MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Nestled alongside the long and winding roads that intersect Iredell and Rowan counties is a collection of race shops colloquially named "Mooresville Motorsports Center."
One of those shops on Performance Road is Young's Motorsports, a race team that competes in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and Craftsman Truck Series.
The team does not have an affiliation with a larger NASCAR team like some of their competitors. This independence can create financial challenges on and off the track. Regardless, the dozens of people who work on the team's cars and trucks are pushing Young's Motorsports as far as it can go.
Leland Honeyman drives the No. 42 Chevrolet for Young's Motorsports in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. The 2024 season is the first year that Young's Motorsports has competed in the series.
Honeyman's time with Young's Motorsports began in 2022 when he was tapped to drive for the ARCA Menards Series East team when he was just 17 years old.
He got the call to pilot the team's first Xfinity Series effort in January and was thrilled about the opportunity.
"Tyler [Young] asked if I want to run an Xfinity car and I thought he was just joking but it turned into this deal," Honeyman said. "I'm very excited to keep continuing with him this year."
Young's Motorsports has run in the truck series since 2012. Mason Massey currently drives the No. 02 Chevrolet for the team.
Massey has competed for several teams in the Xfinity and truck series but he's finally been given a full-time ride with Young's Motorsports and is hoping to take advantage of the seat time.
"The team's shop is really impressive," Massey said. "To have an opportunity to race with Tyler has been awesome. We started out okay but every race we've been getting better and better. All the guys work really hard every week."
Both drivers considerably admire Tyler Young, the team's owner. Young started the team with his dad, Randy Young, to fuel his own racing efforts. Tyler Young raced through 2018 before turning his efforts toward running the family team.
The family business is projecting in the right direction but still struggles at times due to low funding.
"It's hard week to week with the alliances all the big teams have," Massey said. "All the way back to 30th place seems like big-money teams."
Despite the setback, Massey believes they can keep up by pushing harder.
"You just have to be on your A-game every week and work hard throughout the week to make sure everything's where it's supposed to be," Massey said. "The money teams have better information, better resources, better parts and everything so we just have to work really hard and have our stuff in order."
The funding imbalance sets different measuring sticks for success than bigger teams might have.
"Our goal is to go out there and run top 20," Honeyman said. "There are 24 cars that have Cup Series alliances in Xfinity so for us to be finishing in the top 20... makes me pretty happy with how we've been doing."
Honeyman's best finish this year was a remarkable fourth-place finish at Talladega, his first career top five. Massey's best run was an 11th-place finish at Martinsville.
Both drivers are excited to take on the Charlotte Motor Speedway just down the road from the team's shop.
"It's amazing racing here very close to home and right in our backyard," Honeyman said. " I used to race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the Bandoleros and legend cars. So it's a special place in my heart for sure."
Young's Motorsports has two wins in the truck series, one with Spencer Boyd (2019 Talladega) and one with Tate Fogleman (2021). The team hopes to return to victory lane soon.
