Statistically speaking, the most successful Super Late Model driver in the country is set to make his NASCAR debut in the Craftsman Truck Series on Thursday night at Bristol and it might not be his last.
Cole Butcher is driving the Halmar Friesen No. 62 with veteran crew chief Bruce Cook calling the shots. However, also on the pit box will be Bond Suss, the Toyota Racing pavement development director who has also served as crew chief on their Donnie Wilson Motorsports No. 28.
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Together, Butcher and Suss have dominated the national short track scene the past two seasons with seven ASA national victories and seven more in the ASA Southern Super Series over that period. This doesn’t even include his prestigious Oxford 250 victories in 2023 and 2024.
While most casual racing fans are familiar with Bubba Pollard, Butcher has matched and exceeded some of the greats in their shared discipline over the past 24 months. And at 29-years-old, it was getting to be now or never in terms of a potential NASCAR career.
“A lot of it was confidence,” Butcher told Motorsport.com on Wednesday night. “Sure, its money and most of my partners are Canadian so it’s always making sure the exchange makes sense but we’ve had some mediocre years compared to what I thought my expectations were.
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“A lot of this is my confidence right now and being in the head space of believing we can do this. I’ve been racing drivers who pass through on their way to NASCAR and we have a good record against them, and it was just confidence in believing I can be there too.”
What’s even more impressive is how Butcher responded to a health scare last year when he lost two months of his season due to Afib surgery. He did not miss a beat upon his return but the time also arguably denied him an extra two to three wins given their performance during this time.
“I think everyone around me was more scared about it than I was,” Butcher said. “I wanted to push it back to the end of the season, but my wife, who is in healthcare, convinced me to do the right thing because we had our son on the way and I just didn’t need to be reckless with having him to think about.
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“I feel like I could have raced that next weekend but I was on blood thinners.”
Still, that’s a testament to how determined and maybe even stubborn of a racer Butcher can be. Certainly, he has a reputation that would call him ‘hard-nosed’ at best but also ‘dirty’ from a historical standpoint.
Butcher races hard but he doesn’t disagree there was a time in the not too distant past where he earned his ‘Canadian Snow Plow’ nickname.
“I made some mistakes and lost a lot of respect over the years,” Butcher said. “But I also think I’ve started to earn a lot of it back the past couple of years. When you race down south against Bubba Pollard and Stephen Nasse, you learn a lot about the right way to do things and everyone I race against here are very good and have made me better.”
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For Thursday night, Butcher simply wants to complete all the laps and hopefully finish on the lead lap. Butcher very much hopes to be on the grid full-time next year at Daytona and is in active conversations across the garage in search of a home.
“I’m the type of person that I don’t want to get my hopes up,” Butcher said. “It has to make sense from a financial standpoint and tomorrow night is a big first step in proving that I belong out there too. I do want to race at Daytona and I want to be full-time in a Truck next year.
“I can’t say what I’m doing next year because I honestly don’t know. If I could race full-time and make a living racing against Bubba and Stephen, that is a good life as far as I’m concerned but who doesn’t want to race in NASCAR? We’re working really hard to make that happen.”
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Above all else, for those who have heard of Butcher and even those who don’t, he wants you to know he is a definition short track minded kind of racer.
“I just want them to know I’m a hard-nosed racer,” Butcher said. “I know there are some people out there who think I’m dirty but I want everyone to know I can dish it out but I can take it too. I was racing a CARS Tour race against Nick Loden, I gave him the bumper and he came right back and moved me out of the way.
“I got out of the car and said ‘good job buddy, that’s racing’ and I honestly live for this. That’s entertainment. Classic short track racing. Dale Earnhardt at Richmond.”
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