MOORESVILLE, NC (November 21, 2022) -- Upon completion of his first full-time season in the TA2 TransAm Series, driver Darin Mock has signed with Nitro Motorsports for his sophomore year of competition. Mock ran with Mike Cope Racing in 2022.
Mock, 20, is the son of former winning NASCAR team owner Butch Mock. Nitro Motorsports is owned by Nick Tucker, a racer himself who has driven and built cars for both asphalt and dirt competition. Nick has a diverse driving background having driven karts, late models, stock cars and open wheel sprint cars. He has competed in ARCA, the NASCAR Truck Series and the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series. Nick also owns Nitro Kart and handles the Toyota Racing Driver Development program in karting and in the TransAm Series
For Mock, this was an opportunity for him to move to a team closer to home and be more involved with day-to-day shop activities.
“I got to know Nick through TA2 events last year” Mock said. “It was impressive how fast they were by sitting on poles and winning races in 2022 as a new team. That always catches everyone’s attention. They run Mike Cope chassis, so that part will be familiar to me at Nitro as well”.
“Derrike Cope (1990 Daytona 500 champion and former NASCAR team General Manager) is involved with the team, so it’s great to have a veteran racer like that involved as a resource to me. My crew chief will be Ron Otto, who has tons of knowledge and experience in many forms of racing.
“The team being local was a big factor because I wanted to get more involved at the shop. Having teammates like Brent Crews (a three-race winner in 2022 at the age of 14) and the Toyota Development Drivers is going to be great. I’m looking forward to working and learning from them.”
Nick Tucker has built his winning TA2 TransAm Series team off the success of Nitro Kart, a multi-time championship team on multiple levels of karting. He likes what he sees in Mock and knows the best is yet to come from his new driver.