Brandon Jones

Jones is locked-in for season two in Joe Gibbs' No. 19 Toyota Camry. He posted career-best marks of two Top-5 and 17 Top-10 finishes in 2018. The ninth-place standings finish was also a career-best mark for the 21-year-old driver. Gibbs has brought Jones back for another campaign, and brought in new crew chief, Jeff Meendering, in hopes of boosting this young driver's performance. Meendering comes over from Stewart Haas Racing and a runner-up standings finish with Cole Custer last season. Jones is a young, raw talent, although he now has over 100 Xfinity Series starts the last four seasons. That experience and pairing with Meendering should start to show some improvement. This will be a pivotal season in Jones' NASCAR career.

Jones replaces Matt Tifft in the JGR No. 19 Toyota this season. He comes over from Richard Childress Racing and defects from Chevrolet to Toyota. Jones had a forgettable season last year in the No. 33 Chevrolet, registering only three Top 10's for the season. He'll get to hit the reset button in a lot of ways making the jump to Gibbs and this good race team. Tifft raced to 13 Top-10 finishes with this team last year and wound up seventh in the final driver standings. That should be seen as the floor for Jones. He'll be paired with Chris Gabehart as crew chief, and be racing for the best team he's had in his short, five-season career. Jones is a breakout candidate and poised to outperform in the upcoming campaign.

His first full-time venture into the Xfinity Series was a reasonable success last year. Jones ran the entire 33-race schedule and nabbed 12 Top-10 finishes en route to a respectable 10th-place finish in the final driver standings. While his campaign lacked the laps led and wins we'd like to see it was understandable given the depth of talent in this division of NASCAR. Jones will be expected to inch the bar higher in 2017, and he'll have a new crew chief to help him in that effort. Nick Harrison comes over to the No. 33 team and replaces Mike Hillman Jr. atop the team's war wagon. Harrison spent last season guiding Ty Dillon to 17 Top 10's and a fourth-place finish in the points. Jones will be given a big opportunity to improve and succeed in the upcoming season.

The Richard Childress Racing No. 33 team was much stronger last season that anticipated. Austin Dillon made just 20 starts for this team and claimed four dominant wins. Paul Menard claimed another victory in his eight starts in the No. 33 Chevrolet. Combined, Dillon, Menard and Jones racked up five wins and 24 Top-10 finishes last season. Jones will take over this strong team full-time in the upcoming season. He’ll have guidance from veteran crew chief Mike Hillman Jr. and lots of support. The 18-year-old registered eight Top-10 finishes in a part-time truck series slate last season, so the talent is definitely there. However, his scant five starts of Xfinity Series experience from last season point to a steep learning curve in the coming year, but filled with bright spots along the way.