The University of Connecticut and driver Nick Anglace are embarking on an unprecedented NASCAR Truck Series partnership that extends far beyond conventional sponsorships, creating hands-on opportunities for students and intensifying UConn’s presence in motorsports. In 2026, this collaboration aims to integrate students directly into race team operations, offering a new level of academic and practical engagement while furthering the school’s brand visibility in the national racing arena.
Moving Beyond Traditional Sponsorship in Motorsports
Within the racing world, sponsorship deals have a wide range. Some simply offer materials or products in exchange for brand placement, while others provide significant financial contributions to secure prominent visibility. Each brand and team brings its unique goals and expectations to the partnership, seeking both activation and opportunity for growth.
This shift was evident at Stafford Speedway in 2025, when Nick Anglace competed as an SK Light Modified driver under the eye-catching blue and white of UConn. For UConn, a major public research university, sponsoring a race team was a novel marketing path, chosen to enhance how—not just where—their brand showed up in the public eye.
“From our perspective, it was everything that we could have hoped for,”
said Kyle Muncy, UConn’s Director of Brand Partnerships.
“He had success on the track, which I think was really really important for him I think because he put a lot of pressure on himself to want to be successful. I can tell you that was a great byproduct of his hard work and dedication, but from our perspective, we weren’t going to view this as whether is was successful or not based on whether he was winning races. That’s obviously awesome and we expect and believe that he’s going to continue to be successful. But I think from our perspective it really was about visibility. A different way for the UConn brand to be visible. I think we really are just scratching the surface.”
– Kyle Muncy, Director of Brand Partnerships at UConn
Expanding the Partnership: Vision for 2026 in the NASCAR Truck Series
Building upon early success, the partnership between Anglace and UConn is set to evolve further. In 2026, Anglace hopes to secure starts in as many as five NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races with support from UConn, in cooperation with Mike Harmon Racing. What makes this NASCAR Truck Series partnership unique is the intention for UConn not just to serve as a sponsor, but to actively participate in the operational side of race team management, offering students meaningful roles in engineering, marketing, and operations.
The UConn Formula SAE team, a student-run group renowned for constructing collegiate-level race cars, becomes a key part of this initiative. Drawing from a deep well of talent across engineering and business, these students will transition from the campus workshop to the national racing stage. This connection aims to blend the excitement of motorsports with real-world applications for students, bridging their academic pursuits with direct involvement in high-level competition.
Integrating Student Expertise into Race Team Operations
The plan shaping up for 2026 is designed to make the Truck Series team a living learning environment for UConn students. With Anglace’s base moving between Stafford Speedway and national events, a Connecticut shop will bring university expertise to the track in innovative ways.
“UConn’s plan and our plan is to try to turn around Harmon’s team,”
said Nick Anglace, NASCAR driver.
“So UConn has pretty much given me all their engineers that want to come and work on the Truck and try to turn the whole team around for those few races that we’re going to do.”
– Nick Anglace, NASCAR driver
This hands-on philosophy aligns closely with UConn’s vision for engagement and growth through experiential opportunities. Students across multiple disciplines will be able to contribute to the NASCAR Truck Series team’s design, fabrication, logistics, and business operations, gaining invaluable experience beyond the lecture hall.
UConn’s Long-Term Commitment to Innovative Branding Through Motorsports
Kyle Muncy and the UConn administration see their motorsports involvement as far more than a short-term venture. The aim is to establish alternative platforms for promoting the university, while also cultivating a network of opportunities for students in areas ranging from engineering to marketing to digital media.
“I said to Nick from the beginning, he reached out and I think he was looking at it from a ‘Hey, we need some financial support, why not swing big?’ Muncy said.
“I think from my perspective I looked at it and said ‘You know what, we do marketing on an annual basis, whether it’s billboards around the state, on the highways, or advertising at the airport or advertising all over the place, this is a different way for us to look at advertising. A different way for us to look at how to have people see our brand and where they see our brand. I looked at it as a little bit of a longer range thing. I said ‘Ok, you seem to have aspirations that line up with the mission of our institution, which is to be the best at what we do, regardless of what that is. Whether that’s playing basketball gams or research or anything from an academic perspective or student life perspective. You know, we’re going to do it, we want to do it the best. He seemed to have that type of attitude.”
– Kyle Muncy, Director of Brand Partnerships at UConn
“I think I even said to him jokingly at the beginning: ‘We’re willing to do this, we’ll see how it goes, optimistic that it will go well and when it goes really really well just don’t forget us when you’re famous.’ I think from our perspective we couldn’t be happier with sort of the direction it’s trending.”
– Kyle Muncy, Director of Brand Partnerships at UConn
This vision extends to collaborating with organizations like Mike Harmon Racing, as well as leveraging UConn’s internal resources to create new learning and career pathways for their student body.
Paving the Road to National Racing with a Broader Educational Mission
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series serves as the third tier in NASCAR’s national hierarchy, below the Cup Series and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (previously Xfinity Series). By targeting several Truck Series starts for Anglace in 2026, UConn and their driver are also working strategically to fulfill NASCAR’s requirements for eventual advancement to higher series, echoing the path taken by competitors like Ryan Preece. Preece, a former Stafford Speedway regular, gained attention with his performances in the Xfinity Series in 2017, later securing a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series with RFK Racing after strong showings with Joe Gibbs Racing.
Anglace’s goal aligns with this model, seeking to maximize race starts on a limited budget in hopes of progressing through NASCAR’s approval process and possibly gaining entry to the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series as soon as the same year.
“Essentially what the plan is is that we’re going to try and spend less money to do more races [with the Craftsman Truck Series] so that we can get through NASCAR’s approval process and then kind of gamble like [Ryan Preece] did in the [second tier NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series],”
said Nick Anglace, NASCAR driver.
Building a Multi-Faceted Partnership: Opportunities for UConn’s Entire Campus
The collaboration’s implications stretch into many corners of UConn’s academic landscape. Rather than being tied solely to athletics, the partnership is promoted as a university-wide initiative, creating experiential learning opportunities for students from all majors—ranging from engineering, marketing, and finance to digital media and the fine arts.
“Especially early on in the partnership when it became public, I was pretty persistent with Nick about saying ‘Hey, I need you to make sure that you say you’ve partnered with UConn, you’re not partnered UConn athletics, because it’s not just about athletics, it really is about the entire institution and the opportunities that exist,”
Muncy said.
“There are layers and layers and layers of opportunity with so many things that we have going on on our campus. It’s nice to have the race car at a football game or a basketball game where people can see it and touch it or take pictures with Nick, but we have students … so if all of the sudden as part of an academic program or student programing here on our campus, you can do an internship with a racing team, whether that’s as a College of Engineering student because you’re interested in the mechanics of a how a race car works, or it could be in the School of Business because you’re interested in the marketing or the finance aspect of how a race car team works, or frankly it could be the School of Fine Arts or Digital Media and Design because you’re going to work with Nick on promotional campaigns or advertising or different things along those lines.”
– Kyle Muncy, Director of Brand Partnerships at UConn
“There’s really this incredible network of incredibly talented students and faculty and staff on our campus that could look at this and say ‘Hey, this is a really really cool thing, come to UConn and you can do internship with a racing team’, that’s not something I think that anybody would ever think they’d be saying about as an opportunity here at UConn. I know that my colleagues in the College of Engineering are incredibly excited about these types of things. Anytime you can provide an experience that for one reason or another has this sort of [feeling] of like ‘Oh, that’s fun, that’s sports, that’s connected to competition.’ It’s totally different and dials up the attention meter.”
– Kyle Muncy, Director of Brand Partnerships at UConn
Nurturing Racing Talent While Fostering Academic Excellence
Nick Anglace’s 2025 season at Stafford stood out, finishing fifth in the SK Light Modified standings and capturing three wins. For the 2026 season, plans include racing full-time in the SK Light Modified division, alongside selected appearances in the SK Modified and Tour Type Modified events—and, crucially, stepping into the national stage via the NASCAR Truck Series partnership.
The Formula SAE team will be woven into every aspect of Anglace’s 2026 campaign, bringing a collaborative spirit from the university’s campus to tracks across the country.
“What I love the most about Nick’s time with the Formula SAE team was how jacked he was because he came away from that going … ‘Holy cow, this awesome. These are my people.’ That’s the really really cool part of it.”
– Kyle Muncy, Director of Brand Partnerships at UConn
Shaping the Future of Motorsports and Student Opportunity
As UConn and Anglace gear up for their groundbreaking partnership in the NASCAR Truck Series, they represent a new era of collaboration between higher education and professional sports. By fostering a hands-on, multidisciplinary environment, they are set to impact the lives and careers of students while elevating UConn’s brand and pushing the boundaries of how universities engage with the world of racing.
This innovative approach may serve as a template for other schools and sports organizations looking to bridge the gap between academics and high-octane professions, ensuring that future engineers, marketers, and media professionals are prepared for both the thrill of competition and the demands of the modern workplace.
