Big Machine Racing announced Wednesday that Nick Sanchez will drive the team’s No. 48 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Xfinity Series next season.
The 23-year-old driver will make the jump from the Craftsman Truck Series, where he is in his second season of competition with Rev Racing. The Miami native has won twice in the Truck Series this year and is the 2022 ARCA Menards Series champion.
Sanchez will replace Parker Kligerman, who announced last week that he would not return to the No. 48 Chevy next year. Kligerman has driven full-time for Big Machine since 2023 and has virtually clinched his second straight berth in the Xfinity Series Playoffs.
Next year will mark a reunion for Sanchez with the Scott Borchetta-owned organization, which tapped him for six races in the No. 48 ride during the 2022 campaign. That stint yielded a best finish of seventh in the next-to-last race of the season at Martinsville Speedway that fall.
Big Machine also indicated that Patrick Donahue would return as the team’s crew chief, and that Gainbridge would join the organization’s group of partners as an associate sponsor.
“In 2022 we put Nick in our car for a handful of races and he was fast right out of the gate,” Borchetta said in a team release. “At Martinsville in particular, I watched him go full-on, elbows-out, putting the car right where it needed to be, with no fear against the best-of-the-best in the series. Since then, he’s done a fantastic job in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, and I know that he and crew chief Patrick Donahue and the entire Big Machine Racing Team are going to be a force to be reckoned with in 2025.”
Both Sanchez and Big Machine have postseason aspirations to fulfill this year before their new partnerships begin. Sanchez is currently fourth in the Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs, heading to Thursday’s UNOH 200 (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM) at Bristol Motor Speedway with a 34-point margin above the provisional elimination line with two races left in the Round of 10. Kligerman sits plus-85 above elimination ahead of Friday’s Food City 300 (7:30 p.m. ET, CW, PRN, SiriusXM), the regular-season finale at the 0.533-mile Bristol track.
The Big Machine organization has been in operation since the 2021 season. Cup Series regular Tyler Reddick secured the No. 48 team’s lone victory the following season, prevailing at Texas Motor Speedway.
This story will be updated.
