It was the perfect storm for Chase Elliott being offered to him: the #24 of GMS Racing for 13 June’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. The #24 did not have a driver with funding entered, the race was a day before the Cup Series‘ NASCAR All-Star Race, and Elliott was no stranger to winning in a GMS truck. How could he resist?
Elliott has fifteen career Truck starts, nine of which came as a 17-year-old in 2013, and is a three-time race winner in the series. When the 2020 season resumed following a lengthy delay due to COVID-19, Elliott ran the first three races in the GMS #24 and won in the return at Charlotte. The victory enabled him to claim a bounty established by Cup peer Kevin Harvick and Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis for any full-time Cup drivers who could beat Kyle Busch in a Truck race.
The reigning Cup champion won the All-Star Race in 2020 when it was at Bristol, and the Truck race will provide additional track time for him ahead of the 2021 edition. Although he has never raced at Texas in a truck, it is a D-shaped, 1.5-mile oval with a frontstretch dogleg much like Charlotte. Elliott’s lone national series victory at Texas came in 2014 in what is now the Xfinity Series; it was his maiden win at that level en route to winning the championship as a rookie. At the same time, however, he has struggled since the track was reconfigured in 2017 and has not finished higher than twelfth since 2019.
The #24 began 2021 as a full-time truck for Raphäel Lessard until sponsorship troubles forced him out. Consequently, it became a multi-driver vehicle as Ryan Reed and Jack Wood have also run races, and it currently sits fifteenth in owner points.
