OPINION: Grading NASCAR Silly Season Moves, Part Four

HINSDALE, N.H. – Just as in the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series grid has changes to talk about entering a new season.

This is part four in a series of columns working through the offseason which looks at how optimistic fans could, and perhaps should, be in regard to the various changes that have already taken place during NASCAR silly season.

With each move, I will give an optimism rating out of 10; the lower the score, the less optimistic I am for the driver and/or team, whereas the higher the score, the more optimistic I am. Keep in mind, these are simply my thoughts as an impartial observer.

Let’s get started once more.

To Note…

Three drivers (Kaden Honeycutt, Dawson Sutton, and Frankie Muniz) will be going from part time to full time next year, so I won’t really count those for the sake of this column.

Honeycutt makes the step up to likely playoff contender with Niece Motorsports, while Sutton gears for a rookie campaign with Rackley W.A.R. (of which his father Curtis is a co-owner) and Muniz joins Reaume Brothers Racing.

The other moves – of drivers coming into the series who weren’t there previously and those shifting teams – are well worth note, however.

Daniel Hemric to McAnally-Hilgemann Racing

Hemric, who passed on his “eternally second place” tag to Sheldon Creed, is headed to chase a Truck Series championship.

The 2021 Xfinity Series champion who beat out Austin Cindric by winning on the last lap at Arizona’s Phoenix Raceway in a near photo-finish is 33 years old now, and this move to the Truck Series might be where he stays for the rest of his career.

Sure, he could win. He is taking over Christian Eckes’ truck, after all, but having good luck against the competition – mainly a dominant Corey Heim will be key.

This is a two out of 10 on optimism, not on performance, but on the likelihood of a championship – which he should easily contend for.

Toni Breidinger to TRICON Garage

Breidinger is taking over for Dean Thompson in the No. 5 truck for TRICON Garage, full time in 2025. It’s crazy to me that not too long ago, there were those of us that thought Thompson was an underrated driver who could possibly score some wins and be a future contender.

Instead, TRICON has now moved on for another rising star. The thing is, ARCA isn’t what ARCA used to be, as I’ve said previously, and for Toni this will either boom or bust. We saw it with Hailie Deegan, where her ARCA success did not translate to the Trucks or Xfinity Series, and Toni doesn’t have the wins that Hailie has from her time in ARCA.

The bar isn’t super high, but Toni needs to prove that she can hang in the Truck Series, because if I know anything, fans online will start pulling out agendas if she does worse than Thompson did.

Congratulations, Toni, welcome to the Truck Series and good luck. For this, I’ll give you a five out of 10 on the optimism scale.

Gio Ruggiero to TRICON Garage

We have a young New Englander joining the top three series of NASCAR! Seekonk, Mass., native Gio Ruggiero is being moved up to the Truck Series full-time, and … let’s just say this is an interesting move.

Ruggiero started racing at a young age but didn’t get into the local short track scene until 2021 at Seekonk (Mass.) Speedway, quickly moved to racing pro late models in 2022, and further increased his schedule in 2023 by running super late models before moving to the ARCA Menards Series last year.

What’s a bit strange is that he hasn’t really had much time in the lower divisions, and yet he’s getting moved up to the Truck Series right away with TRICON. As a New Englander myself, I hope he does well, and he gets enough time in Trucks to learn and prosper. For that, I’ll give this a solid seven out of 10.

Connor Mosack to McAnally-Hilgemann Racing

Welcome to a long-awaited full-time opportunity, Connor Mosack. Its wild writing this and thinking back to pre-2022 and his solid run in the Trans-Am Series, because he had made ARCA starts by that point and did a solid job in said starts while improving over time.

Mosack has two ARCA wins, both at Kansas Speedway and one in replacement of William Sawalich at Joe Gibbs Racing due to age restrictions, so he’s got some clout behind him. He’ll be an underrated driver to keep an eye on, driving the re-branded No. 81 truck.

Hopefully with this first full-time season, he can properly make a name for himself in the NASCAR world. I’ll give him Mosack a six out of 10 and reiterate that people should keep an eye on him, especially on the road courses, as he may just sneak out a win against the more established drivers of the series.

In Closing…

There are still some additional moves that haven’t yet been touched on in this series of columns, and the most notable of those will be the subject of part five in this silly season series to close out the winter!

The opinions expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of Race Face Brand Development, Race Face Media, their staff, partners, or other subsidiaries.