This small race team and driver were a very pleasant surprise in 2016. Koch drove this underfunded and underequipped team to some fantastic finishes last season. He nabbed five Top-10 finishes, which were the first of his eight-year career, and collected 21 Top-15 finishes in this very competitive division of NASCAR. It all resulted in Koch finishing a surprising seventh in the overall driver standings. He still won’t be a threat to crack the Top 5 or win races in the coming season, but don’t be surprised if this returning driver and race team increase their number of Top-10 finishes and keep that week-in and week-out Top-15 consistency that we grew to admire last year.

Koch enters 2016 as he kicks off his sixth full-season of competition in the Xfinity Series. He’ll continue with Tri Star’s No. 8 team that he raced with last year. After years of start-and-park racing, Koch finally got to show what he can do for full events in 2015. The 30-year-old Floridian posted a career-best 24.5 average finish and eight Top-20 finishes. Small steps to be sure, but we have to remember that this was his first full season of full-on racing since joining Tri Star. Even though TSM is a multi-car stable, they are a bit challenged in the equipment department when compared to other multi-car teams. That will be Koch’s biggest handicap this season. He’ll be challenged to inch his average starting and finishing positions a bit higher in the coming campaign.