Aric Almirola will drive for Hattori Racing Enterprises in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at North Wilkesboro Speedway on May 18, the team announced May 13.
Almirola will drive the No. 16 with backing from Toyota Tsusho.
“Getting back to the Truck Series with Richie (Wauters, crew chief) has been something I’ve been looking forward to since we first discussed racing at North Wilkesboro a few months ago,” Almirola said in a team release. “I want to thank Shige Hattori for the opportunity to drive the No. 16 Toyota Tsusho Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for the Wright Brands 250.”
North Wilkesboro will be Almirola’s first Truck attempt since 2012. He has two career Truck wins, 19 top fives and 38 top 10s in 78 career starts.
His most recent race was at Texas Motor Speedway on November 2, 2012, where he finished ninth, also with Wauters as his crew chief.
It is also the first Truck start for HRE this season after the team competed full-time for seven consecutive years, most recently with Tyler Ankrum in 2023. Brett Moffitt won the 2018 Truck championship in Hattori’s No. 16 truck.
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Kevin Nix has been with Frontstretch since February 2023. Hailing from Gilbert, Arizona, his dream is to be in the NASCAR media sphere full-time. He is a video assistant, working on the back end to streamline video and audio quality of all at-track interviews. Nix also writes about news every Monday for the site.
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