As his second season running full-time in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks Series concludes next weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, it appears that Andres Perez De Lara has started to hit his stride with the No. 44 Niece Motorsports team.
After recording an eighth-place finish at Charlotte earlier this month, Perez came to Martinsville Speedway, a track that he’s had success on before in the Truck Series, and put together a career-best run, finishing sixth.
It’s the fourth top-10 result of the year for the Mexico City, Mexico-native (a career-high), whose tenure with Niece Motorsports began towards the end of last season after a late-season departure from Spire Motorsports.
According to Perez, who spoke with members of the media post-race at Martinsville Speedway, the result was the culmination of finally avoiding the trouble that has plagued them throughout the season and getting the finish that the No. 44 Chevrolet Silverado RST actually deserved.
“It was a really solid day overall,” Perez said. “We had some pace from the get-go in practice and qualifying, so definitely that helped, but the truck was really fast – we even managed some brake issues throughout the race – but still ended up having a really solid day. So, really happy to finally capitalize on all the speed we have. I think this year we’ve had some really strong races and we just have not finished, so happy to finish this one with a strong run.”
The sixth-place finish edges out his previous-best NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series result of seventh (three times), which came last Spring at Martinsville, and earlier this season at St. Petersburg and Lime Rock Park.
Heading into the season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Perez is sitting a career-best 15th NASCAR Truck Series point standings. However, the 2024 ARCA Menards Series champion says he feels like the No. 44 team has had a lot more speed than they’ve shown with their finishes this season.
“I feel like just finishing where we were running is what we needed, just needed to stay out of trouble, because we’ve been inside of trouble for most of the races, some of it not our fault, most of it. I think it’s just happy to finish a race where we kind of deserve it, whereas Kansas, we were running top-five and we got a flat tire.”
“Like I said, I feel like just finishing where we were running is what we needed; just needed to stay out of trouble cause we’ve been inside of trouble for most of the races, some of it not our fault, most of it. I think it’s just happy to finish a race where we kind of deserve it, whereas Kansas we were running top-five and we got a flat tire.”
It was a strong night, start-to-finish, for Perez, who was quick in Friday’s 50-minute practice session from Martinsville, and qualified a solid 13th, before methodically moving his way into the top-10 to collect stage points in Stage 1 and Stage 2.
Throughout the closing stages of the race, Perez slowly advanced himself forward and put himself in contention for a top-five result, falling a position short after attempting to chase down Tristan McKee for the final spot inside the top-five.
Photo: Tyson Gifford (used with permission)
