INTERVIEW: Spencer Boyd on Nathan Nicholson and the 2026 season for Freedom Racing Enterprises (6/19/26)

by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief

Nicholson’s truck after a rough end to his race in San Diego. (PHOTO: Brock Beard)

Tomorrow, Nathan Nicholson will roll off 33rd the #76 Freedom Warranty / Whelen Engineering Chevrolet for Freedom Racing Enterprises (FRE) in the FaithFest 250 at North Wilkesboro. It will be Nicholson’s first start since last month’s race in San Diego, where he contended for a top-ten finish before a late wreck left him 28th. I caught up with team owner Spencer Boyd after that race to talk about Nicholson and FRE’s performance in 2026.

Q: Congratulations on a great run by Nicholson – tell me about the race.

A: Yeah, man, we're super proud of Nathan and the opportunity he's had with us and Whelen and Watt to represent such big companies - big in motor sports. So them believing in our small team, it's exciting to go up there and battle in the Top 15, Top 10. We’ve got a lot of belief in him and a lot of belief in our equipment at a place like this. Unfortunately, just got a little used up, but that's typically what happens at these road courses. This is only his third race, and not everyone's used to seeing that truck up there in the Top 10, so we're proud of him. It's just tough racing here, and you can see this place is treacherous, so once it goes sideways, you're on for a ride.

Q: How did you and Nathan cross paths?

A: For us, we just had a lot of mutual connections through Miatas and road course racing, and I had done some road course stuff to try and get better on road courses. So, we just had a lot of mutual connections that led to a phone call, and over in December, January, we put this deal together, so we were really excited. San Diego's a big weekend, big deal for Watt, and we felt like it was a good opportunity to go out there to St. Pete and Watkins Glen and get reps and capitalize on it here. And we were really fast at St. Pete too, and got in a mess in there. So, it's tough being a small team, especially after wrecking Michigan a couple weeks ago, but we got a lot of good people behind us, man, a lot of good partners helping us, and even being the underdog guy, I don't mind it.

Q: Is there a possibility FRE expands to two trucks so you can stay full-time driving?

A: I think for me, I enjoy the road courses. I grew up road course go kart racing, but on the NASCAR side, I just haven't done a lot of big stock car stuff on road courses. So I had a lot of fun doing it the last few years, but for me, growing the business, the opportunity to make our organization look good - and get a guy like Nathan, and be a part of starting his career, me owning the team was kind of going out on a limb. And then stepping out of the seat and not running full time, and bringing in young guys like Nathan. It's refreshing. I'm 30 years old, I'm having a lot of fun, and I got a lot of great partners on my side, but it's good to bring in Whelen and Watt.

Q: What is your assessment of FRE going into the rest of this season?

A Yeah, our team's growing, right? You know, when new organizations come in, it kind of changes who works for you and what opportunities are out there. And we got a good group right now working really hard, and a lot of those guys have been with us since the beginning of last year. Some of those guys have been with us since the very beginning of the team two and a half years ago. So we're having a lot of fun growing it. We got some exciting things coming up with some more races that we got some other drivers running, some big name guys, and that's exciting for me. It's exciting, but I also look forward to, like, going to Wilkesboro and driving the 76 truck myself, right? (Nicholson was later announced to drive at Wilkesboro) So, I love being a race car driver, but being a team owner, I found a new way to appreciate the sport and enjoy it.