21-Year-Old Racer Brings Successful Sportscar Background to No. 5 Ford Mustang
MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Feb. 24, 2026) – Hettinger Racing is facilitating another NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series debut, tabbing 21-year-old Tyler Gonzalez to drive its No. 5 Victory Custom Trailers Ford Mustang Dark Horse in the Focused Health 250 on Saturday at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas.
In the season-opening O’Reilly Series race at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, Hettinger Racing debuted Midwestern short-track star Luke Fenhaus. Now with the O’Reilly Series heading to its first road-course race of the season, Hettinger Racing is looking to leverage Gonzalez’s extensive and successful road-racing background on COTA’s 2.4-mile, 20-turn layout.
Gonzalez earned the inaugural Toyota GR Cup title in 2023 and finished second in the 2025 Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup championship. The St. Cloud, Florida, native holds an FIA Silver racing license and currently competes fulltime in SRO Pirelli GT4 America and IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge within its Touring Car class.
“Tyler brings a lot of road-racing experience to our team. He’s won championships, he’s won at COTA and he’s shown that he can handle cars similar to what he’ll be racing this weekend,” said team owner Chris Hettinger. “Our job is to give him a strong No. 5 Victory Custom Trailers Ford Mustang so he can showcase his talent here in the O’Reilly Series.”
Gonzalez is well-suited for COTA, having raced at the purpose-built Formula 1 venue across Mazda MX-5 Cup, Toyota GR Cup and GT4 America. In fact, in Gonzalez’s most recent race at COTA – a three-hour endurance contest last April in GT4 America – he won with co-driver Gresham Wagner.
“I’ve had the chance to race at COTA in a few different series, and winning there in GT4 last year was a big moment for me. But this is a different challenge,” Gonzalez said. “The O’Reilly Series demands a lot. It’s filled with really good drivers on really good teams. There’s a lot of depth. My goal is to learn and execute in practice and in qualifying and all the way through the race. I’m grateful to Chris and everyone at Hettinger Racing and Ford for this opportunity.”
While Saturday’s Focused Health 250 will be Gonzalez’s first O’Reilly Series outing, his time in Trans Am’s CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series provided Gonzalez with the closest taste of how an O’Reilly Series car performs. Gonzalez made four TA2 starts in 2024 and three in 2025, collecting five podiums, two of which were runner-up finishes. He earned his first career TA2 pole last August at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville, Ontario.
“TA2 cars are probably the closest thing to a stock car, so the time I spent there is going to be really helpful,” Gonzalez said. “The series had big fields and the cars are pretty evenly matched, so it forced you to refine your racecraft in terms of knowing when to be aggressive, when to be patient and how to position yourself in traffic. All of that will come into play this weekend at COTA.”
Gonzalez’s O’Reilly Series debut begins Friday with a 50-minute practice starting at 4 p.m. CST/5 p.m. EST before qualifying at 5:05 p.m. CST/6:05 p.m. EST. The Focused Health 250 goes green on Saturday at 2 p.m. CST/3 p.m. EST with live, flag-to-flag coverage provided by The CW and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
