NASCAR: Joe Gibbs Racing announcing new driver for #18 car?

Joe Gibbs Racing still need to fill the #18 Toyota for one more race on the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule. Will they call upon someone new?

Back in July, Ryan Truex added a fifth race to his initial NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule as the driver of the #18 Toyota, also known as the “star car”, for Joe Gibbs Racing, competing in the race at Atlanta Motor Speedway and finishing in third place.

The confirmation of Truex for this 163-lap race around the four-turn, 1.54-mile (2.478-kilometer) high-banked oval in Hampton, Georgia meant that the #18 Toyota only needed to be filled for two more races on the 2022 schedule.

At this point, no driver had been confirmed for the #18 Toyota for the late regular season race at Darlington Raceway, and no driver had been confirmed for the car for the upcoming round of 12 playoff race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval on Saturday, October 8.

Joe Gibbs Racing Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin had competed in a race at Darlington Raceway for the organization’s Xfinity Series team in each of the last seven seasons, and there was no reason to believe that that streak would end at seven.

He was indeed confirmed for this race before withdrawing as a result of soreness from a wreck at Daytona International Speedway, resulting in Cup Series teammate Christopher Bell driving the car.

Now there is just one race for which a driver has not been confirmed for the #18 Toyota, and there are five races remaining on the 2022 schedule. Sammy Smith and Trevor Bayne are each set to compete in two of them.

Will the team confirm a new driver for the playoff race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, or will they call upon someone who has already driven the car?

Smith and Bayne have competed in seven of the first 28 races for the team this year, while Truex has competed in five and John Hunter Nemechek has competed in three. Drew Dollar and Bubba Wallace have competed in two each, while Bell and Connor Mosack have each competed in one.

Bayne and Truex have already expanded their initial schedules with the team this season. Could they do it again?

Wallace competed in the road course races at Circuit of the Americas and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. But as a full-time Cup Series driver, he is ineligible to compete in an Xfinity Series playoff race.

Smith made his Xfinity Series debut in the road course race at Road America, and he also competed in the road course race at Watkins Glen International. But he is set to compete in an ARCA Menards Series race at Toledo Speedway on Saturday, October 8.

Mosack made his Xfinity Series debut in the road course race at Portland International Raceway, so he could be an option.

So will Joe Gibbs Racing call upon a ninth different driver to drive the #18 Toyota in 2022, or will they expand the schedule of someone who has already been behind the wheel, perhaps one of those without a road course start?

Meanwhile, on the Cup side, Joe Gibbs Racing also have their #18 car to think about, with Kyle Busch set to leave for Richard Childress Racing in 2023.