Landen Lewis - Navy 250 Race Preview
Event: Navy 250 (50 laps / 170 miles)
Round: 13 of 25 (Regular Season)
Track: Qualcomm Circuit at Naval Base Coronado
Location: Coronado, CA
Date & Time: Friday, June 19 | 7:00 PM ET
Tune-In: FOX Sports 1 | NASCAR Racing Network (NRN) | SiriusXM Ch. 90
Team Stats & Notes
- Niece Motorsports Road Course Stats:
NOAPS Starts: 1; Best Finish: 31st (Victor Gonzalez, Jr. - Watkins Glen, 2018)
NCTS Starts: 60; Poles: 2 (Carson Hocevar - Sonoma, 2022 & Ross Chastain - COTA, 2023) Top-Fives: 5; Top-10s: 16; Best Finish: 3rd (Carson Hocevar - Mid-Ohio, 2023 & Shane van Gisbergen - Watkins Glen, 2026).
- New Track: Friday’s Navy 250 will mark the first time that NASCAR has hosted a race at the Qualcomm Circuit on Naval Base Coronado. San Diego is the second new road course on the schedule this year - with the first being the St. Petersburg Grand Prix.
- Coronado Connection: Niece Motorsports’ Team Founder, Al Niece, has special ties to Naval Base Coronado. While enlisted with the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, Niece was stationed on the base in 1968. He will return to the base for the first time in 56 years when the race takes place.
- Honoring Those Who Have Served: All three of Niece Motorsports’ entries will feature a special tribute on the bed tops including over 160 names of veterans. The list is mostly comprised of relatives of the team’s crew, partners, and ownership group. ‘SGT Al Niece’ will appear on the passenger side name rail locations on the trucks, and a list of KIA soldiers who fought alongside Niece are also represented.
No. 45 J.F. Electric Chevrolet Silverado RST
Driver: Landen Lewis | Crew Chief: Phil Gould
- He’ll Take It From Here: Reigning CARS Tour Late Model Stock Series champion Landen Lewis takes over driving duties for Niece Motorsports’ No. 45 team through the remainder of the season beginning in San Diego. Lewis has made two starts for the team this year, finishing sixth at St. Petersburg and 14th at Rockingham. After splitting the entry with Ross Chastain and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Lewis’ goal is to position the No. 45 team into a run to qualify for the Chase in the owner points.
- Lewis’ NASCAR Road Course Stats:
Landen Lewis will make his first-career NCTS start at San Diego on Friday.
NCTS Starts: 2; Top-10s: 1; Best Finish: 6th (St. Petersburg, 2026).
ARCA West Starts: 4; Poles: 1 (Portland, 2023); Wins: 1 (Portland, 2023); Top-Fives: 1; Top-10s: 2.
- Gould's NASCAR Road Course Stats:
Phil Gould will make his first-career NCTS start as a crew chief at San Diego on Friday.
NOAPS Starts: 19; Top-Fives: 2; Top-10s: 8; Best Finish: 3rd (Mid-Ohio, 2014).
NCTS Starts: 16; Poles: 1 (Sonoma, 2022); Top-Fives: 2; Top-10s: 10; Best Finish: 3rd (Mid-Ohio, 2022).
- On the Truck: Lewis’ No. 45 Chevrolet Silverado RST will race with support from J.F. Electric and Utilitra, who serve as his anchor partners for the season. His truck will carry a special patriotic-themed paint scheme on it this weekend.
- Recapping Michigan: Ross Chastain and the DQS Solutions & Staffing team ran inside the top-10 throughout the race in Michigan, but needed a late caution to rally back to the finish they were hoping for. Chastain drove the No. 45 Silverado to solid finishes in both stages and kept his nose towards the front of the pack all race long. The No. 45 team elected to save a set of new tires in hopes of a late yellow flag, but it proved to be the final stop of the day as the race ran green till the end. Trapped on old tires, the team drifted back to a 17th-place result.
- Owner Points Outlook: Following Chastain’s 17th-place finish in Michigan, the No. 45 team remains eighth in the owner point standings. Ahead of San Diego, the team is eight points behind McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s No. 91 Chevrolet in seventh, and is 20 points ahead of Spire Motorsports’ No. 77 Chevrolet in ninth. The team has a 55-point cushion above the Chase cutline with five races left in the regular season.
- Quoting Lewis: Now that you are in the No. 45 truck for the rest of the year, what is it going to take to keep the team in the Chase?
“I think for us, the biggest thing is consistency week-in and week-out with our J.F. Electric team. I need to continue to learn, make all the laps, and continue to grow. Obviously, I’m going to have a learning curve going to places that I’ve never been to before, but if we can continue to keep building together as a group, we will get better as the year progresses.”
About Niece Motorsports: Niece Motorsports is a professional auto racing team that has competed in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series since 2016. The team is owned by Josh Morris of DQS Solutions and Staffing and the Fowler Family of J.F. Electric and Utilitra, and was founded by United States Marine Corps Veteran Al Niece. At its 80,000 sq. ft. headquarters in Salisbury, NC, Niece Motorsports is a full-service race vehicle build shop as well as a customizable fabrication shop for any manufacturing needs.
Follow the Team: To keep up to date with the latest team news, visit niecemotorsports.com or connect on Facebook and Instagram (@NieceMotorsports) as well as X (@NieceMotorsport).
About J.F. Electric: J.F. Electric is an electrical contractor that provides engineering expertise, backed by construction and installation know-how in a diverse range of service offerings, from utilities and commercial projects, to industrial and telecommunications customers. When having a long family history in an industry, a company not only builds on its knowledge and experience, it takes pride in cultivating a solid understanding of client needs, all the while nurturing strong relationships with its employees. Evolving through five generations of the Fowler family, J.F. Electric has matured into a well-managed and thoughtfully diversified electrical contractor which is poised to continue its growth and expansion into the future.
