Background and career
Michael Duane Bliss (born April 5, 1965) is an American former professional stock car racing driver. A journeyman NASCAR competitor and the 2002 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion, he has run in all three national series.
Bliss began racing at the age of ten. He captured his first major victory in 1993 with the USAC Silver Crown National Championship.
Bliss began racing in NASCAR in 1995, driving the Nos. 08 and 2 Ford F-150 for Ultra Motorsports in the new Craftsman Truck Series. Competing in nineteen out of twenty races, Bliss picked up a win at North Wilkesboro Speedway and finished eighth in points. The next year, with sponsorship from Team ASE Racing, he won at Evergreen and I-70 and finished fifth in points. In 1998, he made his debut in the upper-NASCAR ranks. First, he finished 26th at the Kenwood Home & Car Audio 300 driving a car owned by Kevin Schwantz, then two weeks later, finished seventh at Indianapolis Raceway Park for Michael Waltrip Racing. He also ran a pair of Winston Cup races that season, finishing 25th at Martinsville Speedway in the No. 96 for American Equipment Racing. After winning six poles and finishing tenth in points in 1998, Bliss announced he would not return to the team after 1998, and signed with Roush Racing to drive the No. 99 Exide Batteries Ford. He picked up a win at Heartland Park Topeka and finished ninth in points. During the season, he began to pick up offers to run in the Cup Series, and left Roush. In 1999, Bliss ran two Winston Cup races for Bahari Racing with sponsorship from Sara Lee products.
In 2000, Bliss signed to drive the No. 14 Conseco Pontiac Grand Prix owned by A.J. Foyt Racing in a bid for NASCAR Winston Cup Series Rookie of the Year honors. Because the team had no owner's points, Bliss failed to qualify for three out of the first four races of the season, and he was quickly released. He soon signed to drive the No. 27 Pfizer/Viagra Pontiac for Eel River Racing. He had a ninth-place run at Talladega Superspeedway and finished 39th in points that year. Bliss was unable to pick up a full-time ride for the 2001 season. He finished 40th at Daytona International Speedway in a one-race deal for David Ridling, but that team soon closed its doors. During the middle of the season, he briefly returned to Eel River after they fired their regular driver but he was unable to qualify for a race. Late in the season, he garnered a ninth-place run at South Boston in a one-race deal for IWX Racing's Steve Coulter. In 2002, Coulter returned full-time to the Truck Series and signed Bliss as the driver. Bliss picked up five wins and won the Truck series championship. He would sign to drive the No. 20 Rockwell Automation Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Busch Series the following year, posting fourteen top-tens and finishing tenth in points. That same year, he competed in the International Race of Champions, winning at Chicagoland Speedway. He ran only one Winston Cup race in 2002, subbing for Jamie McMurray (who was subbing for the injured Sterling Marlin, but had a prior commitment) in the No. 40 Coors Light Dodge. In 2004, Bliss picked up his first career Busch win at Lowe's Motor Speedway and finished fifth in points. After he was declined a job as driver for Gibbs’ Cup program, Bliss announced his departure, and replaced Ward Burton at Haas CNC Racing’s Cup ride, posting a tenth-place run at Darlington Raceway. Before leaving Joe Gibbs Racing, Bliss had his career-best finish to date in his Cup series career in the 2004 Chevy Rock & Roll 400. Bliss, driving the No. 80 Hunt's Ketchup JGR car, got penalized for speeding on pit road on lap 332. Despite this, he formed a tremendous comeback, climbing through the field during the final fifty laps, and finishing fourth, his first and only top-five finish in the series.
Bliss signed with Haas CNC full-time in 2005, where he posted two top-tens in the latter half of the season and finished 28th in points. He came near to a Cup victory, nearly winning a large bonus paycheck and a win in the Nextel Open event but was crashed by Brian Vickers on the final lap in the final turn. Vickers won the race and the bonus paycheck, while Bliss slid across the finish line in second place. Bliss was visibly upset with Vickers in the post-race ceremonies saying "I just got plain dumped and I would not have wrecked him to win this race. Now he is in the big show (the All-Star Race) and I am not." At the end of the year, Bliss departed to return to the No. 16 in the Truck Series, winning at Atlanta Motor Speedway and finishing 11th in the final standings. In addition, he ran a part-time in the Busch Series this season, splitting time between Frank Cicci Racing with Jim Kelly and SKI Motorsports. Late in the season, Bliss began driving the No. 49 BAM Racing Dodge Nextel Cup Car, and finished out the 2006 season driving the car for BAM. Bliss was signed to drive the car in 2007, but after a long string of DNQs, he resigned from the organization midway through the season. He drove the first four races of the 2007 Craftsman Truck season for Key Motorsports and drove thirteen more Truck races for Bobby Hamilton Racing in the No. 4 Dodge Ram. He also drove 22 races in the Busch Series for Fitz Motorsports in the No. 22 Dodge Charger with sponsorship from Supercuts and Family Dollar. He had signed to drive for Fitz full-time in 2008, but joined Phoenix Racing shortly after the season started. He matched his career-best 5th-place finish in points and also ran part-time schedules in Cup and Trucks.
Bliss scored his second career Nationwide win, taking advantage of his fuel mileage and getting a caution at the right time, at Lowes Motor Speedway, and NASCAR declared the race official after 170 of 200 laps due to rain. On August 2, 2009, Bliss was let go from Phoenix Racing but he still raced for the team in the Cup Series. He spent the rest of the season splitting time with MSRP Motorsports, NEMCO Motorsports, Key Motorsports, MacDonald Motorsports and CJM Racing before returning to Phoenix for the season finale at Homestead. Despite parking early in multiple races, his three top-fives and five top-ten finishes with CJM Racing pushed Bliss into fifth overall again. This was one spot better than when he was before being originally fired from the No. 1 car.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
