After several season faced with dwindling fields and shuttering teams, it looks like 2021 is the season that the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will have plenty of entries to fill the fields for the entirety of the season. Along with part-time entries from David Gilliland Racing’s No. 17 (piloted by rookie Tyler Gray, younger brother of DGR driver and former NHRA Pro Stock champion Tanner Gray) and Young’s Motorsports No. 82 for Toni Breidinger, there will also be part-time entries from Bret Holmes Racing, where Holmes and Sam Meyer will split seat time in the No. 32, as well as Justin Carroll in the No. 91 Carroll Motorsports entry.
Facing these part-time entries will be brand new full-time entries from DGR with rookie Hailie Deegan, as well as Tate Fogleman in the No. 12 Young’s Motorsports entry. Vernon, Texas native Cory Roper will be racing his No. 04 Ford F-150 full-time in 2021 while Spencer Davis will be racing full-time in his Spencer Davis Motorsports No. 11 entry as well. Meanwhile, series veteran Timothy Peters will be making his return to full-time competition in the No. 25 Rackley W.A.R. entry, along with other names.
The jump in entries for the 2021 season brings a boon to the series, as it wasn’t that long ago that rumors would circulate regarding the closure of the truck division, which many would argue provided some of the best racing product among the top national divisions. The series had suffered something of an identity crisis as it stepped away from it’s own product racing standalone events across the country to relegating itself as part of the NASCAR development ladder.
Although it will still continue to provide talent to the XFINITY Series and NASCAR Cup Series, more entries means that the series can again focus on it’s own identity and making sure it turns out a great racing product as it has since 1995, when the first season was run. Granted, the division has morphed into something entirely different from the days when it was an homage to the regional racing days of yore, but just because it’s become a touch flashier and more international doesn’t make it lesser in comparison to the other national touring divisions.
Some of the new entries coming into 2021, such as Deegan, Roper, and Peters, already have made impressive runs that have occasional churned out victories, especially on Peters’s part, so the pressure to perform is there. Other drivers such as Holmes, Davis, Fogleman, and Meyers see this as a chance to prove themselves as worthy of the opportunity. Meyers has already gone to victory lane, having won at Bristol last season, so to back it up in ’21 with more stellar runs will all but solidify his future in NASCAR just a bit longer.
So with that being said, things are looking up for the Camping World Truck Series in ’21, with more drivers bringing more opportunities for drivers to shine and parity in the division as well as security for the division to last even longer in NASCAR.
