2017 NASCAR Xfinity Series

Elliott Sadler, the current points leader

The 2017 NASCAR Xfinity Series is the 36th season of the Xfinity Series, a stock car racing series sanctioned by the NASCAR in the United States. The season began with the PowerShares QQQ 300 at Daytona International Speedway and is scheduled to end with the Ford EcoBoost 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Daniel Suárez is the defending drivers' champion while Toyota is the defending manufacturer's champion, although Suárez did not defend his title due to him racing in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

During the season, races will continue to be broadcast by Fox Sports and NBC Sports for the third consecutive year.

Teams and drivers

Complete schedule

Limited schedule

Changes

Teams

• Stewart-Haas Racing will field the No. 00 Ford Mustang for the 2017 season. Stewart-Haas Racing (as Haas CNC Racing) formerly competed in the Xfinity Series from 2003 to 2006.
• B. J. McLeod Motorsports will field 3 full-time teams. The team previously fielded a 1 full-time team and 2 part-time teams.
• Rick Ware Racing will shut down its No. 25 team and move to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and the Camping World Truck Series.
• Derrike Cope Racing announced on January 30 that it would shut down its No. 70 Chevrolet Camaro. Its owners' points were transferred to Stewart-Haas Racing.
• Team Penske was originally planned to run a second full time team for the season, but didn't due to sponsorship problems. The team once again started a part time basis, that started at Las Vegas.
• JGL Racing will field 2 full-time teams. The team previously fielded 1 full-time team and 1 part-time team.

Drivers

• Cole Custer will drive the No. 00 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing full-time in 2017. Custer drove the No. 00 Chevrolet Silverado full-time for JR Motorsports in the Camping World Truck Series and part-time in the Xfinity series, driving the No. 5 and No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro in 2016.
• William Byron will drive the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro full-time for JR Motorsports in 2017. Byron drove the No. 9 Toyota Tundra for Kyle Busch Motorsports full-time in the Camping World Truck Series in 2016.
• Daniel Hemric will drive the No. 21 Chevrolet Camaro full-time for Richard Childress Racing in 2017. Hemric drove the No. 19 Ford F-150 for Brad Keselowski Racing in the Truck Series.
• Michael Annett will drive the No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro full-time for JR Motorsports in 2017. His sponsor from the last couple years in Xfinty and Cup Pilot Flying J came up with him. Annett drove the No. 46 Chevrolet SS for HScott Motorsports from 2015 to 2016.
• Matt Tifft will drive the No. 19 Toyota full-time for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2017, replacing Daniel Suarez who is moving to the Monster Energy Cup Series to drive for JGR. Tifft shared the No. 18 Toyota with Kyle Busch and other drivers in 2016.
• Tyler Reddick will join Chip Ganassi Racing, sharing the No. 42 Chevrolet with Kyle Larson. Reddick drove for Brad Keselowski Racing in the Camping World Truck Series for the previous three seasons. On August 1st, 2017 it was announced that Justin Marks, who had driven part-time for Ganassi in 2016, would be returning to the No. 42 for the 2 races at Mid-Ohio and Road America.
• Spencer Gallagher will move up to the Xfinity Series full-time in 2017 with GMS Racing. Gallagher drove a partial Xfinity schedule and a full-time Truck schedule in 2015 & 2016.
• Ryan Preece will depart from JD Motorsports to return to the Whelen Modified Tour. On July 5th, 2017, it was announced that Preece would return to the Xfinity Series to drive the No. 20 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing for 2 races at New Hampshire and Iowa in July. On August 3rd, 2017, following Preece's win at Iowa, it was announced that JGR would add another race to Preece's slate with him running the No. 20 at Kentucky in September.
• Kevin Harvick will drive the No. 41 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing in 6 races with sponsorship from Bad Boy Buggies for Atlanta, Hunt Brothers Pizza for other 4 races and FIELDS Inc. for Watkins Glen. Harvick drove the No. 88 car last year for JR Motorsports.
• Jeff Green will drive the No. 8 Chevrolet Camaro full-time for B.J. McLeod Motorsports. Green had previously start and parked for TriStar Motorsports and ran 3 races with B. J. in the No. 99 car. After failing to qualify at Charlotte Green was released from the team. Green now start and parks for RSS Racing. However, he returned to the No. 8 at Daytona.
• Casey Mears will drive the No. 98 Ford Mustang in 12 races for Biagi-DenBeste Racing. His last race in this series was in 2010.
• Ty Majeski will make his first Xfinity Series start at Iowa in the No. 60 car for Roush Fenway Racing and will also drive another race with them.
• Scott Lagasse Jr. will drive the No. 3 Chevrolet Camaro for Richard Childress Racing at Iowa in June, Road America, Mid-Ohio, and Homestead sharing the ride with Ty Dillon, who will drive the car for 27 races. On July 3rd, 2017 it was announced that Brian Scott would come out of retirement to drive the car at Iowa in July and Kentucky in September. Scott had previously competed for RCR in the NASCAR Xfinity Series from 2013-2015. In 2016, Scott drove the No. 44 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford Fusion in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series before retiring at the end of the season.
• Kyle Benjamin will drive the No. 18 Toyota Camry and the No. 20 Toyota Camry for 4 races for Joe Gibbs Racing. Benjamin will drive the No. 20 at Richmond in April and Pocono. He'll drive the No. 18 at both of the Iowa races and Kentucky in September.
• Ben Kennedy will drive the No. 2 Chevrolet Camaro for Richard Childress Racing for 9 races beginning with Talladega in May, sharing the ride with Austin Dillon and Paul Menard. On April 17th, it was announced that Kennedy would also drive the No. 96 Chevrolet Camaro for GMS Racing for 12 races beginning at Charlotte in May.
• Christopher Bell will drive the No. 18 Toyota Camry and the No. 20 Toyota Camry for 7 races for Joe Gibbs Racing. Bell will drive the No. 18 at Charlotte in May, and the fall races at Kansas, Texas, Phoenix, and Homestead. He'll drive the No. 20 at Iowa in June and Richmond in September. On August 5th, 2017, it was announced that Bell would run another race in the No. 18 at Road America in August. Bell currently competes full time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, driving the No. 4 Toyota Tundra for Kyle Busch Motorsports.
• Cale Conley returned to NASCAR for one-race deal at Charlotte after almost 3 years absence.
• On June 5th, 2017, it was announced that after the race at Pocono, the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford Mustang team would be shut down. Darrell Wallace Jr. will move over to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series to drive the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford Fusion, filling in for the injured Aric Almirola.
• Sam Hornish Jr. will drive the No. 22 Ford Mustang for Team Penske for 3 races with the possibility of more races being added. Hornish will drive the No. 22 at both Iowa races as well as at Mid-Ohio. Hornish had previously competed for Team Penske in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series from 2008-2010 and in the Xfinity Series from 2011-2013. In 2016, Hornish drove part time in the Xfinity Series driving the No. 18 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing and the No. 2 Chevrolet Camaro for Richard Childress Racing.
• Brett Moffitt will drive the No. 96 Chevorlet Camaro for GMS Racing at the July Iowa Race. Moffitt has only 1 Xfinity Start back in 2012 driving the No. 99 Toyota Camry for RAB Racing, finishing 9th in the July Iowa Race. Earlier this season, Moffitt had planned to run the full NASCAR Camping World Truck Series schedule, driving the No. 7 Toyota Tundra for Red Horse Racing, before the team shut down in late May.
• P. J. Jones return to NASCAR in Watkins Glen. His last race in NASCAR was in 2011. Enrique Baca, Brian Henderson, Devin Jones and Stephen Young all of them will make their Xfinity Series debut at Watkins Glen.
• On August 5th, 2017, it was announced that Regan Smith will drive the No. 18 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in August. Smith currently competes part-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, driving the No. 92 Ford F-150 for RBR Racing and also made a few starts in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, subbing for Aric Almirola in the No. 43 Ford Fusion for Richard Petty Motorsports. In 2016, Smith drove full-time in Cup, driving the No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro for Tommy Baldwin Racing, and also made a few starts in the Xfinity series, driving the No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro for JR Motorsports.
• On August 8th, 2017, it was announced that Open Wheel and Sports Car driver James Davison, would be driving the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry for 2 races, at Mid-Ohio and Road America. Davison previously made 1 start in the Xfinity series in 2016, driving the No. 90 King Autosport Chevrolet Camaro to a 19th place finish at Road America. Earlier this year, Davison replaced an injured Sebastian Bourdais in the Indianapolis 500, finishing 20th.
• Matt Bell return to NASCAR in Mid-Ohio. His last race in NASCAR was in 2012. Earlier this year, he compete in the 24 Hours of Daytona

Crew chiefs

• Matt Beckman will serve as crew chief of the car driven by Matt Tifft in 2017. Beckman was an engineer of the No. 11 Cup team in 2016.
• Jeff Meendering will arrive as crew chief of the No. 00 car driven by Cole Custer in 2017. Meendering was the car chief of the No. 20 car driven by Matt Kenseth for the Cup Series in 2016.
• Matt Swiderski will serve as crew chief for Ty Dillon in 2017. Swiderski was the head of vehicle development in 2016.
• Scott Graves will serve as crew chief for Kyle Busch and others in the No. 18 in 2017 as announced January 26. Graves was the No. 19 crew chief for Daniel Suarez in 2016.
• On May 22, it was announced that Justin Alexander, crew chief for the Richard Childress Racing No. 2 team, would be moving up to be the crew chief of the No. 3 team driven by Austin Dillon in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, replacing former crew chief Slugger Labbe who left the team to pursue other opportunities. Randall Burnett, who previously was the crew chief for A. J. Allmendinger in the Cup Series for JTG Daugherty Racing, will replace Alexander.

Manufacturers

• B. J. McLeod Motorsports will switch from Ford to Chevrolet. Before the race at Talladega, they switched to Toyota, except for no. 99 for David Starr which he used his Chevrolet.

Rule changes

• On October 26, NASCAR announced that drivers with more than five years of full-time racing on the Cup level may drive a maximum of 10 Xfinity Series races.^[2] They are also ineligible to drive in the Xfinity Dash4Cash races as well as the final eight races of the season. Exceptions will be given to drivers with more than five years of full-time racing on the Cup level if they declared to run points in Xfinity Series.^[3]
• On February 8, 2017, NASCAR announced a new damaged vehicle policy for all three national series. Body panels can no longer be replaced after a wreck, and a team has five minutes on pit road to fix the damage before they are eliminated.^[4]
• Like the NASCAR Cup Series, all Xfinity Series races will be split into three segments. Top 10 drivers in the first two segments will be awarded points. The final stage will award full points as usual. The first segment finish is about a quarter of the full distance, and the second segment finish is about half of the full distance.

Schedule

The OneMain Financial 200 at Dover International Speedway in June

The Pocono Green 250 at Pocono Raceway in June

The initial schedule, comprising 33 races, was released on May 5, 2016.^[5] A final schedule with some modifications made in conjunction with broadcast partners Fox and NBC was released on July 27, 2016.

Changes from 2016 include:

• The May Dover race moves to June, after the Charlotte race weekend.
• The June Iowa race will be moving from a Sunday afternoon to a Saturday night.
• The July Iowa race will move from night to mid-afternoon.
• Road America moved from a Saturday afternoon to a Sunday afternoon.
• The playoff race at Texas Motor Spedway would move from a Saturday afternoon to a Saturday night.
• The playoff race at Phoenix International Raceway would be moved back to a Saturday afternoon. It was a night race in 2016.
• The October Charlotte race was originally scheduled for Friday night. But on April 20th, NASCAR moved the race to Saturday afternoon.

The Fox and NBC broadcast networks will air four races each, where the rest will air on pay channels FS1 and NBCSN.

• The Coca-Cola Firecracker 250 started on June 30 but was postponed to July 1 due to persistent rain.
• The Alsco 300 was postponed from July 7 to July 8 because of inclement weather.

Results and standings

Race results

Drivers' Championship

(key) Bold – Pole position awarded by time. Italics – Pole position set by final practice results or 2016 Owner's points. * – Most laps led. ¹ – Stage 1 winner. ² – Stage 2 winner.
. – Eliminated after Round of 12 . – Eliminated after Round of 8

Owners' championship (Top 15)

(key) Bold - Pole position awarded by time. Italics - Pole position set by final practice results or rainout. * – Most laps led. ¹ – Stage 1 winner. ² – Stage 2 winner.

Manufacturers' Championship

After 20 of 33 races

See also

• 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
• 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
• 2017 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East
• 2017 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West
• 2017 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour
• 2017 NASCAR Pinty's Series
• 2017 NASCAR PEAK Mexico Series
• 2017 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series

References