What’s Happening?

As a rookie in the NASCAR Xfinity Series this season, Dean Thompson has endured some growing pains. Those are to be expected, of course.

But Thompson – a 23-year-old native of Anaheim, California – has shown flashes of major potential. In fact, it could be argued that he’s far exceeded expectations.

After all, Sam Hunt Racing – the organization for which he competes – is at a competitive disadvantage to organizations like Joe Gibbs Racing and JR Motorsports, which have the resources of a NASCAR Cup Series outfit at their proverbial fingertips. Even so, the independently owned and operated team is nipping at the heels of the series’ big boys and making major strides under the leadership of owner Sam Hunt, who founded the organization that bears his name in 2019.

“Every single year, Sam and the teams have been getting better and getting better, and now we’re starting to run with the Gibbs guys on a regular basis, right?” Thompson said. “So, it’s kind of nice to see them start shaking in their boots a little bit. It’s been great. We’re bringing faster and faster and faster cars, and I’ve got to keep up with the cars. We’ve been getting a lot better.”

Like most young people trying to climb the NASCAR ranks, Thompson has few interests outside of racing. But one of them is a hobby that most people might not expect him to pursue.

“I love fighting and UFC,” Thompson said. “I did an amateur kickboxing fight two years ago. I did two fights in one day, and I won one and lost one. That was pretty fun. I trained for that for a while. I love fighting.”

Like an undersized fighter going up against competition two or three times its size, Sam Hunt Racing – which netted four top-five finishes each of the past two Xfinity Series seasons with other drivers – has continued its progression with Thompson as its lone full-time driver in 2025.

As of roughly the midway point of the year, Thompson had posted four top-10 results that included a season-best fifth-place finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

“It was massive for me and the team,” Thompson said of his Charlotte result. “That was Sam Hunt Racing’s best finish on a non-superspeedway intermediate – so not counting Atlanta, obviously. It was huge for all of us. That’s been a big focal point for the team – getting better at Charlotte. I feel like we took a big step forward in the right direction there. I feel like that track really suits me as a driver and how I like to drive. I made my debut there last year, at that track, so that was a full circle moment for me, and it’s really just helped us get better.”

While Charlotte is a high-speed 1.5-mile quad-oval, the other places where Thompson had recorded top-10 finishes as of the season’s midway point were two short tracks (Bristol and Martinsville) and a superspeedway (Daytona). The rookie Xfinity Series driver also owned a pair of 11th-place finishes (Rockingham and Atlanta) and a 12th-place finish on the road course in Mexico City.

All told, Thompson finished outside of the top 20 just four times in his first 17 races as the full-time driver of the No. 26 Sam Hunt Racing Toyota. Those are robust stats for someone still finding his way in NASCAR’s No. 2 division. And the numbers beg a natural question: Could a win be just around the corner for Thompson and his team?

As of press time, Sam Hunt Racing drivers had been shut out of Victory Lane over a total of 205 starts since the organization’s inception.

“I feel like the team is really close, definitely,” Thompson said. “We’ve been making big strides and started running way better and way better. I think it’s definitely on the radar. It’s in the area, right? I think it’s going to have to play out for us. I don’t think we’re in a position at the moment to go dominate a race. I think it’s going to have to be something where the opportunity just kind of falls in our lap, and it’s up to us to take it or not. I think we’re pretty close, but it’s so, so hard to say when it might happen. It’s so hard to win these races. So, hopefully, soon.”

Although Thompson is short on Xfinity Series experience compared to most of the drivers he’s competing against each weekend, he’s no newcomer to NASCAR’s big leagues. Before going full-time racing in the Xfinity Series this year with Sam Hunt Racing, Thompson spent three full seasons in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series after making his truck debut with a single start in 2021.

Thompson made steady gains over his trio of seasons in a truck, improving from a 23rd-place points finish in 2022 to a 16th-place ranking at the end of last season. As a Truck Series rookie for Niece Motorsports in 2022, Thompson didn’t record a top-10 finish. But at the end of that season, Thompson joined TRICON Garage and enjoyed an immediate uptick in performance.

Over two full years with TRICON Garage, Thompson recorded a total of 11 top-10 finishes that included a pair of top-fives. The best part of 2023 and 2024, however, might have been gleaning wisdom and knowledge from team owner and fellow Californian David Gilliland, a former NASCAR Cup Series driver who made 333 starts in the sport’s top division.

“David was very helpful – just to see everything from a driver’s perspective and just to give me tips and pointers during my years there at TRICON,” Thompson said. “He was really someone I could relate to.”

Looking back now, Thompson couldn’t be more thankful for his three years in a truck – which carried benefits that extended beyond just getting seat time in one of NASCAR’s major divisions.

“I love the Xfinity Series and where I’m at right now,” Thompson said. “This team and this car really suit me, and I love where I’m at now, but I couldn’t have gotten here without those years in trucks. I learned a lot of race craft, I learned a lot about how to become a race car driver and how to be and just exist as a race car driver in a totally new place – in North Carolina – being from California.”

Thompson is convinced his Truck Series run also helped prepare him for his promotion this year to the even more competitive Xfinity Series.

“I’m glad I got my feet on the ground in the trucks, and I feel like now in the Xfinity Series, we’re starting to walk before we run,” he said. “It was really helpful for me to drive in the Truck Series. Jumping in the deep end into Xfinity, I feel like, would have been a big mistake. So, yeah, I learned a lot in trucks, and I’m glad I waited until now to get to where I am now.”

Similarly, Thompson says he’s in no major hurry to make the leap to the NASCAR Cup Series. Sure, that’s the end goal – as it is with virtually every young stock car driver – but Thompson has a deep appreciation for this leg of his journey. A journey made possible by his current team owner, a man with whom he established an instant rapport that preceded his time at Sam Hunt Racing.

“We clicked right away,” Thompson said. “He’s just a salt of the earth kind of guy. When I met him, I met the team, and it all just kind of made sense right then. All the guys are pretty awesome, and Sam’s pretty awesome, so I’m pretty lucky.”