Freedom Racing Enterprises (FRE), in an interesting turn of fate, has tapped veteran NASCAR National Series crew chief Mike Hillman Sr. to serve as the shot-caller for the No. 76 Chevrolet Silverado.
Hillman, a veteran crew chief with more than 500 starts across NASCAR’s top-three divisions, moves to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team after a multi-year stint with Joey Gase Motorsports in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
The interesting part in all of this, though? Hillman, 72, is replacing his son, Mike Hillman, Jr., as the crew chief for Spencer Boyd.
“NASCAR is a family sport. Our fans bring generations to the race track. Legacy names grace the buildings of our race shops. Drivers and Crew Members share the same last names,” said Spencer Boyd, co-owner of Freedom Racing Enterprises. “Because we are a family team, we’ve decided to keep it in the family in announcing Mike Hillman (Sr.) as the new crew chief for the No. 76 truck. We look forward to carrying on the storied history of the Hillman name in racing as we continue to write ours.”
Boyd is entering his eighth season of competition in NASCAR’s National Series, and his seventh full-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. After being a staple of the Young’s Motorsports driver lineup for several years, the Crave Coeur, Missouri-native, Boyd formed his own team, Freedom Racing Enterprises in 2024.
With 156 total starts in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Boyd has been to Victory Lane once at Talladega Superspeedway in 2019. The 31-year-old driver has a career statline that includes a total of three top-fives and five top-10s, and five total laps led.
The 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series campaign will get underway at Daytona International Speedway on Friday, February 13 at 7:30 PM ET on FS1, NASCAR Radio Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
