Popular driver confirmed for NASCAR return at Indianapolis

NASCAR at Indianapolis News Wednesday, July 22, 2026 at 8:02 AM ET •By Chris Deeley

A popular NASCAR driver has confirmed his first Truck Series race of the year, as he looks to put together a part-time schedule after his team dissolved earlier in the season.

Nick Sanchez started what was meant to be his second full-time O'Reilly Series season with AM Racing, but the team withdrew from just the eighth race of the season at Rockingham and closed down operations not long after.

Sanchez has since picked up a part-time drive in Peterson Racing's No. 87 in the O'Reilly Series, stepping in occasionally for Austin Green, and now he's adding some Truck running to his schedule too.

The 25-year-old will make his season debut for Spire Motorsports at Indianapolis Raceway Park this Friday, becoming the seventh driver to step behind the wheel of the No. 77 truck this year.

Sanchez: Truck Series different to O'Reilly racing

Carson Hovecar has taken the bulk of the appearances in that truck, starting ten of the season's 15 races, with the likes of Connor Zilisch, Jesse Love and Parker Kligerman stepping in for one-off appearances.

In a statement announcing the drive this week, Sanchez said: “The CRAFTSMAN Truck Series is always quite a bit different than the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and that’s where I’ve spent the bulk of my time over the last year-and-a-half.

"I think the biggest thing that is going to help is it’s my old team from 2023 and 2024 when I ran in the Truck Series. I’ll see a lot of familiar faces, and I think just understanding how they set up the trucks and what their goals are, it should be easy to acclimate quickly.”

Sanchez won two Truck Series races in 2024 with Rev Racing, at Daytona and Charlotte, on his way to finishing fifth in the championship, just missing out on the Championship 4.