2017_NASCAR_Xfinity_Series

2017 NASCAR Xfinity Series

2017 NASCAR Xfinity Series

36th season of second-tier NASCAR Xfinity Series


The 2017 NASCAR Xfinity Series was the 36th season of the NASCAR Xfinity Series, the second-tier professional stock car racing series sanctioned by NASCAR in the United States. The season began with the PowerShares QQQ 300 at Daytona International Speedway and ended with the Ford EcoBoost 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Daniel Suárez was the defending drivers' champion while Toyota was the defending manufacturer's champion, although Suárez couldn't defend his title due to him racing in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

William Byron, the 2017 Xfinity Series champion as well as NASCAR Rookie of the Year.
Elliott Sadler, the regular season champion, finished second behind Byron in the championship.
Justin Allgaier finished third in the championship.
Daniel Hemric finished fourth in the championship.
Chevy won the manufacturer's championship with 12 wins & 1195 points.
The 22 car for Team Penske won the owner's championship.

During the season, races were broadcast by Fox Sports and NBC Sports for the third consecutive year.

William Byron of JR Motorsports won the driver's championship with a third-place finish in the season finale. Team Penske won the owner's championship while Chevrolet won the manufacturer's championship.

This was the second year that the Xfinity Series (and the Truck Series) had a playoff system. Two of the four "championship 4" drivers (who are shown below), were the same as last year's, the only differences being William Byron and Daniel Hemric were in it instead of Daniel Suárez and Erik Jones, who both moved up to the Cup Series full-time in 2017. Also, three of the four of them (Byron, Sadler, and Allgaier) all drove for JR Motorsports. As Hemric, the other driver in the "championship 4", drove for Richard Childress Racing, that meant that the "championship 4" was composed entirely of Chevrolet drivers. Also ironically, Sadler and Allgaier both ended up finishing in the same positions in the standings as they did in 2016, second and third, respectfully.

Teams and drivers

Complete schedule

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Limited schedule

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Notes

  1. Entry was fielded in a collaboration with NextGen Motorsports.

Changes

Teams

  • Stewart-Haas Racing fielded the No. 00 Ford Mustang for the 2017 season. Stewart-Haas Racing (as Haas CNC Racing) formerly competed in the Xfinity Series from 2003 to 2006.
  • B. J. McLeod Motorsports fielded 3 full-time teams. The team previously fielded a 1 full-time team and 2 part-time teams.
  • Rick Ware Racing shut down its No. 25 team and move to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and the Camping World Truck Series. However, they returned at Road America.
  • Derrike Cope Racing announced on January 30 that it would shut down its No. 70 Chevrolet Camaro. Its owners' points were transferred to Stewart-Haas Racing.
  • Team Penske was originally planned to run a second full-time team for the season, but didn't due to sponsorship problems. The team once again started a part-time basis, that started at Las Vegas.
  • JGL Racing fielded 2 full-time teams. The team previously fielded 1 full-time team and 1 part-time team. However, at Chicagoland and Kentucky (fall) they entered only 1 team. On September 25, 2017, they announced that they would be releasing Dakoda Armstrong and would shut down the No. 28 Toyota Camry team effective immediately, due to a lack of funding. JGL also announced that they would focus their efforts on the No. 24 team for the remainder of the season.

Drivers

Crew chiefs

  • Matt Beckman served as crew chief of the car driven by Matt Tifft in 2017. Beckman was an engineer of the No. 11 Cup team in 2016.
  • Jeff Meendering arrived as crew chief of the No. 00 car driven by Cole Custer in 2017. Meendering was the car chief of the No. 20 car driven by Matt Kenseth for the Cup Series in 2016.
  • Matt Swiderski served as crew chief for Ty Dillon in 2017. Swiderski was the head of vehicle development in 2016.
  • Scott Graves served as crew chief for Kyle Busch and others in the No. 18 in 2017 as announced January 26. Graves was the No. 19 crew chief for Daniel Suarez in 2016.
  • On May 22, it was announced that Justin Alexander, crew chief for the Richard Childress Racing No. 2 team, would be moving up to be the crew chief of the No. 3 team driven by Austin Dillon in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, replacing former crew chief Slugger Labbe who left the team to pursue other opportunities. Randall Burnett, who previously was the crew chief for A. J. Allmendinger in the Cup Series for JTG Daugherty Racing, replaced Alexander.

Manufacturers

Rule changes

  • On October 26, NASCAR announced that drivers with more than five years of full-time racing on the Cup level may drive a maximum of 10 Xfinity Series races.[2] They are also ineligible to drive in the Xfinity Dash4Cash races as well as the final eight races of the season. Exceptions were given to drivers with more than five years of full-time racing on the Cup level if they declared to run points in Xfinity Series.[3]
  • On February 8, 2017, NASCAR announced a new damaged vehicle policy for all three national series. Body panels can no longer be replaced after a wreck, and a team has five minutes on pit road to fix the damage before they are eliminated.[4]
  • Like the NASCAR Cup Series, all Xfinity Series races were split into three segments. Top 10 drivers in the first two segments were awarded points. The final stage awarded full points as usual. The first segment finish was about a quarter of the full distance, and the second segment finish was about half of the full distance.
  • All races except Indianapolis saw the rear spoiler size significantly reduced to reduce downforce. The Indianapolis race featured a restrictor plate package including front air ducts provided by NASCAR that could not be covered with tape and a return to the 2016 rear spoiler.

Schedule

The OneMain Financial 200 at Dover International Speedway in June
The Pocono Green 250 at Pocono Raceway in June
The Johnsonville 180 at Road America in August
The Virginia 529 College Savings 250 at Richmond Raceway in September
The Use Your Melon Drive Sober 200 at Dover International Speedway in September

The initial schedule, comprising 33 races, was released on May 5, 2016.[5] A final schedule with some modifications made in conjunction with broadcast partners Fox and NBC was released on July 27, 2016.

Changes from 2016 include:

  • The May Dover race moved to June, after the Charlotte race weekend.
  • The June Iowa race moved from a Sunday afternoon to a Saturday night.
  • The July Iowa race moved from night to mid-afternoon.
  • Road America moved from a Saturday afternoon to a Sunday afternoon.
  • The playoff race at Texas Motor Speedway moved from a Saturday afternoon to a Saturday night.
  • The playoff race at Phoenix International Raceway moved back to a Saturday afternoon. It was a night race in 2016.
  • The October Charlotte race was originally scheduled for Friday night. But on April 20, NASCAR moved the race to Saturday afternoon.

The Fox and NBC broadcast networks aired four races each, where the rest aired on pay channels FS1 and NBCSN.

More information No, Race title ...
  • The Coca-Cola Firecracker 250 started on June 30 but the rest of the race was postponed to July 1 due to persistent rain.
  • The Alsco 300 was postponed from July 7 to July 8 because of inclement weather.

Results and standings

Race results

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Drivers' Championship

(key) Bold – Pole position awarded by time. Italics – Pole position set by final practice results or owner's points. * – Most laps led. 1 – Stage 1 winner. 2 – Stage 2 winner. 1–10 – Regular season top 10 finishers.
. – Eliminated after Round of 12 . – Eliminated after Round of 8

More information Pos, Driver ...

Owners' championship (Top 15)

(key) Bold - Pole position awarded by time. Italics - Pole position set by final practice results or rainout. * – Most laps led. 1 – Stage 1 winner. 2 – Stage 2 winner. 1–10 – Owners' regular season top 10 finishers.
. – Eliminated after Round of 12 . – Eliminated after Round of 8

More information Pos., No. ...

Manufacturers' Championship

More information Pos, Manufacturer ...

See also


References

  1. Spencer, Lee (November 18, 2016). "Reddick takes the next step in his NASCAR career, joining Ganassi". Motorsport.com. Homestead, Florida: Motorsport Network. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  2. Albert, Zack (October 26, 2016). "New participation guidelines put limits in place for 2017". NASCAR.com. Charlotte, North Carolina: NASCAR Media Group, LLC. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
  3. Fryer, Jenna (October 26, 2016). "NASCAR limits number of lower tier races for veterans". Associated Press. Charlotte, North Carolina: AP Sports. Associated Press. Archived from the original on October 28, 2016. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
  4. Pockrass, Bob (February 8, 2017). "NASCAR unveils new damaged vehicle policy". ESPN.com. Concord, North Carolina: ESPN Inc. Retrieved February 17, 2017.
  5. "NASCAR announces 2017 national series schedules". NASCAR.com. Daytona Beach, Florida: NASCAR Media Group, LLC. May 5, 2016. Retrieved May 13, 2016.

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