Taylor Canfield On Sponsorship Hunt, Determined To Race In 2019

Last year, the NASCAR world was briefly introduced to Taylor Canfield, a former Navy SEAL turned race car driver.

This year, Canfield is determined to make NASCAR fans remember the name.

Despite not competing in the first two races of the K&N Pro Series West season and only having three career starts (all coming last year), the 30-year-old El Cajon, California native has been on the sponsorship hunt to make 2019 bigger and better.

After walking around the garage at Las Vegas and Irwindale, Canfield is planning to be at Arizona’s Tucson Speedway for race day on Saturday, May 11.

Racing-Reference: Taylor Canfield Career Statistics

“Right now we‘ve got about three interested potential partners for sponsorship,” he said. “My big push right now is making sure I meet with all of those guys, figure out who‘s a fit and go forward from here. But it‘s a matter of trying to get off work, fly to them, make sure it lines up with their schedule. it‘s tough when you‘re working a job.”

Canfield’s day job is in executive protection detail, better known as being a bodyguard. But his commitment to that aspect of his life doesn’t mix well with hunting for sponsorship.

“It‘s tough because generally that‘s quite a consuming job,” Canfield said. “It‘s not just a 9-5 job. You can shut a computer off at the end of the day, but threats don‘t necessarily go to sleep. It‘s a job that requires constant attention and constant presence.”

Scheduling to meet with potential partners is the toughest parts for Canfield. Logistically, he needs a couple weeks to plan out his travel (all paid for out of pocket); whereas sponsors tend to do things on short notice, opportunities Canfield can’t pass up.

“One of the potential partners was like, ‘come stay the night, hang out, we’ll go to the ranch,’ and I‘m like ‘okay, I might be losing a day of pay to do this,’ plus the cost of travel and that‘s when it starts getting a little tough when you‘re losing pay to make these meetings happen,” he said. “You take the good with the bad, so hopefully one of them pans out.”

Canfield is confident he will be able to run the remainder of the K&N West schedule after the Port of Tucson Twin 100s, beginning at Colorado National Speedway.

“Past Tucson, I‘m pretty confident we can get something going by Colorado, my home state where I grew up,” he said. “I really don‘t wanna fail and not show up at Colorado for a race. All my family and friends are excited about it. It‘s a big deal for me to try and make that race happen. Then obviously go for more races after that.”

Canfield made the trip to the season opener in Las Vegas and wound up starting and parking for Levin Racing to get the car number registered with the series. If all goes according to plan, the rest of 2019 will be run for Canfield in a Levin Racing Chevrolet.

“It really depends on what sponsorship we can secure,” he said. “Levin has been so good to me so far and they‘re just great, great guys to work with. They‘ve got good equipment and a good track record. I‘ve got no reason to be shopping around too much.”