14 August’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course will feature a duo of team-mates from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. On Thursday, MBM Motorsports announced Whelen Euro Series EuroNASCAR PRO regular Giorgio Maggi will attempt to make his NASCAR American début in the #42 Toyota Supra, serving as a team-mate to EuroNASCAR PRO championship leader Loris Hezemans. Maggi will be the first Swiss driver to race in a NASCAR national series.
“I’’s still really hard to believe because it seems so surreal,” said Maggi. “I first came into contact with NASCAR two years ago and honestly had no idea about this type of motorsport. Now I’m going to be right in the middle of it.
“I’m really looking forward to it, but I’m also a little nervous, I have to admit. I’m super excited to be the first Swiss to compete in a NASCAR national championship in the U.S.”
Currently in his second season at the EuroNASCAR PRO level, Maggi and his #18 Hendriks Motorsport car sits ninth in points with a best finish of fourth in the most recent race at Brands Hatch. As a rookie in 2020, he placed eleventh in the standings with a pole and runner-up finish at Croatia. The former ADAC GT Masters driver first débuted in NASCAR in 2019 when he finished runner-up in the Elite 2 (now EuroNASCAR 2) standings with three victories.
Hezemans, the 2019 EuroNASCAR PRO (then Elite 1) champion, has three career Xfinity starts in 2019 and 2021. After finishing twenty-second in his maiden race at Road America in 2019, he returned to America two years later with MBM at Phoenix, where he placed thirty-first in his first oval race. Another oval start came in June at Pocono with DGM Racing, finishing twenty-seventh.
Maggi and Hezemans will not be the only drivers in the Indianapolis race with Euro Series experience as Myatt Snider is chasing an Xfinity championship after running the full EuroNASCAR 2 season in 2019. Multiple drivers have raced in both the Xfinity and Euro Series over the years, with reigning EuroNASCAR PRO champion Alon Day also having made Xfinity road course starts for MBM.
“I am very happy that Giorgio Maggi will start alongside my son Loris in Indianapolis,” commented former sports car driver Toine Hezemans. “He is the first Swiss to race in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. He learned a lot in the EuroNASCAR 2 Championship and was the runner-up in 2019. He’s very mature for his age and has a lot of talent to be successful in the U.S. as well.”
Unlike the full-time #13, #61, and #66, MBM’s #42 has only attempted two races in 2021 with Chad Finchum and Timmy Hill. After failing to qualify at Nashville with the former, the latter finished twentieth at Road America. The Indianapolis Road Course, being a new stop for the parent NASCAR Cup Series, will feature qualifying and Maggi will thus have to make the race on time unless the entry list is below thirty-six cars.
