NASCAR: Joe Gibbs Racing’s one small ‘star car’ change for 2023
By Asher Fair
Joe Gibbs Racing’s additional “star car” is set to utilize a different number for a third consecutive NASCAR Xfinity Series season.
Joe Gibbs Racing confirmed their full-time driver lineup for the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series this week, announcing that Sammy Smith and John Hunter Nemechek are set to replace Ty Gibbs, who is set to move to the Cup Series, and Brandon Jones, who is set to move to JR Motorsports.
Both Smith and Nemechek competed part-time behind the wheel of Joe Gibbs Racing’s “star car” during the 2022 season, with Smith driving it in nine events and Nemechek driving it in three.
Smith is set to drive the No. 18 Toyota, which had been used as the “star car”, and Nemechek is set to drive the No. 20 Toyota, which was absent from the team’s 2022 roster after having been a part of it every year from 2001 to 2021.
Neither car was driven by Gibbs or Jones in 2022. Gibbs drove the No. 54 Toyota, which had been the “star car” in 2020 and 2021 before he became a full-time driver, while Jones drove the No. 19 Toyota, which has been run for a full-time driver in each of the last seven seasons. Jones drove it in the last five, while Matt Tifft drove it in 2017 and Daniel Suarez drove it in 2016.
But in 2023, the No. 19 Toyota is set to be the “star car”.
The No. 19 Toyota hasn’t been a rotational ride at Joe Gibbs Racing since 2006. From 2004 to 2006, it was used in that capacity, but as a part-time entry. It has never been a full-time “star car”, as it wasn’t used at all from 2007 to 2016. It also wasn’t used prior to 2004.
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This change makes the No. 19 Toyota the third different car to serve as the “star car” in the last three seasons, with the No. 54 Toyota doing so in 2021 and the No. 18 Toyota doing so in 2022. Just three other car numbers — No. 4, No. 20, and No. 24 — have ever been used by Joe Gibbs Racing as a full-time rotational ride.