Looking ahead to the Xfinity Series in 2017

By Daniel McFadinNov 23, 2016, 3:44 PM EST

The 2016 Xfinity Series season ended four days ago in historic fashion, with Daniel Suarez becoming the first foreign-born driver to win a national NASCAR title.

The lower-tier series will return to action on Feb. 25 at Daytona International Speedway in the Powershares 300.

Even though that race is 94 days ahead, here’s a quick look at what storylines to look forward to next season.

Cup Driver Limits

Earlier this season NASCAR announced new limits on the amount of Sprint Cup regulars could compete in in its lower national series. Beginning next season, current Cup regulars who have been in Cup for five years or more can only compete in 10 races each. They are banned from competing in the Dash 4 Cash races, all of the Chase races and the regular season finale at Richmond International Raceway. Also, any drivers earning points in the Cup series are banned from competing in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

JR Motorsports Expanding

After fielding two full-time cars and two part-time entries in 2016, the team owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. will now have four full-time cars on the track. In addition to Elliott Sadler‘s No. 1 team and the No. 7 of Justin Allgaier, JR Motorsports will have former Sprint Cup driver Michael Annett and Camping World Truck Series Rookie of the Year William Byron in rides. The team will also continue to run its “All-Star” No. 88 car with drivers from the Cup series.

Stewart-Haas Racing Branching Out

After eight seasons in the Sprint Cup Series, including two championships, Stewart-Haas Racing is expanding its operation to the Xfinity Series. SHR will field Cole Custer in his rookie season driving the No. 00 Ford. Custer will be sponsored by Haas Automation. Custer drove for JR Motorsports this season in the Camping World Truck Series and earned 14 top-10 finishes in route to a 10th-place finish in the points standings. He also made five Xfinity Series starts for JRM this season with a top finish of fourth at Charlotte in May.

Team Penske Grows by Two

After years of fielding a single full-time car in the No. 22 with occasional appearances by a second car, Team Penske will field two full-time cars in 2017. No driver or sponsorship announcements have been made. The No. 22 team failed to win a race this season for the first time since it began competing full-time. The No. 12 car won both of the races it entered at Watkins Glen International and Charlotte.

Movin’ On Up

After two season of part-time schedules in the Xfinity and Truck Series, Matt Tifft is finally going full-time in Xfinity. The 20-year-old will drive full-time for Joe Gibbs Racing after driving the No. 18 Toyota in select races this year. His season was shortened by missing most of the summer to recovering from brain surgery to remove a low-grade tumor.

Also moving up to the Xfinity Series are former Brad Keselowski Racing teammate Tyler Reddick and Daniel Hemric. After 30 top-10 finishes in 46 Truck starts, Hemric will drive full-time for Richard Childress Racing. Reddick, who was voted the Truck Series Most Popular Driver, will split time in Chip Ganassi Racing’s No.42 car with Kyle Larson.

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Texas Truck race results: Carson Hocevar scores first series win

By Dustin LongApr 1, 2023, 8:35 PM EDT

Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Carson Hocevar was in front after the leaders crashed in overtime and scored his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway.

MORE: Texas Truck race results

Rookie Nick Sanchez, who led 168 of the 172-lap race, dueled reigning series champion Zane Smith on the last lap when Sanchez’s truck hit Smith’s. As Sanchez tried to regain control of his vehicle, he was hit from behind by Hocevar. That contact sent Sanchez into Smith. Christian Eckes also was collected.

Hocevar’s first win came in his 59th series start.

Chase Purdy placed second. Stewart Friesen finished third. Ty Majeski was fourth. Jake Garcia completed the top five.

Richmond Xfinity results, driver points

By Dustin LongApr 1, 2023, 5:05 PM EDT

RICHMOND, Va. — Chandler Smith won a stage, led a race-high 83 laps and rallied late to score his first career Xfinity win Saturday at Richmond Raceway.

MORE: Richmond Xfinity results

MORE: Xfinity points after Richmond race

John Hunter Nemechek placed second. The rest of the top five featured Josh Berry, Kaz Grala and Cole Custer. Austin Hill, who had won three of the first six races of the season, placed ninth.

Hill continues to lead the points. He has a 12-point advantage on Riley Herbst and an 18-point lead on Nemechek heading into the next series race in two weeks at Martinsville.

Chandler Smith scores first career Xfinity win with Richmond victory

By Dustin LongApr 1, 2023, 4:07 PM EDT

RICHMOND, Va. — Chandler Smith held off John Hunter Nemechek to win his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series race Saturday at Richmond Raceway.

The 20-year-old Smith took the lead with 12 laps to go and withstood a restart with six laps to go to earn the victory for Kaulig Racing.

MORE: Richmond race results, driver points

His victory came about a month after being passed for the lead with two laps to go at Las Vegas and finishing third day.

“It obviously wasn’t in God’s works for me that and I was fine with that, I was good with that,” said Smith, who will make his Cup debut Sunday. “I knew there was something bigger and better that He was playing it out for me and I just had to be faithful and keep on trucking. Here’s proof of it.”

Nemechek was second. Josh Berry placed third and was followed by Kaz Grala and Cole Custer.

Justin Allgaier finished 13th to win the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus.

“Today was weird because of how we finished,” Allgaier said. “Given the same circumstances a year ago, two years ago, three years ago, 13th wasn’t going to win the Dash 4 Cash but today it did.”

Stage 1 winner: Chandler Smith

Stage 2 winner: Josh Berry

Who had a good race: A caution caught Justin Allgaier a lap down, ending his chances for a top-five finish but he was able to bounce back and win the Dash 4 Cash for a fifth time. … Derek Kraus finished 10th in his Xfinity debut. … Chris Hacker placed 14th in his Xfinity debut.

Who had a bad race: Riley Herbst had his career-long streak of top-10 finishes snapped after nine races. He placed 23rd after he was hit and spun late in the race.

Notable: This is the second time in the last four races that there has been a first-time series winner. Sammy Smith scored his first series win last month at Phoenix.

Next: The series is off until April 15 at Martinsville Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1).

Daniel Suarez, Ross Chastain move on from COTA incident

By Dustin LongApr 1, 2023, 1:22 PM EDT

RICHMOND, Va. — Daniel Suarez says he’s been trying to “work on myself” after conflicts with teammate Ross Chastain and Alex Bowman last weekend at COTA but noted that if NASCAR doesn’t make adjustments with restarts on road courses, he’ll change his driving style.

NASCAR fined Suarez $50,000 on Wednesday for hitting another vehicle on pit road after the race. Suarez hit Chastain’s car at pit entrance and hit the back of Bowman’s car while they were both on pit road.

MORE: Cup starting lineup at Richmond

“I’ve been trying to work on myself mostly during the week, trying to clear my mind and reset,” Suarez said Saturday at Richmond Raceway. “My team, we’re good. I think the issue wasn’t really with one driver. I feel like it’s more as an industry, how we are allowing to have those kind of bump-and-run restarts at the end of the races at road courses.

“I don’t think that’s right.”

Suarez restarted fifth in the second overtime restart. Alex Bowman, with Ross Chastain and Chase Briscoe aligned behind, charged and got beside Suarez as they approached Turn 1.

As Bowman slowed to make the tight turn, he was hit from behind and that sent him into Suarez, who clipped the left rear of Martin Truex Jr.’s car. Truex spun in front of Suarez and blocked his path, allowing the rest of the field to go by. Suarez finished 27th.

Chastain said he and Suarez have moved on from last week’s incident after talking this week.

“Every household on this earth has their moments of arguments and we had ours,” Chastain said Saturday.

“We’re family. We’re in the same house, right. It’s in our name. It’s Trackhouse. No matter what, we all think we have to put that behind and know that moving forward we’re brothers. … We’re brothers at Trackhouse and we’re going to be stronger together.”

#NASCAR … Daniel Suárez explains what type of contact is OK on tracks and what isn’t and how he may have to adjust his driving style. pic.twitter.com/0dap6Y8TPN

— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) April 1, 2023

Suarez is among the number of drivers who have raised concerns about the rough driving in the series. The Next Gen car is more durable and can take more hits — as evident in the Clash at the Coliseum to start the year when drivers barreled into the back of cars in the corners to slow down.

Add the emphasis of winning, less respect for one another and the result is the type of racing on display at the end of the race at Circuit of the Americas, as drivers charged down a long straightaway before braking hard for a tight turn and making contact with one another.

So, what can be done?

“I don’t have the answers to that,” Suarez said. “All I know is that NASCAR is working toward trying to make a better solution for some of these restarts. It doesn’t look right. This sport looks embarrassing.

“That’s not real. Just go into the corner and bump three cars to push people out of that way, that’s not real. We know that. That’s how some people got top fives and top 10s last week and some of the guys that were fast, like myself, finished 27th.

“If NASCAR does something about it, that’s amazing. If they don’t I’ll just join the party.”

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