Blake Lothian made his NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series debut behind the wheel of the No. 35 Toyota for Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen in the March race at Phoenix Raceway. However, he failed to qualify.
The 23-year-old Wellesley, Massachusetts native returned for this past weekend's race at Rockingham Speedway, albeit behind the wheel of the No. 55 Chevrolet instead, and he made his first official O'Reilly Series start in that race. He finished in 30th place.
Team owner Joey Gase also competed in that race. Aside from his own DNQ for the season opener at Daytona International Speedway, he has only missed one race this year, that being the road course race at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in early March.
NASCAR driver, team owner swap cars at Bristol
Gase finished in 31st place at Rockingham in what was his second start of the year behind the wheel of the No. 35 Chevrolet. The first was a DNF in his first overall start of the year at EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta Motor Speedway) in February.
Both Gase and Lothian are set to return for this Saturday night's race at Bristol to comprise the organization's driver lineup, but they are set to switch cars. Lothian is set to move back to the No. 35 car (now a Chevrolet), while Gase is set to return for his sixth appearance of the year in the No. 55 Chevrolet.
Gase's top finish of the season so far is a 19th place finish at Phoenix Raceway, and that came in the No. 55 car.
With 38 cars on the entry list for Saturday's 300-lap Suburban Propane 300 around the four-turn, 0.533-mile (0.858-kilometer) high-banked Bristol, Tennessee oval, both Gase and Lothian are locked into the field.
The team also field the No. 53 Chevrolet, but only on a part-time basis. That car, which appeared in the season opener when David Starr failed to qualify, is not currently in line to return until the October race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Tune in to the CW Network at 7:30 p.m. ET this Saturday, April 11 for the live broadcast of the Suburban Propane 300 from Bristol Motor Speedway. Start a free trial of FuboTV today and catch all of the action from Thunder Valley!