Xfinity Category

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Mexican driver Daniel Suarez isn’t reluctant to admit the prospect of his first foray into the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series has already been the subject of discussion at Joe Gibbs Racing. But the 2015 Sunoco rookie of the year in the NASCAR XFINITY Series doesn’t feel the need to force the issue. Suarez will compete for the XFINITY title this year in addition to running 13 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races for Kyle Busch Motorsports. If an opportunity to try his hand inRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – With Clint Bowyer needing a place to drive for a year while waiting to take over the No. 14 Chevrolet at Stewart-Haas Racing, Justin Allgaier was the odd man out at HScott Motorsports. But in Allgaier’s estimation, the opportunity to race for a NASCAR XFINITY Series championship with JR Motorsports is ample compensation for losing a full-time Sprint Cup ride. The presence of team principals Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt Miller made signing with JRM a no-brainer. “This isRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor It wasn’t that long ago that Jeb Burton was mentioned in the same conversation as drivers like Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and others as being considered one of the brightest rising stars in the sport. Burton, the son of former Daytona 500 winner Ward Burton, exploded onto the NASCAR National Series scene with a tremendous 2013 season in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Burton collected a victory at Texas Motor Speedway, to go along with an impressive seven pole positions en route to aRead More

Maximum Field Sizes / Corresponding New Points Systems NASCAR Sprint Cup Series – Maximum 40-car field (36 Charter team cars, 4 Open team cars), race winner awarded 40 points, 40th place awarded one point. NASCAR XFINITY Series – Maximum 40-car field, race winner awarded 40 points, 40th place awarded one point. NASCAR Camping World Truck Series – Maximum 32-truck field, race winner awarded 32 points, 32nd place awarded one point New points systems apply to driver, owner, and manufacturer championships. Existing 2015 Bonus points remain in place for 2016. QualifyingRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor We already knew that Kyle Busch had elected to skip all NASCAR XFINITY Series events at restrictor plate tracks in 2016, but Wednesday Joe Gibbs Racing announced a surprise driver who would step into the No. 18 NOS Energy Toyota Camry during the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway — Bobby Labonte. Labonte is the 2000 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, and his rise to fame in the sport came during his days running the No. 18 car, that Kyle Busch currently drives, for Joe GibbsRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Joe Gibbs Racing has announced that they’ve added 19-year-old Matt Tifft to drive their No. 18 NASCAR XFINITY Series car for 13 races in 2016. “I am honored to have the opportunity to work with Joe Gibbs Racing for the 2016 season. I feel after our run last year at Kentucky that this is a great fit for me with an outstanding and well-respected organization, and I look forward to a very exciting and successful year driving the No. 18 Toyota Camry,” Tifft said in aRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor The sponsorship picture is becoming much more clear for JR Motorsports as we close in on the start of the 2016 NASCAR XFINITY Series season. We already know that the No. 1 and No. 7 teams, which are to be driven by Elliott Sadler and Justin Allgaier, have a full slate of sponsorship. Friday, the team announced that they have struck a deal with Cessna, which will fill six races of primary sponsorship on their third entry, the No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro. “We are lookingRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Change is in the air. At the 2016 Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour presented by Technocom, NASCAR announced several changes and perhaps none bigger than adding a playoff system to the XFINITY Series and Camping World Truck Series. The system will be identical to the Chase for the Sprint Cup format NASCAR has used the last two seasons. To be honest it is surprising that it took this long for NASCAR to add a playoff format to its two lower divisions and that it didn’t elect toRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Let’s cut to the Chase. Starting this year, the NASCAR XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series will use elimination-based playoff formats to determine their respective champions, just as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series has done for the past two seasons. According to NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France, the new approach not only builds on the resounding success of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, but it also provides a training ground for drivers who ultimately will compete at NASCAR’s highestRead More

Seven-Race Chase Formats to be Implemented in 2016 DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (January 19, 2016) – Using the overwhelming success of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup format introduced in 2014 as a guidepost, NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France announced today the implementation of a playoff system in both the NASCAR XFINITY Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. On the heels of a 2015 Chase that saw the highest season-finale viewership in nearly a decade, record-breaking page views on NASCAR.com and unparalleled volume on social media, the NASCARRead More