Brad Pérez is more than familiar with road course racing, having competed in SCCA Spec Miatas before breaking into NASCAR as a specialist for teams wanting someone with experience on such disciplines.
Saturday, however, will bring a change of pace as he runs his first NASCAR oval track race. On Monday, Pérez announced he will drive the #20 Chevrolet Silverado RST for Young’s Motorsports in the Craftsman Truck Series at Martinsville Speedway. Martinsville is heavily reliant on braking, making it and other short tracks fairly popular destinations for road racers hoping to get into oval racing.
On Twitter, he quipped he is “excited to turn left finally”.
All six of Pérez’s NASCAR starts since his début in 2022 have come on road courses starting with the 2022 Truck race at COTA for Reaume Brothers Racing, where he finished twentieth. He backed it up with a twenty-second at Sonoma in his most recent Truck start to date.
Since Sonoma, he has entered every Xfinity Series road race starting at Indianapolis in 2022 for MBM Motorsports, where he failed to qualify, before joining Emerling-Gase Motorsports at Watkins Glen. He placed twentieth again at The Glen followed by twenty-third at the Charlotte Roval.
Pérez remained with EGM for 2023, finishing twenty-third at COTA.
Young’s #20 has featured a different driver every race so far into 2023, with Derek Kraus, Ed Jones, Mason Maggio, Matt Mills, and Stefan Parsons all making a start each. The truck is currently thirty-sixth in owner points with a best finish of eighteenth by Kraus at Daytona. Pérez will look to snap the truck’s current funk as it has retired from the past four races.
