Nick Sanchez has been officially named the 2023 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Rookie of the Year.
The 22-year-old Sanchez from Miami, Florida, capped off his rookie Truck Series season with Rev Racing in 10th place during the season-finale Craftsman 150 at Phoenix Raceway on Friday, November 3, where he led five of 179 over-scheduled laps and was able to finish in sixth place in the final driver’s standings with 2,319 points.
Sanchez, whose racing career commenced at age 12 with go-karts, joined Rev Racing as he competed in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series and the ARCA Menards Series East divisions while being a member of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program in 2019. During the season, his top accomplishments included victories at Langley Speedway and Myrtle Beach Speedway in the Whelen All-American Series, his first pole position at Virginia’s South Boston Speedway and achieving the Wendell Scott Trailblazer Award.
The following season, the Floridian competed for Rev Racing on a full-time basis in the ARCA East division, where he finished in third place in the final standings on the strengths of two top-five results and four top-10 results in six scheduled starts. In addition, he made select starts across the ARCA Menards Series and ARCA Menards Series West divisions.
In 2021, Sanchez piloted the No. 2 Chevrolet for Rev Racing on a full-time basis in the ARCA Menards Series. After recording eight top-five results and 12 top-10 results in 17 starts, he notched his first career victory in the series in the season-finale event at Kansas Speedway and finished in third place in the final standings. The following season, Sanchez notched three victories throughout the 2022 ARCA season, which occurred at Talladega Superspeedway, Kansas Speedway and Michigan International Speedway. The trio of victories along with nine top-five results, 16 top-10 results, 115 laps led and an average-finishing result of 6.3 were enough for him to achieve the 2022 ARCA Menards Series championship by 14 points over Daniel Dye. By then, Sanchez, who had achieved his first championship in stock car racing, delivered the second championship for Rev Racing and the first since the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson won the ARCA East title in 2012.
Nearly a month after the 2022 ARCA season concluded, Rev Racing announced its expansion to NASCAR’s top three national touring series for the first time by fielding a full-time Craftsman Truck Series entry for Sanchez to pilot as the team formed a technical alliance with Kyle Busch Motorsports. Driving the No. 2 Gainbridge Chevrolet Silverado RST, Sanchez secured the pole position for the season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway in February in his first stint in the Truck Series.
Despite finishing 26th at Daytona amid a rain-shortened event followed by a 30th-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after wrecking late, he rallied by notching a career-best runner-up result at Atlanta after being overtaken by Christian Eckes on the final lap. Two races later, Sanchez was within striking distance of achieving his first career victory at Texas Motor Speedway after starting on the pole, sweeping both stage periods and leading a race-high 168 of 172 laps.
However, during the second of two overtime attempts, Sanchez, who was locked in a heated battle with reigning series champion Zane Smith for the lead, slipped sideways at the start of the final lap and was bumped by Carson Hocevar exiting the frontstretch as Sanchez ended up wrecking with Smith and Eckes in Turn 1 and strapped with a 16th-place result.
Coming off the Texas result, Sanchez, who only managed three top-10 results during his next seven starts, achieved his second top-five career result after finishing third at Nashville Superspeedway in an event where he started in the pole position and led 37 laps. With respective finishes of ninth, 19th and eighth in the final regular-season events, the Floridian managed to claim a spot into the 2023 Truck Series Playoffs by 42 points. By then, he was the lone rookie competitor to make the Playoffs.
Despite recording respective finishes of 11th, 24th and eighth during the Playoff’s Round of 10, Sanchez transferred into the Round of 8 by 32 points. He commenced the Round of 8 by finishing ninth at Bristol Motor Speedway despite starting at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to his truck. Coming off a seventh-place result in the second Round of 8 event at Talladega Superspeedway, which was mired by a post-race fight involving three-time series champion Matt Crafton, Sanchez recorded his fifth pole position for the Round of 8 finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Commencing the event four points above the top-four cutline to make this year’s Championship 4 round, he ended up finishing 17th during the main event and missed the cutline in a tie-breaker over the 2021 series champion Ben Rhodes. Nonetheless, Sanchez managed to capture his 12th top-10 result of the 2023 Truck Series season during the finale at Phoenix.
By claiming this year’s rookie title, Sanchez, who earned five poles, four stage victories, two top-five results and 12 top-10 results during his rookie season, became the first competitor from Florida to achieve the Truck Series rookie title since Ben Kennedy made the last accomplishment in 2014 and the first Chevrolet competitor to win the award since Zane Smith made the last accomplishment in 2020. He also became the first competitor from NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program to achieve a rookie title within NASCAR’s top three national touring series since Daniel Suarez claimed the 2015 Xfinity Series rookie title.
Sanchez’s rivals for this year’s Truck rookie title included Rajah Caruth, Daniel Dye, Jake Garcia and Bret Holmes.
With the rookie title achieved, Sanchez is currently slated to remain at Rev Racing for the 2024 Truck Series season as he will bid for both his first series victory and another run for the series title. Sanchez’s crew chief for next season remains to be determined as Danny Stockman Jr., the 2011 Truck Series championship-winning crew chief who guided Sanchez during his rookie campaign, will be returning to the Xfinity Series to crew chief the 2023 ARCA Menards Series champion Jesse Love Jr. for his first Xfinity campaign at Richard Childress Racing.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series teams and competitors enter an off-season period before returning to action at Daytona International Speedway on February 16, 2024, to commence a new season of racing. The event’s broadcast time is slated to occur at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
