Austin Wayne Self and AM Racing open 2nd truck for Logan Bearden at COTA

[NickHolt]

AM Racing opens second truck for Logan Bearden at COTA

By Justin Nguyen

 

Credit: AM Racing

As the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series heads to Austin, Texas for the XPEL 225 at Circuit of the Americas, AM Racing will have a pair of hometown drivers in its ranks. Joining the full-time #22 Chevrolet Silverado RST driven by Austin native Austin Wayne Self will be a newly formed #37 piloted by fellow Austinite Logan Bearden. The #37 will run a limited schedule in 2022 with multiple drivers including Bearden, who becomes a full-time employee of the team.

“I’ve been friends with Austin for a long time and now to have the opportunity to be his teammate at our hometown track is really a great and unique opportunity,” said Bearden. “AM Racing has been steadily enhancing their programme over the past year and now to have the chance to be part of helping them expand to a second programme is incredibly humbling. With COTA being a hometown race, it certainly puts the pressure on, but I know that the AM Racing team is bringing me a very competitive truck and I look forward to having a successful NASCAR Camping World Truck Series début on Saturday.”

Bearden is a super late model racer who primarily competes in the SRL Southwest Tour Series. He tried to make his Truck début at COTA in 2021 for Niece Motorsports but missed the show. While his late model experience is mainly on oval short tracks, he was not unfamiliar with road racing or COTA prior to his 2021 attempt.

AM Racing has fielded the #22 for Self, whose father Tim owns the team, since 2016. He has enjoyed a strong start to the 2022 season with top-ten finishes in two of three races and is currently seventh in points.

The team sporadically expanded to a second truck for one-off starts, such as Self being in the #32 at the 2017 Daytona race while J.J. Yeley was in the #22. The #37 first raced at Knoxville Raceway in 2021 with Brett Moffitt, who finished thirty-eighth after a crash.

“We’ve been patiently waiting to launch a second AM Racing team and we feel like the opportunity with Logan at COTA is the time to do it,” commented AM Racing co-owner Kevin Cywinski. “We tested the waters last year with Brett Moffitt at Knoxville and immediately saw the benefits of a two-truck team. Logan has been around the AM Racing programme for the past couple of months and he’s certainly fitted in like family. We are thrilled to go to COTA with two teams and allow Logan to showcase his talent in front of a hometown audience, while also looking ahead positively about our No. 37 truck programme throughout the remainder of the 2022 schedule.”

Other drivers for the #37 were not immediately announced.