Kris Wright made his name in sports cars, but on 16 August, he will dip his feet into the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series for the first time. On Monday, GMS Racing announced Wright will race for the team in the Truck and ARCA Menards Series, the former of which is a start in the #24 Chevrolet Silverado on the Daytona International Speedway road course.
The 2018 IMSA Protoype Challenge LMP3 champion, Wright moved to single-seaters with the BRDC Formula 3 Championship in 2019, where he finished sixteenth in the standings. Wright also scored a runner-up LMP2 finish in that year’s Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. He migrated to the EuroFormula Open series in 2020, though the season has been impacted by COVID-19.
In the meantime, the Pennsylvanian returned to America and began dabbling in stock cars. He joined Pitts Racing for the ARCA Menards Series West doubleheader at Utah Motorsports Campus in June, where he finished second and third. The upcoming ARCA event at Michigan International Speedway will see his début with GMS in the #21.
“I’m really excited to be making my first ARCA and NASCAR starts with GMS and Chevrolet,” Wright said in a team release. “You always want to be doing it with the best team. I’m a Chevy guy from birth so it’s a dream come true.”
Wright is one of a handful of road course ringers confirmed for the Daytona weekend, the first time NASCAR has competed on the infield road course. Fellow IMSA drivers Earl Bamber and Andy Lally are competing in the Xfinity Series event, while Wright will race against dirt track veteran Mark Smith.
The #24 has been shared by a variety of drivers in 2020 including Chase Elliott, Chase Purdy, and Justin Haley. The truck sits fourteenth in the owners’ standings with eight total starts and a win. Dirt racer David Gravel will pilot the #24 at Michigan.
