There are only nine weeks until the season begins at Daytona International Speedway, and despite a successful rookie campaign in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Nick Sanchez finds himself newly unemployed.
The Miami, Florida-native, who brought Big Machine Racing to Victory Lane for just the second time in their short tenure, was ousted this past weekend in favor of another driver whose identity has yet to be announced.
In a statement posted to social media on Monday, Sanchez claims the move from Big Machine Racing was “strictly business,” and reiterated that again when speaking to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90 on Tuesday.
“I got the call on Saturday and released it on [Monday], so definitely quite shocking, especially in December, given the season that we had, but you know, it’s part of the business,” Sanchez said. “This is definitely not the first time it’s happened to a driver. It sucks that it happened to me, but I think it’ll be for the better.”
Sanchez was widely expected to return to Big Machine Racing for the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series campaign, after a rookie campaign that saw the 24-year-old driver collect a victory at EchoPark Speedway, seven top-fives, and 12 top-10s.
So, why did this happen? While the former champion of the ARCA Menards Series didn’t explicitly deliver the reason why he was released from Big Machine Racing, Sanchez did allude to the fact that it had something to do with financials.
“In my post, I said strictly business, right? So, you could only guess what that means from a financial standpoint,” Sanchez added. “The business revolves around the finances of race teams, and obviously, this team was a little different in that regard the past couple of years, but sounds like something may have changed in a financial way that affected the we did business for this coming year.”
Since winning the championship in the ARCA Menards Series in 2022, Sanchez has gotten the full driver development experience, moving up to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for REV Racing in 2023 and 2024 before jumping into the NASCAR Xfinity (O’Reilly Auto Parts) Series in 2025.
Now, heading into what would be his fourth season of competition in NASCAR’s National Series, Sanchez is scrambling just to find his place in the busy landscape of the sport’s annual ‘silly season’ shuffle. However, despite the series of unfortunate events, all hope is not lost for Sanchez.
“Obviously, December is not the best time to be looking for a competitive opportunity,” Sanchez added. “But, you know, fortunately, I think there are still some good opportunities out there for me to continue full-time in either the Truck Series or the Xfinity Series. So, obviously not the ideal situation to be in as far as options, but I think everything happens for a reason, and I could see this working out better for me in a weird way.”
Sanchez says that he remains open to opportunities in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (as well as, obviously, the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series) because, simply put, “at this stage in the game, you can’t be picky”.
Although his departure from Big Machine Racing is still relatively fresh — considering it happened less than a week ago — Sanchez says he’s already had some conversations with a bunch of people at different organizations.
“I think it’s going to work out,” Sanchez added calmly.
