Rico Abreu

Rico Emanuel Abreu (born January 30, 1992) is an American professional dirt track and stock car racing driver. Abreu won the 2014 USAC National Midget Series championship, and previously competed in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East in 2015, scoring one win.

Racing career

Early career and dirt racing

Abreu first began racing dirt bikes, and later won the USAC Honda Midget Series national title.

On January 17, 2015, Abreu returned to the Chili Bowl. On lap 26 he passed the previous year's winner Bryan Clauson and held off four-time Chili Bowl winner Kevin Swindell to win. The win was Toyota's first Chili Bowl victory The following year, Abreu repeated his Chili Bowl win after defeating Clauson and Zach Daum.

K&N Pro Series East On January 20, 2015, Abreu was hired by HScott Motorsports to run full-time in the K&N Pro Series East. He made his stock car debut in the Pete Orr Memorial Super Late Model 100 at New Smyrna Speedway later in the week.

Camping World Truck Series

During the 2015 season, Abreu made his Camping World Truck Series debut in the Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix International Raceway, driving the No. 31 Chevrolet Silverado for NTS Motorsports. In 2016, he signed a full-time drive for ThorSport Racing, replacing Johnny Sauter who left for GMS Racing.

Abreu almost won his first career NCWTS race at Texas on June 10. He was within a car length of race leader William Byron with 2 laps to go, but scraped the wall and ended up cutting a tire, all but riding the wall for the last lap and a half. He still ended up finishing a career-best 9th place.

On January 11, 2017, it was reported that Abreu will not return to ThorSport Racing due to sponsorship issues. However, he returned to the team for a one-off at Eldora.

Personal life Born to a Portuguese father and Italian mother, Abreu currently lives in Rutherford, California. His father, David, is a vineyard manager. The couple married in February 2024.

Abreu is tall and weighs . He was born with achondroplasia, a genetic disorder that is the most common cause of dwarfism. Due to his short stature, he needs special modifications to the cockpit area of his race cars, such as foot blocks to help him reach the throttle. The car is also modified for Abreu, such as the pedals and the steering column being lengthened, with the powertrain and a-frame moved . For stock cars, the steering column, pedals, and switches are moved, while the remainder of the cockpit remains the same. 2016

98

13th 395 2017 89 DAY ATL MAR KAN CLT DOV TEX GTW IOW KEN

POC MCH BRI MSP CHI NHA LVS TAL MAR TEX PHO HOM 68th 14 Season still in progress Ineligible for series points

K&N Pro Series East NASCAR K&N Pro Series East results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Pts Ref 2015 HScott Motorsports with Justin Marks 98 Chevy NSM17 GRE9 BRI10 IOW30 BGS11 LGY9 COL1 NHA10 IOW4 GLN12 MOT2 VIR16 RCH11 DOV3 5th 492