5 Years Later: Tommy Joe Martins Has Already Proven Himself as a Team Owner

It was a relatively hot early afternoon at Pocono Raceway when Tommy Joe Martins, team owner of the NASCAR Xfinity Series team Alpha Prime Racing, emerged from his hauler.

It was roughly half an hour before pre-race ceremonies of the Xfinity race, and his three team cars and most of their crews were already on pit road. Martins, however, had other responsibilities.

Awaiting him were a group of potential incoming sponsors. Walking over to them, he shook hands and walked them to his team’s pit box and gave them a brief tour, a dance he does to help his race team grow.

It was a dance he’s mastered. After all, he’s been doing it for five years.

“I don’t feel like I’ve done the best job yet,” Martins told Frontstretch. “There’s still something left for us to accomplish. I still think there’s a better version of our team that’s out there, and that’s the version that I want to help make. I feel like I’m in position to see the whole picture and can help do that.”

In 2009, a 22-year-old Martins began his NASCAR racing dreams when he made his first career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start for his family’s team.

Yet after 85 combined starts across the NASCAR Xfinity Series and Truck Series with multiple race teams, Martins had yet to earn a single top-10 result.

By 2020, however, Martins, passionate and confident in his ability to race, refused to let his dream stall out. So, a 33-year-old Martins had a crazy idea on how to keep his racing ambitions alive. He and his father made a move that even of the wealthiest, most successful businessmen stay away from for their own good.

They started their own Xfinity team.

“We had just been able to raise more money,” Martins recalled. “We’ve been able to kind of get together more money than we had before. I think there was always a belief that I could carry a team. I felt like I could do that both on and off the racetrack. I felt like I could drive well enough to keep us up in points and keep the thing a viable business and not wreck. I thought that I could do a good enough job organizing the team and get people around them. 

“It was just a belief in ourselves.”

It didn’t start off well. In Martins Motorsports’ first Xfinity start attempt at Daytona International Speedway in February 2020, it failed to qualify for the race.

However, Martins was undeterred. The rest of the 2020 season was mostly a success. Not only did the No. 44 Chevrolet qualify for each of the remaining 32 races on the schedule, even earning a pole at Richmond Raceway, but at Texas Motor Speedway in October of that year, Martins finally achieved his first top-10 result.

By the end of 2021, Martins Motorsports had not only gained a reputation as the little team that could, but Martins himself had already felt that he had achieved what he wanted as a driver.

And to continue to let his team grow, it was time to let someone else drive his car.

“I think at the time when I made the decision to step away from full-time racing, I was like 16th in points or something,” Martins said. “I just was like, all right, I think I’ve kind of proven to myself and to the other people here in the garage I’m pretty good. Like, I’m not trying to act like I’m the second coming to Jeff Gordon. I never thought I was, and I don’t think I am now. I think that I was a professional race car driver, and I felt like I was a guy that belongs racing at this level. I’ve always believed that, even when we were really crappy, even when I was running for 29th.

“And then kind of midway point of that year, I felt like we’re done. I didn’t really feel I had a lot more to prove. … I just felt like I’d gotten to the point where it’s like, ‘All right, we’ve kind of done it. This feels like a good team. We’ve built a good team. I’m a good driver. I’m getting interviewed on TV. They’re showing us on TV every week. We’re running inside the top 10.’ We are competitive, and we need more money. And the only way we’re going to get more money is if Tommy Joe Martins wasn’t the driver.”

Enter Caeser Bacarella and the idea of Alpha Prime Racing.

“I had come to the conclusion that that was going to be my last full-time year in a car,” Martins said. “And my dad was talking about handing [the team] off to me, so I knew that I needed to have a partner, and Caesar specifically had reached out to me and my father. … He said, ‘You know, I’m thinking about maybe being an owner. I feel like I’m spending a lot of money renting rides, and I have nothing to show for it, and I really want to.'”

In 2022, Martins Motorsports became Alpha Prime Racing with part ownership going to Bacarella. The rebrand expanded the humble organization to a two-car operation and featured a multitude of revolving drivers in its Nos. 44 and 45 entries. It even earned its first top five with Sage Karam at Daytona in August of that year. Martins himself made five starts for his refurbished outfit as well.

However, in 2023, Martins stepped away from driving entirely and turned to focus on his sole role as the team’s owner. He needed to, as his flowering organization had already grown to a three-car group.

Yet ironically, he actually found it more challenging.

“It’s more frustrating in a way,” Martins revealed. “I probably get more mad from doing this than I do with anything else because I felt like as a driver, there’s more input that the team trusts you on. I felt like I could almost have more input on the team as a driver than I do as an owner or manager. And I know that sounds crazy because you’re like, ‘Well, what do you mean? You can fire and fire and do whatever. You’re the owner.’ Yeah, but there’s also like a level of input that you have when you’re the guy putting your ass on the line every week.

“That’s how the crew sees it. They see the driver as the person that’s kind of going through the battle with him, and very often they see the owner as the managers. I just think very often those same crew guys look at the owner or the team manager as kind of the obstacle in the way, right? … Whereas the driver and the crew are the ones that kind of going through the battle together with whatever they have.”

The results showed. In the entirety of 2023, APR earned only a single top-10 result among all of its entries, and, despite its relative mid-pack success, it was still suffering from the occasional DNQ.

“I mean, the all-time low is probably missing races with the car,” Martins said. “And that’s happened to us a decent amount. You see just what the margin is for that and being able to make a race and miss a race.”

Despite the occasional failure to qualify, however, APR has continued to see growth. In 2024, the team hired longtime NASCAR veteran and journeyman Brennan Poole. That year, the experienced Texan gathered two top 10s, a top five and even placed 16th in the series’ driver standings: the highest ever for the team.

The 2025 season has brought even more success, yet also more heartbreak.

At Circuit of the Americas in March, two of APR’s three entries failed to qualify for the event. However, only a couple of months later, its newest full-time driver Parker Retzlaff and Poole earned the organization’s first-ever double top-five result when the duo finished second and fourth, respectively, at Rockingham Speedway.

“The high, obviously, to me, was Rockingham,” Martins recalled. “Two cars finishing in the top five, and really sitting there and going, ‘Gosh, we had a chance to win a race laying out with Parker, and we’ve got a chance to win a race in Talladega [Superspeedway] with Brennan. Like, watching our team be as competitive as it’s been at times, that’s where they’re rewarded.”

With already three top-five results including a runner-up finish, the race team Martins started only five years ago has already grown to a potential race-winning organization.

But he doesn’t want a single race win. He wants a team that can win many races, and there’s still work to be done.

“I look at our team and go, is that the best version of it?” Martins said. “I would sit here and tell you, I still don’t think we are. I think we’re still a few steps away from that. I mean, that’s really it. It’s not this one thing. It’s not winning a race, right? Like, no offense, crappy teams can win races. You can get lucky and win a race. When we finished second and fourth at Rockingham, that was a few weeks of showing what we can be as a team.”

It’s been nearly four years since he stepped away from full-time driving to fully manage his group. But in the end, Martins, with more stress-caused grey hairs than he had five years ago, already feels he’s proven himself.

And he still loves doing it.

“Do I miss [driving]?” Martins said. “Yeah. I mean, I love competing, but I tell everybody, I get to compete every weekend like this. … It’s just as fulfilling as being able to drive. You’re still competing just on a different kind of level.”