Joe Graf Jr.

26-Year-Old Driver  
Joe Gibbs Racing
2024 Fantasy Outlook
This driver rotation car had a lot of success last season with three wins and 15 Top-10 finishes. However, the car featured Ty Gibbs and Denny Hamlin in a few events, which added to the performance. This season the team gets a bit less experienced. Truex and Graf return and they'll be joined by newcomers Gray and Sawalich. Also new is crew chief, Seth Chavka, so it's a bit of a team reset in a lot of ways. As always we expect top notch cars, team and support from Joe Gibbs Racing, but this is clearly trending into a driver development car and less a car for veterans to part-time race in the Xfinity Series. The results will bear that change out. Still, the experience of Truex will be on display in a number of starts. Read Past Outlooks
Going full-time in Xfinity Series
XFINITY Series
February 1, 2023
Graf will drive full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2023 driving the No. 38 Ford Mustang in 28 races for RSS Racing and making five starts in the No. 19 Toyota Supra for Joe Gibbs Racing, Austin Konenski of Sportsnaut reports.
ANALYSIS
Graf made 28 starts in the Xfinity Series in 2022 with most of his races coming behind the wheel of the No. 07 for SS Green Light Racing. He will now battle for the championship and get a spark to make the playoffs with those five races with JGR. The races he will do in the No. 19 car will be Auto Club (Feb. 25), Las Vegas (March 4), Richmond (April 1), New Hampshire (July 15), and Kansas (Sept. 9). The No. 19 entry is expect to act as an "All-Star car" in 2023, but the only other confirmed driver is Ryan Truex for six races with crew chief Jason Ratcliff. RSS Racing is expected to have at least two full-time cards in 2023.
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Racing Stats
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Track Stats
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Past Fantasy Outlooks
2023
2022
2021
Signed a late-January deal with RSS Racing to pilot the No. 39 Ford in at least 28 events in the 2023 season. He'll partner with crew chief Steve Addington and look to compete in most of the upcoming Xfinity Series campaign.
Graf will return for season three in 2022 with SS Green Light Racing. The 23-year-old prospect earned one Top-10 and seven Top-20 finishes in just 29 starts with this team last year. Graf will be reunited with crew chief, Joe Williams, once again and the two will look to continue advancing this race team up the standings. Ownership has formed a technical alliance with Stewart-Haas Racing and that will help increase competitiveness and improve equipment. As a part of that alliance, the team switches from Chevrolet to Ford for the upcoming season and Roush Yates will supply the engines. Graf has some modest driving talent, but his 65 starts of experience are a limiting factor to this team's immediate growth.
The rookie campaign for Graf went pretty well as expected. The 22-year-old slugged it out with several drivers in the lower tier of the division and fought to earn just four Top-15 and 10 Top-20 finishes. He kept the No. 08 Chevrolet on the race track for the most part, suffering just seven DNF's. The 24.3 average finish across last season came as no surprise. Graf has some work to do if he hopes to catch up to the team's sister entry, the No. 07 Chevrolet, at least in terms of performance. The good news is that he has steady sponsorship and a returning crew chief in Patrick Donahue. There will need to be some improvement and better consistency if Graf hopes to challenge the Top-20 of the driver standings.
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Parting ways with SS Green Light
XFINITY Series
December 24, 2022
Graf Jr. and SS Green Light Racing have parted ways ahead of the upcoming 2023 NASCAR season, Bobby Dotter, team owner, said in a video.
ANALYSIS
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Returns to SS GreenLight Racing
XFINITY Series
January 7, 2022
Graf Jr. will return to SS GreenLight Racing to pilot one of the team's two full-time cars, Dustin Albino of Jayski reports.
ANALYSIS
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Returning to SS Green Light Racing
XFINITY Series
February 6, 2021
Coming off his first full NASCAR Xfinity Series season in 2020, Graf Jr. is returning to the series in 2021 for SS Green Light Racing, though will switch over to pilot the No. 07 Chevrolet, Dustin Albino of Jayski.com reports.
ANALYSIS
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