NASCAR: Joe Gibbs Racing announce another new driver for 2022

The driver lineup for Joe Gibbs Racing’s “star car” is coming together for the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series season, with another driver confirmed for four races.

With Kyle Busch retiring from the NASCAR Xfinity Series after hitting 100 wins last year and Ty Gibbs being promoted from part-time driver to full-time driver, there was always going to be quite a bit of change in 2022 behind the wheel of the Joe Gibbs Racing “star car”.

Gibbs drove the “star car”, then the #54 Toyota, in 17 of 33 races last year, while Busch ran his usual five. Gibbs still drives the #54 Toyota, but he drives full-time; the star car became the #18 Toyota following 2021 series champion Daniel Hemric’s departure to Kaulig Racing.

The team are not running the #20 Toyota this year following the departure of Harrison Burton to the Cup Series; Brandon Jones is their only other full-time driver, driving the #19 Toyota for the fifth season.

Up until this week, only two drivers had been confirmed for a total of 11 races behind the wheel of the “star car” throughout the 33-race season.

Drew Dollar, who was confirmed for the four superspeedway races on the schedule, led things off last week at Daytona International Speedway. Trevor Bayne is set for the first of his seven scheduled starts this afternoon at Auto Club Speedway.

And now Ryan Truex has been confirmed for four races behind the wheel of the #18 Toyota, starting with next Saturday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He is also set to compete at Martinsville Speedway on Friday, April 8; Darlington Raceway on Saturday, May 7; and Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday, May 21.

This means that there are still 18 races for which the “star car” does not yet have a confirmed driver, and there are several other candidates who can fill the seat.

The races at Atlanta Motor Speedway (Saturday, March 19), Circuit of the Americas (Saturday, March 26), and Richmond Raceway (Saturday, April 2) are the next three races for which Joe Gibbs Racing still must confirm a third driver.

These races are the fifth, sixth and seventh races on this year’s scheduled; Bayne is set to compete in the fourth race at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday, March 12.

Truex competed in last week’s season opener for Sam Hunt Racing and finished in 12th place behind the wheel of the #26 Toyota. Prior to last week, he had last competed in the Xfinity Series with JR Motorsports as a part-time driver in 2019. He last competed full-time in the series with Kaulig Racing in 2018. Last year, he competed full-time for Niece Motorsports in the Truck Series.