NXS: 5 Things You Need To Know – NASCAR XFINITY Series Edition

Each day of the week, the column will highlight a division, highlighting five drivers and mentioning things that you should know going into the next week of racing.

They may be taking this weekend off, but the NASCAR XFINITY Series has put on a show thus far this season, entertaining fans at each turn. With that said, let’s take a look at five stars to keep an eye on when they return to the track at Michigan International Speedway.

Chris Buescher heads into the break as the points leader, sitting 15 points ahead of Ty Dillon in the series standings. He also enters the break with momentum following his second victory of the season. The combination of a bit of contact with his teammate Darrell Wallace Jr. and going 85 laps on fuel allowed Buescher take home a replica of Miles the Monster at the end of the Bucke Up 200.

After missing the season opener at Daytona last year and leaving fans with a lot of questions, he has been solidly consistent thus far in 2015. In 12 races this season, he has eight finishes inside of the top-10, and notably only one finish outside of the top-14 which was a 20th place finish at Richmond. If he keeps this up moving forward, he will be hard to catch.

Though let’s face it, Buescher is only his sophomore season so he doesn’t have a lot of experience. Regan Smith, meanwhile, has a lot of experience having been involved in the XFINITY Series for a couple of years. He also has done everything but win the championship, finishing third in points in 2013 before finishing second last year. He currently sits fourth in points right now, though, 47 points back. There’s still over half a season to go, but that’ll be tough to make up. He’s going to have to keep running up front on a weekly basis, while hoping that Buescher slips up.

Smith can do it, though, as evident by his solid consistent seasons of the past. Since posting a 30th place finish at Bristol, he hasn’t finished outside of the top 11. Smith said after that race that he had used his mulligan and now it was going to take being perfect. If he can keep up on that, look for him to catch Buescher quite possibly. It doesn’t hurt that the next track on the schedule, Michigan, he won there in 2013.

Though while we say that experience means a lot, Chase Elliott proved last year that experience isn’t necessary as he won the championship as a rookie. Elliott hasn’t been as solid or dominate this year so far, though, solidly placing himself in the top-10 in nine of the 12 races, but not popping off wins as he did a year ago.

Part of that could deal with the fact that he has a new crew chief calling the shots in the form of Ernie Cope. Cope has experience, but perhaps getting that combination with Elliott hasn’t been as easy as expected. With that said, though, he’s only 37 points out of the lead and he finished sixth last year in his first trip to Michigan.

Though while everyone is focused on Roush Fenway Racing (Buescher) and JR Motorsports (Smith and Elliott), you also have to watch out for Richard Childress Racing.

Ty Dillon currently sits second in points with nine top-10s thus far this season, and has posted a pair of top-10s back-to-back. Dillon just needs to work his way up into being a top-five, race winning contender if he wants to have a championship shot, but he’s partially. there.

Brendan Gaughan hasn’t had the season that he wanted, currently sitting ninth in points, but he did a good job at Dover in finishing seventh. Gaughan was strong earlier this year, posting a second at Auto Club Speedway. However, he then began to fall off through the second half of April and May. Returning to the intermediate tracks may be the ticket for him.