With Carson Hocevar moving up to the NASCAR Cup Series in 2024, Niece Motorsports has named Matt Mills as his successor in the #42 Chevrolet Silverado RST for the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season.
“I’m really excited to join the Niece Motorsports team for the full Truck Series season next year,” said Mills. “This is a great opportunity for me to get into top-tier equipment. It felt good to get on track this year and show speed, and I’m looking forward to the opportunity to continue that.”
Mills has raced sporadically in the Trucks since 2016, including six races for Young’s Motorsports and two for Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2023. The latter team was Mills’ first in the series with at least competitive equipment, and he showed out in his KBM début when he finished fifth at Richmond; it was his best career finish in any top-three division race and just the second top ten in his national series career.
Although he has never run a full schedule in any of the top three series, he did every Xfinity Series race outside of the road courses from 2019 to 2022 for B.J. McLeod Motorsports. He scored a tenth at Daytona in 2019 en route to his best career points finish of twenty-first. For 2023, Mills has run four races for Emerling-Gase Motorsports with a nineteenth at Kansas.
“I think a lot of people took notice of Matt this year at Richmond and Milwaukee,” commented Niece general manager Cody Efaw. “He’ll be a great addition to our organisation as we look to continue the success the #42 team had this season. Matt has a lot of laps under his belt in both the Truck and Xfinity Series. It’s tough to get in these trucks just a few times a year and show speed like Matt did, so I think there will be a lot of growth next season as he’s able to race week after week.”
He will have large shoes to fill at Niece as Hocevar is currently second in the championship with three victories. The team also fields the multi-driver #41 and #45 for Lawless Alan, though Mills is the only confirmed driver on the 2024 roster. Shane van Gisbergen is also expected to race for Niece again as part of his development deal with ally Trackhouse Racing; the Supercars star did a one-off with Niece at Indianapolis.