Matt Mills will be joining Niece Motorsports in 2024 to drive the number 42 truck, but, who exactly is Matt Mills? Well, we have everything you need to know about Matt Mills and his racing career.
Matt Mills was born on November 14, 1996, in Lynchburg, Virginia. According to Niece Motorsports, he started racing in go-karts at the age of 12 before moving up to late modifieds. The track he saw most of his success at was Midvale Speedway, winning Rookie of the Year in 2012 in modifieds before moving up to late models.
His first NASCAR opportunity came in 2016 at the age of 19. He ran four races for SS Greenlight with a best finish of 21st coming at Phoenix Raceway. He continued to make spot starts in Xfinity and Trucks throughout 2017 and 2018 with 11 Xfinity starts and 7 Truck Series starts.
His best qualifying run came at Michigan in Trucks in 2018 with a fourth-place qualifying run. He also recorded two 17th-place finishes in Trucks in 2017 for his best Truck Series finish. However, Mills got his big break in Xfinty.
In 2019, Mills signed with B.J. McLeod Motorsports, and that is where Mills would find his home for a few years. He entered 90 of 93 Xfinity Series races for the team between 2019 and 2021. 2019 was by far his best season.
Mills’ first career NASCAR top-10 finish came in the summer race at Daytona in 2019 with a 10th place finish. However, he was never able to replicate that success. He never finished in the top-10 again, and his average finish dropped from 24.2 in 2019 to 28.3 in 2021. However, he did make his first career Cup Series start in 2021 at Kansas, finishing 38th, 12 laps down.
In 2022, Mills was scaled back to only 18 races with a career-high 3 DNQs and a staggering 9 DNFs. From there, Mills had his racing opportunities scaled back even further for 2023, but he took advantage.
In 2023, Mills drove in four races for Emerling-Gase Motorsports. He finished all four races with one DNQ at Homestead and a best finish of 19th Kansas. However, it was the Truck Series where Mills shined
He ran six races for Young’s Motorsports, but his best opportunity was with Kyle Busch Motorsports. Mills ran at Richmond Raceway, just a couple of hours away from his birthplace of Lynchburg, Virginia. He started fifth and finished fifth, and it was his best NASCAR finish in any series.
That performance plus some solid runs for Young’s Motorsports impressed Niece Motorsports. Now, Mills is set to compete full-time for the team in 2024. What is in story for Matt Mills heading into 2024?
Magic Johnson, who faced Michael Jordan 18 times on the NBA court, including 13 regular-season games and 5 games in the 1991 NBA Finals, recently offered public praise for 23XI Racing’s rise in the 2026 NASCAR season.
The two former NBA players built their rivalry on NBA courts before competing together on the 1992 U.S. Men’s Olympic Basketball Team, known as the “Dream Team,” where the pair were known as both friends and fierce competitors. In fact, Magic Johnson played a central role in recruiting Michael Jordan and Larry Bird to join the 1992 U.S. Olympic squad.
The defining clash between Johnson and Jordan came in the 1991 NBA Finals, a season that was the shift from the Los Angeles Lakers’ “Showtime” run to the rise of the Chicago Bulls. And now, years later, Johnson turned to social media to compliment MJ’s stock car venture.
The presence of Michael Jordan in the garage has not only drawn fresh eyes to NASCAR, but also widened the sport’s reach beyond its base and placed it on platforms fans haven’t seen in years, like ESPN. The network has not held NASCAR broadcast rights since 2014, and since then, its focus has centered on properties under its umbrella, including the NBA, NFL, and WNBA. But now, even without rights, NASCAR headlines tied to MJ and 23XI Racing’s run have found space throughout their coverage.
MJ’s 23XI Racing team has opened the season with three straight wins with their No. 45 driver, Tyler Reddick. The run began with a win in the Daytona 500, the organization’s first success in that event since its launch in 2021.
Reddick followed with a win at Atlanta and then completed the sweep at the Circuit of the Americas, becoming the first driver in Cup Series history to win the opening three races of a season.
The accomplishment also placed the 23XI Racing team alongside one of the most successful organizations in NASCAR, Petty Enterprises, which last won the first three Cup races of a season in 1963.
When Reddick’s Toyota crossed the start/finish line at COTA, MJ was seen celebrating on pit road with the crew. In post-race remarks, Jordan acknowledged the pressure Reddick carried entering COTA with a chance to sweep the opening stretch. He praised the No. 45 crew and crew chief Billy Scott, and credited co-owner Denny Hamlin as the “mastermind” behind the roster build, citing Hamlin’s role in identifying Reddick’s talent and bringing him into the team.
Lionel Racing finally confirmed the first wave of 2026 NASCAR Authentics 1:64 scale diecast for Monday morning, with the line of retail-exclusive diecast featuring a new look for the new year.
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Chase Pistone, a former competitor on the short track racing circuit in addition to NASCAR’s National Series, has passed away. Pistone, now a successful Legends Car owner, was 42.
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