This weekend’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway is a hometown race for fan-favorite driver Brad Perez, and to celebrate, he’s going to be making quite the splash on the racetrack.
That (of course) is a reference to the Miami Dolphins, in which Perez is a massive fan, and this weekend, it’s managed to work its way into his racing efforts, as he makes his 27th career start in NASCAR’s second-tier division.
Perez will get behind the wheel of the No. 42 KSDT Advisors / Luckiest Man Sports Cards Chevrolet Camaro for Young’s Motorsports in Saturday’s 300-mile contest from Homestead-Miami Speedway, featuring a paint scheme that carries the notorious aqua and orange colors of the Miami Dolphins.
That’s not even the best part… the paint scheme (probably) isn’t even meant to be a nod to the Miami Dolphins (again, I said probably), it’s a throwback scheme honoring Jerry Nadeau, who drove the aqua and orange No. 13 First Plus Loans Ford Taurus for Elliott-Marino Racing during the 1998 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season.
Nadeau, a native of Danbury, Connecticut, made 177 NASCAR Cup Series starts between the years 1995 and 2003, driving for a number of iconic teams at the highest level of American stock car racing, including Hendrick Motorsports and Petty Enterprises. While driving the No. 25 for HMS in 2000, Nadeau went to Victory Lane at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
His time in NASCAR came to an end after a wreck during a NASCAR Winston Cup Series practice at Richmond Raceway, where Nadeau, piloting the No. 01 for MB2 Motorsports, was leading the session and swerved to avoid a slowing car, crashing driver’s side first into the Turn 1 wall – suffering complete immobility of the left side of his body, a skull fracture, concussion, a collapsed lung, and several broken ribs.
On Monday, Nadeau stopped by the Young’s Motorsports shop in North Carolina, ahead of this weekend’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series event at Homestead-Miami Speedway, to see Perez’s No. 42 Chevrolet Camaro dressed up in the colors of his old Elliott-Marino Racing machine and even signed the name rail of the car.
Then, in a special moment between Perez and Nadeau, the NASCAR Cup Series winner got to sit behind the wheel of the No. 42 – and it didn’t take long for the two of them to start talking shop about the seat placement.
Saturday’s 300-miler will mark the third O’Reilly Auto Parts Series start for Perez at Homestead-Miami Speedway, after running the race in 2024 for SS-GreenLight Racing and 2025 for Alpha Prime Racing, recording a pair of 28th-place finishes.
In 2023, Perez ran the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series event at Homestead for Young’s Motorsports in the No. 02 and qualified an incredible 18th, and in the first stage of the race, had driven as high as 13th before finishing the race in 24th.
The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway will take place Saturday, November 7 at 5:00 PM ET on The CW, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
