Finding your way to the top flight of American Stock car racing is definitely not an easy task to undertake. But if one’s performances in the junior categories impress the right people and they manage to get themselves into a driver development program then things can become a bit easier.
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Recently, through a social media video released by Joe Gibbs Racing, NASCAR fans got an unprecedented insight into how their driver development programs worked along with help from Toyota and Toyota Racing Development.
Joe Gibbs Racing explain how they select driver for their driver development program
In an incredibly detailed video by the team, the narrator explained, “So we are scouting drivers all around the country along with our partners at Toyota and TRD who have their own in-house driver development programs.”
Adding, “Just up the road, Toyota has a whole driver performance center where they have a number of young drivers doing athletic training. They have a dietician. It’s almost like a D1 athletic program for scholarship athletes. We are looking at young drivers that start with us in our ARCA program like William Sawalich.”
“The idea is they would work their way either to the Truck program, which we support but we do not run out of Joe Gibbs Racing and then eventually into our Xfinity Program.”
Lastly, they mentioned that the eventual goal would be to get them all the day to the Cup Series if the opportunity presents itself.
How often do development drivers make it to the Cup Series?
The Toyota Racing Development program has several drivers in the junior ranks of NASCAR. While Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI Racing are the only two teams running the Toyota cars at the moment, there are limited spots in the top flight of stock car racing.
With Legacy Motor Club partnering with Toyota next year, there would be an extra opportunity for young guns to find their way into the big game. However, that seat has been taken up by current Xfinity Series driver John Hunter Nemechek for the upcoming season.
But in a nutshell, the chances for a development driver from the junior series do take place, but only based on the availability in the Cup Series.
