FANTASY NASCAR Racin

Bill Mcanally - 08/28/1965
William Hilgemann -
January 13, 2020, BMR announced a partnership with Bill Hilgemann to form McAnally-Hilgemann Racing. McAnally assumed over-seeing the ARCA West series entries, while MHR would field the NASCAR Truck Series teams. MHR fielded the #19 Tundra full-time in the Truck Series for Kraus. The following day, the team revealed a new ARCA Menards Series West driver lineup of Gio Scelzi, (who replaced Derek Kraus who went to drive the MHR truck full time. Jesse Love replaced Hailie Deegan, who left BMR and Toyota's driver development program to compete in the 20-race ARCA Menards Series with DGR. Holley

Hollan would drive the #50 full-time, which was run part-time in 2019. Gracie Trotter would drive the #99, replacing Brittney Zamora, who started the 2020 season without a ride. For the 2020 NASCAR Truck season Kraus got off to a great start finishing fourth at Daytona. He would improve on that when he almost got the win at Darlington, finishing second behind Ben Rhodes. He had a respectable season with three top five and 13 top tens results. In the ARCA Series the team saw the rookies turn in pretty respectable results. Jesse Love would win three times in the eleven race series. His three wins propelled him to the 2020 ARCA West Championship. Not to be outdone, Gio Scelzi also got a win, as did Gracie Trotter. In 2021, McAnally's team participated in the ARCA West Series with full time drivers Jesse Love and Cole Moore. They would cut down from four full time teams to just two. He also ran several drivers on a part-time basis, among those were: Derek Kraus, Amber Balcaen, Jolynn Wilkinson, and Sebastian Arias.

Gracie Trotter moved from MHR to run full time in the main ARCA Series full time for Venturini Motorsports. Love would win twice in 2021, and win the Championship once again. Moore was third in points and had a best finish of second on two occasions. Meanwhile in the Truck series, things proved to be tough for Kraus for his second season as he was only able to get one top five, a fifth at Knoxville. He also only had four top tens. In 2022, McAnally-Hilgemann and McAnally's team switched to Chevrolet,

sixth at Knoxville, and Bristol. He did post seven top tens finishes, and finished inside the top 15 on 16 occasions. Colby Howard was also brought on to compete full time in the truck series as MHR expanded to two full time teams. He had a best finish of eighth and posted nine top 15 finishes. The #35 attempted to make their debut at the 2022 Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 200 at Martinsville Speedway, but failed to qualify with Jake Garcia due to a rained out qualifying. In the ARCA Series, Austin Herzog made his first full-time appearance, but was replaced by Landen Lewis after five rounds. Jack Wood and Colby

Howard also raced part-time. Cole Moore raced full time. Cole Moore is the son of John Moore would make his first West Series start since 2015; driving the #27 car for Bill McAnally Racing in the race at All American Speedway. The two of them would be teammates in the race. It would be the first time that they would race against each other in the West Series. Cole went on to grab the win. It would be the organizations lone win for the year. For 2023, Christian Eckes ran the #19 full-time while 18-year-old rookie Jake

Garcia ran the #35 full-time except for Daytona which was run by Chase Elliott, as Garcia was ineligible for the restrictor plate race due to not being 18 yet. Eckes scored wins at Atlanta, Darlington and Kansas. Eckes was eliminated at the conclusion of the Round of 8 at Homestead. He won two weeks later at Phoenix and finished fifth in the final points standings. He had ten top five and 13 top ten finishes. Garcia had a best finish of second at the season ending race at Phoenix. He had three top five and nine top ten results. On the ARCA side, Tanner Reif drove full time, wheeling the #16 full time, while Dylan Lupton and Caleb Shrader ran a partial

schedule. Tanner failed to win, but did finish third three times. He had five top five and seven top tens, finishing fifth in points. In December 2023, it was announced that Tyler Ankrum would compete for MHR full-time, driving the #18 truck. McAnally-Hilgemann Racing signed Daniel Dye for 2024. Dye used the #43 from his previous team, GMS Racing. Christian Eckes also raced again full time for MHR in 2024. Ankrum had a good season as he finished 11th when the season opened at Daytona. He followed that up the next three weeks with a seventh at Atlanta, and a fifth at Bristol. At Las Vegas, he was fast but couldn't chase down Rajah Caruth, as he finished second. He made it into

the play-offs. But finishes of 14th, eighth, and fifth wasn't good enough, and he was eliminated after the Round of 8. Dye showed improvement over his previous seasons. He finished ninth at Atlanta, and a few weeks later he was sixth at Texas. He added ninth place finishes at Kansas and North Wilkesboro. He had his best career run at Nashville when he was out-run by teammate Christian Eckes, coming home second. He too made the play-offs, but finishes of 32nd, and 27th in the first round, saw him be eliminated. But he had a couple good runs, finishing

third at Talladega, and seventh at Miami-Homestead. Christian Eckes was by far the best driver on the MHR team. He again claimed four wins, and made it into the championship race. His season started with a tenth place run at Daytona, followed by a 32nd place finish at Atlanta when he had brake issues. He then ran off a series of great finishes, in fact he did not finish outside the top ten the rest of the year. He won at Bristol, outrunning Cup star Kyle Busch, and then won again at Martinsville. He was back in the winners circle in Nashville; that coming during

an eight race stretch where his worst finish was fourth. He got his fourth win at Martinville to lock in his spot in the race for the Championship. But at Phoenix, no one had anything for Ty Majeski, as he dominated the race, and won the Championship. Corey Heim finished second and Eckes was third. For the year, in 23 starts, Eckes had 15 top five and 22 top ten finishes. MHR also fielded a fourth truck in 2024. Jack Wood made the most starts (13), but he struggled as his best finish would be a 12th place run at North Wilkesboro. Corey Day made two starts and Zane Smith wheeled the truck for five events. Smith almost won at Kansas when he finished second to Corey Heim. He also

had a third place run at Bristol. Connor Hall and Ryan Reed made the other two starts in the #91 Chevy, both drivers finishes in the top ten. For 2025 Ankrum will be back in the #18, while Daniel Hemric will drive the #19. Connor Mosack has been brought on board to drive the #81, and Jack Wood will drive the #91 full time. Eckes has left the #19 to go to Kaulig Racing, in the Xfinity Series, to drive the #16 vacated by AJ Allmendinger. Allmendinger moved back up to the Cup Series full time. Daniel Dye Also moved up to the Xfinity series, and will be driving the #10 for Kaulig Racing.