On Wednesday (Oct. 5) Kaulig Racing announced that AJ Allmendinger would move to full-time NASCAR Cup Series racing, leaving the No. 16 Xfinity Series car open. Replacing him will be Chandler Smith, arguably the hottest driver in the Camping World Truck Series right now.
The move not only signifies a well-deserved move to the Xfinity Series for Smith, but also further creates a hole for Toyota, as Kyle Busch’s move to Richard Childress Racing means that Toyota is losing its best – and really only – feeder team in the Truck Series.
David Wilson, president of Toyota Racing Development, had expressed that he intended to keep all of Kyle Busch Motorsports’ current drivers within the Toyota family – Smith, Corey Heim, and John Hunter Nemechek. Smith’s move to Kaulig threw a wrench in that.
Nemechek, more than likely, will fill one of Joe Gibbs Racing’s Xfinity Series seats, as there will be at least one seat open – the No. 19, which Brandon Jones will be vacating at season’s end to join JR Motorsports.
Heim will more than likely stay in the Truck Series another season, but if TRD intends to keep him, they need to find a team that will develop him to move up in the coming seasons, and right now, there are no teams to do that, unless a team switches manufacturers (ThorSport Racing and Halmar Friesen Racing are Toyota teams, but both are not true development teams).
There are reports that David Gilliland Racing will switch back to Toyota and Heim will join for the 2023 season. That would be best case scenario for Toyota – to get a multi-truck team to switch manufacturers and get one of its drivers to stay by switching teams. Because other than that, TRD drivers who wish to move up will either switch manufacturers or will make the bold leap straight to the Xfinity Series.
Although the former seems like the more likely option if that were the case. Smith is another soon-to-be former Toyota driver to switch to Chevrolet. Drivers like Noah Gragson, William Byron, and now Jones are all drivers who jumped to Chevy from Toyota (and look where they are now). Toyota has had a serious issue with finding spots in higher series for its talent pool, and now its number one feeder team in the Truck Series is on its way out too.
The question then becomes: Who will replace Smith in the No. 18 truck? Will TRD let yet another driver get away? KBM is now at a crossroads with finding new drivers. The team could try to pull two-time ARCA Menards…
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