Jason Leffler (born September 16, 1975) is a NASCAR
driver from Long Beach, California. Leffler moved
from the open-wheel ranks to NASCAR's three major
series. He currently drives the #38 Great Clips
Toyota for Braun Racing in the NASCAR Nationwide
Series.
During the 2000 season, Leffler drove full time for
the #18 MBNA sponsored Busch team. He finished 20th
in the championship and earned 3 pole positions
during the year and finished 2nd at Phoenix. He also
made 2 IRL starts, among them a start for Roger
Penske in the Indianapolis 500 where he started and
finished 17th.
His rookie season caught the attention of Chip
Ganassi Racing, who hired the young Leffler to drive
his #01 Dodge Intreprid in Winston Cup, which was
sponsored by Cingular Wireless. During his inaugural
Cup season, he won the pole at the inaugural race at
Kansas Speedway However, he had only 1 top 10 finish
and 4 failures to qualify. After his 37th place
finish in the championship, Ganassi replaced him
with Jimmy Spencer for the 2002 season.
Leffler joined Ultra Motorsports in 2002 and had
great success early on with the team. In his first
year, he tied a single season Craftsman Truck Series
record by scoring 8 pole positions, and qualified no
worse than 8th at any race during the season.
Despite not winning a race, 6 second place finishes
and a 4th place finish in the championship. Leffler
finally broke through in 2003 when he scored his
first career victory at Dover. Despite being in the
top 10 in points, however, he was fired from Ultra
Motorsports ride after taking over in the Haas CNC
Racing #0 NetZero Pontiac, which breached his
contract with the Dodge-powered truck team. He won
the 2002 Night before the 500 midget car race.
Leffler made 10 starts in Cup with Haas before Ward
Burton took over. Haas then moved Leffler to the
Haas Automation #00 car in Busch for the remainder
of 2003, and later all of 2004. At Nashville
Superspeedway in 2004, Leffler scored his first
career Busch Series victory. He was running 3rd in
the points when the team inexplicably released him
from his contract. He ended up finishing 12th in the
championship despite missing the last 7 races.
Shortly after being replaced at Haas, Leffler signed
a deal to re-join Joe Gibbs Racing for 2005, taking
over in a newly created Cup team sponsored by FedEx.
The #11 Chevrolet awas regularly outside of the top
35 in points, meaning that it was not guaranteed a
starting spot for all races; Leffler was unable to
qualify for the Coca-Cola 600 because of it. He was
replaced by Terry Labonte for the two road-course
races and, eventually, was replaced by him (plus J.
J. Yeley and Denny Hamlin) for the remainder of the
season after failing to score a top 10 in 19 starts.
While racing with Gibbs, Leffler briefly raced with
Braun Racing in the Busch Series, a team that had
lost their regular driver, Shane Hmiel, to a drug
suspension. After leaving Gibbs, Leffler joined
Braun Racing on a full-time basis for the remainder
of the season. Leffler has scored 4 top 10 finishes
with Braun in 9 starts for the team.
For the 2006 season, Leffler was signed to return to
Braun-Akins Racing to drive the #32 Chevrolet. The
team carried sponsorship from Lucas Oil, Fraternal
Order of Eagles, and ABF U-Pack Moving. The #32 team
became the #38 team with sponsorship from Great
Clips. Jason also attempted to qualify for the
second last race of the chase at Phoenix in the #71
for Braun Racing but failed to qualify.
During the 2007 season, Leffler won the pole for the
Winn-Dixie 250 at Daytona International Speedway. He
finished 9th. Leffler would make NASCAR history July
28th, 2007 as he passed Greg Biffle with two laps
remaining to win the Nascar Busch Series Kroger 200
at O'Reilly Raceway Park. The win marked the first
race victory for a Toyota Camry in Busch Series
competition, and the first win for a foreign
manufacturer in a top-tier Nascar series since Al
Keller won in a Jaguar in 1954. The win also marked
Leffler's second career Busch Series win and first
win since the 2004 season.
