Parker Chase to make Xfinity debut at COTA for Hunt

Parker Chase is bringing his road course expertise home with him. On Wednesday, Sam Hunt Racing announced Chase will make his NASCAR Xfinity Series début in the #26 Toyota GR Supra at Circuit of the Americas on 26 March. Located in Austin, COTA is approximately an hour drive away from his hometown of New Braunfels, Texas.

“See y’all at COTA,” posted Chase on social media. “Excited to join Sam Hunt Racing this year at my favorite track!”

Chase primarily competes in sports cars, racing in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge for Bryan Herta Autosport. In 2021, he finished runner-up in the MPC TCR class with a win at Mid-Ohio. His 2022 season began with him and Harry Gottsacker finishing forty-second overall and twelfth in TCR at Daytona after being plagued by a driveline problem. A former Ginetta factory driver, Chase won the 2018 Pirelli World Challenge SprintX GT Pro-Am championship.

In 2020, he began dabbling in stock cars by racing in the ARCA Menards Series as a road course ringer, finishing tenth in his first start at Daytona for Chad Bryant Racing. Chase joined Venturini Motorsports a year later and his itinerary shifted to ovals, during which he scored top tens all four starts. He nearly won the 2022 season opener on the Daytona oval as he placed second behind 2021 championship runner-up Corey Heim.

2021 also saw Chase run two NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races for Kyle Busch Motorsports, whose eponymous owner was his team-mate at the 2020 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. After finishing second at the Daytona Road Course, he was eighteenth at COTA.

Sam Hunt Racing fields the #26 for a variety of drivers with Ryan Truex, Jeffrey Earnhardt, and John Hunter Nemechek having made starts so far in 2022. Derek Griffith will also pilot the car for two races. In 2021, the #26 was driven by Kris Wright at the road courses.