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)