NICK SANCHEZ - 06/10/2001
Sanchez as born and raised in Miami, FL in a Cuban-American home with his parents and two younger sisters. Sanchez's father immigrated to the United States from Cuba on the Mariel boatlift when he was eight years old. Growing up, Nick's father had a construction company and he loved riding on his construction equipment - excavators, backhoes, and bobcats. That began his love for anything with wheels. From the time he was two, he could always be found driving around their backyard in either a ride-on power wheel, ATV, or a dune buggy. That started his love for driving. When he was 5, his great uncle gave us tickets to a NASCAR truck race at Homestead-Miami Speedway and he was hooked on racing. At the age of 6, Nick went onto competing at his local BMX track which was the closest thing to racing something with wheels. The following year when he was 7, his parents enrolled him in a tackle football team because of his mother’s love for the sport and their home teams, The Miami Hurricanes and Dolphins. Sanchez played on that team for five years.
Although during his last two years, he knew he wanted to race cars of some sort. After begging his parents to allow him to get into racing, they finally found a local go-karting team that he could join. When he was 12, he began competing in go-kart races around Florida and continued for the next three years. Nick raced on multiple national circuits including Rok Cup USA and The Florida Winter Tour. His home track and where he practiced weekly was the karting track on the grounds outside of Homestead-Miami Speedway. He always looked up to the big track and said he hoped to race there someday in NASCAR. In 2017, right after his 16th birthday, he earned a coveted spot on
Summer Sizzler winner Myrtle Beach 2019
ARCA First win - Kansas 2021
Rev Racing, the NASCAR diversity team. That summer, he competed in the Bojangles Summer Shootout at the Charlotte Motor Speedway racing legend cars. He came in 5th in the overall championship. As a result of being accepted into the Drive for Diversity program, and given a ride with Rev Racing in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series as well as the then-NASCAR K&N Pro Series East in 2019. He made his debut in both races of the
doubleheader at South Boston Speedway and then made another start later in the year at New Hampshire. In his first ARCA start he would qualify ninth, but elect to drop to the rear because of his inexperience. He was able to finish 14th. In only his second start in the series, Sanchez would win the pole for the second South Boston race. He led the first 25 laps of the race before being bypassed by Max McLaughlin. He ended up eighth when the checkers fell. In his start at New Hampshire he started sixth, and once again finished eighth. He was also the recipient of the Wendell Scott Trailblazer Award in 2019. When ARCA and NASCAR merged, the East Series and the ARCA Menards Series were brought together and rebranded in 2020, and
ARCA win - Michigan 2022
2022 ARCA Champ
Sanchez continued to compete for Rev Racing in the renamed ARCA Menards Series East. Sanchez became a full-time driver for the team in 2020, replacing Rubén García Jr. in the team's #6 car. He had a good run as the season opened at New Smyrna FL where he started third and finished fourth. He then finished fifth the next race at Toledo. He fell out with mechanical issues at Dover after only 13 laps. He posted two top ten finishes in the other three events. In 2021, Sanchez moved from the East Series to the ARCA Menards Series were brought together and rebranded in 2020, and Sanchez continued to compete for Rev Racing in the renamed ARCA Menards Series East. Sanchez became a full-time driver for the team in 2020, replacing Rubén García Jr. in the team's #6 car. He had a good run as the season opened at New Smyrna FL where
he started third and finished fourth. He then finished fifth the next race at Toledo. He fell out with mechanical issues at Dover after only 13 laps. He posted two top ten finishes in the other three events. In 2021, Sanchez moved from the East Series to the main ARCA Menards Series, competing full-time in Rev's #2 car. (It was initially going to be the #6.) The team also switched from Toyota to Chevrolet that year. He got off to a rough start crashing out of the first two races at Daytona and Phoenix. He finished third at Talladega and was ninth at Kansas. But the next seven races saw him have a worst finish of sixth.
First Xfinity start - Phoenix 2022
First Truck series start - Daytona 2023
Sanchez got his first career ARCA win at Kansas in the season finale, while Ty Gibbs won the championship for that season. For the year he had the lone win, but added nine top five and 13 top ten's in his 18 starts. On October 19, 2021, it was announced that Sanchez would be driving part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for B.J. McLeod Motorsports while continuing to drive full-time for Rev Racing in the main ARCA Menards Series. He would first pilot the #5 Chevrolet at Phoenix Raceway, and at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the #99. He would later depart the team afterwards to drive a partial schedule the
#48 for Big Machine Racing starting at Bristol Motor Speedway. In six starts he had four finishes of 12th or better; with a best finish of seventh, coming at Martinsville. That same year, Sanchez would win three ARCA races (Talladega, Kansas, & Michigan) and the Championship in 2022 by 14 points over Daniel Dye. He finished 20th in the opening race at Daytona, and completed every race. His worst finish besides Daytona would be 12th at Bristol. He completed 2543 of 2555 laps that season; had three wins, nine top five and 16 top ten results. On November 4, 2022, Rev Racing announced its expansion into the NASCAR Truck Series, fielding the #2 Chevrolet for Sanchez in 2023. He won the pole for the season opening Daytona race, and the Rookie brought home his Chevy on the lead lap albieit in 26th place. He was leading at Atlanta with three laps to go; but couldn't fend off Christian Eckes who got by to get the win. He continued to improve as the season progressed: fewer bad runs, and more in the top ten. His consistency made him the only rookie to make the playoffs in 2023. In addition, he won the NASCAR Rookie of the Year honors in the Truck Series. Following the Talladega fall race, Sanchez got into a fight with Matt Crafton in the garage area as a result of an on-track incident when both of their trucks made contact with each other, triggering a multi-truck pileup. NASCAR fined Sanchez $5,000 and Crafton $25,000 for the fight. In addition, Sanchez's father Rene was suspended for two races for his involvement. Sanchez was eliminated at the conclusion of the Round of 8 at Homestead. He won the pole an impressive five times in 2023. Following the purchase of Rev Racing’s technical partner Kyle Busch Motorsports by Spire Motorsports, it was announced that Sanchez would move to Spire and continue racing the #2 Silverado for the 2024 season. Some info from Wikipedia.