Niece Motorsports
Niece Motorsports is an American professional stock car racing team that currently competes in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series. The team is owned by Al Niece. The team currently fields the No. 38 Chevrolet Silverado part-time for T. J. Bell and Ross Chastain, the No. 44 Silverado full-time for Timothy Peters, Jeb Burton, Angela Ruch, Reid Wilson, Ross Chastain and Kyle Benjamin and the No. 45 Silverado full-time for Ross Chastain and Kyle Benjamin. The team currently has a technical alliance with GMS Racing.
Contents
Xfinity Series
Car No. 17 history
In 2018, the team attempted to make their NASCAR Xfinity Series debut with Victor Gonzalez Jr. driving at Watkins Glen.
Gander Outdoors Truck Series
Truck No. 22 history
On October 30, 2017, it was announced that Austin Wayne Self moved to Niece Motorsports to drive the No. 22 truck full time in 2018.[1]
Truck No. 38 history
In 2017, the No. 38 truck ran two races with T. J. Bell as a start-and-park team.
In 2018 the No. 38 truck planned to run at least four races with Max McLaughlin as the driver, starting at Eldora. McLaughlin qualified the race and finished 12th in his NASCAR debut. However, the deal fell through and McLaughlin only ran at Eldora. Ross Chastain ran 3 races (Bristol, Texas 2 and Homestead-Miami) with the best finish of 12th at Bristol. Bell returned to the No. 38 at Las Vegas in September and finished 21st due to a crash. Landon Huffman also drove for the team, he failed to qualify at Martinsville 2 and finished 25th at ISM Raceway.
In 2019, Bell returned once again to the No. 38 as a field-filler at Kansas, since only 30 trucks showed up. Chastain drove the No. 38 with sponsorship from TruNorth Global at Texas 2 and finished 10th.
Truck No. 44 history
On January 31, 2019, Timothy Peters announced that he would join Niece for the first three events of the 2019 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series schedule.[2] After two top-tens in his first two events, Peters said that there is the possibility to run more races with the team.[3] Reid Wilson drove No. 44 truck in 2 races (Martinsville 1 and Dover) with a best finish of 13th at Dover.[4] Angela Ruch is scheduled to drive the No. 44 truck in 12 races in 2019. Jeb Burton drove the truck in the July race at Kentucky. [5] Ty Majeski will drive the truck at ISM.[6]
Truck No. 45 history
Niece Motorsports made their debut in 2016 with Casey Smith driving for two races.
The team returned in 2017, at first planning on running only part time but were able to run the full schedule with various drivers, with T. J. Bell driving most of the races.
In 2018, it was announced that Justin Fontaine would drive the No. 45 truck full-time.[7] Fontaine started the season with a top 10 finish at Daytona and Las Vegas.
On January 18, 2019, it was announced that Ross Chastain and Reid Wilson would split driving duties for the upcoming season.[4] Chastain started off the year with two of the best results in team history, a third at Daytona and a sixth at Atlanta.[3] In April, Kyle Benjamin joined the team for a seven-race schedule starting at Texas in June.[8] On May 10, 2019 Ross Chastain delivered his first truck win and the team’s first win at Kansas after Stewart Friesen's underfueled truck ran out of gas with three laps remaining.[9]
References
- ^ "Austin Wayne Self to join Niece Motorsports in 2018". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2018-02-06.
- ^ DeGroot, Nick. "Timothy Peters joins Niece Motorsports for three Truck races". Motorsport.com. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
- ^ a b Massie, Michael. "Ross Chastain, Timothy Peters Continue Niece Motorsports' Strong Start". Fontstretch. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
- ^ a b Brooks, Amanda. "Ross Chastain and Reid Wilson to drive for Niece Motorsports in 2019". Jayski's Silly Season Site. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
- ^ Utter, Jim. "Angela Ruch joins Niece Motorsports for 12-race Truck schedule". Motorsport.com. Retrieved 20 June 2019.
- ^ Brooks, Amanda (November 4, 2019). "Majeski joins Niece at ISM Raceway". Jayski's Silly Season Site. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
- ^ "Justin Fontaine to run Trucks full-time with Niece Motorsports in 2018". Motorsport.com. Retrieved 2018-02-06.
- ^ Nolen, Bryan (April 29, 2019). "Kyle Benjamin, Niece Motorsports Team for 7 Races". Frontstretch. Retrieved April 29, 2019.
- ^ "Ross Chastain scores first career Gander Trucks win". NASCAR.com. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. May 10, 2019. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
External links
- Niece Motorsports owner statistics at Racing-Reference