Blake Koch

Koch was poised to race the full schedule with the No. 4 JD Motorsports team in 2019. However, late January news broke that Koch would like to concentrate more on his startup company, and race less in the upcoming season. Ross Chastain has been tabbed to make 30 of the starts this season, and that would likely leave just three starts for Koch in the team's Chevy Camaro.

Parted ways with Kaulig Racing at the end of 2017. Is currently a free agent driver looking for a ride.

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.