As the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series prepares for its second road course race of the season at Sonoma Raceway on Saturday, Reaume Brothers Racing has recalled Brad Pérez to the #43 while also enlisting the services of Jade Buford in the #33 in his maiden series start.
Pérez, who works as a crewman when not racing, impressed by placing twentieth in his Truck début at Circuit of the Americas in March. He brings road racing experience courtesy of racing a Mazda MX-5 Miata in the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), and made the jump to stock car driving in the ARCA Menards Series in 2021 at Watkins Glen as a road course specialist.
The 25-year-old’s #43 truck will be sponsored by the rock band I Set My Friends on Fire, whose lead guitarist Nathan Blasdell is a NASCAR talent representative for various drivers.
“Sonoma is a track in which I have a lot of work related experience at,” said Pérez. “Due to the amount of events I have worked at Sonoma Raceway, this is definitely the most amount of laps I have had coming into a race than ever before. After shaking the jitters off at Circuit of the Americas, I am looking forward to being able to focus and drive hard to have a positive result. At Circuit of the Americas, tire falloff was a new experience for me, and being able to manage that in a NASCAR truck was difficult to start off with. Being able to feel the difference in tyre falloff along with the overall aggressive nature of the Camping World Truck Series has given me a lot of confidence going into Sonoma in the #43 I Set My Friends on Fire/Apex Coffee Roasters Toyota Tundra.”
Buford arrived in NASCAR in 2020 after building up a résumé in sports car racing before running the full Xfinity Series schedule the following two years for Big Machine Racing Team. However, a full-time sophomore campaign in 2022 was aborted due to the team’s struggles, and he skipped five races before returning last Saturday at another road course Portland International Raceway. He finished eighth at the Xfinity COTA race, one of three career top tens (the first also came on a road course at the Charlotte Roval).
“I’m excited and grateful to get to make my NASCAR Camping World Truck Series début this coming weekend at Sonoma Raceway with Reaume Brothers Racing,” commented Buford. “Sonoma is an incredible track and the Truck Series produces some of the best racing there is, so I can’t wait to get out there and see what we can do as a team in our Spiked Coolers Toyota Tundra.”
Team owner Josh Reaume added, “We took a chance on Brad at Circuit of the Americas and did a great job despite some issues along the way. We are very much looking forward to taking him to a race track in which he has experience this time around. Jade Buford has a lot of road course experience and we are excited to give him an opportunity in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. We are very excited to have Spiked Coolers and Scott Borchetta (Big Machine owner) to make this possible.”
