How a 28-year-old went from working security at Coca-Cola 600 to NASCAR team owner

Spencer Boyd’s younger self wouldn’t believe it.

The NASCAR driver strapped in his car and headed to Charlotte Motor Speedway on Monday morning. It’s a destination to which he’s headed countless times since moving from St. Louis to North Carolina at age 14 to “chase the racing dream.”

But until Monday, he wasn’t the one holding press conferences inside the Concord track’s infield media center, nor was he even able to attend them.

Ten years ago Boyd worked as a security guard at the Coca-Cola 600. Nine years ago, he had a gig selling cars at Hendrick Chrysler Dodge.

“I never would have thought we’d be here,” Boyd, 28, told The Charlotte Observer after announcing his new Craftsman Truck Series team, Freedom Racing Enterprises. “Growing up here the last 14 years in Concord, I love the area, can’t help but find people in this area that are in racing. Networked a lot, and it led to these opportunities that I have today.”

Boyd, who co-owns Freedom Racing Enterprises and will pilot its No. 76 Chevrolet Silverado, started racing go-karts at 5 years old while initially growing up in Missouri. He realized quickly the importance of being in the Charlotte area to break into NASCAR, and he and his parents moved east nine years later.

While selling cars at Hendrick Chrysler Dodge, which taught him a great deal about marketing and sales within NASCAR, he was attending Rowan-Cabarrus Community College. “Harvard by the highway,” he said he calls it, and added they were flexible with his racing schedule while he was studying there.

“It was a good opportunity to go to school, kind of have that backup plan. What I learn there, I use every day,” Boyd told The Observer. “No knock on getting an education, for sure, I’m glad I was able to do that before I even got into NASCAR. It helped me along the way.”

Boyd entered the sport in 2016 and has spent the past five seasons competing in the Truck Series. After competing in the Xfinity Series full-time in 2018 with Bobby Dotter’s SS Greenlight Racing — for whom Boyd also drove a No. 76 Chevy — he joined Young’s Motorsports in the Truck Series.

Jeff Hammond, a FOX NASCAR commentator and former crew chief, is the team’s general manager. Chris Miller, CEO of Freedom Warranty, teamed up with Boyd as a co-owner.

“I wouldn’t just be doing this just for the heck of doing it,” Hammond said Monday. “I’ve got a purpose, and the purpose is to give this young man and this gentleman right here an opportunity to come into the sport and make a statement. Right now, we just took the first big step.”

Hammond met with Boyd’s father, Paul, three years ago and laid out his vision for starting a team. They worked closely throughout the back half of 2023, and this team became a reality.

Boyd’s win at Talladega in 2019 is his only victory in the Truck Series.

He said speedway racing is his favorite, and that’s what he’ll be doing when he makes his Freedom Racing Enterprises debut as the season opens Feb. 16 at Daytona.