2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series

Teams and drivers

Complete schedule

Limited schedule

Changes

Teams

• On August 6, 2021, Shane Lee tweeted that he got the equipment from the closed H2 Motorsports team that he drove for in 2019 and was contemplating whether to use it and start his own team or sell the equipment. On November 18, Joey Gase announced that he would start his own team, Joey Gase Racing, fielding the No. 35 Ford/Toyota full-time in 2022 with himself and other drivers sharing the ride. The Toyotas that the team will run were the ones owned by Lee that were last used by H2M. As part of the deal to sell the equipment to Gase, Lee will drive select races in Gase's No. 35. On December 30, it was announced that Patrick Emerling would join the team as a driver and a co-owner, and as a result, the team was renamed Emerling-Gase Motorsports, and that the team would also field a second part-time car.
• On August 21, 2021, it was announced that NFL Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith and driver Jesse Iwuji would be starting an Xfinity Series team, Jesse Iwuji Motorsports, with Iwuji running the full season and for Rookie of the Year. On February 7, 2022, it was announced that the team would run Chevrolets and share a shop with JD Motorsports, which had extra space available as they reduced from 4 full-time cars to 2 for 2022. The team chose the No. 34 in honor of fellow African American driver Wendell Scott after Team Penske, who cut back to a part-time Xfinity car in 2022, declined to give the team their first choice of car number, the No. 22, Smith's number when he played for the Dallas Cowboys.
• On August 30, 2021, it was announced that Caesar Bacarella, who has driven part-time in the series for B. J. McLeod Motorsports and DGM Racing since 2017, would be joining Martins Motorsports as a driver/co-owner and the team would be renamed Alpha Prime Racing. In addition to Bacarella, Tommy Joe Martins, Rajah Caruth, and potentially additional drivers will share the team's No. 44 car for the full season. On January 6, 2022, Alpha Prime Racing announced it will field two full-time teams in 2022, with Sage Karam driving the No. 45 for four races.
• When the Jayski's Silly Season Site 2022 Xfinity Series team/driver chart was released, it was revealed that Big Machine Racing, which fields the No. 48 car for Jade Buford may form an alliance with a larger NASCAR Xfinity Series team. On October 7, 2021, BMRT announced that they would partner with Richard Childress Racing in 2022.
• Miles Thomas Motorsports will debut in 2022. The team will compete part-time in both the Xfinity Series and ARCA Menards Series with Jason Miles, who is also a co-owner of the team. Miles competed part-time in ARCA for Fast Track Racing in 2019 and 2021. Ford will be their manufacturer. The team has yet to announce their car number, sponsors, and crew chief.
• On October 14, 2021, Bob Pockrass from Fox tweeted that Joe Gibbs Racing could downsize from four full-time cars to three in 2022. One of the cars would continue to be for a rotation of drivers like the No. 54 was in 2021. The team lost two of its full-time drivers from 2021, Daniel Hemric, who moved to Kaulig Racing's No. 11 car, and Harrison Burton, who moved up to Wood Brothers Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series, who each bring sponsorship, and the team could not find sponsorship for the No. 54 car in multiple races in 2021. On November 16, JGR officially announced that it would only field 3 full-time Xfinity Series cars in 2022, thus shutting down the No. 20 team, because the No. 54 car would return in 2022 with Ty Gibbs as its full-time driver. It was later turned out the No. 54 was renumbered from the No. 20 after the season ended.
• On October 28, 2021, it was announced that RSS Racing would field two full-time cars again in 2022 with multiple drivers sharing the second car. After previously fielding three full-time cars in 2018 and 2019 and two in 2020, the team downsized to one car, the No. 39, in 2021. After two drivers of the No. 38, C. J. McLaughlin and Parker Retzlaff, were both announced to be running the race at Bristol in September, it appeared likely that RSS would field a third car in that race. On January 20, 2022, RSS announced that they would field a third car, the No. 28, for Kyle Sieg part-time in 2022.
• On October 29, 2021, it was announced that Richard Childress Racing would field two full-time cars again in 2022, with their second car driven by Austin Hill. On January 21, 2022, RCR revealed on their website that Hill's car number would be the No. 21, which the team has used in the Xfinity Series for many years.
• On November 17, 2021, MBM Motorsports owner Carl Long announced on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that his team would downsize their Xfinity Series team to one full-time car in 2022. The team previously fielded three full-time cars, the Nos. 13, 61 and 66, with the No. 61 sharing the owner points with Hattori Racing Enterprises.
• On December 16, 2021, Our Motorsports announced that they would be expanding to three full-time cars in 2022. Jeb Burton will drive the team's new third car, the No. 27.
• On December 20, 2021, J. C. Stout announced that he had bought some Toyotas from Joe Gibbs Racing and would be restarting his team, SQR Development, which last competed in the series in 2009. The team planned to run 10 to 12 races with the first one being at Richmond. On January 20, 2022, SQR announced that former Kyle Busch Motorsports and GMS Racing Truck Series driver Raphaël Lessard would drive the team's car, the No. 87, part-time. Lessard and the No. 87 car were not on the entry list for the race at Richmond and Lessard revealed in a Facebook post on March 29 that the team would not be attempting any races due to personal issues involving team owner Stout.
• On January 13, 2022, Team Penske Vice Chairman Walt Czarnecki announced that Penske would not field an Xfinity Series team in 2022 unless a sponsor was interested. On February 15, 2022, Roger Penske revealed on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that his team would field a part-time car in the Xfinity Series in 2022.
• On March 28, 2022, DGM Racing announced it would condense its Xfinity operation to two full-time teams with the No. 36 and No. 91 continuing to run full-time while the No. 92 would become a part-time car. A day later, SS-Green Light Racing announced that it purchased the points of the No. 92 car for its No. 08 car, which had failed to qualify for four of the first six races of the season.
• On April 12, 2022, Richard Childress Racing announced that they would be fielding a third part-time car, the No. 3, in the spring race at Talladega with Jeffrey Earnhardt driving. It is the first time since 2018 that RCR has fielded the No. 3 car in the Xfinity Series.
• On April 19, 2022, B. J. McLeod Motorsports announced that they would scale back to two full-time cars, the No. 5 and No. 78, for the remainder of 2022, with the No. 99, previously a full-time car, now being fielded on a part-time basis.
• On June 2, 2022, Hendrick Motorsports announced it would field the No. 17 in three Xfinity races in 2022, with Kyle Larson running at Road America, Alex Bowman at Indianapolis, and William Byron at Watkins Glen. This marks HMS' return to the Xfinity Series after Tony Stewart won for the team at Daytona in 2009.
• On June 27, 2022, Team Stange Racing revealed that they would field an entry in the Xfinity Series race at the Indianapolis Road Course in order for Tarso Marques, who is running part-time in the Cup Series for the team, to be approved to race in the Cup Series, although they would end up not appearing on the entry list.
• On August 8, 2022, it was revealed that Kaulig Racing would field a fourth car, the No. 14, for the first time in the race at Daytona which will be driven by Justin Haley, who drives full-time in the Cup Series for the team.

  Drivers

• On September 15, 2020, JR Motorsports announced that Sam Mayer would run full-time for them in 2022 after running the second half of the 2021 season in their No. 8 car. After the announcement that Josh Berry, who shared the No. 8 car with Mayer in 2021, would drive the No. 8 full-time in 2022, Dustin Albino from Jayski confirmed that Mayer would still run full-time for JRM in 2022. Dale Earnhardt Jr. himself commented on NASCAR Reddit that it was possible that the team could run five cars full-time so the team would not have to release one of their other full-time drivers. JRM had re-signed Noah Gragson and Justin Allgaier in addition to Berry and Mayer and it was likely that Michael Annett would return to the team in 2022 due to him bringing sponsorship from Pilot Flying J, so at that time, it was likely that Mayer would run full-time for JRM in the fifth car. However, with Annett announcing his retirement, Mayer will replace him as the team's fourth full-time driver and the team will not field a fifth car full-time. However, JRM will field a fifth car in the spring Martinsville race for Earnhardt Jr. in his once-a-year Xfinity Series start. It is the first time since 2018 that JRM will have fielded five cars in a race. On December 15, JRM revealed a new font for the No. 1 on their website, which indicates that it will be Mayer's car number in 2022.
• On June 18, 2021, Kaulig Racing announced that Justin Haley, the driver of their No. 11 car in the Xfinity Series, would move up to the Cup Series full-time in 2022, driving the team's No. 31 car. On September 25, Kaulig announced that Daniel Hemric would replace Haley in the No. 11 in 2022. He drove the No. 18 for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2021 and won the championship. Hemric also drove Kaulig's No. 10 car in the race at Charlotte in 2019 as a relief driver for Austin Dillon.
• On July 15, 2021, Team Penske announced that Austin Cindric would move up to the Cup Series full-time in 2022, replacing Brad Keselowski in the No. 2 car. The team has yet to announce their plans for the No. 22 car, although at this time it appears most likely that it will go back to being an "all-star car" with their Cup Series drivers sharing the ride, according to Jordan Bianchi from The Athletic.
• On July 15, 2021, it was also announced that Harrison Burton, the driver of the No. 20 for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series, would be moving up to the Cup Series full-time in 2022, replacing Matt DiBenedetto in the No. 21 car for Wood Brothers Racing. JGR has yet to announce who will replace Burton in the No. 20, although JGR part-time Xfinity and full-time ARCA driver Ty Gibbs and Kyle Busch Motorsports full-time Truck Series driver John Hunter Nemechek are widely considered to be the most likely candidates. Gibbs could also stay in the No. 54, which he drove part-time in 2021, and run full-time in that car since Kyle Busch will not be returning to the Xfinity Series in 2022 after reaching his retirement goal of 100 wins in the series in 2021. Gibbs could also drive JGR's No. 18 car in 2022 as Daniel Hemric will be leaving the team to drive the No. 11 for Kaulig Racing in 2022.
• On July 16, 2021, GMS Racing full-time Truck Series driver Sheldon Creed stated in an interview that he would like to move up to the Xfinity Series full-time in 2022. On August 17, Chris Knight from Catchfence tweeted that Creed was close to getting a 2022 deal done. On September 14, it was announced that Creed would drive full-time for Richard Childress Racing in the Xfinity Series in 2022. On October 9, RCR announced that Creed would replace Myatt Snider in the No. 2 and that Snider would remain with RCR in their driver development program. On November 3, it was announced that Snider would drive full-time for the RCR-aligned Jordan Anderson Racing in their No. 31 car in 2022.
• On July 27, 2021, Tommy Joe Martins announced that he will go back to part-time as a driver and his team's No. 44 will be split between him and multiple other drivers, one of which currently competes in ARCA and has yet to make a start in the top 3 series. Martins is expected to announce who that driver is sometime in August. On August 30, Martins announced that the driver is Rajah Caruth, who will be running three races in the No. 44 car with the possibility of two more if sponsorship can be found. Caruth will also return to Rev Racing and the Drive for Diversity program in 2022 and will run full-time in the ARCA Menards Series.
• On August 16, 2021, JR Motorsports announced that Josh Berry would drive full-time in their No. 8 car in 2022, which he drove part-time in 2021.
• On September 9, 2021, it was announced that Colby Howard would drive full-time in the Truck Series for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing in 2022. He previously drove the No. 15 for JD Motorsports in the Xfinity Series full-time in 2021 and part-time in 2020.
• On September 21, 2021, it was announced that Stefan Parsons would drive full-time for B. J. McLeod Motorsports in 2022. He has driven part-time for the team since 2019, mostly in the No. 99 car. On April 19, 2022, BJMM announced that they would be cutting back to two full-time cars with the No. 99 car and Parsons being reduced to a part-time schedule.
• On October 2, 2021, Jamie Little revealed during the NASCAR on Fox pre-race show for the Truck Series race at Talladega that Austin Hill will not be returning to Hattori Racing Enterprises in 2022. Hill hopes to compete in the Xfinity Series full-time in 2022. He competed full-time in the Truck Series and part-time in the Xfinity Series for Hattori in 2019, 2020 and 2021. On October 29, it was announced that Hill would drive full-time for Richard Childress Racing in 2022.
• On October 6, 2021, it was announced that Michael Annett would retire from full-time competition after the 2021 season. He has driven full-time for JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series since 2017.
• On October 11, 2021, Jeb Burton confirmed in an interview with Frontstretch that he would not be returning to the Kaulig Racing No. 10 in 2022 as a result of longtime sponsor Nutrien parting ways with the team at the end of the 2021 season. On December 9, Kaulig signed Landon Cassill to drive the No. 10 full-time in 2022.
• On October 15, 2021, Bayley Currey stated in an interview with Jayski's Silly Season Site that he hopes to return to JD Motorsports in 2022. He drove for Mike Harmon Racing for most of the 2021 season until he was taken out of the ride due to other drivers bringing sponsorship. On December 27, JDM announced that Currey would drive one of their cars full-time in 2022. Although he drove the No. 15 in all of his starts for the team in 2021, Currey moved to JDM's No. 4 car for 2022, replacing Landon Cassill.
• On October 19, 2021, B. J. McLeod Motorsports announced that Nick Sanchez would run part-time for the team in 2022. It will be his debut in the Xfinity Series. Sanchez, a member of the Drive for Diversity program, will also continue to drive full-time for Rev Racing in the ARCA Menards Series in 2022. Sanchez would replace Matt Mills in BJMM's No. 5 car in the races he ran. On July 15, 2022, Sanchez parted ways with B. J. McLeod Motorsports after running two of his seven races scheduled with the team. On September 8, Mills tweeted that he would miss the Kansas race due to a flu. Garrett Smithley was announced as the driver of the No. 5 for the race.
• On November 9, 2021, Jeffrey Earnhardt posted on his Facebook page that he would not return to JD Motorsports in 2022 in order to pursue opportunities to drive for a top-tier team whether it be full-time or part-time. On January 14, 2022, it was announced that Earnhardt would drive part-time in the No. 26 car for Sam Hunt Racing. On March 8, Emerling-Gase Motorsports announced that Earnhardt would drive their No. 35 car in the spring race at Phoenix. On April 12, it was announced that Earnhardt would drive for Richard Childress Racing in the spring race at Talladega in their No. 3 car, the number made famous by his grandfather Dale when he drove for RCR in the Cup Series.
• On November 15, 2021, DGM Racing announced that Josh Williams will not return to the No. 92, with the team opting to find an experienced and funded driver to fill the seat in 2022. On January 31, it was announced that Kyle Weatherman, who drove the No. 47 for Mike Harmon Racing full-time in 2021, would replace Williams in the No. 92, driving the first five races of the season in that car. Ross Chastain drove the No. 92 at COTA. After COTA, the No. 92's owner points were sold to the No. 08 SS-Green Light Racing car, primarily driven by David Starr.
• On November 22, 2021, NASCAR indefinitely suspended Alpha Prime Racing driver/co-owner Caesar Bacarella for substance abuse after he claimed he unknowingly took a workout supplement that is on the banned substances list. Bacarella enrolled in the Road to Recovery program with the expectation of being reinstated in time for the season-opener at Daytona. On February 14, 2022, Bacarella was reinstated by NASCAR.
• On December 1, 2021, JR Motorsports announced that Porsche Cup Brasil champion Miguel Paludo will return to the team for three road course races in 2022, although he will now drive the part-time No. 88 car as Josh Berry is driving the No. 8, which Paludo drove in 2021, full-time in 2022. On April 26, 2022, JR Motorsports announced that the No. 88 would be driven by Cup Series regulars Chase Elliott at Darlington spring, William Byron at Texas and New Hampshire, and Kyle Larson at Watkins Glen and Darlington fall.
• On December 3, 2021, RSS Racing announced that Parker Retzlaff, who has driven in the ARCA Menards Series East for Cook-Finley Racing, would run part-time in the team's full-time second car in 2022. With the race at Bristol in September overlapping with C. J. McLaughlin's schedule in the car, Retzlaff may drive the third RSS car, the No. 28, in that race or that race could be switched to another one.
• On December 8, 2021, B. J. McLeod Motorsports announced that Josh Williams would run full-time in the No. 78 for the team in 2022. Williams drove for DGM Racing the last five years either full-time or part-time. On August 10, Williams parted ways with B. J. McLeod Motorsports.
• On December 15, 2021, DGM Racing announced that Mason Massey would drive the No. 91 car for the majority of the 2022 season. He drove part-time for B. J. McLeod Motorsports in 2020 and 2021. A Jayski article on March 20, 2022, revealed that Massey would drive the car in all of the oval races. On May 25, 2022, DGM Racing announced that IMSA driver Mason Filippi would make his Xfinity Series and NASCAR debut in the race at Portland in the team's No. 91 car.
• On December 16, 2021, it was announced that Anthony Alfredo, previously the driver of the No. 38 for Front Row Motorsports in the Cup Series, and Jeb Burton, previously the driver of the Kaulig Racing No. 10, would both run full-time for Our Motorsports in 2022 as the team expands to three full-time cars. Alfredo will drive the No. 23, which multiple drivers drove part-time in 2021, and Burton will drive the team's new third car, the No. 27.
• On January 7, 2022, Mike Harmon Racing announced that it has parted ways with Kyle Weatherman. On January 31, it was announced that Weatherman would drive the No. 92 for DGM Racing in the first five races of the season. On February 10, it was announced that Gray Gaulding, who drove MHR's No. 74 car at the Charlotte Roval in 2020 and 2021 and at Kansas in October 2021, would drive the No. 47 in the season-opener at Daytona and Talladega. Brennan Poole would compete in their No. 47 for a handful of races.
• On January 8, 2022, SS-Green Light Racing announced that Joe Graf Jr. would run full-time in the No. 07 while the second team would have Cole Custer running at least four races and Chase Briscoe running one race in 2022. Custer would end up driving the No. 07 in his first start with the team at California with Graf Jr. moving to the No. 08. On October 4, Truck Series driver Hailie Deegan announced she would make her Xfinity Series debut in the No. 07 at Las Vegas.
• On January 13, 2022, Sam Hunt Racing announced that Ryan Truex would run part-time in the No. 26 in 2022. Truex previously drove full-time in the Truck Series in the No. 40 for Niece Motorsports, but lost his ride in that truck to Dean Thompson for 2022. On February 24, it was announced that Truex would also run 4 races for Joe Gibbs Racing in their No. 18 car. He drove part-time for JGR in the Xfinity Series in 2011 and 2012.
• On January 17, 2022, it was announced that C. J. McLaughlin would return to RSS Racing to drive their No. 38 car in 14 races in 2022. He drove part-time for RSS in 2019 and 2020. McLaughlin would end up driving 1 of his races in the team's No. 28 car instead of the No. 38.
• On January 20, 2022, SQR Development announced that former Kyle Busch Motorsports and GMS Racing Truck Series driver Raphaël Lessard would drive the team's car, the No. 87, part-time. Lessard and the No. 87 car were not on the entry list for the team's scheduled first race at Richmond and Lessard revealed in a Facebook post on March 29 that the team would not be attempting any races due to personal issues involving team owner Stout.
• On February 12, 2022, DGM Racing announced that Alex Labbé, who drove their No. 36 car full-time in 2021, would only be driving for the team part-time in 2022 due to lack of sponsorship. He drove the team's part-time fourth car, the No. 90, in the season-opener at Daytona. He would then drive for the team in the races at Phoenix in March and COTA, Road America, the Indy Road Course, Michigan, Daytona in August, Bristol and the Charlotte Roval. However, Labbé would end up also running every race after Daytona until Charlotte in May in the No. 36 car. On May 24, DGM announced that Labbé would not be running the race at Charlotte due to the inability to find a sponsor but would return to the No. 36 car for the race at Portland. Austin Konenski from Sportsnaut revealed that Garrett Smithley would be driving the No. 36 car at Charlotte.
• On February 16, 2022, MBM Motorsports announced that J. J. Yeley would drive their No. 66 car in the season-opener at Daytona. Yeley also told Bob Pockrass from Fox that it was possible that he would run the full season in the car.
• On February 21, 2022, it was revealed that ARCA Menards Series West driver Takuma Koga would attempt to make his Xfinity Series debut in the No. 13 car for MBM sometime in 2022.
• On March 9, 2022, Sam Hunt Racing announced that Parker Chase would make his Xfinity Series debut in the race at Circuit of the Americas driving their No. 26 car. Chase has competed part-time in the ARCA Menards Series for Venturini Motorsports and made his Truck Series debut at the Daytona Road Course in 2021 in the Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 51. Chase returned to the No. 26 car at Portland.
• On March 10, 2022, it was announced that road course ringer Patrick Gallagher would drive the RSS Racing No. 38 car in the race at Circuit of the Americas. Gallagher ended up driving the No. 28 RSS car instead of the No. 38. It was his second Xfinity Series start as he made his series debut in 2019 in the race at Mid-Ohio in the B. J. McLeod Motorsports No. 99 car.
• On April 12, 2022, Big Machine Racing announced that Kaz Grala would replace Jade Buford in the team's No. 48 car for the races at Talladega and Dover in April in order to evaluate the team's performance and see if they can get better finishes. At that point in the season, Buford and the No. 48 car had only scored one top-20 finish. Tyler Reddick replaced him at Darlington and Texas and Austin Dillon replaced him at Charlotte. Buford returned to the No. 48 car at Portland. On August 7, BMR announced that IndyCar Series driver Marco Andretti would make his NASCAR debut at the Charlotte Roval.
• On May 25, 2022, Joe Gibbs Racing announced that Connor Mosack, who competes full-time in the Trans-Am Series for TeamSLR and part-time in the ARCA Menards Series for Bret Holmes Racing, would make his Xfinity Series debut in their No. 18 car in the race at Portland.
• On May 30, 2022, it was announced that road course ringer Darren Dilley, who has driven in the ICSCC and Sports Car Club of America, would make his Xfinity Series debut in RSS Racing's No. 38 car in the race at Portland.
• On the Portland entry list, Gray Gaulding and Ryan Vargas are revealed to have switched rides, meaning Gaulding would be in the No. 6 and Vargas would be in the No. 47.
• On July 22, 2022, Brandon Brown announced he would drive the Mike Harmon Racing No. 47 at Indianapolis while Austin Dillon would drive the No. 68 of Brandonbilt Motorsports due to a lack of funding on the latter team. Brown later stated that he would unlikely return to the No. 68 full-time as a result of his struggle to secure a sponsor. Kris Wright was announced to drive the No. 68 in all but three races from August onwards. Brown drove the No. 5 for B. J. McLeod Motorsports at Watkins Glen.
• On August 22, 2022, it was announced that Josh Williams would return to DGM Racing starting at the Daytona, with him driving the rest of the season split between the team's No. 36 and No. 92 cars. He will drive the No. 36 car in each race that Alex Labbé does not have sponsorship for. In those three races, Williams will drive the No. 92 car.
• On August 23, 2022, Big Machine Racing owner Scott Borchetta revealed on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that Ross Chastain would drive his team's No. 48 car in a "couple" of races in 2022. With Ricky Stenhouse Jr. driving the car at Daytona and Nick Sanchez driving the car at Bristol and that "couple" meant more than one race, Chastain will more than likely drive the car at both Darlington and Kansas.
• On August 29, 2022, Dawson Cram announced that he would join Emerling-Gase Motorsports in their No. 35 Ford with sponsorship from Be Water and in a partnership with Cram Racing Enterprises.