NASCAR: Can Joe Gibbs Racing overcome abundant doubt in 2020?

Joe Gibbs Racing’s full-time driver lineup for the 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series season has faced plenty of scrutiny, and for many justified reasons. Can they overcome it?

Joe Gibbs Racing opted to do what they have never done before in the NASCAR Xfinity Series next year, and that is field three cars for three full-time drivers.

Set to drive for the team in the 33-race 2020 season, which is scheduled to get underway at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, February 15, are Brandon Jones, Harrison Burton and Riley Herbst, all of whom were confirmed by the team for next year within the last few weeks.

Jones is set to continue driving the #19 Toyota, Burton is set to replace the Cup Series-bound Christopher Bell behind the wheel of the #20 Toyota and Riley Herbst is set to drive the #18 Toyota, the car that hasn’t had full-time driver since Daniel Suarez drove it back in the 2015 season.

More from Xfinity Series

Jones, the 22-year-old from Atlanta, Georgia, is by far and away the team veteran, and that’s only where the scrutiny begins.

In 45 Truck Series starts, Jones has zero victories despite competing in a combined 29 races for top-tier teams GMS Racing and Kyle Busch Motorsports.

After two winless seasons in the Xfinity Series driving for the top-tier Richard Childress Racing team in the 2016 and 2017 seasons, Jones made the move to Joe Gibbs Racing, where it took him until his 63rd start, his 134th career start, to finally find victory lane at Kansas Speedway last month. He is now 1 for 136.

He finished in 10th, 16th and ninth place in the championship standings in the 2016, 2017 and 2018 seasons, and he currently runs in 10th with one race remaining this year. Meanwhile, he has had a teammate finish in the top five in the standings in all four seasons, three times as a member of the Championship 4.

Keep in mind, this is Joe Gibbs Racing’s experienced veteran at NASCAR’s second-highest level next year.

Then there is Harrison Burton, who has competed in 37 Truck Series races without a win, the second highest start total in Kyle Busch Motorsports history for a winless driver. The highest, 45 races, was just ended by Todd Gilliland at Martinsville Speedway at the end of October.

The 19-year-old Huntersville, North Carolina native currently sits in 12th place in the Truck Series championship standings. Only 11 drivers have competed in each of the season’s first 22 races. Burton is one of them, and he leads only Gus Dean of the far less resourceful Young’s Motorsports in the standings among these drivers.

Team owner Kyle Busch even stated earlier this season that Burton and Gilliland “ain’t doing shit”, and Burton didn’t exactly change that narrative by failing to qualify for the playoffs and failing to win any of the first six playoff races, even with nothing to lose.

Burton made the first eight starts of his Xfinity Series career this year for Joe Gibbs Racing, and his average finish was a disappointing 17.63.

He did show promise with four top 10 finishes, including a best finish of fourth place in the June race at Iowa Speedway, and the speed he displayed with six top 10 starts, including a front row start in the November race at Texas Motor Speedway, was impressive. But just like he has in the Truck Series, he lacked consistency.

Finally, there is Riley Herbst, whose most recent full-time ride in NASCAR came in the 2016 K&N Pro Series West season. He has competed in just seven Truck Series races and 10 Xfinity Series races.

In his seven Truck Series starts, five for Kyle Busch Motorsports and two for DGR-Crosley, the 20-year-old Las Vegas, Nevada native recorded an average finish of 13.43 on the strength of three top 10 finishes, including a top finish of third place in last month’s race at Talladega Superspeedway driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports.

In his 10 Xfinity Series starts, all for Joe Gibbs Racing, Herbst has never finished in the top five. He has recorded four top 10 finishes, including a top finish of sixth place in his series debut last June at Iowa Speedway, and an average finish of just 15.80.

Do the math. These drivers already have a combined 243 Xfinity Series and Truck Series races, 154 in the former and 89 in the latter. Their lone victory thus far was earned by the driver with a combined 181 starts, 136 in the former and 45 in the latter.

Now they are each set to occupy one of the three of the most coveted seats in the Xfinity Series, three seats that could very well find themselves in the Championship 4 with good enough drivers.

There is not an ounce of doubt about this young driver lineup for the 2020 season that isn’t justifiable based on what we have seen out of Jones, Burton and Herbst. Will they be able to overcome that doubt?

The 2020 season certainly looks like it will throw numerous learning curves at these three young drivers, whose average age is just over 20 years old.

But as such young drivers, they will be able to take those learning curves and do just that — learn from them.

They clearly have plenty of upside and room to develop, and while you could argue that they (Burton and Herbst, anyway) are being rushed up to the Xfinity Series, they have spent a enough time driving for Joe Gibbs Racing as part-time drivers to the point where they know what they need to build upon and they know what expectations are.

dark. Next. Top 10 NASCAR drivers of all-time

I’m not predicting a Championship 4 berth for any of these three drivers in the 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series, much less a title. But don’t be surprised to see at least a couple of trips to victory lane by the team next year, and playoff berths, possibly even advancements to the round of 8, are more than attainable for the entire trio. Who knows? Maybe the Championship 4 won’t end up being as far-fetched as it seems.

Home/Xfinity Series