BMR names Chase Elliott to No. 35 at Daytona
Chase Elliott will return to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, racing for Bill McAnally Racing in the Feb. 17 season opener at Daytona.
Elliott will race BMR’s No. 35 Chevrolet with sponsorship from NAPA and Gates Hydraulics. It’ll be his 18th Truck start but his first one on a superspeedway.
“This will be the first time I’ve driven a truck at Daytona, let alone a superspeedway,” Elliott said in a team release issued Wednesday. “There’s no better team owner than Bill McAnally to do it with, as he’s been involved in racing and been associated with NAPA for a long time.”
Elliott has three Truck wins, most recently at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May 2020.
Full-time driver Jake Garcia will return to the No. 35 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on his 18th birthday, March 3. That will also be the first day where he is eligible to compete in a NASCAR vehicle on bigger tracks.
Elliott and Garcia will get to work with Mark Hillman, who was Colby Howard’s crew chief in 2022.
Garcia’s teammate Christian Eckes will get crew chief Charles Denike for his first season in the BMR No. 19 Chevrolet.
Denike joined the No. 19 team with nine races to go and led then-driver Derek Kraus to three top-10 finishes and a pole in that time.
Overseeing BMR is Chad Norris, who is the organization’s new general manager. Norris was with GMS Racing before making the move to BMR.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series opens its season, Feb. 17 at Daytona International Speedway. The green flag is set to fly at 7:30 p.m. ET (TV: FS1; Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Ch. 90)
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com