Baltazar Leguizamon to become first Argentinian NASCAR Xfinity driver

While NASCAR is mainly in the United States, its global footprint has grown in recent times including South America, where the sanctioning body now oversees the NASCAR Brasil GT Sprint Race. In neighbouring Argentina, Baltazar Leguizamón seeks to become the first of his countrymen to compete in a NASCAR national division as he joins MBM Motorsports to run the Xfinity Series road courses.

“I am really proud to be the first Argentinean with a NASCAR national series license. It’s been a long way on my career living my dream in international motorsports. All the hard work is paying off right now,” Leguizamón stated.

“I am very thankful to everyone involved with this project: the NASCAR administration; my manager and agent of eight years, Bruce Bohlander; and Carl Long of MBM Motorsports, who opened this door for me and is helping me to reach this level. We’ve won in seven different series, and we want to keep going at this very seriously. Still, we need to find sponsors.

“This is huge for us, for my country, and for South America. It’s my childhood dream beginning to come true.”

Leguizamón made his name in open-wheel racing, finishing runner-up in the 2017 F3 Americas Championship and winning the following year’s Atlantic Championship; he also won in the Formula 4 United States Championship. He returned to Argentina in 2019 to compete in touring cars like the Top Race Series, and he finished eighteenth in the 2022 standings with a podium in the season opener.

As one might expect from his background, the 22-year-old will focus on the NASCAR road courses beginning with Circuit of the Americas on 25 March, while making additional starts is contingent on funding. There are seven other road races on the 2023 Xfinity calendar at Portland International Raceway (3 June), Sonoma Raceway (10 July), the Chicago Street Race (1 July), Road America (29 July), Indianapolis Motor Speedway (12 August), Watkins Glen International (19 August), and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval (7 October).

MBM Motorsports has typically fielded cars for multiple drivers, but had some stability in 2022 as J.J. Yeley entered nearly every race in the #66 while making some starts in the team’s other #13 car. He finished twenty-fourth in points. The team also enlisted the likes of Matt Jaskol, Will Rodgers, and Brad Pérez to run the road races in the #13.