RALEIGH, N.C. -- On April 25, Tucker Haddock took part in his first full-bodied stock car race of any kind when he competed in Wake County Speedway’s Charger division.
He ended the evening in Victory Lane.
Haddock tried to keep his expectations reasonable prior to climbing into his family-owned No. 55 for his maiden Charger event. Facing plenty of other competitors well-versed with Charger competition at Wake County, his goal was to gain experience and bring the car back to the pit lane in one piece.
Instead, Haddock ended up celebrating a win with his crew and family, fulfilling a dream he possessed since watching his older brother Holden begin his own career.
“I’ve always spotted for [Holden] and figured I’d get into [racing] one day,” Tucker Haddock said. “I came up through iRacing a little bit and I got into the car a couple of times to practice it. We actually qualified third, came up through the field and ended up winning the thing.”
Along with Holden, many of Tucker’s friends are racers themselves. Knowing how much motorsports surrounded his life, Tucker Haddock always paid close attention to everything his peers were doing, eager to ascertain how he could potentially be a successful competitor himself one day.
Having iRacing at his disposal proved to be invaluable toward preparing Haddock for his debut outing. With how close iRacing replicates real world scenarios, Haddock uses the online simulation to log copious practice time and familiarize himself with the idiosyncrasies Holden and other drivers endure in the cockpit.
Aside from go-karts, the only competitive events Tucker participated in prior to his Charger debut at Wake County came on the iRacing servers. Despite this, the knowledge he acquired from iRacing was always prevalent whenever he was sharing ideas with Holden at the shop or at the track.
That expertise helped Tucker earn an opportunity to climb into Holden’s No. 55 for the first time, which eventually translated into him being able to race the car.
“One day we were out here testing, and the team was like, ‘How about you get in [the car] since you’ve been spotting all this time?’” Tucker said. “I figured I’d climb right in it. We were a little bit slower at first, but once we got settled in and figured it all out, we seemed to be pretty good.”
Even though Tucker boasted minimal real-world racing experience, Holden never doubted his brother’s ability to excel behind the wheel. The competitive laps Tucker had turned in practice only reinforced Holden’s confidence in him, but he wanted to see how Tucker would fair with other cars in race conditions.
Tucker navigated his Wake County debut like a veteran, which was a source of immense pride for Holden. Three years of competing at Wake County did not yield Holden any checkered flags in his No. 55, which is why he felt plenty of catharsis and elation when Tucker crossed the start-finish line first.
“I’ll be honest, [Tucker winning] was probably the happiest moment in my life so far in my racing career,” Holden said. “I wanted to get my brother in the seat because he’s proven to me he’s got what it takes to run with these boys. It meant more to me to see him get that win than it would for me to get a win.”
[caption id="attachment_474632" align="alignleft" width="159"]The victory surprised many at Wake County that evening, including Tucker himself.
Among the drivers in the April 25 Charger feature at Wake County included accomplished short track racer Kyle Barnes and London McKenzie, who had just made his ARCA Menards Series East debut a month earlier. Tucker utilized the skills learned from his brother and iRacing to best all of them and add his name to the Wake County record books.
Tucker would have been pleased with finishing where he started that evening, third. His confidence about obtaining a victory gradually increased as the day progressed, culminating in a moment Tucker admitted still feels surreal to this day.
“I had joked around about winning, but knew we weren’t going to have a shot at it to be honest,” Tucker said. “It took a little while for [the win] to sink in and I didn’t really know we did it. Once we got in Victory Lane, it didn’t all seem real until it was real.”
Reality has altered drastically for Tucker since his days of being a spotter and solely an iRacing competitor. With a Charger victory on Tucker’s resumé, the two Haddock brothers are centering their focus on the championship at the end of the season.
Holden knows there will be a learning curve for Tucker as he continues his transition into being an active driver in the real world. Having taken a step back from being full-time himself, Holden is committed to providing Tucker everything he needs to earn a Charger title and kickstart a sustainable career at Wake County.
“We’re going to keep chasing those checkered flags,” Holden said. “He showed the speed he needs to win races. If Tucker gets a championship this year, we’re going to have to figure something out with getting him into a Late Model [Stock].”
For now, Tucker is focused on finishing the 2025 season at Wake County strong. Competitive fields in the facility’s Charger class are only going to challenge Tucker as the year progresses, yet he feels the combined experience from iRacing and the real world will cement him as a contender every week.
“All we can do is get better,” Tucker said. “Obviously, you can go backwards too, but I feel like we have a pretty good shot at going forward. My family doesn’t really have the money to move up in the game, so if we could win a championship, that would mean the world to me.”
Tucker set a high benchmark for himself by prevailing in his Charger debut at Wake County. Now he looks to build on that milestone by tallying more wins and establishing himself as the Charger title favorite.