Brandon Brown

This small, family-owned race team made some significant progress in 2021. Brown grabbed a career-best nine Top-10 finishes and even snagged his first-career victory with an upset win at Talladega last Fall. Despite all these advancements, his consistency did suffer a bit thanks to seven DNF's that pulled his average finish in the wrong direction (19.4). Still, Brown showed what he could do with his motivated race team. The team is struggling through a sponsorship/endorsement drama with NASCAR, so funding is far from sure. That's the one x-factor that may limit Brown's progress in the upcoming season. If the team can secure sponsors, there's little doubt that Brown can stay on his upward trajectory.

Season two in the Xfinity Series showed some great improvement for Brown and Brandonbilt Motorsports. The 27-year-old Virginian grabbed six Top-10 finishes and wound up an impressive 11th overall in the championship standings. He improved his average finish from 19.7 in 2019 to 16.0 in 2020, which was pretty dramatic to say the least. This small race team will return for another season of action in 2021 with Brown behind the wheel. Also returning is crew chief, Dough Randolph. The gains that were made last season should be modestly built on in the upcoming season. We should see the No. 68 Chevrolet inside the Top 15 most weeks and an occasional Top 10 from time to time will be the norm.

Last season's rookie campaign was a success for Brown and the No. 86 team. They posted a thrilling Top-10 finish in the summer Daytona race and 10 total Top-15 finishes throughout the season. The reliability and consistency netted a decent 19.7 average finish for this driver and team. The good vibes should continue into 2020. Brown will likely run a similar schedule with most of his starts coming in the team's No. 86 entry, and a few spot starts in the sister No. 68 entry. At 26-years-old Brown is older than most of the other upstart drivers in the Xfinity Series, and that maturity should help expedite his growth as the starts begin to pile up.