McLeod Relishes Premier Truck Series Shot With Spire

B.J. McLeod (Jacob Seelman/Race Face Digital photo)

CONCORD, N.C. – Even though B.J. McLeod’s opportunity to race for Spire Motorsports in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway was a result of years of hard work, it also was the start of a potential future for the journeyman driver.

McLeod is one of the most beloved faces in the NASCAR garage, having the respect of basically everyone who has interacted with him. He has also spent nearly all his career driving for underfunded teams and in his own equipment.

While McLeod has been a journeyman, Friday night’s North Carolina Education Lottery 200 was a step in a new direction for the Wauchula, Fla., native.

Charlotte marked a turning point, as McLeod got his first chance with a proven team. Spire Motorsports started out similarly to McLeod, being underfunded for the first part of their NASCAR tenure, but the last few years have seen the once-small team become a Truck Series powerhouse.

While Spire is doing solidly in the Cup Series, the Truck Series is where they shine the most, particularly since purchasing the assets of Kyle Busch Motorsports at the end of 2023.

Busch came back with Spire and earned a win with them earlier this year at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway, while Kyle Larson won for Spire at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway as well.

The team fields four full-time trucks, with Rajah Caruth and Andres Perez De Lara being their full-time drivers, and the No. 7 and No. 07 having a revolving door of pilots.

McLeod drove the No. 07 at Charlotte, the same team Larson won with in Miami. He worked hard in preparation for the opportunity, and was very excited for it.

“It's been very nice, to put it lightly,” McLeod said after practice and qualifying. “They’ve had my back. They’ve done the best they can to get me up to speed racing with this kind of equipment, and gave me all the information possible. Everybody’s behind me a hundred percent. So that felt really good.

“Obviously practice didn’t go the way I wanted, but I’m about a hundred pounds heavier than most of these drivers. I am a pretty big guy. So, we were off travel wise a little bit. I got a little timid whenever we had the first issue with [the truck] bottoming out and I was like, ‘I just want to take care of it and move around a bit, [and] try to get used to the truck again.’ So, we didn't have any speed.

“In qualifying, we picked up quite a bit. I didn’t give them the right feedback for adjustments after practice and got it too tight, moving into qualifying. It was a lot of mistakes on my side [I’m] trying to clean up. It’s a different deal, man. This is different than anything I’ve ever been in.”

McLeod’s last start in the Truck Series came in 2021 at Darlington (S.C) Raceway, driving for Josh Reaume. Even though the trucks then had very similar bodies to those that are currently run, McLeod noted there are still differences in the vehicles since his last time in them.

“I'll be honest with you, the truck doesn’t drive the same as it used to,” McLeod said. “I drove the new body trucks and everything, but it’s got different characteristics than four years ago. And obviously this is a winning truck. So that's a whole ‘nother thing to get used to. I’ve been in the Cup car for four years now and it drives different than these. I just had a big learning curve in front of me, even though I've got a ton of starts and a lot of seat time.

“You’re only as good as your last week and, and my last week was four years ago.”

The goal of this start for McLeod? It was to see where he stacks up as a driver. After being in the sport since 2010, this opportunity is more about the future for him than the journey it’s been to get to this point.

“My goal this entire time has been [to] see how far off I am in a truck,” McLeod said. “That’s why I wanted a competitive one and see if it’s something I feel like I can build on, or if it’s something I want to build on [and] what direction I want to go. I’d like to compete for wins, eventually. But I just want to see where I’m at as a driver, how behind I am, and what all I need to learn and do better to be able to be able to compete with these guys.

“I think that’s the biggest thing tonight is to run the race and get a full truck race under my belt again [and] reassess where I’m at, as well as how long I think it would take me to actually be competitive … and then go from there.”

B.J. McLeod racing down the frontstretch at Charlotte Motor Speedway Friday. (Scotte Sprinkle/Race Face Digital photo)

McLeod qualified 19th with the handling issues. He and the team worked on the truck throughout the night to get to a comfortable spot, and near the end of stage two, McLeod was happy and was able to start gaining track position.

The only major moment was right after the restart, when Chandler Smith and Ty Majeski came together on the frontstretch.

Connor Mosack came up the track to avoid the crash and squeezed McLeod into the wall, nearly ending his race early. McLeod saved it and came down pit road under yellow for repairs. They fixed the truck and McLeod stayed on the lead lap.

Late in the final stage, green flag pit stops started, and McLeod stayed out longer than most in the hopes of getting a caution. The caution did not fall, and McLeod was forced to pit with 23 laps left.

Even though the late stop shuffled him back outside the top 20, McLeod was able to drive through the field at the end to claim a 15th-place finish, tying his best career finish in the series.

“Like I said earlier, my body weight’s quite a bit different than the majority of these guys, and it hurt us travel-wise,” McLeod said after the race. “We were banging the splitter. We were still [hitting it] hard at the beginning of the race, and taking off on restarts, just sliding up the corner, and got behind there. Then I was off driver-wise. I was just off for, probably 40 or 50 laps pretty bad. Just getting used to these, and getting used to racing somewhere other than a speedway, right? So, I wish I had done better.

“I’m so thankful for the support from everybody, though, and the well wishes we had,” he continued. “It just was really cool to see what everybody said coming up to this. I learned enough, and progressed enough in one night, even with crash damage and all the other stuff. When they said we were 15th, I thought we were 30th. So, I'm looking forward to what I can figure out for the future, because that was fun.

“It was a night for me to learn how to drive equipment at this level. I had to get a lot better, and I improved, I feel like, half of what I needed to. I’ve got a lot of work to do to be where I want to be as a driver, but it was fun, and it was informative. [I] definitely made the improvements that I wanted to.”

Regardless of what happened in the race, whether he would have won or crashed out, the consensus in the garage and among fans was the same: McLeod deserves the opportunity he got Friday night.

Many drivers and fans took to social media to share their appreciation for McLeod and all he has done the past 15 years and express their joy seeing him in a top ride. Now it’s time to see what he does next.

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series returns to action at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway on Friday night, May 30 at 8 pm ET on FS1, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.