Baltazar Leguizamon joins CHK for COTA Xfinity

Baltazar Leguizamón was originally set to make his NASCAR Xfinity Series début at Circuit of the Americas with MBM Motorsports before that was dropped as he could not find enough funding for the seat. However, CHK Racing was willing to lend a hand. On Monday night, the team announced he will drive the #74 Chevrolet Camaro at COTA on 25 March with backing from TEDIT and Alstadt Brewery.

Leguizamón will be the first Argentinian driver to compete in a NASCAR national series. Regional divisions like the Mexico Series and ARCA have seen fellow Argentines Waldemar Coronas and Guillermo Ortelli, though neither went on to race in the top three tiers.

The 22-year-old mainly competes in open-wheel racing, finishing second in the 2017 F3 Americas Championship followed by winning the 2018 Atlantic and Formula 4 United States Championships. He returned to Argentina in 2019 and nowadays races in the Top Race Series for DM Team with two career podiums.

“I’m really happy to have a dream becoming real, can’t be more excited to represent Argentina for the first time ever in a NASCAR national series,” said Leguizamón. “Hope to have a good weekend, our goal will be to finish the race, I have a lot of work to do with no prior testing, so it’s going to be the best challenge of my life.”

Despite the COTA plans falling apart, MBM expressed hope of having him return later in the year as Leguizamón had joined the team for the full road course calendar. Cameron Lawrence will drive for the team at COTA.

CHK fields the #74 for Ryan Vargas, who also works for the team as a consultant, and Dawson Cram. After Vargas missed the first three races, Cram finished thirty-eighth at Phoenix with a fuel pump failure before failing to qualify at Atlanta.