Jesse Little

This article is about the NASCAR driver. For the Mormon pioneer, see Jesse Carter Little.

Jesse Hardin Little (born April 15, 1997) is an American former professional stock car racing driver who currently serves as the vice president of business development for Sam Hunt Racing. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series driving the No. 34 Chevrolet Camaro for Jesse Iwuji Motorsports and part-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, driving the No. 02 and 20 Chevrolet Silverado for Young's Motorsports. He is the son of former NASCAR driver Chad Little. He and his father as well as Jason Little (Jesse's uncle and Chad's brother) previously owned a Truck, East and West Series team, which was known as Team Little Racing and then JJL Motorsports, from 2012 to 2019.

Jesse Little
Little at Pocono Raceway in 2022
Born	Jesse Hardin Little (1997-04-15) April 15, 1997 (age 28) Sherrills Ford, North Carolina, U.S.
Achievements	2010 USAC Eastern Young Guns Ford Focus Midget Car Series Champion
Awards	2013 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Rookie of the Year 2010 USAC Eastern Young Guns Ford Focus Midget Car Series Rookie of the Year
NASCAR Cup Series career
2 races run over 1 year
2018 position	70th
Best finish	70th (2018)
First race	2018 Quaker State 400 (Kentucky)
Last race	2018 Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race (Bristol)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 0 0
NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series career
56 races run over 2 years
2022 position	110th
Best finish	19th (2020)
First race	2020 NASCAR Racing Experience 300 (Daytona)
Last race	2021 Kansas Lottery 300 (Kansas)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 2 0
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career
47 races run over 7 years
2022 position	27th
Best finish	19th (2018)
First race	2015 Lucas Oil 200 (Dover)
Last race	2022 UNOH 200 (Bristol)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 8 0
Statistics up to date as of November 5, 2022.

Racing career

Early career

A native of Sherrills Ford, North Carolina and a third-generation racer, Little began his racing career in quarter midgets at the age of seven,^[1] moving up to Bandoleros in 2007 and Legends cars in 2009.^[2] He won the 2010 USAC Eastern Focus Young Guns midget car championship,^[3] and in 2011 competed in the UARA Stars late model series.^[2]

NASCAR

Little made his debut in NASCAR competition at the age of fifteen, competing in seven K&N Pro Series East events in 2012;^[4] driving a family-owned No. 97 Chevrolet,^[5] he was the youngest driver ever to start a race in the series.^[2] He returned to the K&N Pro Series East full-time in 2013, driving for Coulter Motorsports;^[6] he finished in the top-ten eight times on his way to the series' Rookie of the Year award. He returned to K&N East competition again in 2014, winning his first race at New Hampshire. Little raced in the K&N East series on a part-time basis in 2015, winning at Iowa Speedway with Hattori Racing Enterprises.

In 2015, he added a limited schedule in the Camping World Truck Series in a partnership with ThorSport Racing.^[7]

Little's No. 81 truck at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2016

In 2016, he joined his uncle's Truck Series team, JJL Motorsports. He made two attempts in the fall races at Texas and Homestead finishing twentieth and eighteenth respectively.

Little's No. 97 truck at Dover Motor Speedway in 2017

In 2017, Little and JJL returned, running four races. The first one was at Dover, where he finished fourteenth. He then finished a season-best eighth in Iowa. Little next raced at Bristol, continuing his strong performance, finishing thirteenth. His last start of 2017 came in Phoenix, where he was involved in a late-race crash, finishing eighteenth.

In 2018, Little expanded his schedule to 9 races.^[8] He finished with six top-tens, the highest finish a sixth at Iowa, his best finish to date in the Truck Series. In July 2018, Little joined Premium Motorsports for his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series debut in the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway, driving the No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and finishing 35th.^[9] Little later joined Gaunt Brothers Racing at Bristol, also finishing 35th.^[10]

In 2019, Little increased his Truck schedule again, planning to run twelve to fifteen races in the newly renamed Gander Outdoors Truck Series.^[11]

On November 7, 2019, JD Motorsports announced Little would race full-time for the team in the NASCAR Xfinity Series starting in 2020.^[12] Little finished 19th in points with two top-ten finishes.^[13]

Little's No. 78 car at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 2021

Little moved to B. J. McLeod Motorsports' No. 78 for the 2021 season.^[13] He lost his ride with McLeod's team to Josh Williams in 2022. On December 22, it was announced that Little would drive for Young's Motorsports in the Truck Series for at least 12 races with the No. 02, splitting with Kaz Grala.^[14] Little also ran a one-off Xfinity event at Phoenix, replacing Jesse Iwuji, who was at his military duties.

On September 14, 2022, Little announced that he would retire from NASCAR after the 2022 UNOH 200 at Bristol.^[15][16]

Post-racing career

On April 21, 2025, it was revealed that Little will serve as the vice president of business development for Sam Hunt Racing.^[17]

Personal life

He is the son of former NASCAR driver Chad Little. They are not related to NASCAR on Fox pit reporter Jamie Little.

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Monster Energy Cup Series

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	MENCC	Pts	Ref
2018	Premium Motorsports	7	Chevy	DAY	ATL	LVS	PHO	CAL	MAR	TEX	BRI	RCH	TAL	DOV	KAN	CLT	POC	MCH	SON	CHI	DAY	KEN 35	NHA	POC	GLN	MCH														70th	01	[18]
	Gaunt Brothers Racing	96	Toyota																								BRI 35	DAR	IND	LVS	RCH	CLT	DOV	TAL	KAN	MAR	TEX	PHO	HOM

Xfinity Series

NASCAR Xfinity Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	NXSC	Pts	Ref
2020	JD Motorsports	4	Chevy	DAY 19	LVS 14	CAL 28	PHO 21	DAR 36	CLT 15	BRI 26	ATL 20	HOM 18	HOM 15	TAL 13	POC 10	IND 18	KEN 14	KEN 14	TEX 14	KAN 33	ROA 28	DAY 18	DOV 23	DOV 23	DAY 10	DAR 18	RCH 25	RCH 33	BRI 25	LVS 23	TAL 25			TEX 15	MAR 22	PHO 29	19th	527	[19]
		15																														CLT 30	KAN 19
2021	B. J. McLeod Motorsports	78	Chevy	DAY 17	DAY 14				ATL 22	MAR 32	TAL 26	DAR 32	DOV 37			MOH 24	TEX 29						GLN 27	IND			DAR 32	RCH	BRI 28	LVS	TAL	CLT	TEX 31	KAN 30	MAR	PHO	33rd	215	[20]
			Toyota			HOM 32	LVS 26	PHO 40						COA DNQ	CLT 18			NSH 27	POC 29	ROA	ATL 28	NHA 28
		99																							MCH 32	DAY
2022	Jesse Iwuji Motorsports	34	Chevy	DAY	CAL	LVS	PHO DNQ	ATL	COA	RCH	MAR	TAL	DOV	DAR	TEX	CLT	PIR	NSH	ROA	ATL	NHA	POC	IND	MCH	GLN	DAY	DAR	KAN	BRI	TEX	TAL	CLT	LVS	HOM	MAR	PHO	N/A	0	[21]

Camping World Truck Series

NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	NGTC	Pts	Ref
2015	Team Little Racing	97	Toyota	DAY	ATL	MAR	KAN	CLT	DOV 30	TEX	GTW	IOW	KEN	ELD	POC	MCH	BRI	MSP	CHI 30	NHA	LVS	TAL	MAR	TEX 15	PHO	HOM 14	42nd	87	[22]
2016	Rette Jones Racing	30	Toyota	DAY	ATL	MAR	KAN	DOV	CLT DNQ																		35th	62	[23]
		81								TEX 19	IOW	GTW	KEN	ELD	POC
	Hattori Racing Enterprises		Toyota													BRI 17	MCH	MSP
	MB Motorsports	63	Chevy																CHI 29	NHA	LVS	TAL	MAR
	JJL Motorsports	97	Toyota																					TEX 20	PHO	HOM 18
2017				DAY	ATL	MAR	KAN	CLT	DOV 14	TEX	GTW	IOW 9	KEN	ELD	POC	MCH	BRI 13	MSP	CHI	NHA	LVS	TAL	MAR	TEX	PHO 18	HOM	33rd	110	[24]
2018			Ford	DAY	ATL 8	LVS	MAR	DOV 9	KAN	CLT 16	TEX	IOW 6	GTW 7	CHI	KEN	ELD	POC	MCH	BRI 26	MSP	LVS 15	TAL	MAR	TEX 7	PHO	HOM 9	19th	275	[25]
2019				DAY	ATL 23	LVS 19	MAR	TEX 13	DOV 29	KAN	CLT 14	TEX	IOW 22	GTW 21	CHI	KEN	POC	ELD	MCH	BRI 32	MSP	LVS	TAL	MAR	PHO DNQ	HOM 17	26th	149	[26]
2020	Diversified Motorsports Enterprises		Chevy	DAY 24	LVS	CLT 21	ATL 35	HOM	POC	KEN	TEX	KAN	KAN	MCH	DAY	DOV	GTW	DAR	RCH	BRI	LVS	TAL	KAN	TEX	MAR	PHO	90th	01	[27]
2022	Young's Motorsports	02	Chevy	DAY 6	LVS	ATL 15	COA	MAR 27	BRI	DAR 14	KAN 24	TEX 19	CLT 32	GTW 20	SON	KNO	NSH 19	MOH					BRI 25	TAL	HOM	PHO	27th	213	[28]
		20																	POC 26	IRP 15	RCH	KAN 28

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	15	16	NKNPSEC	Pts	Ref
2012	Team Little Racing	97	Chevy	BRI	GRE	RCH 11	IOW 18	BGS	JFC 17	LGY	CNB	COL	IOW	NHA 23	DOV 22	GRE 3	CAR 5			20th	210	[29]
2013				BRI 14	GRE 16	FIF 26	RCH 16	BGS 5	IOW 14	LGY 3	COL 12	IOW 4	VIR 11	GRE 7	NHA 6	DOV 5	RAL 16			9th	449	[30]
2014				NSM 18	DAY 12	BRI 13	GRE 4	RCH 10	IOW 16	BGS 16	FIF 6	LGY 9	NHA 1	COL 4	IOW 10	GLN 5	VIR 8	GRE 9	DOV 23	6th	546	[31]
2015			Toyota	NSM	GRE	BRI 25	IOW 3	BGS	LGY	COL	NHA 11						DOV 30			21st	184	[32]
	Hattori Racing Enterprises	1	Toyota									IOW 1	GLN 13	MOT	VIR	RCH
2016	Rette Jones Racing	29	Toyota	NSM	MOB 3	GRE	BRI Wth	VIR	DOM	STA	COL	NHA 17	IOW 7	GLN	GRE	NJM	DOV 2			21st	161	[33]
2017	JJL Motorsports	97	Toyota	NSM	GRE	BRI 23	SBO	SBO	MEM	BLN	TMP	NHA								34th	55	[34]
	Hattori Racing Enterprises	01	Toyota										IOW 10	GLN	LGY	NJM	DOV

K&N Pro Series West

NASCAR K&N Pro Series West results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	NKNPSWC	Pts	Ref
2013	Team Little Racing	97	Chevy	PHO	S99	BIR	IOW	L44	SON	CNS	IOW	EVG	SPO	MMP	SMP	AAS	KCR	PHO 2	49th	42	[35]
2014				PHO	IRW	S99	IOW	KCR 5	SON	SLS	CNS	IOW	EVG	KCR 3	MMP	AAS	PHO 4		21st	121	[36]

^* Season still in progress
¹ Ineligible for series points