By: Ashley McCubbin

Going into the season, everyone had pencilled in the drivers they believed would be championship threats based on previous success. Chandler Smith and Austin Hill should be on the list, as they both are multi-winners this season with just seven races in the books.

Hill won the first two races of the year, and has put together an average finish of 7.7 with the 34th at Martinsville Speedway due to a crash being his first result outside of the top-eight. The trend should continue as he has placed seventh or better in his last three trips to Texas with a runner-up in 2022.

Smith, on the other hand, has only ran a single NASCAR Xfinity Series with a fourth-place finish last season with Kaulig Racing. Now with JGR, he has matched those pair of victories with five other top-five’s for an average of 3.3 to lead the standings.

Cole Custer sits second in the standings, 35 markers back, after posting five consecutive top-10’s for an average of 8.3 this season. The same type of success has been seen by him at Texas, boasting an average of ninth with six top-10’s in seven appearances including a win in 2018.

Sam Mayer enters the weekend with momentum, courtesy of a runner-up to Smith at Martinsville. After seeing him in the Championship 4 last season, it’s shocking to note he’s currently 16th in the standings with only one other top-10 (ninth at Circuit of the Americas) in 2024. He has made four appearances at the oval in Texas, with a pair of top-10’s.

His JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier also had a good run at Martinsville with placing fifth to put three JRM cars inside the top-five as Carson Kvapil was fourth in his series debut. Currently ranked fifth in points, it was Allgaier’s first top-10 since the third race of the season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In the last eight races at Texas, he has finished sixth or better on six occasions including a runner-up in 2021.

A.J. Allmendinger has the second-best average finish of drivers entered (6.3) at Texas, only ranked second behind Smith. He could use a good run as his return to the second-tier series has not been all sunshine and roses, with just three top-10’s in seven races.

Hill’s teammate Jesse Love could be the surprise of the season, currently ranked fourth in the standings off the heels of four consecutive top-10 finishes, including a runner-up at Phoenix Raceway. The ARCA Menards Series Champion will be seeing 1.5-mile quad-oval for the first time in his racing career with Friday’s practice.

Love replaced Sheldon Creed at Richard Childress Racing, with Creed heading over to Joe Gibbs Racing. It had to feel good for Creed to cross the finish line in sixth at Martinsville after back-to-back results outside the top-30. He should carry the momentum to Texas, having placed seventh and eighth in his last two appearances there.

Riley Herbst needs to turn his season around quickly, as he has failed to score a top-10 since the third race of the year in Las Vegas. Although he crashed out of the event at Texas last year, he placed eighth and fifth in the two events prior.