Tyler Carpenter made waves in late 2021 when he won a preliminary race at the Gateway Dirt Nationals and celebrated with a very colourful interview in which he compared his opponents to “keyboard warriors” and said the win was for “all you pussies”, resulting in a fine, before backing it up by winning the main event. Said victory was parlayed into a NASCAR Truck Series ride at Knoxville Raceway for Niece Motorsports.
On Friday, the team announced Carpenter will return for the other dirt race on the Truck calendar at Bristol Motor Speedway on 8 April. He will drive the #41 Chevrolet Silverado once again with sponsorship from AutoVentive and Precision Vehicle Logistics.
“I’m really excited for another opportunity to get back behind the wheel of one of these trucks,” Carpenter stated. “I’m thankful for the opportunity from Niece Motorsports, Precision Vehicle Logistics, AutoVentive and Worldwide Express. I learned a lot about these trucks last season and definitely feel like we have something to prove this year.”
Carpenter earned his Truck début at Knoxville via Niece’s “Win and You’re In” programme, which was to reward the winner of the Gateway Dirt Nationals super late model race in St. Louis with a ride at Knoxville. Carpenter had won the 2019 edition while the 2020 race was cancelled due to COVID-19, meaning he was a back-to-back winner entering the Knoxville race. He finished fourth in the 2022 Nationals.
His Knoxville Truck race was cut short by a mechanical failure.
“We are thrilled to have Tyler back behind the wheel this season,” said team general manager Cody Efaw. “Tyler learned a lot last season at Knoxville in the truck that I think will help him this year at Bristol. We expect that with his vast dirt experience and what he learned last year in the truck that he will be in contention for a win at Bristol.”
Serving as Niece’s multi-driver truck, the #41 was piloted by Travis Pastrana in the 2023 season opener at Daytona and Ross Chastain at Las Vegas.