Randy Tolsma (born May 4, 1966) is an American former

stock car racing Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing run on oval tracks and road courses measuring approximately . It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It or ...

driver. Tolsma began his racing career in

go-kart A go-kart, also written as go-cart (often referred to as simply a kart), is a type of sports car, close wheeled car, open-wheel car or quadracycle. Go-karts come in all shapes and forms, from non-motorised models to high-performance racing ...

s at the age of nine, before moving into sprint cars, running as high as USAC, where he won four track championships. He failed to qualify for the 1996

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...

and then shifted his focus to

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...

and made his first start in the

Craftsman Truck Series The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, and is the only series in NASCAR to race production pickup truck based stock cars. The series is one of th ...

later that year. From then until 2002, he made 107 starts in the Truck Series. He also made 13

Busch Series The NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) is a stock car racing series organized by NASCAR. It is promoted as NASCAR's second-tier circuit to the organization's top level Cup Series. NXS events are frequently held as a support race on the day prior to a ...

starts in 2000 and 2001. Tolsma made his NASCAR debut in

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone o ...

Phoenix International Raceway Phoenix Raceway is a 1-mile, low-banked tri-oval race track located in Avondale, Arizona, near Phoenix. The motorsport track opened in 1964 and currently hosts two NASCAR race weekends annually including the final championship race since 2020 ...

. Driving the #61 IWX Motor Freight

Chevrolet Silverado The Chevrolet Silverado is a range of trucks manufactured by General Motors under the Chevrolet brand. Introduced for the 1999 model year, the Silverado is the successor to the long running Chevrolet C/K model line. Taking its name from the ...

for Steve Coulter's Xpress Motorsports team, he started 16th but finished 29th after wrecking early in the race. Tolsma returned to the team in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

, running a limited schedule for Coulter. Running 15 races, he had 5 top-tens, including his first career win at

Mesa Marin Raceway Mesa Marin Raceway was a paved oval race track, located near the junction of CA 178 and CA 184 (Kern Canyon Road), east of Bakersfield, California. It opened in 1977 and was owned by Marion Collins throughout its existence. The Collins fami ...

, where he held off fellow rookie Stacy Compton for the final twelve laps. Tolsma teamed with Coulter to run full-time in 1998, grabbing his first career pole at

Indianapolis Raceway Park Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (formerly Indianapolis Raceway Park, O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis, and Lucas Oil Raceway) is an auto racing facility in Brownsburg, Indiana, United States, about northwest of downtown Indianapolis. I ...

, and had ten top-ten finishes. Late in the season, Coulter shut down his Truck team, and Tolsma split the year driving for Liberty Racing, Phil Bonifield, and

Dominic Dobson Dominic Dobson (born September 14, 1957) is a German-born former CART and Craftsman Truck Series driver who made 7 starts in the Indianapolis 500 with a best finish of 12th in 1992, over 60 starts in the CART (Championship Auto Racing Series), wit ...

. He ran 26 races total and finished 14th in points. For

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

, Tolsma signed to drive the new #25 Supergard Motor Oil Dodge Ram for Impact Motorsports. He sat on the pole in the season-opening race at Homestead and posted ten top-ten finishes throughout the course of the season, finishing eleventh in points. In

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

, Tolsma grabbed fifteen top-tens and a win at

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and th ...

. He finished eighth in points. He also made his Busch Series debut at

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maids ...

, driving the #25 Lance Snacks Chevy for Team Rensi Motorsports. He started 38th and finishing 28th. After Impact began running into financial problems, Tolsma left to drive for Rensi's truck team. Unfortunately, their #16 was unsponsored, and despite Tolsma being in the top-ten in points, the team folded after the

Power Stroke Diesel 200 The TSport 200 is a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in the suburb of Clermont, Indiana, located west of Indianapolis. It was held each year starting in 1995 (the first season of the Truck Series) unt ...

. He finished out the year driving twelve races for Rensi's Busch team, his best finish an 18th at Memphis. He was unable to keep his ride for the 2002 season, and ran one Truck race at Martinsville, where he finished 18th. He has not raced in NASCAR since.

Motorsports career results

IRL IndyCar Series

NASCAR

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

Busch Series

Craftsman Truck Series

References

External links

Archived version of Randy Tolsma's home page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tolsma, Randy 1966 births Living people NASCAR drivers People from Meridian, Idaho Racing drivers from Idaho ASCAR drivers USAC Silver Crown Series drivers