Bayley Currey made his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut in 2017, just one day before his 21st birthday.
After piecing part-time deals together in the NASCAR Cup, Xfinity and Truck series between 2017-21, Currey signed with JD Motorsports to drive the team’s No. 4 Xfinity car in 2022. Five years and nearly a dozen car owners later, Currey had finally found a full-time ride in NASCAR’s highest divisions.
In 30 races this season, Currey has recorded 11 top-20 finishes with JDM, a number that includes his second career top-10 finish with a 10th-place result at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in July.
With his performance this season, Currey has an agreement to return to the Johnny Davis-owned team for a second full-time season in 2023. As one could imagine, Currey is excited to have next year’s plans squared away before the start of the offseason.
“It’s good,” Currey told Frontstretch. “[Returning] takes pressure off. You mean I remember last year, going through the offseason, all the way to December and not having anything kind of set in stone. And the feel to have something set in stone before we even get done with the year feels really good. Takes a lot of pressure off my back for sure, and I’m sure Johnny’s as well.”
Currey’s rise to become a full-time fixture in the series is impressive when considering that Currey himself didn’t believe that it would happen.
“I raced go karts for a little bit, but I really ran Bandoleros and Legends cars in the fifth-mile off the back straightaway at [Texas Motor Speedway] for years and years and years and always wanted to be a NASCAR driver when I was a kid,” Currey said. “And then kind of realized probably what’s going to happen: don’t have the funding, don’t have the money, don’t have the resources. So really, for a long time, I was racing, just racing.
“I wasn’t trying to be a NASCAR driver, wasn’t really trying to do anything. I just wanted to be the best late model guy I could, try to go to Pensacola (home of the prestigious Snowball Derby) and hang with those guys and try to win races. Over on the east, the Gulf Coast over there and be good.”
But after racing late models and attending college, Currey began working as a crew member in the summer of 2017 before getting the call to drive a truck for the first time in October 2017.
“I had no intention of being a NASCAR driver whenever I got the call to come try to do it,” Currey said. “I was…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Frontstretch…