Young late model ace Timothy “Mini” Tyrrell prevailed in the inaugural Ram “Race for the Seat” reality TV show to earn the final full-time ride for Kaulig Racing in the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
Tyrrell, 21, bested 14 other drivers to earn a season-long opportunity in Kaulig’s No. 14 Ram entry, beginning Friday at Daytona International Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). He joins Daniel Dye, Brenden Queen and Justin Haley as the team’s four full-time drivers, while Kaulig’s fifth truck features a rotating cast of competitors in its Free Agent Driver Program.
“I’m just overwhelmed. Winning ‘Race for the Seat’ is something I never in a million years figured would happen,” Tyrrell said in a team release. “I came into this hoping to learn a thing or two, grow a bit, and see if I could hang with a bunch of great drivers. I’m thankful from the bottom of my heart for my family, for everybody who’s been in my corner, and for Ram and Kaulig Racing for this opportunity — taking a chance on a kid that comes from grassroots racing and elevating me to a professional level. I’m gonna work my tail off to make everybody proud.”
Hailing from Manassas, Virginia, Tyrrell has competed full-time in the CARS Tour since 2019 with 88 total starts. He banked three victories in 2025, including a $50,000 payday with a win in the Throwback Classic at Hickory Motor Speedway.
But to earn the ride with Kaulig and Ram, Tyrrell had to prevail through a series of challenges — both on and off the track — over eight episodes. He defeated dirt modified driver Carson Ferguson in the season-finale to secure the seat for all 25 races in the highly anticipated Truck Series season. As a consolation, Ferguson will drive the Free Agent Driver Program truck in October at Martinsville Speedway.
Veteran crew chief Bruce Cook will pair with Tyrrell for his rookie NASCAR campaign. Cook most recently called the shots for Halmar Friesen Racing part-time for the No. 62 Toyota Tundra, but he has been a national series crew chief since 2008.
All eight episodes of “Race for the Seat” are available to watch on YouTube with re-runs also airing on FS1 and FS2.
When Justin Haley departed Kaulig Racing at the conclusion of the 2023 season, he looked to further his career. Just over two years later, he returns to the organization as it embarks on the challenge of welcoming back a manufacturer to NASCAR: Ram.
Chris Rice, chief executive officer for Kaulig Racing, credits Haley for elevating its Cup program as the first full-time driver in 2022. Now, Haley is squarely in charge of being the leader of the debuting NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team.
“It fell right in our lap to get Justin back in-house,” Rice told NASCAR.com. “He helped us build our Cup program when we didn’t have a lot, and now, he’s going to help us build our truck program. He will be the one that puts the pressure on us to get better.”
Getting the nod as Ram’s manufacturer team was a tall task for Kaulig. It meant hiring new employees and adjusting roles for others from its successful 10-year stint in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. The organization now has four buildings on its campus in Welcome, North Carolina, home to its newly built trucks, fabrication shop and NASCAR Cup Series Chevrolets.
Between building trucks, hanging bodies and 3D printing, Kaulig has stayed plenty active throughout the offseason. Rice, who has held a multitude of roles within NASCAR, considers the five-truck start-up team the biggest obstacle he’s faced yet.
“For someone like Ram, Stellantis and Dodge to be behind us, Matt Kaulig will jump through fire to get to do it,” Rice said. “I’m all in to make sure it happens.”
With a pair of drafting-style venues to kick-start the 2026 campaign, followed by the Truck Series’ debut on the streets of St. Petersburg, Rice doesn’t believe Kaulig will know where it truly stands in the pecking order until deep into the season, signaling June or July. Ram drivers won’t even have access to the manufacturer’s simulator until late April, Rice said.
That’s no stress for Haley, though, having spent the previous four seasons battling the sport’s best in Cup. His resume reads 341 total national series starts, highlighted by eight victories, including a trio of checkered flags during his lone full-time Truck Series season in 2018 with GMS Racing.
“I haven’t allowed myself to think about expectations for the year,” Haley said. “I think it’s obvious with my experience and how many races I’ve done in NASCAR that I feel like we should be competitive no matter where we’re at or how good our trucks are. We may go out and be good and surprise ourselves, or it might be really bad, and we have to slowly work on it.”
Admittedly, Haley was “caught off guard” when Spire Motorsports didn’t renew his contract for the 2026 Cup season. He had multiple stints with the blossoming organization, banking the team’s first victory in the big leagues in 2019 at Daytona International Speedway. He rejoined Spire on a full-time basis as part of a rare in-season trade with Rick Ware Racing for Corey LaJoie late in the 2024 season.
Turmoil hit Haley and the No. 7 team after nine races in 2025 when championship-winning crew chief Rodney Childers departed the team. Haley scored one top five and two top 10s across the campaign.
“I really wasn’t expecting it,” Haley said. “You take a step back, and I had a lot of options and a lot of people that called me. Being with Matt Kaulig and Kaulig Racing for so long, having to leave to try to keep my career going was a tough decision. Business is a big part of racing.
“I went out there and tried my best, did everything I could, and the cards didn’t fall our way more times than not. I feel like I was at the top of my game, doing everything I could. It’s a tough series; it’s a tough sport. I don’t really have a comment because I don’t know what to think of [last] year. I allowed it to escape my brain.”
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
Haley leaned on AJ Allmendinger, one of his racing mentors, when assessing his next landing spot. The easy decision was returning to Kaulig, a place he’s treasured over the years. His first full-time race back with the organization will occur in the Truck Series season opener at Daytona on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“This is something that I’m going to have a lot of pride in and hopefully build,” Haley said. “I want to do nothing more than to win Ram’s first race at Daytona. I’ve been daydreaming about it. It’s a win that I want to get badly because it’s the only series I haven’t won at Daytona. To get to win in all three series at Daytona has been my racing bucket list item that I’ve thought about and something I want to accomplish.”
Bouncing between three different organizations in as many seasons, and then reuniting with Kaulig, Haley considers the last few years “strange.” But he kept strong relationships with Kaulig and Rice before returning.
There is a potential pathway back to the Cup Series for Haley. But he also believes that by starting a family with his wife, Haley, it could be a sign to race less. He will occasionally fire up the dirt modified, having spent the last two weeks at Volusia Speedway Park.
The objective for Kaulig is to bring a new manufacturer to the Cup Series and reside as its key-partner team. This is the opportunity the organization has been waiting for since forming in 2016.
“I’m excited that when they do tell us they want to go Cup racing, let’s go and figure it out; let’s make it happen,” Rice said. “I’m ready to rock.”
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series 2026 season opener at Daytona has a different buzz to it.
A new manufacturer will debut. Grassroots superstars are earning their first major national series opportunities. NASCAR Cup Series aces line the field. A Hall of Famer makes his highly anticipated return to NASCAR.
Is it possible that Friday’s Fresh From Florida 250 (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) features the most stacked field ever in over 30 years of Truck Series competition?
Here’s what we’re keeping an eye on ahead of 100 heart-stopping laps on the high banks of Daytona, and how the kickoff race will set the stage for a thrilling 2026 campaign.
Many drivers return to their seats occupied during the 2025 season, but a few significant contenders from a year ago shift into new rides.
Most notably, Kaden Honeycutt takes over the No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota, which was piloted by Corey Heim for the last three years. Heim shifts into a part-time ride at the Cup Series level with 23XI Racing, but his departure leaves a significant void in the Truck Series as he drove to a record 12 victories and the championship. Honeycutt, meanwhile, ran the full 2025 schedule with three different teams and took over Halmar Friesen Racing’s No. 52 entry in August after a dirt modified injury to Stewart Friesen. The 22-year-old from Texas led the team to the Championship 4 and ultimately finished third in driver’s points. Friesen expects to return to race action for the first time at Daytona.
Additionally, Ty Majeski pivots to ThorSport Racing’s flagship No. 88 Ford after three-time champion Matt Crafton stepped away from full-time racing. Majeski spent three seasons in the No. 98 truck and earned the 2024 championship by winning three races. Jake Garcia moves over to the No. 98 machine, and rookie Cole Butcher will wheel the No. 13 Ford for all 25 races.
For the first time since 2013, Ram is competing in NASCAR, partnering with Kaulig Racing for five entries in 2026. Of those five, four are occupied by full-time drivers:
Daniel Dye in the No. 10
Brenden “Butterbean” Queen in the No. 12
Mini Tyrrell in the No. 14
Justin Haley in the No. 16
Three of the four drivers are familiar faces to the Kaulig organization. Dye piloted one of Kaulig’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series entries in 2025, and Queen, a former CARS Tour Late Model Stock champion, also made five O’Reilly starts with the team. Haley previously spent several years under the Kaulig banner, running three full-time O’Reilly seasons and two Cup Series seasons from 2019-23.
Tyrrell, the final driver just announced on Friday, won Ram’s ‘Race for the Seat’ reality TV show competition, outlasting 14 other drivers over a series of on and off-track events. The 21-year-old is a longtime CARS Tour veteran.
Kaulig’s fifth entry, the No. 25 Ram, is under the Free Agent Driver Program, where the team and manufacturer land a rotating cast of drivers from all forms of motorsports. Hall of Famer and three-time Cup Series champion Tony Stewart will drive at Daytona, making his first NASCAR start in nearly 10 years since his retirement at the end of the 2016 season. Stewart previously owned Stewart-Haas Racing in the Cup Series and currently competes in NHRA’s Top Fuel division.
Announcements for competitors in the Free Agent Driver Program will come closer to each specific race, but setting the tone with Stewart will certainly be tough to top.
Mike Ehrmann | Getty Images
Other big-name drivers in the field
In addition to Stewart, a mix of Cup Series regulars and other notable motorsports icons help shape a loaded field at “The World’s Most Famous Beach.”
Legacy Motor Club’s John Hunter Nemechek, a 13-time Truck Series winner, will drive the No. 62 Toyota for Halmar. Additionally, Spire Motorsports drivers Michael McDowell and Carson Hocevar will pilot a pair of Silverados for the team at Daytona, driving the Nos. 7 and 77, respectively. McDowell is the 2021 Daytona 500 champion, and Hocevar, fresh off a contract extension into the next decade, commences a 13-race slate in 2026. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., another former Daytona 500 winner, will make his series debut in Niece Motorsports’ No. 45 Chevrolet.
Corey LaJoie will additionally enter the event with Henderson Motorsports. The former full-time Cup Series driver — and current “Stacking Pennies” host — continues his Truck Series swing from 2025, when the 34-year-old North Carolina native raced in nine contests and tallied three top fives and seven top 10s with Spire Motorsports.
X Games legend Travis Pastrana will drive Niece Motorsports’ No. 42 Chevrolet, and internet personality Cleetus McFarland (aka Garrett Mitchell) will attempt the race in the No. 4 Chevrolet. Pastrana ran the full O’Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule in 2013 and made the Daytona 500 with 23XI Racing three years ago. McFarland is scheduled for his series debut, and the 30-year-old Florida native made four ARCA Menards Series starts in 2025.
Toni Breidinger and Rackley WAR will team up for a partial schedule in 2026, and the 26-year-old California native will begin that slate in Daytona as pilot of the No. 27 Chevrolet.
How Daytona sets the tone for The Chase — and who could contend?
Friday’s race in Daytona Beach kicks off a new era for the Truck Series, and for the first time in its history, The Chase postseason format will determine the champion come November.
Eight of the top 10 drivers from last season’s standings return to Trucks in 2026:
Ty Majeski (2nd)
Kaden Honeycutt (3rd)
Tyler Ankrum (4th)
Layne Riggs (5th)
Grant Enfinger (7th)
Chandler Smith (8th)
Daniel Hemric (9th)
Jake Garcia (10th)
Keep in mind that under this new format, race winners collect 55 points instead of 40, putting an additional premium on finding Victory Lane. That said, with Daytona opening the season and another drafting track in EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway) to follow, an early-season victory for a full-time driver could go a long way toward positioning for The Chase.
But to succeed in The Chase, consistency as equally important. Of returning drivers from a year ago, Riggs had the best average finish at 9.1, followed by Majeski (9.8), Ankrum (10.8), Smith (11.8) and Hemric (11.9). Excluding Heim, Front Row Motorsports teammates Riggs (three) and Smith (two) are the only drivers who banked multiple victories in 2025. So by combining winning with consistency, the blue oval duo immediately rises toward the top of potential 2026 contenders. And if Majeski can return to his winning ways after a shutout 2025 season, that creates three surefire candidates for the championship come Homestead-Miami Speedway in November.
Ankrum, Hemric and Gio Ruggiero each scored wins in 2025, and throw Honeycutt and the Ram trio into the mix, we could be looking at one of the most exciting championship battles in Truck Series history.
Twenty-five races make up the 2026 calendar, and with a star-studded field expected to hit the track in the opener, Daytona will set the tone for a highly anticipated Truck Series season.
Rise and shine: The 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season is upon us. With a new-look driver field, fresh tracks on the schedule and a different postseason format, the 2026 campaign should be an exciting one from start to finish.
So how does the field shake out heading into the season opener on Feb. 13 at Daytona International Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)? Great question — NASCAR.com’s John Crane ranks the top 10 drivers ahead of the new season.
Analysis: After Riggs just missed out on a chance at the 2025 title (he finished fifth in the final standings), year No. 3 in the Truck Series will look to be the season when the 23-year-old North Carolina native takes off. Riggs enters the season as the returning full-time driver with the most 2025 wins (three), and with a fresh extension in tow, there’s an opportunity for redemption … and perhaps a championship crown.
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
2. Ty Majeski, No. 88 ThorSport Racing Ford
Analysis: As the 2025 title runner-up, Majeski, too, is looking for a redemption of sorts, and not solely because he couldn’t defend his crown. After all, the 2024 Truck Series champion went winless in 2025, and while his 9.8 average finish was a career best, his 199 laps led were a career low compared to his three other full-time campaigns. Majeski’s consistency, paired with the new postseason format, should bring plenty of intrigue, but even still, a trip or two to Victory Lane would certainly be preferable, especially doing so during his inaugural campaign in ThorSport’s flagship No. 88.
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
3. Christian Eckes, No. 91 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet
Analysis: Following a full-time stint with Kaulig Racing in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series in 2025, Eckes returns to the full-time ranks of McAnally-Hilgemann Racing, where, from 2023-24, Eckes frequented Victory Lane. Consider this: Eckes’ nine Truck wins since 2021 rank second in the circuit during that span (Corey Heim, 23). In other words, Eckes’ immediate P3 placement in this ranking installment is warranted, and he should certainly return to championship contention in 2026.
Meg Oliphant | Getty Images
4. Kaden Honeycutt, No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota
Analysis: Competing for three different teams and two different manufacturers in 2025 culminated with the 22-year-old Honeycutt finishing third in the championship standings. His most success came in the No. 52 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota, which Honeycutt raced over the final eight contests of the campaign in place of injured Stewart Friesen. Enter 2026, where Honeycutt will have peace of mind in racing for only one team … and perhaps the team with the most pedigree. Honeycutt takes over the same machine Corey Heim wheeled to 12 victories — not to mention the 2025 title — and the upside is gigantic for the Texan.
Meg Oliphant | Getty Images
5. Chandler Smith, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford
Analysis: In what was his first full-time Truck Series season since 2022, Smith’s 2025 had plenty of highs and lows, starting the year off by finishing no worse than 17th over the first 10 races with two victories in that span (Bristol, North Wilkesboro). The final 15 races of the campaign didn’t bring the same success, but even still, an eighth-place finish in the final standings provides a sturdy building block going into Year 2 with the team.
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
6. Tyler Ankrum, No. 18 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet
Analysis: Ankrum achieved two milestones in 2025. He first snapped a 130-race winless drought via his Rockingham Speedway victory in April. Second, he utilized that victory to a playoff berth and eventual Championship 4 appearance, finishing fourth in the final standings. Continuing momentum from a steady finish in 2025 — finishing no worse than 20th over the final 11 races — will be critical. Finding Victory Lane again will, too.
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
7. Justin Haley, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Ram
Analysis: Ram officially enters the NASCAR racing fold once again, and Haley will be tasked to help give the manufacturer a steady foot week in and week out as it gets re-accustomed to the full-season grind. Haley is the perfect flagship driver for the operation; he comes over from the Cup Series and has won in all three national circuits. The cherry on top? Though Haley’s last full-time Truck season came in 2018, he won three races and finished third in the final standings that year. Ram could find its footing quickly.
James Gilbert | Getty Images
8. Giovanni Ruggiero, No. 17 Tricon Garage Toyota
Analysis: Though he missed out on the 2025 postseason, Ruggiero’s inaugural season proved fruitful, winning at Talladega Superspeedway in October and claiming Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors. The 19-year-old enters 2026 with plenty of optimism, and by returning to the No. 17 Tricon Garage Toyota, the familiarity is there, too. Combine that with his capability at different track venues (Ruggiero tallied top 10s at superspeedways, intermediates, short tracks and road courses) and the sky could be the limit.
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
9. Daniel Hemric, No. 19 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet
Analysis: There were plenty of ups and downs for Hemric in his return to full-time Truck Series racing for the first time since 2016. He won at Martinsville Speedway for his first career Truck Series triumph and made the postseason. But on the other hand, he bowed out in the Round of 8 and finished the final three races of the season with results of 34th (Talladega), 31st (Martinsville) and 33rd (Phoenix). In other words, there are things to improve upon for Hemric in his second year with the organization.
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
10. Grant Enfinger, No. 9 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet
Analysis: Enfinger has been a mark of consistency in Trucks over the years, with finishes of seventh or higher in the final standings in seven of the last eight seasons. Last year, however, was his first winless season since 2021. While the top-five and top-10 totals were still stout (seven top fives and 14 top 10s), his 12.2 average finish was also the lowest since 2021 (12.4). Round it all up, you have a driver who will likely still be in the hunt, but questions still remain.
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — Ryan Preece lives the life of a short-track racer. He loves going to the race track. He loves working on his race cars. He loves figuring out ways to find speed.
“I do this, and I love it,” said Preece, the 2013 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion and the driver of the No. 60 Ford Mustang for RFK Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series. “I like trying to figure out how to make my car faster. I like working on them and seeing all the people you’re racing with. I’ve had the same group of guys helping me for the past 18 years.
“This is a big week for us. We like to come down to Speedweeks and we like to race and have a good time.”
Ryan Preece prepares to practice in his Super Late Model at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway on Friday. (Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)
It’s been a whirlwind few days for Preece, a native of Berlin, Connecticut who spent years grinding at grassroots race tracks up and down the East Coast before he reached NASCAR Cup Series.
Those years racing Modifieds against the likes of Mike Stefanik, Reggie Ruggiero, Ted Christopher, Matt Hirschman, Bobby Santos III, Donny Lia, Doug Coby, Ron Silk and Justin Bonsignore helped him become the racer he is today.
A win in the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, a track known for Modified racing, was something Preece hoped would happen, but even he admits that hoping for it and doing it were two totally different things.
And yet, somehow, he did it.
“I felt like there were so many things stacked against us going into that race; if we could have had a good day, that was all I was thinking about,” Preece said. “I don’t want to say we didn’t have the opportunity to win; I just know everything it takes when you go to a quarter mile.
“If we made the race it was going to be a win. Then we did and then everything went extremely well and we won. Then the next thought was, ‘Are we done with media?’ And then we were. Then it was, ‘How quick can I get home?’ Because we’ve got to finish loading a few things and get my dog in because we’ve got to go to New Smyrna.”
Preece had been planning to race at the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing for months, so when the Cook Out Clash was rescheduled for Wednesday evening due to the severe winter storms that slammed the Southeast over the weekend, Preece never changed his plans.
There was never an ounce of hesitation or a second thought. He was going to New Smyrna, even if it meant he didn’t sleep.
“I was awake from 3 a.m. Wednesday morning until (Thursday) at 9:45 p.m.,” Preece said. “It was pretty much almost a couple days.
“It’s always worth it when you’re coming to the race track. That makes it OK.”
Ryan Preece in action at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway on Friday (Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)
After completing his media obligations at Bowman Gray, Preece scrambled home to finish packing. He was home by 11:45 p.m. Wednesday night and on the road for Florida by 12:15 a.m. Thursday.
He pulled into New Smyrna Speedway at about 9:30 a.m., fewer than 12 hours after winning the Cook Out Clash. He was on track for practice in his Super Late Model a few hours later.
“It was a long trip,” Preece said.
Preece is pulling double duty at New Smyrna this week, kicking off the World Series of Asphalt by competing in Friday’s 60-lap Super Late Model event.
After that, he’ll shift gears to his Modifed when he joins a stacked field for Saturday’s NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour opener. He’ll also race his Modified during Monday and Tuesday’s weekly programs at New Smyrna before packing up Wednesday and heading to nearby Daytona International Speedway to begin his pursuit of a Daytona 500 victory.
“If we can come out with a top five (in the Super Late Model) or be in contention, I’d be pretty happy because, I’m trying to find what the car needs and what’ll make it better,” Preece said. “Saturday, Monday and Tuesday, my expectations are to win. I feel like we can do that. I don’t come out here to ride around, that’s for sure.”
Between the Cook Out Clash, racing at New Smyrna then competing at Daytona, Preece was and is in for long days and busy nights.
But he loves this stuff, and there is nothing he’d rather be doing on a given February evening.
23XI Racing announced Friday a 12-race NASCAR Cup Series schedule for development driver Corey Heim in the No. 67 Toyota for the 2026 season. Heim, the defending NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion, kicks off his slate by attempting next Sunday’s Daytona 500 (Feb. 15, 1:30 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“I’m excited and honored to continue my progression with 23XI,” Heim, 23, said in a team release. “Every driver wants to race as much as possible, but I’m fully committed to the approach that I am taking with the team. I look forward to more Cup races this year and the opportunity to grow and expand my race-craft on and off the track.”
The Marietta, Georgia, native won a series-record 12 Truck races in 2025 while driving Tricon Garage’s No. 11 Toyota, capping it off with a championship drive at Phoenix Raceway in October. In addition, Heim made four starts for 23XI last season, highlighted by a sixth-place finish in September during a tire-management race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“We know the future is really bright for Corey, and we’re working with him to ensure that he is as prepared as possible when his time comes to race full time,” said Denny Hamlin, co-owner of 23XI Racing, in a team release. “We’re continuing to stick to our plan and taking a long-term approach, while also remaining focused on what is collectively best for our organization and our partners as we look to continue being a competitive, winning organization each weekend.”
Bootie Barker, who served as Heim’s Cup crew chief last season, will return to the pit box with the No. 67 team in 2026. Barker had served as leader of Bubba Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota from 2021-24, winning a pair of races at Talladega Superspeedway and Kansas Speedway.
According to the team, Heim will continue serving as a “regular participant” within the competition department and will also return to the Truck Series for a part-time slate with Tricon. His Truck schedule will be announced at a later date.
“Corey’s development with the team has been impressive, and we appreciate his patience and trust in us to prepare him as best as possible,” said Dave Rogers, 23XI’s senior director of competition. “He has not only been a great student but has also provided valuable feedback to our team that has helped us grow. We’re looking forward to more races with him this year as he continues to sharpen his skills.”
At a glance, the common ground between the motorsports realm of NASCAR and the winter sport of luge should seem small. Then again, after a season-opening exhibition race for the stock-car crowd that faced snow and ice this past week, maybe more overlap exists than expected.
Both worlds, however, are heading to their respective Super Bowls in the days ahead. NASCAR will set its season in motion with next Sunday’s Daytona 500 (1:30 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), and USA Luge will join the rest of the American delegation at the Winter Olympics, which starts this weekend in Milano Cortina in Northern Italy.
NASCAR and USA Luge announced Jan. 28 that the two organizations have formed a partnership, one that holds mutual marketing potential but also creates a technical alliance designed to give American athletes a competitive edge. That’s where the other connection point between the two sports comes into play.
“We’re both trying to develop or achieve speed, and that involves an athlete — whether it’s a driver in a car or a luge athlete on a sled — they need to be on the best technology that’s aerodynamic and fast,” says Scott Riewald, CEO for USA Luge. “It’s not just for wind resistance, it’s how the car, how the sled interfaces with the ice, materials, the ways to set things up, the properties of materials to improve efficiencies and limit vibrations — all these things. It’s uncanny how many similarities there are between the two.”
USA Luge athletes carried the NASCAR logo on their helmets during their most recent event, but the arrangement goes beyond mere product placement. Dr. Eric Jacuzzi, NASCAR’s vice president of vehicle performance, led a group that met with the sliding-sport athletes during their Dec. 12-13 World Cup meet in Park City, Utah.
Those early talks prompted USA Luge to ask how NASCAR would design a sled for what’s the fastest of all Olympic sports, with athletes nearing 90 mph on the ice-covered track. Jacuzzi then outlined NASCAR’s approach to building a car, from using computer-aided design (CAD) to computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to wind tunnels and other aero testing.
“Just introducing them to those processes is very cool,” Jacuzzi says. “They have a ton of tribal knowledge about how to build these sleds. … A great example was the men’s doubles guys. I was like, ‘Hey, how did you guys pick this shape for the sled?’ and they’re like, ‘Oh, we thought it looked cool.’ So I’m like, ah, we can probably make some improvements here.”
Jacuzzi and crew got to work right away, setting up space in a maintenance shed at the Park City venue to build a makeshift laser-scanning station, one that uses similar technology to NASCAR’s optical scanning for vehicle inspection. Athletes and their sleds were marked, stabilized and scanned, giving NASCAR’s group sets of finely detailed CAD drawings to bring back from Utah. Next steps, Jacuzzi says, will include making CFD models and eventually a wind-tunnel model for further analysis.
Courtesy of Eric Jacuzzi | NASCAR
Though those interactions came during an especially hectic time in the luge season with Cortina less than two months away, Riewald said the long-term benefit was worth devoting the effort.
“Look, it was a World Cup event, and it was a qualifier for the Olympic Games, and it could have been very easy for the athletes and coaches to say, ‘hey, let’s de-prioritize this and punt this down the road to a later time,'” Riewald said. “So the fact that they took time, came out, got scanned, had their sleds scanned and were excited and enthusiastic about it says a lot in terms of the value that the athletes place on this relationship and what can come from it.”
Zack DiGregorio has had a glimpse of the benefits of NASCAR’s resources already, as he prepares with men’s doubles partner Sean Hollander for his second Olympics appearance.
“I mean, he’s brilliant,” DiGregorio said of Jacuzzi. “We could tell that early, just talking about changes on the sled and what we can do with ourselves to help better the airflow around us. It was fascinating to see these ideas we’ve had for a while or that I’ve seen recently, kind of all across the board. As soon as we kind of mentioned a section of the sled, he would come up with an idea that was very similarly aligned with what we were seeing from other nations. So I think it’s safe to say we’re going to make a huge jump with the scanning and with the testing and with having great minds like Eric involved.”
The partnership isn’t the first crossover between NASCAR and Olympic sliding sports. Former stock-car racer Geoff Bodine created the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project in 1992, and his team’s designs helped Team USA secure men’s bobsled gold at the 2010 Vancouver Games, filling a 62-year void.
Michael Kristen | FIL
This current agreement in luge will be in place for Milano Cortina, but there’s already a focus on a longer-reaching goal. The Winter Games will return stateside in 2034, when Salt Lake City hosts the Olympics for a second time.
“That’s eight years away, but it’s a home Olympic Games and an opportunity to really showcase USA, not just our sports, but our athletes competing in front of the home fans and sliding on the best technology that they can is a big part of it, and promoting the sponsors and the collaborations that have helped us get there,” Riewald says. “I truly believe there’s going to be great Games between now and then, but that’s an awesome kind of beacon to strive for and set as something that we’re really trying to peak for.
“The tools, there’s so many things I think that NASCAR and the brain power and their understanding of aerodynamics and materials and setups can help us with. You take that knowledge and combine it with our staff and what they know about the specifics of luge, it’s exciting. I mean, it makes me giddy just like thinking about kind of the things that we could do. But it doesn’t happen with a snap of fingers. There’s a roadmap, and there’s process, but that long-term collaboration will be awesome for our sport.”
Further strengthening the collaboration, Jacuzzi will join the USA Luge team at the Cortina Games, which open with Friday’s Opening Ceremonies (8 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock). Besides searching for speed, Jacuzzi says he’s also found that branching into a more European-centric sport doesn’t come with the common misconception that perhaps Americans were out of their depth against more alpine competition.
“That couldn’t be further from the truth,” says Jacuzzi, who will be experiencing his first Olympics. “… You could definitely tell there was a ton of respect right from the start of just what we could bring to them. So I think if we didn’t have some fans there, we certainly made some.”
DiGregorio, who teamed with Hollander for the silver medal in the Park City World Cup event, says the luge team is ready for its own crossover once the Olympics are done and NASCAR season is in full swing. The Massachusetts native hasn’t been to a race yet, saying, “I need to change that pretty soon.” His experience so far is seeing it on TV, driving by Watkins Glen International while visiting his grandparents on Seneca Lake in Upstate New York, and seeing Ross Chastain’s viral “Hail Melon” moment from 2022. “I think just about the entire world saw that clip, putting his foot on the gas and not lifting until he saw the checkered flag or God,” DiGregorio said. “That’s a classic.”
In the meantime, DiGregorio says he’s bullish on the performance possibilities that come with tapping into NASCAR’s resources and expertise.
“I think that’s the exciting part,” DiGregorio says. “We’ve talked to them, and of course, all these changes can’t happen right away, especially during an Olympic season. So that’s where long-term, it’s going to be a game changer, especially on our side, where we get to learn so much from them.”
The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season is rapidly approaching. After the 2025 season, which produced plenty of thrilling finishes and memorable moments, 2026 will bring its own unique blend of stories and excitement.
With the 2026 season almost here, it is time to dive deep into season previews as NASCAR.com analyzes each team and driver’s outlook for the year ahead. View the full release schedule below:
