Hendrick Motorsports will be fielding the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro entry for two additional NASCAR Xfinity Series events in the closing stretches of the 2023 season as Boris Said and Rajah Caruth will be taking turns piloting the entry.
As part of the entry’s two-race feature, Said will be piloting HMS’ No. 17 entry at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course on October 7 while Caruth will be driving the car at Phoenix Raceway on November 4 to cap off the 2023 Xfinity Series season.
The news comes as Hendrick Motorsports is coming off its milestone 300th career victory in the NASCAR Cup Series after Playoff contender William Byron won at Texas Motor Speedway, which also locks him and the No. 24 HMS Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team a spot into the Round of 8 as they pursue their quest to win the 2023 Cup title.
Said, a 61-year-old veteran from New York City, is a well-accomplished sports car racer, having achieved two-time 24 Hours of Daytona class winner along with being the 1998 12 Hours of Sebring class winner and the 2004 Rolex Sports Car Series GT Class champion. He also became the first American to win the 24 Hours Nürburgring in 2005.
In addition to his sports car accomplishments, Said has made a total of 149 career starts across NASCAR’s top three national touring series, 29 of which occurred in the Xfinity Series. He achieved his first and only recorded Xfinity victory to date at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 2010 after edging road-ringer Max Papis in a photo finish while driving for RAB Racing. Coupled with a total of two poles, seven top-five results and nine top-10 results, Said’s latest Xfinity start occurred at Circuit of the Americas for MBM Motorsports in 2021.
Meanwhile, Caruth, a 21-year-old native from Atlanta, Georgia, is currently competing as a full-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series competitor for GMS Racing, which marks his first full-time campaign within NASCAR’s top three national touring series. Through 20-scheduled starts, Caruth has achieved three top-10 results and an average-finishing result of 19.3 as he is ranked in 17th place in the driver’s standings.
In addition to his full-time Truck campaign and previous full-time stint in the ARCA Menards Series for Rev Racing in 2022, Caruth has also made a total of 15 Xfinity Series starts to date, eight of which occurred this season but all with Alpha Prime Racing. His best on-track result to date is a 12th-place finish at Martinsville Speedway last October. He has also recorded a total of five top-20 results in the series.
The addition of Said and Caruth to Hendrick Motorsports’ Xfinity Series program will make them the fifth and sixth competitors, respectively, to pilot the team’s No. 17 entry throughout the 2023 season.
The No. 17 HendrickCars.com entry made a total of five appearances this season with HMS’ Cup Series drivers Alex Bowman, William Byron, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson piloting the entry while Greg Ives and Kevin Meendering served as crew chiefs. The entry’s best on-track result this season is a runner-up result at Circuit of the Americas in March with Byron driving. The entry proceeded to finish third at Sonoma Raceway with Larson, third at Pocono Raceway with Elliott, ninth at Watkins Glen International with Bowman and 38th at Darlington with Larson, respectively.
Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 17 entry debuted last season and appeared in four events as Larson, Bowman and Byron took turns driving the entry. The entry achieved a pair of runner-up results at Road America with Larson and at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course with Bowman.
To date, Hendrick Motorsports has achieved one championship (Brian Vickers in 2003) and 26 career victories in the Xfinity Series. The team’s latest Xfinity victory occurred at Daytona International Speedway in 2009 with three-time Cup champion Tony Stewart.
With the team’s Xfinity Series plans for the remainder of this season set, Said will make his lone Xfinity start for Hendrick Motorsports at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course on October 7 at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBC. Meanwhile, Caruth’s Xfinity start for HMS will occur in the championship event at Phoenix Raceway on November 4 at 7 p.m. ET on USA Network.
