Three years after winning the ARCA Menards Series championship, Bret Holmes will chase the same as well as Rookie of the Year in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. On Friday, he announced he will race the #32 Chevrolet Silverado RST for the full 2023 season.
Holmes and his Bret Holmes Racing team won the 2020 ARCA championship by just twelve points ahead of Michael Self before moving up to the Truck Series on a limited schedule. While Holmes entered eight races, the #32 was also driven by Sam Mayer and Ty Dillon, with the former scoring top tens in three of his four starts.
The #32 continues its part-time slate in 2022 with Holmes and Conor Mosack respectively attempting eight and two races. Despite failing to qualify at Nashville, Holmes scored his first top ten at Las Vegas by placing eighth, followed by nearly winning at Talladega when he beat Matt DiBenedetto to the finish line but the caution flag had flown moments before Holmes took the lead; he was classified third.
“It’s a blessing and a dream to be competing for a championship in one of NASCAR’s top three series,” said Holmes. “This is a huge chance and opportunity that I’m ready to capitalise on. It’s been what feels like forever since we’ve been full-time racing which was back in 2020 in the ARCA Menards Series. Since then, we’ve been building up our inventory, experience, and notebook. All of that has ultimately led to this season, and I can’t wait to show what we’ve got. We’ve done really well on superspeedways, and I think we can start the year off strong there.”
Jerry Baxter will serve as Holmes’ crew chief, migrating from what is now TRICON Garage. Baxter has experience across all three national series including sixteen Truck Series victories and three third-place championship finishes. The team also named foreman A.J. Heister as general manager.
“I’m thrilled to be joining BHR and working with Bret,” commented Baxter. “Bret is eager to perform well behind the wheel, and I’m looking forward to working with the team. We have a small team, but our aspirations are big.”
