FDNY Racing, the lone team from the inaugural NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season in 1995 still operating today, will return for a twenty-ninth year in 2023. The team announced Sunday that Bryan Dauzat will pilot the #28 Chevrolet Silverado for the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. While other starts were not immediately revealed, they are expected to also race at Pocono Raceway and Talladega Superspeedway with Dauzat as in previous years.
Led by Jim Rosenblum, FDNY Racing is a small operation consisting of volunteers from the New York Fire and Police Departments. The team assumed their current identity shortly after the 11 September 2001 attacks, in which 343 FDNY firefighters died in rescue efforts, and race winnings are donated to the Uniformed Firefighters Widows and Children’s Fund.
Dauzat, a Modified veteran, joined the team in 2014 and has been their exclusive driver since 2017. In 2018, he scored the team’s maiden top-ten finish when he placed sixth at Talladega. He finished twenty-third in last year’s Daytona event but failed to qualify for Pocono and was involved in a lap 32 crash at Talladega. His best finish at Daytona is eighteenth in 2018; FDNY has six top twenties there in ten tries, with Ryan Ellis holding the highest run of sixteenth in 2015.
Daytona and Talladega are common stops for small teams as superspeedways, where drafting is imperative to success and wrecks are common, provide them with the best opportunity for success. While Pocono is a large circuit whose length is equal to Daytona, FDNY has it circled on their annual calendar as the closest track to home in Mamaroneck, New York. The team has also raced at other 1.5-mile tracks like Charlotte and Kansas, especially in 2020 when COVID-19 led to expanded fields to make up for cancelled qualifying.
The Daytona race will take place on 17 February. Pocono is scheduled for 22 July, and Talladega is on 30 September.
