For the first time since he made his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in 2023, full-time Trackhouse Racing Cup Series driver Shane van Gisbergen competed in a Truck Series race two weekends ago at Watkins Glen International and finished third before going on to win the Cup race.
He didn't compete in this past weekend's Truck Series race at Dover Motor Speedway, and the No. 4 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet, which was the truck he drove at Watkins Glen, wasn't entered at all.
That truck is the team's occasional fourth truck, alongside their full-time No. 42, No. 44, and No. 45 entries, and has only been fielded five times this year.
After a weekend off at the "Monster Mile", the No. 4 Chevrolet is back on the entry list at Charlotte Motor Speedway. But not for van Gisbergen this time around.
SVG replacement confirmed for Charlotte
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who competes full-time in the Cup Series for Hyak Motorsports, made his Truck Series debut in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway behind the wheel of Niece Motorsports' No. 45 truck.
He returned to that truck for the following weekend's race at EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta Motor Speedway) before running the No. 4 truck at Bristol Motor Speedway about a month and a half later. He finished sixth at Daytona, ninth at Atlanta, and 26th at Bristol.
Now he's set to make his second start of the season in the No. 4 truck.
Beyond this weekend, Niece Motorsports' plans for the No. 4 truck currently include two races. Donovan Strauss is set to make his Truck Series debut at North Wilkesboro Speedway in July, while Garrett Mitchell (Cleetus McFarland), who ran the No. 4 entry in the season opener, is also set to compete at Talladega Superspeedway in October.
Andres Perez de Lara is Niece Motorsports' only full-time driver, and he is in the No. 44 Chevrolet. Trackhouse Racing Cup driver Ross Chastain is set to drive the No. 45 Chevrolet for the fifth consecutive race, while Conner Jones is set to make his third start of the year in the No. 42 Chevrolet.
Despite not being in the No. 4 truck this weekend, SVG is still set to compete in the Charlotte Truck Series race. He is set to drive the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, which also made its most recent appearance at Watkins Glen two weekends ago. Cup teammate Connor Zilisch drove it to a runner-up finish in that event, which marked only its second appearance of the season.
Zilisch is set to be in the team's full-time No. 77 entry this weekend after Spire Motorsports made the late decision to take Carson Hocevar out of that truck.
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