Truck Series Welcomes a New Class Of Rookies
Jack Wood, Dean Thompson, Lawless Alan, Corey Heim and Blaine Perkins
Last season, we saw Chandler Smith take home the Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, beating some tough competition: Carson Hocevar, Hailie Deegan, Chase Purdy, Kris Wright and Tim Veins.
This year, there’s a new class of rookies looking to add their name to the Sunoco Rookie of the Year winners list: Jack Wood, Dean Thompson, Lawless Alan, Corey Heim and Blaine Perkins.
Jack Wood
Wood made his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut last season with GMS Racing on a part-time basis. In his 12 starts, he posted one top-10 finish at Gateway.
This season, he’s back with GMS Racing and will be driving the No. 24 Chevrolet.
Other Racing History
In 2021, he made eight starts in the ARCA Menards Series for GMS Racing posting one top fives and four top 10s. Also made two ARCA Menards Series East starts for GMS finished 13th in both. … From 2019 – 2021, Wood competed in the ARCA Menards Series West making 17 starts posting one top five and eight top 10s and finished a career-best 11th in 2020 driver points. … From 2016-2018, Wood won the Legends of the Pacific Rookie of the Year, the Pacific Chalenge Series Rookie of the Year. … Wood started his racing career at the age of 14 years old. In 2016, he was able to capture the Legends of the Pacific Young Lion Championship.
Dean Thompson
Thompson made one start in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series last season and was just shy of a top-20 finish, placing 21st.
This season, he’s back for a full season and will be behind the wheel of the No. 40 Niece Motorsports.
Other Racing History
In 2021, he made seven ARCA Menards Series West starts for High Point Racing. He posted two poles, one top fives and two top 10s. He also made two ARCA Menard Series starts posting a one top-10 finish … In 2020 and 2021, he won the Irwindale Speedway LKQ Pick Your Part Late Model Championship with 6 wins and 14 top 5 finishes in 2020, and one win and 13 top fives in 2021. … In 2019, he ran full-time in late models and got a win at Irwindale Speedway. … He also won rookie of the year in the Spears SRL Southwest Tour Series. Thompson began racing at the age of 5, racing quarter midgets at Orange Show Speedway. After taking a break from racing, he returned in 2018 to race late models at the age of 16.
Lawless Alan
Alan’s first stint in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series was last season at the Daytona Road Course. He made nine starts that season posting a best finish of 18th at Bristol.
He’s joining Niece Motorsports this season and will pilot the No. 45 Chevrolet.
Other Racing History
For 2021, Alan competed in the World Racing League (WRL) endurance series in select endurance events with past champions Hammer-Motorsports, driving their Audi RS3 LMS touring car. … The 2020 season began with Alan selected to join the Toyota Driver Development Program driving the Bill McAnally Racing, Toyota Camry, in the ARCA Menards West series. The Fall of 2020 found Alan racing a Legends car. At season’s end, he was the winner of the Legends Pro Road Racing Series championship at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. … In 2019, Alan moved to the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli to focus on his road racing skills. Running all 13 Trans Am TA2 events, Alan took home “Rookie of the Year” and finished fifth overall in the championship. Over the season Alan competed on many of America’s top road courses including Sebring, Road Atlanta, Lime Rock Park, Laguna Seca, The Detroit Grand Prix, Mid-Ohio, Road America, Indianapolis, Circuit of the Americas, and Daytona. … In 2018, Alan won the Late Model Winter Showdown at Kern County Raceway. Alan qualified on pole and set a new track record in the process. In his second season at Irwindale Raceway, Alan took NASCAR’S Home Track Championship with five wins, two Poles and multiple podiums. … In 2017, his first full season in Legends, Alan enjoyed quick success winning Legends’ “Young Lions Division” on the Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s Road Course. 2017 also marked Lawless Alan’s rookie season in the NASCAR Whelen Late Model Series at Irwindale Speedway. Alan had finished fourth in points in California’s NASCAR Home Track Series and forty fourth of more than 1,000 drivers across America. Alan led all rookies in points at Irwindale Speedway with one win, six podiums, a dozen top fives, and more than 20 top 10s.
Corey Heim
Heim_made his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut last season with Kyle Busch Motorsports where he had three starts. He posted a best finish of 11th at Martinsville and had an average finish of 17.3.
He’ll be back with Kyle Busch Motorsports driving the No. 51 Toyota.
Other Racing History
From 2019-2021, Heim competed in the ARCA Menards Series, ran fulltime in 2021 making all 20 starts posting six wins, 16 top fives and 20 top 10s and three poles. Finished the season runner-up in points to Ty Gibbs. … In 2020, Heim won Speed fest. … In 2020-2021, Heim also participated in the ARCA Menards Series East, making six starts posting six top-10 finishes. He also competed in the ARCA Menards Series West posting two top 10s in as many starts. … In 2018, he finished third in the Bristol Motor Speedway U.S. Short Track Nationals Super Late Model event, also in the New Smyrna Speed Weeks finished third, was runner-up at the Martinsville Speedway Late Model Stock race. Also in 2018 he won the CARS Tour Super Late Model South Boston race and scored a second in the CARS Tour Super Late Model Championship Points. … In 2016 and 2017, Heim competed in Legends Cars becoming the U.S. Legend Car Winter Flurry Young Lion Champion (2016) and the U.S. Legend Car Pro Thursday Night Thunder Champion (2017). … Began racing career in quarter midgets, won the 2014 Quarter Midget Heavy World Formula Championship.
Blaine Perkins
Perkins is scheduled to run fulltime this season with CR7 Motorsports in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Last season, he made his debut in the NASCAR Xfinity Series where he made eight starts for Our Motorsports.
He will be behind the wheel of the No. 9 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet.
Other Racing History
In 2021, Perkins competed in eight NASCAR Xfinity Series events with Our Motorsports. At the Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway on October 2, 2021, Perkins earned the first stage win of his career. … In 2020, Perkins competed full-time in the ARCA Menards Series West. He captured three victories (Utah Motorsports Campus, Evergreen Speedway, and Douglas County Speedway), two pole awards, and led 282 laps en route to second place in the championship point standings. Perkins has a total of five starts in the ARCA Menards Series and 40 starts in the ARCA Menards Series West. … He is a three-time NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series champion (2019, California State Late Model, Irwindale Speedway Late Model, and Kern County Speedway Late Model). At the Irwindale Event Center, in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series, Perkins has a total of seven wins, 44 top-five finishes, and 57 top-10 finishes spanning three years (2015, 2018, 2019) across 59 starts. At 14 years old, he was named the youngest NASCAR sanctioned winner in California. … Perkins also has experience in the SPEARS Southwest Tour Series (2015, 2017), Racecar Factory Spec Late Model Touring Series (2014), SRL Legends Tour/Legends of the Pacific (2012, 2013, 2014) and other major asphalt late model events at the Idaho 208 (2016, 2017) and the Thanksgiving All-Star Classic (2021). …Perkins also has starts in U.S. Legend Cars International and INEX, with starts at the Irwindale Event Center (2010), and the Kern County Raceway Park (2013). For two years, in 2015 and 2016, Perkins had limited starts in the Lucas Oil Modified Series. He also has two starts in the Winter Showdown (2015, 2016) at Kern County (Calif.) Raceway Park.
source: NASCAR Media
