Loris Hezemans to make Truck debut at Las Vegas

Coming off his second NASCAR Whelen Euro Series championship, Loris Hezemans‘ adventures in the United States have taken him to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. On Tuesday, Reaume Brothers Racing announced he will drive the #33 in the 4 March race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It will be his first time racing in the series.

Hezemans has been keen on making the jump from European stock car racing to the discipline’s roots in America. In addition to racing for the NWES in 2021, he entered five Xfinity Series races for MBM Motorsports and RBR, failing to qualify at Indianapolis but making the other four with a best finish of twenty-seventh at Pocono. Although the Euro Series has used a road course-only schedule since 2020, all of Hezemans’ 2021 Xfinity attempts save for Indianapolis and the Charlotte Roval were on ovals. He first raced in the Xfinity Series in 2019 as a road course specialist for B.J. McLeod Motorsports, finishing twenty-second at Road America.

Despite missing the Zolder round as he was focusing on the Roval weekend, Hezemans won four races en route to the 2021 NWES title. It was his second series championship after winning in 2019.

For 2022, his primary focus will be in the NASCAR Cup Series, where he is scheduled to drive the six road course races for Team Hezeberg with the possibility of short tracks. The team, which débuted at the Daytona 500 with fellow NWES driver Jacques Villeneuve, is co-owned by Hezemans’ father Toine Hezemans and Ernst Berg and has an alliance with RBR. Hezemans will be the first Dutch driver to compete in NASCAR’s highest level.

With Hezemans emphasising American racing, he will not defend his NWES crown. EuroNASCAR 2 champion Martin Doubek, who filled in for Hezemans at Zolder, is scheduled to take over his #7 Hendriks Motorsport-MOMO car for 2022.

The Dutchman will join Alon Day as Euro Series champions with Truck Series experience. Day, a three-time NWES winner, made two Truck starts in 2016 for Contreras Motorsports. Among the drivers with confirmed NWES rides for 2022, EuroNASCAR 2 veteran Justin Kunz is also familiar with the Trucks, finishing twenty-sixth in his lone series race at Mosport in 2018 for Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing; Cobb raced in both the PRO and EuroNASCAR 2 divisions in 2018 and 2019.