Taylor Gray is supposed to be the driver of the #17 TRICON Garage Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for the 2023 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season, but his rookie year would have seen him run every race only if he had been born about a month and a half early. As Gray is still seventeen years old, he is ineligible to run the first three races at Daytona International Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and Atlanta Motor Speedway.
On Friday, TRICON announced Sammy Smith will fill in for Daytona, making his first race in the series. Drivers for Las Vegas and Atlanta were not immediately revealed.
The eighteen-year-old Smith is Toyota’s top development drivers, having won the ARCA Menards Series East championship in back-to-back years and finished fourth in the ARCA national championship with six wins despite not running the full schedule. He is set for his Xfinity Series rookie campaign with Joe Gibbs Racing after running nine races in 2022 with three top tens.
Besides being a substitute for Gray, the Daytona Truck race will provide additional track experience for Smith. Due to his age, he never raced at Daytona in ARCA or the Xfinity Series.
In fifteen career ARCA East starts, he won eight times. His 2022 championship run saw him win all but two races, with the exceptions being a fifth at Dover and second at Iowa.
Smith will team up with Gray’s older brother Tanner, Dean Thompson, and Corey Heim for Daytona. TRICON Garage, who returns to Toyota after a three-year stint with Ford, is the manufacturer’s new flagship Truck team after Kyle Busch Motorsports’ move to Chevrolet.
Despite missing the first three races, Gray is eligible for the playoffs via waiver should he qualify. The same provision is granted to Jake Garcia at McAnally-Hilgemann Racing, whose rookie season will begin at Las Vegas after Chase Elliott pilots his #35 at Daytona. Gray’s first race will be at Circuit of the Americas on 25 March, incidentally the same day he turns eighteen.
