{"id":129126,"date":"2025-08-08T13:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T13:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/129126\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T13:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T13:18:09","slug":"top-prospect-likely-to-race-full-time-in-xfinity-series-for-joe-gibbs-racing-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/129126\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Prospect ‘Likely’ to Race Full-Time in Xfinity Series for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denny Hamlin signed\u00a0a two-year contract\u00a0extension with\u00a0Joe Gibbs Racing\u00a0to continue\u00a0his Hall of Fame\u00a0career in the\u00a0No. 11 car. While\u00a0there is currently\u00a0no clear succession\u00a0plan in place\u00a0for Hamlin\u2019s seat, developments\u00a0are underway\u00a0that could set\u00a0the stage for\u00a0one of the top NASCAR prospects to eventually\u00a0take over.<\/p>\n

Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports<\/a> ranked Brent Crews third among the best NASCAR prospects right now. He also noted that the 17-year-old is \u201clikely\u201d to race full-time in 2026 with Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cCrews has two wins and a second in five ARCA national series starts. He also has one top 10 in three truck starts. He\u2019ll likely race full time in Xfinity next season at Joe Gibbs Racing after he turns 18 in March.<\/p>\n

Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports on Brent Crews<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Related: NASCAR Prospects Who Could be Future Stars<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Crews debuted in the Truck Series in 2025 at North Wilkesboro Speedway, finishing\u00a022nd<\/a>\u00a0and taking 8th in Stage 2. About a month later, he placed eighth at\u00a0Lime Rock<\/a>. It\u2019s a big leap for such a young driver, as even Connor Zilisch was older at 19 when he became a full-time Xfinity driver.<\/p>\n

It would be quite the jump for the teenager to move to the Xfinity Series next season after appearing in just three Truck races this year. Even Connor Zilisch, who turned 19 years old in July, was older when he became a full-time Xfinity driver this season.<\/p>\n

Related: Hendrick Motorsports Eyeing Top Prospect for Full-Time Ride in 2026<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The report from Pockrass came just days after Jordan Bianchi of\u00a0The Athletic<\/a>\u00a0highlighted Crews as a potential successor to Hamlin to drive the No. 11 car in the 2028 season. However, the future Hall of Famer has said he could race a bit longer if NASCAR changes the championship format to three races instead of one.<\/p>\n

With Zilisch moving up to the Cup Series next season to drive full-time for Trackhouse Racing, there will be even more attention on Crews as potentially the top prospect in the Xfinity Series. However, there\u2019s still a chance that Corey Heim gets a full-time spot with an Xfinity team in 2026 after dominating the Truck Series this season.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tNFL, MLB & college football writer for Sportsnaut. Graduated from San Diego State University with BA in Journalism, 2019. … More about Matt Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denny Hamlin signed\u00a0a two-year contract\u00a0extension with\u00a0Joe Gibbs Racing\u00a0to continue\u00a0his Hall of Fame\u00a0career in the\u00a0No. 11 car. While\u00a0there is…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":129127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-129126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-nascar","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114993345612830408","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}