After nearly two months of waiting, FRS Racing will finally get a shot to make their NASCAR Xfinity Series début at Richmond Raceway on Saturday. The team has enlisted Kyle Weatherman for the race, where he will drive the #96 Chevrolet Camaro.
FRS is run by Collin Fern, who previously worked as technical director for Brandonbilt Motorsports. While Brandonbilt’s future has been murky due to funding troubles, meaning the team has been absent all season, they have given their blessings to FRS in their maiden campaign.
The team plans to run eight races in 2023 beginning at Richmond with Weatherman, while additional starts are planned for Charlotte in May, Pocono in July, Michigan and Watkins Glen in August, Bristol in September, and the Charlotte Roval and Martinsville in October. Max McLaughlin was hired by the team for Watkins Glen earlier in March.
Weatherman has experience in all three NASCAR national series but has mainly competed in the Xfinity Series including the full 2021 schedule for what is now CHK Racing. He ran the four most recent Xfinity races for Our Motorsports in the #02 with a best finish of sixteenth in his first start at Las Vegas.
In eighty-six career Xfinity races, he has three top tens, all of which were eighth-place finishes. Two came in 2022 with one apiece for DGM Racing and Jesse Iwuji Motorsports. Despite not running the full season, his final points position was two spots higher than his full 2021 calendar in twenty-second. Across four career starts at Richmond, Weatherman’s best run is fifteenth in 2021.
The start with FRS will be a one-off before Weatherman returns to Our for the next race at Martinsville. Blaine Perkins, who had his Xfinity rookie season upended when he departed SS-Green Light Racing after just five races, will race for Our for Richmond.
As the #96 does not have owner points, being a new team, Weatherman will have to make the Richmond race by qualifying. Forty cars are on the tentative entry list, meaning two will go home.
