Meet the newest team in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Faction46! This new truck team officially launched on Thursday, December 7th, 2023, and quickly became a presence on social media.
Today, Saturday, December 9th, 2023 the team called a press conference with the owner, Lane Moore to shed some light on their plans heading into the 2024 Truck season as well as answer the day-old question about the team’s driver/crew chief combo.
So, with no further ado, here is everything we learned from the Faction46 Press Conference!
That’s right! Faction46 plans to compete in all 23 of the scheduled 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races, starting, of course, on the high banks of Daytona. A few alliances and sponsor partnerships, all of which we’ll talk about a little later on, are credited with making it possible for this team to attempt the full schedule.
So, while we have notably lost a couple of teams, most notably GMS Racing, we will gain this new outfit heading into 2024 and they hope to hit the ground running!
Present at the press conference was the owner of this new upstart team, Lane Moore. Lane Moore is a successful entrepreneur who founded the company, Venture Foods. Mr. Moore’s company will serve as one of the key partners for this new truck series venture.
The crew chief of the new No. 46 entry will be Doug George. Once a driver himself, Doug is a great fit for Thad as he can understand the driver’s perspective better than someone who has never competed at the top level.
George was a NASCAR driver in its Cup and Truck Series divisions. He drove professionally from 1994-2000. After calling it a career inside the race car, George turned to being a crew chief and worked for high-profile teams such as Joe Gibbs Racing (where he was the crew chief for the late Coy Gibbs) and Kevin Harvick Incorporated (where he worked with Elliott Sadler).
More recently, George served as the crew chief for the No. 9 Chevy Silverado in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for driver Colby Howard. Goerge is excited about this new opportunity and though he realizes the challenges of starting a new team in NASCAR, he’s optimistic about the team’s technical alliance, which we will discuss a little bit later on.
The driver of this new No. 46 Chevy Silverado Truck will be none other than Thad Moffitt. Thad is a young driver proud to be a part of the Royal Family of NASCAR. Being the son of King Richard’s youngest daughter, he is the grandson of Richard Petty. He has made a career racing in NASCAR in years past, dipping his toes in, here and there, at the ARCA and Truck Series levels. Being a solid road course racer, Moffitt made the leap over to the Trans-Am Series, where he raced in a familiarly Petty-blue-painted No. 43 car.
Now, with the help of Petty’s Garage, Thad Moffitt will return to NASCAR full-time in order to celebrate Petty’s 75-year anniversary of racing.
Affiliated with Thad Moffitt is Petty’s Garage, formerly known as Petty Enterprises. This outfit is primarily a body and car restoration shop. That said, Richard Petty is not involved in the ownership of Faction46 in any way as he is still tied to Legacy Motor Club. He attended this press conference strictly as a grandfather supporting his grandson as the family celebrates 75 years of racing.
To learn more about Thad Moffitt, you can also read the following article:
It was also revealed in this press conference that for its rookie season in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Faction46 will have ties with fellow Chevy Truck competitor, Niece Motorsports. Niece will build and house the team’s No. 46 truck and will also provide technical support.
Niece is one of the more prominent Chevy teams in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and they consistently show up with fast trucks on any given weekend. It will be interesting to see how this team fares in 2024 with this kind of alliance in place.
As mentioned earlier, Lane Moore, the team owner, is a successful businessman. He already owns the company Venture Foods and they will serve as the anchor sponsor in 2024. Other partners lined up to support this new team are Customer’s Bank, Safety-Kleen, Tasty Duck, and Pristine Auction.
Our very own Eric Estepp was at Petty’s Garage today for this massive reveal. You can see the video he posted (or tweeted) on X as this beautiful No. 46 Silverado was revealed to the world.
Eric also shared a close-up with more details.
Let us know, Daily Downforce readers: How excited are you to see Thad Moffitt and this brand-spanking-new NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team in Faction46 take the track in 2024? Let us know what you’re thinking on all of our social media platforms. And, if you haven’t already, be sure to follow @TeamFaction46 on all of their socials as well so that you can stay up to date with everything going on with that team heading into their debut season in 2024!
