NASCAR Whelen Euro Series star Loris Hezemans will dip his feet into the top flight of American stock car racing in 2022. On Saturday, he was announced as the driver of the #27 Ford Mustang owned by his father Toine Hezemans and Dutch entrepreneur Ernst Berg on a part-time 2022 NASCAR Cup Series slate. The operation, known as Team Hezeberg, will operate with support from Camping World Truck Series team Reaume Brothers Racing.
Driving for Hendriks Motorsport (not to be confused with premier Cup team Hendrick Motorsports), Hezemans won the Euro Series championship in 2019. He currently leads the point standings with four victories including a EuroNASCAR PRO class sweep of the season opener in Valencia.
The Dutchman’s first taste of American national series racing came in the Xfinity Series in 2019 when he finished twenty-second at Road America for B.J. McLeod Motorsports. Two years later, he signed with MBM Motorsports, who was fielding a car in alliance with Reaume, for Phoenix. He ran another oval at Pocono for DGM Racing before failing to qualify at the Indianapolis Road Course with RBR. Hezemans is back with MBM for Saturday’s event on the Charlotte Roval; the start means he will not run the concurrent Euro Series round at Zolder.
Hezemans is believed to be the first Dutch driver to compete in the Cup Series. Unsurprisingly considering the Euro Series’ circuit composition, his 2022 Cup schedule will be road course-heavy as he runs all six such races: Circuit of the Americas, Sonoma Raceway, Road America, Indianapolis, Watkins Glen, and Charlotte. There is also the possibility of entering the short tracks of Martinsville Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, and Richmond Raceway; while the Euro Series exclusively runs road courses nowadays, the occasional ovals in the past have been short tracks such as the half-mile Raceway Venray, where Hezemans won in 2019. He hopes to compete full-time in the Cup Series in 2023.
Fellow Euro Series driver Jacques Villeneuve, who was a former Cup and Xfinity road course ringer, will test the team’s Next Gen car at the Roval on Tuesday.
