Jake Garcia is only 18 years old, but he already has a full-time ride in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The Georgia native is currently in the midst of his best statistical season in the series, and his career is seemingly just beginning. How has Garcia been able to find a way into NASCAR at such a young age?
According to his website, Jake Garcia was born on March 3, 2005 in Monroe, Georgia. In 2019, at the age of 14, he began having immense success in Late Models. His home race track was Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida.
In 2019, he won races at tracks like Lucas Oil Raceway and Crisp Motorsports Park. He also won the track championship at Five Flags Speedway as well, with his best performance coming in the track’s marquee event, the Snowball Derby.
Garcia started in 15th and led nine laps on the day. He would go on to finish in second place in the race. One which features drivers such as Chandler Smith, Ty Majeski, Josh Berry, Corey LaJoie, and Corey Heim. In 2020 and 2021, he expanded his late model ventures to the CARS Tour.
He won more races at tracks like Montgomery Motor Speedway, Five Flags Speedway, and Crisp Motorsports Park during those two seasons outside of the CARS Tour, but he also had success in that series as well. In nine CARS Tour races between 2020 and 2021, Garcia finished in the top-10 eight times with six top-5s.
His highlights came at Bristol in 2020 where he would lead a career-high 64 laps en route to a fifth place finish. His best finish of second came in August of 2021 at Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, Virginia to Carson Kvapil.
In November, Garcia ran his first ARCA Menards Series West race at Phoenix. He would start in fourth and finish in sixth, and the Truck Series came calling the following year.
In 2022, Garcia signed with Bill McAnally to run select Truck Series races. Garcia’s Truck Series career got off to a rocky start by failing to qualify at Martinsville. The final five races he would run, he was able to qualify for with steadily improving results.
He finished 29th at Gateway, 28th at Indianapolis Raceway Park, 20th at Richmond, 22nd at Bristol, and 16th at Phoenix. He impressed enough to be asked to drive full-time for McAnally in 2023 in the Truck Series, minus the Daytona 500, which was before Garcia’s 18th birthday.
His first race was the second of the season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and he got his first career top-10 finish. Most importantly, he has brought the car home in one piece every single week. He has yet to record a Truck Series DNF, and he has finished on the lead lap in every race except for Darlington.
His best finish was a fifth place finish at Texas Motor Speedway. At the moment, Garcia looks poised to finish up a solid rookie season in the Truck Series.
With him being only 18 years old, Garcia still has time and room to grow in his ability. Who knows what the potential for him is?
