That time is here. 12 drivers have all officially been confirmed to be in the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs. In the next 7 races, they will be tested on the most pressure to have a shot at the championship. Just like the Truck and Cup playoffs, after 3 races, a number of drivers will be eliminated from contention. In this case, 12 will become 8, and 8 will become 4 for the season finale at Phoenix. Who are these drivers aiming to make a name for themselves? Let's meet and learn about them.

Parker Kligerman

You may have seen Parker on NBC pit reporting on most Sundays, but on most Saturdays, he is a racecar driver. Parker originally was trying to make a name for himself, but sometimes things don't work out. After a respectable 2012 and 2013 seasons in Trucks and Xfinity he got to Cup in 2014 just for his team to shut down. While he did everything right to keep any relevance in racing, you'd see him become a part of the NASCAR On NBC family. This looked similar to Regan Smith who works for FOX now but was still pursuing a chance to compete in NASCAR. This year would be the first full-time year Parker would run since 2013. Kligerman and that #48 Big Machine Racing Chevy team have had a strong season taking it to the Xfinity powerhouse organizations. They beat teams like Stewart Haas and JR Motorsports to make the playoffs. He has had 11 top 11 finishes in the last 13 races including 3 top 5s in the last 4 races. It'll be a popular win if he can get a checkered flag in these final 7 races.

Daniel Hemric

Daniel's career has been moving up and down, side to side like a rollercoaster. He has raced in all of the NASCAR national touring series full-time at some point. He began in Trucks for Bob Newberry and Brad Keselowski in 2015 and 2016. Next, he went to the Xfinity Series for RCR in 2017 then joined Cup in 2019 for the same organization. When 2020 came along he would get replaced by Tyler Reddick. Daniel spent that year racing part -time for JR Motorsports in this series trying to fight for a job. It was a success as 2021 brought him the chance to drive for Joe Gibbs. But pressure was on, throughout this whole thing he has 0 NASCAR wins. In every stat he was improving from one year to the next. It seemed like something always would get in his way to prevent him from winning. He had 10 2nd place finishes without a single win, matching Dale Jarrett who is a Cup champion. Shows that Hemric has potential, still he made the championship 4 and had a chance to not only win his 1st race, but the championship.

https://youtu.be/mkoNQfZRz-E

With that win finally under his belt and the bonus of a title, Daniel Hemric goes to the #11 Kaulig Racing Chevy in 2022. Still to this day Hemric only has 1 win. But with that experience Chris Rice, the team president shifts Daniel over to the #10 team. This is similar to what 23XI did in the 2022 Cup playoffs. This differs because Hemric now has to adjust to a new crew chief and basically a different squad. Why is this change happening?  Because the #10 car is in the owner playoffs which is how the team gets paid, plus it'll allow any drivers to just shift over to the #11 without the pressure to perform. They can just focus on doing the best they can. Perhaps Daniel will shock the world again.

Jeb Burton

Some of NASCAR'S stars happen to be descendants of past NASCAR drivers. Jeb's uncle Jeff won 27 Xfinity races and 21 Cup races. His dad Ward won 5 Cup races including the Southern 500 and the Daytona 500. While not winning championships those are big accomplishments. Sometimes if you are related to a Cup driver than your expectations are raised. In 2012 he made 5 starts in the Trucks until the lack of sponsorship did him in. Turner Scott Motorsports saw the talent Burton had and signed him a 2-year contract to run in the Truck Series and a few Xfinity races. He was able to get his 1st win and get a 5th place points finish. Sponsor issues struck again meaning he'd have to find another team to drive for. ThorSport got him for 2014 and wanted to extend to 2015 but you guessed it, sponsorship issues could not get the deal done. After running a year in Cup for a struggling team he would go to Xfinity for Richard Petty. in 2016. For the umpteenth time sponsorship issues ruined everything. For the next 3 years he was in full survival mode taking any opportunity he got. Most famously for JR Motorsports in 20220 when he had a part-time schedule. 2021 came with Kaulig Racing calling with the best opportunity to win races and fight for a championship.

https://youtu.be/LWDAqC8FeQo

"Man, I'm trying not to cry! (deep breath) These guys, they deserve to win. They hadn't won all year last year and I was so close to last year. To get LS Tractor in victory lane is awesome but Nutrien Ag Solutions without them I wouldn't be here and all my partners. Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen, Alsco, Rocky Boots, State Water Heaters, Kaulig Racing, Matt Kaulig, Chris Rice....... just unbelievable!" Those were the emotions after a rain-shortened win at Talladega.  Just when things looked up................................. Nutrien Ag Solutions leave NASCAR and forcing Jeb out of Kaulig Racing. After a year at Our Motorsports Jeb now drives the #27 Chevrolet for Jordan Anderson Racing. This little team was able to win at Talladega to clinch their way into the playoffs. The team is getting better and while the odds are stacked against them, they can surprise a couple people.

Sammy Smith

The Xfinity Series has been a proving ground for many drivers. Some of the sport's best have made mistakes here but will grow stronger from them. In his 1st full-time year Sammy Smith plans on doing just that. While he was still in high school, he was getting reps in NASCAR.  Sammy won the Arca east championship in 2021 and 2022 in dominant fashion. Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing saw the raw talent and refused to let him go. In 2022 Sammy ran 9 Xfinity races in them he got a top 5 and 3 top 10s. This set him up to now go full-time in Xfinity for JGR in the #18 Toyota. That car has seen amazing drivers do amazing things and in Phoenix earlier this year. He became the youngest winner at Phoenix Raceway and is the 4th youngest winner in Xfinity history. Still with the elite potential this series is very hard, he has not had a top 10 since Pocono. Sammy has a lot to learn but he has the people around him to help him become the legend they know he can be.

Josh Berry

Josh is a product of what this series was made for, to be a stepping stone for drivers to race in the Cup level. He will drive the #4 Ford Mustang at Stewart Haas Racing in 2024. It was more than Josh could have ever imagined several years ago. In 2008 Josh Berry met Dale Earnhardt Jr on an online sim racing league known as "DMP Online Racing". Little did he know at that moment that it would be the key to seeing Berry race late models for such a long time. Josh also raced in the Advanced Auto Parts Weekly Series in 2020 to win the championship. That got his foot in the door big time in the Xfinity series. JR Motorsports promoted Josh for 12 races in the Xfinity Series, in the 6th start of the year he won at Martinsville. Now with that, Berry officially arrived. Things would work out for Josh to run an additional 5 races for JR Motorsports including subbing for his injured teammate Michael Annett. He would win at Vegas in the fall and also ran 5 extra races for Jordan Anderson. It all worked out for him to run full-time in the #8 Chevy for JR Motorsports and make it to the final four last year. Despite coming up short then and being winless so far this year he got opportunities to drive for Hendrick motorsports filling in for Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman when they were injured. It took some time to get here but Berry is still focused to give Dale Jr another title to thank him for taking a chance on a former bank teller all those years ago.

Sheldon Creed

Sheldon has shown improvement from one year to the next. But there is one thing he wants, to get his 1st win. the driver of the Richard Childress Racing #2 Chevrolet has finished 2nd 5 times in his Xfinity career. This is similar to what his Truck career was like, he was driving for GMS Racing he had a learning curb. In his rookie season he showed flashes of brilliance, but it didn't come together to even make the playoffs altogether. Then in the 2ns season it was a little different, Creed won his 1st Truck race and never looked back on the way to winning the championship. 2023 shown some steady improvement for Sheldon, and despite even getting a 25-point penalty for a premeditated intentional wreck against Sammy Smith in Nashville they made the playoffs. While it is harder in this series, we have seen times that after the first win was claimed by a young driver that all the others are easier to get.

Chandler Smith

Chandler Smith is a driver who has made his way to the Xfinity Series with the success he had in the Truck Series. After driving for Kyle Busch in the Truck Series and coming so close to the Truck Series championship last year he moved up to Xfinity driving the #16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet.  It looked like a fast start for him after winning at Richmond, but Chandler has fallen from as high as 3rd in the regular season to 9th in the regular season finale. Smith has shown in the Truck Series that if the first season is a little lackluster that year 2 can be a championship contending year. Shows that you always have to learn and continue to get better. Some of the best drivers that go to Cup have had to steadily improve for multiple years. Austin Cindric was thought of as a bust by some, now he is a Cup driver and is the 2020 Xfinity Series champion. Kaulig Racing has never won a championship, can Chandler be the key to that success?

Sam Mayer

Mayer had made his first national start at the age of 16. In this short time Sam has shown a lot of potential and talent. In only his 7th Truck start he won at Bristol at 17 years old in 2020 to become the 2nd youngest winner in that series history. When you think about how he was the Arca East champion in 2019 and 2020 and how fast he was in limited races at such a young age. He could run certain Arca races at 15 years old. Seeing all that made since for JR Motorsports so sign Sam to run part time in 2021 and then get a full-time ride in the #1 Chevy. In a couple years Sam has had to adjust to these cars and got into some skirmishes along the way, but Dale Jr still believes in what is still a very young man. Dale has been the key to a lot of drivers' careers teaching them how to improve his craft. In 2022 he called Sam a loose cannon at times but still firmly believes in the talent Mayer has. Naturally, win #1 would lift a lot of stress and pressure off of Sam which he got at Road America this year. He backed that up with a Watkins Glen triumph after getting into his rival Ty Gibbs. The improvement was there for Mayer to stay put in 2024, some drivers need patience to reach their full potential. Dale Jr is willing to ride that out with this 20-year-old.

Cole Custer

Cole has not had a lot to smile about for the last 3 years. In 2020 Cole Custer was promoted by Stewart Haas Racing to depart from the #00 Ford Mustang in Xfinity to driver the #41 Ford in the Cup Series. Naturally it's a big learning curve, especially when there was no practice and no qualifying for most of that year. However, in Kentucky, the stars aligned.

https://youtu.be/MAe2s3kpSuU

  After that it was all downhill from there. Custer was the rookie of the year and would be last of the playoff drivers. The next 2 years he struggled massively finishing 26th and 25th in points. SHR has been struggling in the Cup though with their performance. The organization knew that and wanted to keep Custer in some way. So back in the Xfinity Series goes Custer, Cole somewhat had a slow start to the season. Crew chief JT (Johnathan Toney) early in the season, said they tried to hit home runs with every adjustment. late March, a meeting happened to agree to calm down and get base hits, and since Richmond, things have gone well. JT also firmly believes Cole is the best Xfinity driver in the field. Custer definitely has an advantage with fresh Cup experience, he would love to go back to Cup with a Xfinity championship.

Justin Allgaier

It's rare nowadays to see a driver like Justin Allgaier, who looks to make a full-time living in Xfinity for the rest of his career. For the most part he has been in Xfinity Series for his entire career. While he did spend 2 years in the Cup Series things did not work out. JR Motorsports picked him up to drive the #7 Chevrolet and has been so close to a championship which will be his greatest achievement. There have been drivers in a lot of motorsports to be known as the best to never win a championship, Justin wants nothing to do with that list. Bossman Dale Jr is a 2-time Xfinity champion and as an owner won 5 Xfinity championships with 4 different drivers. That list could grow bigger after Phoenix.

Austin Hill

Hill drives the #21 car for Richard Childress Racing, and he has been in my mind a pleasant surprise. In the mid-2010s, Austin was in the Truck Series for the most part in part-time roles and in underfunded equipment. Several times, he failed to qualify or just was invisible in the field. It wasn't until 2018 that he ran a full-time season. Little did anyone know that in 2019 that he would get his big break and would officially arrive in the NASCAR world. Hattori Racing Enterprises fresh off a championship with Brett Moffit they parted way from the lack of sponsorship. They would call up Hill, who had sponsorship from United Rentals made his name heard by winning at Daytona. He didn't stop there; he won 8 career Truck races and got the chance to go to RCR in 2022. Once again in his first full-time year with a new team he won at Daytona. 2023 it looks like Hill has found a new home with a long-term deal done to race for the organization for years to come including returning to the Xfinity Series in 2024. Austin has had the most top 5s and best average finish of any driver. He has never made the final 4 in his career, should he get there he'll be a title threat.

John Hunter Nemechek

When 2023 began, John Hunter Nemechek was the heavy favorite for the 2023 Xfinity championship. He has been that guy winning 6 races this year and being the number 1 seed in the playoffs. It looked like John Hunter might be in the #20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in Xfinity for 2024 but Legacy Motor Club had different plans. They are switching to Toyota next year and signed John to drive the #42 car. When people like Richard Petty and Jimmie Johnson who are 7-time Cup champions want to hire you, you must be special. He has never looked this good for a Xfinity title before, this will be his last chance to get it done.