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Hattori Racing Parts With Driver Ryan Truex, Still Plans Full Schedule

Pete McCole

Ryan Truex will not be returning to HRE for the 2018 season

Hattori Racing Enterprises has announced that the team has parted ways with driver Ryan Truex but still plans to run a full season in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in 2018, according to a statement released by the team.

The team has not yet named a replacement driver, but did say that crew chief Scott Zipadelli is remaining with the team.

Truex has spent the past two seasons driving for the HRE – including a full-time schedule in 2017 – where he's tallied nine top-five finishes, 17 top-10's as well as two pole positions.

According to a tweet put out by Motorsports.com reporter Lee Spencer, HRE Competition Driector Mike Greci said Truex was not released by the team, but rather Truex informed the team in mid-December he would not be returning for the 2018 season. Greci also said the team is currently seeking a replacement driver.

HRE, which is owned by former CART, IndyCar and Truck Series driver Shigeaki Hattori, began operations in 2008 and has fielded entries in the NCWTS Series as well as ARCA ans NASCAR Xfinity Series for numerous drivers including Brett Moffitt, Ross Kenseth Johnny Sauter and Alex Bowman.

"Our initial goal this year is to get to victory lane and win our first race," Shigeaki Hattori said in a statement. "We want to make the playoff field and win a championship. We made good progress in the middle of last season by building a new truck, and we’re applying everything we learned to the new Tundras that we have added to our fleet.
"We’re going to be even better prepared in 2018 with a larger inventory of updated trucks and support from TRD to win races and compete for the championship."