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Rick Carelli
Carelli in 1997
Born	Richard Dean Carelli (1954-11-09) November 9, 1954 (age 71) Arvada, Colorado, U.S.
Achievements	1993 NASCAR Winston West Series Champion 1991 NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour Champion
Awards	West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame (2009)
NASCAR Cup Series career
9 races run over 3 years
Best finish	49th (1994)
First race	1992 Save Mart Supermarkets 300 (Sears Point)
Last race	1994 Slick 50 300 (Phoenix)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 0 0
NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series career
2 races run over 2 years
Best finish	119th (2003)
First race	1998 Lycos.com 250 (Pikes Peak)
Last race	2003 TrimSpa Dream Body 250 (Pikes Peak)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 0 0
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career
134 races run over 8 years
Best finish	6th (1995)
First race	1995 Skoal Bandit Copper World Classic (Phoenix)
Last race	2002 Florida Dodge Dealers 250 (Daytona)
First win	1996 Coca-Cola 200 (Bristol)
Last win	2000 Kroger 200 (Richmond)
Wins Top tens Poles 4 60 0
ARCA Menards Series West career
38 races run over 8 years
Best finish	1st (1993)
First race	1991 Motorcraft 500 (Evergreen)
Last race	2001 Pontiac Widetrack Grand Prix 200 (Fontana)
First win	1992 Vons 300 (Mesa Marin)
Last win	1994 Talk N' Toss 200 (Portland)
Wins Top tens Poles 9 28 5
Statistics up to date as of May 21, 2025.

Richard Dean Carelli (born November 9, 1954) is an American former race car driver from Arvada, Colorado.^[1] He was nicknamed the "High Plains Drifter".^[2] He won multiple times in the No. 6 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series truck. He is the spotter for Erik Jones in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Racing career

Carelli won the NASCAR Southwest Tour championship in 1991 and won 21 times in the series during his career.^[2] He joined the NASCAR Winston West Series in 1992,^[1] and he was named the series Rookie of the Year. He returned to the series in 1993, capturing the series championship and Most Popular Driver award.^[1][2] He has won nine times in that series.^[2]

Carelli was one of the original drivers in the Craftsman Truck Series, starting at the series' first race at Phoenix in 1995. Carelli raced every series race until he suffered near-fatal injuries when his truck hit the wall during a race at Memphis Motorsports Park in 1999. He suffered a basilar skull fracture, damaged his carotid artery and sinus.^[3] He recovered and returned to race the entire 2000 season.^[3] He won another race at Richmond International Raceway in 2000 with an underfunded team that he was the crew chief for. He also made nine Winston Cup starts from 1992 to 1994. He stopped driving in 2004 and moved into the administrative side of motorsport.^[3]

After retiring from driving, Carelli later became the team manager for Kevin Harvick Incorporated – a position that he held when Ron Hornaday won the 2007 championship.^[2] He later worked with NTS Motorsports as the team general manager.^[4] Carelli was also the spotter for the Stewart–Haas Racing No. 41, driven by Kurt Busch after first working with him at Furniture Row Racing;^[5] FRR's general manager Joe Garone was Carelli's crew chief from 1989 to 1994.^[6] He later became Erik Jones' spotter at FRR before following him to Joe Gibbs Racing and Richard Petty Motorsports.^[5][7]

Awards

Carelli was inducted in the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame in 2009 along with Wayne Spears, Doug George, and Chuck Bown.^[8][9]

Motorsports career results

24 Hours of Daytona

(key)

24 Hours of Daytona results
Year	Class	No	Team	Car	Co-drivers	Laps	Position	Class Pos.
2002	AGT	90	Flis Motorsports	Chevy Corvette	Kevin Harvick John Metcalf Davy Lee Liniger	123	69 DNF	8 DNF
2003	GTS	05	Team Re/MAX Racing	Chevy Corvette	Craig Conway John Metcalf Davy Lee Liniger	378	27 DNF	8 DNF

References

External links

• Rick Carelli driver statistics at Racing-Reference