PREVIEW: New Truck Series teams and returning drivers among the other storylines for Homestead
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: Akinori Ogata, @AkinoriOgata
Friday, March 21, 2025 (Green Flag 8:21 P.M. ET, FOX)
TRUCKS Race 4 of 25
Baptist Health 200 at Homestead
2024 Last-Place Finisher: Matt Mills
ENTRY LIST
There are 34 trucks entered for 36 spots, already marking the third consecutive short field in just four races.
DRIVER CHANGE: #1-TRICON Garage
Brandon Jones will make his 50th career Truck Series start – and his first sine October 30, 2020, when he finished 17th at Martinsville. This time, he takes the wheel of TRICON’s “all-star” #1 entry, taking the place of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate William Sawalich, who opened the year with a 9th-place Daytona run but has finished no better since. Jones welcomes sponsorship from Kingsford on a particularly colorful Toyota.
RETURNING: #20-Young’s Motorsports
Stefan Parsons makes his season debut as the Randy Young team brings back its #20 entry for the first time in 2025. Annett Bus Lines is the listed sponsor as Parsons makes his 68th series start and first since last November’s Phoenix finale, where a he finushed 23rd in Al Niece’s #44 entry. Parsons was driving for this same team in his only other Truck Series Homestead start, which was a 26th-place finish in 2022.
DRIVER CHANGE: #44-Niece Motorsports
While Kyle Larson’s triple-header weekend dominates headlines, Ross Chastain will pull double-duty starting with his first Truck Series start since last summer at IRP, where he finished 11th. He again drives for Al Niece, this time in the #44 in place of 18th-place Las Vegas finisher Bayley Currey.
RETURNING: #63-Akinori Performance
After the team withdrew from Atlanta, Akinori Ogata is set to debut his new #63 team with Kyowa Industrial and YKK AP as sponsors of his Toyota. This marks the first start for the #63 in the series since March 1, 2019, when Scott Stenzel’s last-place finish at Las Vegas marked the final start for the former Mike Mittler team, then campaigned by D.J. Copp.
TEAM UPDATE: #66-ThorSport Racing
While the preliminary entry list showed “TBA” in the driver’s column, Luke Fenhaus will indeed drive the truck again this week following his 23rd-place showing in Las Vegas.
NEW TEAM: #67-Freedom Racing Enterprises
Welcome back Michel Disdier of France, whose third and most recent Truck Series start came on March 2, 2018, when he finished 19th in Las Vegas for Randy Young. This time around, Disdier drives a new second entry for Spencer Boyd’s team Freedom Racing Enterprises, Boyd’s #76 swapped to a #67. Mr. Brainwash is the listed sponsor of his vibrant paint scheme.
MISSING: #90-Terry Carroll Motorsports
Not among this week’s entries is Justin S. Carroll, whose team faced issues with their transporter, then a stuck backup hauler in an Arizona snowstorm that combined to keep them from racing in Las Vegas.
DRIVER CHANGE: #07-Spire Motorsports
Kyle Larson makes only his 16th career Truck Series start and first since his decisive victory at North Wilkesboro in 2023. This time, he drives one of three nearly identical HendrickCars.com entries in tonight’s race and seeks a weekend sweep of all three events at Homestead. Larson takes the place of fellow full-time Cup driver Justin Haley, who finished 11th last week.
CUP INVADERS: #44-Ross Chastain, #07-Kyle Larson
Saturday, March 22, 2025 (Green Flag 4:10 P.M. ET, CW)
XFINITY Race 6 of 33
Hard Rock Bet 300 at Homestead
2024 Last-Place Finisher: Matt DiBenedetto
ENTRY LIST
There are 39 drivers entered for 38 spots, so one team will fail to qualify.
RETURNING: #17-Hendrick Motorsports
The second round of Kyle Larson’s bid for a weekend sweep will come in the returning #17, back in action for the first time since Alex Bowman’s narrow defeat to Aric Almirola at Phoenix. Larson’s last XFINITY start came last July on the Chicago Street Course, where he finished 3rd after an intense battle with Shane van Gisbergen.
DRIVER CHANGE: #19-Joe Gibbs Racing
There is no listed sponsor this week for a returning Justin Bonsignore, who’s set to make his third series start and first since a 25th-place showing in the Daytona opener. Bonsignore takes the place of Aric Almirola, who after winning Phoenix finished runner-up to Justin Allgaier last week in Las Vegas.
RETURNING: #24-Sam Hunt Racing
Don’t overlook another double-duty driver this week in Corey Heim, who reunites with the Sam Hunt effort in a follow-up to today’s Truck Series race. Heim shares Bubba Wallace’s sponsorship from Columbia Sportswear Company and carries a colorful paint scheme of his own as SHR brings back its #24 entry. Heim’s only other XFINITY start this year came at COTA, where he finished 31st after late-race contact among the leaders.
MISSING: #32-Jordan Anderson Racing
Not among this week’s entrants is Austin Green, who dealt with electrical gremlins in Las Vegas that left him a disappointing 36th. Green did run this race last fall for SS-Green Light Racing and finished 29th.
DRIVER SWAP: #35-Joey Gase Motorsports
DRIVER CHANGE: #53-Joey Gase Motorsports
Mason Maggio is back in a XFINITY Series car for the first time since his 31st-place run in Atlanta, and this time boasts a bright pink paint scheme for sponsor Denssi Energy Pouches. Maggio takes the place of team owner Joey Gase, 33rd in Las Vegas, who moves to the #35 in place of 35th-place finisher Greg Van Alst. At first publication, this list showed “TBA” for the #35.
DRIVER CHANGE: #45-Alpha Prime Racing
Brad Perez returns to the track where he first watched NASCAR as a fan, looking to bounce back from a DNQ earlier this month in COTA, He takes the place of 37th-place Vegas finisher Mason Massey, whose suspension issues put him out of the race past the halfway point. Perez finished 28th in his lone XFINITY start at Homestead last fall.
DRIVER CHANGE: #91-DGM Racing x JIM
Myatt Snider and his longtime sponsor Tree Top Apple Juice are back in the series once more, putting Snider into his first XFINITY Series field since his 10th-place run at Martinsville last October. Just like that race, Snider takes the wheel of DGM’s #91, this time taking the place of 31st-place Vegas finisher Josh Bilicki.
DRIVER CHANGE: #07-SS-Green Light Racing
Alex Labbe is still another driver making only his second XFINITY start of the year – his a 14th-place showing in COTA – as he again takes the wheel of Bobby Dotter’s #07. This time, he takes the place of 28th-place Vegas finisher Patrick Emerling and carries sponsorship from Priority Tire.
CUP INVADERS: #17-Kyle Larson
Sunday, March 23, 2025 (Green Flag 3:12 P.M. ET, FS1)
CUP Race 6 of 36
Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead
2024 Last-Place Finisher: J.J. Yeley
ENTRY LIST
There are 37 drivers entered for 40 spots, marking the fifth short field in six races this season.
RETURNING: #44-NY Racing Team
J.J. Yeley is the lone “open” entry in the field, returning to action for the first time since he was collected in a hard multi-car crash midway through Atlanta, leaving him 37th. He looks to bounce back both from that finish and a last-place run here last November.
TODAY IN LASTCAR HISTORY (March 21, 1998): Kevin Schwantz picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in the Diamond Hill Plywood 200 at Darlington when his #88 Ryder Chevrolet was collected in a multi-car accident on Lap 2. Schwantz made 18 career starts in what is now the XFINITY Series, earning a best finish of 8th at Homestead in 1997, then matched it in the 1998 opener at Daytona.
