I am joined today by NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regular Ryan Truex. We talked a little bit about the 2021 season and how everything came together at Niece Motorsports. We also discussed last week's Bristol dirt race, his experience, and what races he looks forward to this year.

SportsMap: I am joined today by one of my favorite drivers in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, Ryan how are you?

Ryan Truex: I'm great thanks for having me on!

SM: It's an honor to talk to you. I have been following you since your K&N East days and am glad to see you at Neice Motorsports!

RT: I appreciate it! It's been quite a journey, I am happy to still be doing it.

SM: It's been great to see you sign with Niece Motorsports. Talk a little bit about how that deal came together.

RT: Yeah, the big thing for me was I wanted to go back to racing full-time, and I figured this team would be a good fit for me. I talked to owner Al Niece about it, and they were willing to commit to it and my sponsors were willing to commit to it, so it was good to get a deal done early. Usually deals get done for me in January.

SM: So, I wanted to talk about that Bristol dirt race. What was your take on the race overall?

RT: Yeah, I had a lot of fun. It was really a big unknown for me, I didn't know how I would do. I have never raced dirt, so I really didn't know exactly what the track would do but luckily my spotter, Steve Reeves, is a champion sprint car driver, so he's been a big help with the track conditions. We really had a lot of issues with overheating and had to go to the back twice which really hurt us. And we ended up finishing twentieth but speed wise we had a really good truck, so I had a really good time and things look promising.

SM: Another big story that came to light yesterday was the announcement that NASCAR would be testing the rain tires at Martinsville. Do you think it would be possible to run rain tires on an oval?

RT: It's definitely possible. It just depends on what kind of race you would want to see. If you gotta go out there, and you're going 70 miles and hour and nobody can pass anybody, then I think you can do it anywhere. But that's not really a good show for the fans, but I think Martinsville is flat enough to where they can get it done.

SM: This 2021 truck series schedule is very diverse with many varieties of tracks, is there a race you guys have circled that you look forward to going to?

RT: Well our big focus is the mile and a half stuff as that's the bulk of our schedule and I felt like we had some work to do on those tracks speed wise and handling wise, so that's really been our big focus.

You can hear the rest of the interview below: