The 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series season isn’t here quite yet. However, multiple drivers and teams have confirmed their plans for next season. Here is every confirmed NASCAR Xfinity Series team and driver combination. Make sure to check back here throughout the Silly Season and into the off-season for any updates that may happen.
This article will be updated as drivers, teams, promotions, and demotions continue to happen throughout 2024 and into 2025.
Last season, there were 22 full-time Xfinity Series drivers; there are currently 29 for 2025.
Sheldon Creed had a new season with a new team at Joe Gibbs Racing. However, his time in the No. 18 has resulted in the same old story for Sheldon Creed. Now, after a season of winless races, Creed is heading to the newly named Haas Factory Team in 2024, taking over the 2023 Championship-winning No. 00 car.
Carson Kvapil is finally getting his shot at the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2025. Much like JRM did with Josh Berry, just a few years ago, the team scored the young Late Model Champion valuable sponsorship for next season with Bass Pro Shops on board the No. 1.
Jesse Love had a great start to his NASCAR National Series career with RCR in 2024. A win and a Rookie of the Year award complimented a Playoff rookie season for Love, who is perhaps a championship contender next season.
After a quiet 2024 season and a quiet breakup with Jordan Anderson Racing, Parker Retzlaff found himself a free agent. However, he finds himself on his feet and back with Chevrolet as up-and-coming Alpha Prime Racing signs the young driver for his junior Xfinity Series season.
OUR Motorsports is moving on from Anthony Alfredo entering 2025. Kris Wright, a journeyman driver, will pilot the No. 5 in 2025. Wright, at 29 years old, is coming off a third-place finish in the ARCA Menards Series.
Justin Allgaier keeps getting older and keeps winning races. In late 2024, JR Motorsports rewarded that with a multi-year extension for the 38-year-old driver. His newly won Xfinity Series Championship, longtime sponsor Brandt, and his one to three wins a season are enough to keep him around at JRM for at least two more seasons.
Despite a sophomore slump, Sammy Smith continued his winning ways in 2024 with a late-season win at Talladega. This win boosted his playoff run into the Round of Eight. In 2025, despite being just his second season with the team, Smith joins Justin Allgaier as a tenured driver at a revamped JR Motorsports.
Daniel Dye made his full-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut in 2023. With the late GMS Racing last year, Dye had one top-ten finish. This year, with McAnally–Hilgemann Racing, Dye has one top-five and seven top-tens. This performance locked him into the Truck Series Playoffs and earned him a full-time spot with Kaulig Racing. In seven part-time starts with Kaulig this year, Dye has two top-tens.
Josh Williams’ first season of his multi-year contract with Kaulig Racing has not gone the way many hoped it would. The driver who made his name for “parking it” at Atlanta has hung around the middle of the pack for the majority of this season. Hopefully, 2025 will be better for the 30-year-old driver.
Garrett Smithley gets a full-time gig with SS GreenLight Racing in 2025, following a part-time schedule with the team in 2024. This will be his first full-time ride since 2019, when he raced with JD Motorsports and finished 19th in points.
Christian Eckes was the steal of Silly Season for most NASCAR fans. Kaulig Racing, who was rumored to perhaps give up on their developmental program at the beginning of the season, signed Eckes to a long-term deal in August. Eckes is coming off a Truck Series championship-caliber season but fell short at Phoenix. Will that skill transition over to Xfinity action?
Toyota is calling up its top prospect, William Sawalich, after a stellar 2024 ARCA Menards Series Campaign. Sawalich won nine races in the 2024 ARCA Menards series, alongside one pole in the NASCAR Truck Series for TRICON Garage.
Just two seasons removed from his spat with Ty Gibbs at Martinsville, Brandon Jones is returning to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2025. Jones raced at Gibbs for several seasons leading up to his ride at JR Motorsports. Later in his first stint at JGR, Jones seemed to find a winning ability. However, that has not been the case at JRM. Hopefully, a reunion can help the Series veteran get back in victory lane.
Austin Hill, despite winning consistently, can’t seem to win a NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship. Nor can he seem to get a ride in the Cup Series. While he enters another year at RCR, perhaps 2025 can be the veteran’s last season in the Xfinity Series.
Harrison Burton has had an up-and-down 2025. Early this season, Burton lost his ride at Wood Brothers Racing to Josh Berry. However, Burton reversed course after this loss, winning at Daytona in August. Now, Burton takes over the No. 15 for AM Racing next season, hoping to revive his career.
Dean Thompson makes the Jump from Trucks to Xfinity Series action for 2025. Thompson, who raced for TRICON these past two seasons, has a best career finish of 20th in the Xfinity Series.
Jeb Burton returns to JAR for a third season in 2025. Now a veteran of the series, the two-time winner can hopefully improve on a sown 2024 season. JAR as a whole had some setbacks in 2024; perhaps the driver and team will rebound.
After four part-time seasons–two in which he missed just two races–Kyle Sieg will get his first full-time Xfinity Series season with RSS Racing. In 81 career starts, the younger Sieg brother has a best career finish of seventh at Atlanta in the Summer of 2023.
This signing was a shocking yet amazing opportunity for Blaine Perkins in 2025. In 2024, Perkins, in his second full-time Xfinity Series attempt with RSS Racing, improved on his 2023 averages. Maybe in a car like JAR’s, Perkins will improve even more in 2025.
A driver that will probably remain at their family-owned team in 2025 is Ryan Sieg. Sieg came up short at Texas Motor Speedway this season. While he has yet to win a race in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Sieg, and RSS Racing keep getting better, hopefully 2025 will be another step in the right direction.
Sam Mayer had lots of wins but little consistency at JR Motorsports. Once Chevrolet’s top prospect, Mayer is headed to Ford and the newly named Haas Factory Team in 2025. In doing so, he brings a winning reputation, a youthful look, and a new face to a struggling Ford Developmental ladder.
After a solid first season with Alpha Prime Racing, Brennan Poole earns a nod for a second season in the No. 44. Poole, now a veteran of the series, had a career-reviving season with Alpha Prime in 2024, putting together the team’s best full-time season to date.
Nick Sanchez had a comeback year in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series this year. After a season that tapered off as it went on in 2023, Sanchez and Rev Racing are two-time winners in the truck series this season. This earned Sanchez a promotion to the Xfinity Series and Big Machine Racing in 2025.
As for another driver who will more than likely return to their family-owned team, 2024 was not Jeremy Clements’s year. Hopefully, the two-time race winner can recover in 2025 and find that once promising traction both he and his team had in the past.
Taylor Gray is making the jump to the Xfinity Series in 2025. The 19-year-old is coming off back-to-back full-time seasons in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series with TRICON Garage. While Gray has not won a NASCAR National Series race, he is considered a legitimate NASCAR prospect.
Ryan Ellis is leaving Alpha Prime Racing following the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season and heading to DGM Racing. Ellis is coming off back-to-back difficult seasons with Alpha Prime but has shown statistical improvement, similar to DGM’s rise in the past few seasons.
Perhaps the hottest prospect in NASCAR, Connor Zilisch, shocked no one when he signed to race full-time with JR Motorsports in 2025. This was prior to his debut at Watkins Glen. However, that didn’t matter, as Zilisch dominated and won his Xfinity Series debut for JRM. While it could be long-term, with Zilisch’s skill, it might be shorter than anyone expected.
Fan favorite Matt DiBenedetto returns to a more independent Viking Racing in 2025. The team, once deeply tied to RSS Racing, returns for 2025 as a Chevrolet team with support from RCR. This pairing seems good for both the driver and the team, as the veteran can help the young Viking Racing establish itself in its true first season as an independent team.
These drivers are confirmed to be back in 2025 via announcement or mention. Some drivers who will more than likely be back in 2025 will be added as they or their team confirm this.
YouTube star-turned-NASCAR driver Garrett Mitchell, best known by his online persona Cleetus McFarland, has signed a part-time deal to race with Richard Childress Racing in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series for the next two seasons.
UPDATE 3:00 PM EST: Per RCR Mitchell will make his debut at Rockingham Speedway on April 4.
What’s Happening? Despite his internet fame, Garrett Mitchell, by his screen name Cleetus McFarland, has recently taken to stock car racing…
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NTT IndyCar Series fan favorite driver Pato O’Ward jokingly backtracked on his comments in which he said he was “sick and tired” of IndyCar being treated like a “support race” on joint NASCAR weekends, in a recent social media post.
This past weekend, ahead of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series joint race weekend with the NTT IndyCar Series at the St. Petersburg Grand Prix, Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward told reporters that while he likes the joint race weekends, he does not like IndyCar being treated as a support race.
“I think it’s a good thing. I’m sick and tired of IndyCar being like the support race.” – Pato O’Ward
This was, of course, in reference to the upcoming joint weekend at Phoenix Raceway in which the NTT IndyCar Series opens action on Saturday before the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race that night, and the NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday afternoon.
These comments, nonetheless, have sparked a debate over IndyCar’s stature within the fabric of North American Motorsports. Many have called out O’Ward for his comments, while others agree that IndyCar should always be held to the same bar as NASCAR on a race weekend.
Wednesday morning, in reaction to the rating report from this past weekend, in which NASCAR scored 3.9 million viewers for the Cup Series race at COTA, and IndyCar scored 1.4 million viewers at St. Petersburg, O’Ward somewhat jokingly backtracked on his passionate take.
In a post to social media, O’Ward joked, “I stand corrected, I’m so happy to be here with NASCAR this weekend.”
Of course, this debate is far from over, as this weekend is an interesting reflection on the state of motorsports in the United States.
A point made by many on both sides of this debate is that while the Cup Series gets its own raceday, the IndyCar Series is sharing Saturday with the OAP Series, even opening for NASCAR’s second-highest national series that afternoon.
This weekend is not the first time the two series have shared a race day, doing so at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in 2020. But, even that weekend, the IndyCar Series, at their home track, raced before the then Xfinity Series.
Nonetheless, it’s hard to evenly split attention in a weekend where the three most popular American oval racing series are all competing at one track.
For one, FOX Sports has done a solid job of promoting both series as equals ahead of this weekend, with the brand promoting it as the “Desert Double,” highlighting the IndyCar Series as an equal to the Cup Series.
All things aside, if this weekend is a success, who’s to say that the two series don’t grow their relationship in the future, sharing some tracks that many IndyCar fans have longed to see return to the series calendar.
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Round 2 has officially closed on its purchase of Lionel LLC, including its Lionel Racing brand. Here’s everything you need to know about the sale and what’s to come of the new Lionel Brands Group.
In late February, there were many rumors making the rounds that Round 2, known for producing brands like Johnny Lightning and Racing Champions, was looking to acquire Lionel and its line of brands.
On February 20, Lionel disclosed to the Daily Downforce that Round 2 did intend to purchase the company, though the transaction was still incomplete.
What’s Happening? Following days of intense online speculation and rumors within the diecast community, Lionel, LLC has officially confirmed that it…
Per a Wednesday morning press release, the acquisition is officially completed, with Round 2 closing the deal for Lionel on March 2, and merging into the newly named Lionel Brands Group. This means that the combined force of Round 2 and Lionel has created a portfolio including in-house and licensed brands like:
While Lionel Brands Group is its own entity, it is a subsidiary of Praesidian Capital, a private equity firm based in Larchmont, New York.
As of press time, there seems to be no plans to make major overhauls to anything related to the brands, beyond the new name.
In February, regarding their then-pending acquisition by Round 2, Lionel told the Daily Downforce, “In the near term, it remains business as usual. Our priority is maintaining continuity and supporting the programs already underway.”
Specifically for NASCAR fans, while it is worth noting that the Racing Champions (a former staple of the NASCAR diecast landscape) and NASCAR licenses are under the same banner, things are going on as planned, as Lionel Racing recently announced the first 2026 Wave of NASCAR Authentics diecast.
For now, the brand’s new website has yet to have any hints towards future plans, though the site promises that there is more to come.
What’s Happening? Lionel Racing finally confirmed the first wave of 2026 NASCAR Authentics 1:64 scale diecast for Monday morning, with the…
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