More details will be added to this story as they become available.***
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