Mike Hillman Sr.
Hillman Racing enters its fifth season of NASCAR competition in 2016, but the roots of the organization are anything but new to the sport. Team owner Mike Hillman Sr. played a key role in the founding of Germain Racing and was the architect of the group’s two NASCAR championships in 2006 and 2010.
Hillman acquired the championship-winning NASCAR Camping World Truck Series assets following the conclusion of the 2011 season and assumed the dual role of owner and general manager of Hillman Racing at the start of 2012. Midway through the 2013 season, Hillman added the No. 40 Sprint Cup Series team to the organization with driver Landon Cassill, and together the duo finished 12th in the 2014 season-opening Daytona 500 and later scored a fourth-place finish at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway in October. Cassill competed in all 36 events for Hillman Racing in 2015 and posted a season-best 13th-place finish at Daytona in July as the organization continued to excel on the superspeedways.
For over 25 years, Hillman has been involved in NASCAR racing. Throughout his career he has worked as a crew chief and general manager in each of NASCAR’s top three series. He has worked with such drivers as Dick Trickle, Kyle Petty, Joe Nemechek, Mike Wallace, Robby Gordon and Brett Bodine.
In 1988, Hillman earned a NASCAR Nationwide Series Championship with driver Tommy Ellis.
In 2006, with driver Todd Bodine at Germain Racing, Hillman added a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series title to his collection. He repeated that accomplishment in 2010 when Bodine captured his second Truck championship, bringing Hillman’s title count to three.
The Lockport, NY, native’s ability to build winning teams and organizations has been the key to his success in the racing business. In 2007, he helped Germain Racing prepare for racing in NASCAR’s second-tier division. The team built its first Nationwide Series car and ran five races. The lap-leading efforts paved the way for Germain Racing to field a full-time NNS team in 2008 that finished eighth in the NNS drivers championship battle, and followed it up with a second top-ten points finish in 2009.
After launching the team’s NNS program, Hillman played an integral role in developing what has become the No. 13 program for NASCAR’s premier division, the Sprint Cup Series.
Hillman Racing is housed in a 22,000-square-foot facility in Mooresville, N.C., and will field the No. 40 Chevrolet SS in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition in 2016.
