Luke Baldwin had a chance to repay his teammate’s kind gesture in New Hampshire. He failed to qualify for the Truck Series race, finishing 37th in the session. However, Frankie Muniz, doing what was best for Team Reaume, gave up his seat in the No. 33 car to allow Luke to race. Sadly, Luke ended up crashing early in the race, adding to the misery of what’s already been a tough year. His father, Tommy Baldwin, has now opened up about the difficulties Luke has faced this season.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
“I’m blaming myself, man. It’s been a hard couple of days. It was a long ride yesterday because I thought I was doing the right thing by putting him in a position this year to run more races. If we could run fourteenth to twentieth in that, it would be a good showing for him.” Tommy said on the Door Bumper Clear podcast.
He clearly doesn’t want his son to be written off as a failure by the garage. As Luke makes the jump to the Truck Series, Tommy feels he may have been better off taking things more slowly, much like he did in 2025, when Luke ran just five Truck Series races. The results were better, too, with a best finish of 12th at Pocono.
2026, meanwhile, has been a much tougher year for the 20-year-old. Luke has spent the season adapting to the demands of a fuller Truck Series schedule while also juggling other developmental series. He signed a 12-race deal with Reaume, which he described as a “dream come true,” but has struggled to finish high up the order. His best result came at Rockingham, where he finished 21st, while he was classified 31st at New Hampshire this past weekend.
Tommy, however, doesn’t want his son to get the blame. He realizes that Team Reaume operates on a tight budget, and drew on his own history of developing talent that way.
“You’re gonna get to all the racetracks, you’re gonna run all the laps, and you’re gonna learn how to pit stop,” Tommy explained on the podcast.
Luke has shown that he has plenty of speed. He runs up front in his father’s modified cars, performs well in the simulator, and works hard with his mentors. His resume is also impressive for someone his age. He has won poles and recorded strong finishes on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour with Tommy Baldwin Racing, while also earning top-15 finishes in the Truck Series with ThorSport Racing in 2025.
Tommy’s honest assessment shows that he knows his son is having a tough season, while still backing him. He also knows that some changes are needed. Luke clearly has talent, but 2026 is looking more like a learning year than a finished product.
There’s also a reason Tommy may be willing to give Luke time. He knows how hard it is to build a NASCAR career when the right equipment and opportunities aren’t always there. And while Luke works through his own learning curve, Tommy is also starting a new chapter in his career, giving him more time to focus on his sons and their racing.
Tommy Baldwin silently parted ways with Rick Ware
Just weeks before publicly addressing his son Luke’s difficult Truck Series season, Tommy Baldwin Jr. quietly closed a major chapter of his own NASCAR career. In late July 2026, the veteran crew chief and team owner announced on the Door Bumper Clear podcast that he had parted ways with Rick Ware Racing, where he had served as the organization’s Competition Director since April 2023.
“We decided, Rick and I, that our expectations were not aligned anymore. So, we decided, without ruining our friendship, which we have a really good friendship, it was decided to go different ways,” he said on the podcast.
The NASCAR veteran’s three years at RWR were marked by many difficult times. He joined the team shortly before a cancer diagnosis that forced him to step away for treatment, later returning to help stabilise a perennial backmarker operation.
With the professional chapter now closed, he has made sure that his next priority is spending more time with Luke and guiding him through his racing career.
Tommy is one of NASCAR’s most respected veterans. He won the Daytona 500 as a crew chief, owned his own Cup Series team, Tommy Baldwin Racing, from 2009 to 2016, and also helped drivers like Alex Bowman — currently driving for Hendrick Motorsports — develop. So, as a mentor, his son Luke could ask for no one better.