NASCAR Silly Season has been a bit messy in the last week or two, and that’s not just referring to 2023.
Amid the news of Noah Gragson moving to Petty GMS Motorsports in the NASCAR Cup Series next year and Kyle Busch‘s contract for 2023 remaining up in the air, two announcements that made less waves but were interesting nonetheless came from the NASCAR Xfinity and Camping World Truck series.
First, after Kris Wright was found to be off the Truck entry list at Richmond Raceway for Niece Motorsports, Niece announced it and Wright had parted ways for the remainder of the season.
Then, BJ McLeod Motorsports and Josh Williams mutually agreed to end Williams’ tenure in its Xfinity cars, starting with next weekend’s event at Watkins Glen International.
Both drivers were initially announced for full seasons and had indeed at least attempted every race on their respective series’ schedules up to this week. Wright, in Niece’s No. 44, had qualified for all 17 contests, earning a best finish of 15th at Circuit of the Americas. Williams, meanwhile, competed in 17 of the 21 Xfinity races, mostly for BJMM’s No. 78 but occasionally in its No. 5, a 17th-place finish at Road America his best result. He failed to qualify for the other four races.
On paper, both drivers’ departures make sense, mostly because of their aforementioned top finishes. Williams has taken a step back in 2022 after eight top 10s in three full-time seasons driving for DGM Racing. Wright hasn’t exactly fared any worse than his now-former Niece teammates not named Carson Hocevar, but an average finish of 25.5 for a driver who’s been in better equipment in the past (he made multiple Xfinity starts last year for Sam Hunt Racing and has also driven for GMS Racing) begs the question of why one should even finish out the season if other opportunities are afoot.
Such as, for example, an open seat in Xfinity at BJMM. Maybe you’ve read about it.
Wright and Williams join Tate Fogleman (On Point Motorsports in Trucks) and Stefan Parsons (BJMM in Xfinity, though he’ll still race for it occasionally) as previously full-time drivers who’ve moved on from their teams semi-recently. Then there are Brandon Brown and Jade Buford, who have gone from full time in Xfinity to either part time (Buford) or at least out of their usual ride full time (Brown), in both cases opening up races in the Nos. 68 and 48 for Brandonbilt Motorsports and Big Machine Racing Team, respectively.
With qualifying…
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