Will Rodgers will return to the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2021. On Tuesday, Sam Hunt Racing announced Rodgers will run “select 2021 events” in the #26 Toyota Supra beginning at Nashville Superspeedway on 19 June.
While the team did not specify additional starts, Rodgers confirmed to Michael Carey of TobyChristie.com that he is also running the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course and Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval on 14 August and 9 October, respectively. A former Pirelli World Challenge driver, Rodgers has established himself as one of the top road course racers at the regional levels, never finishing below second in four road races in the now-ARCA Menards Series East between 2017 and 2018. His lone ARCA West victory came in 2018 at Sonoma, a year after winning the pole and dominating the event before finishing runner-up to Cup Series star Kevin Harvick.
Rodgers ran four Xfinity races in 2019 for Brandonbilt Motorsports at Iowa, Mid-Ohio, the Charlotte Roval, and the season finale at Homestead. Mid-Ohio, where the Xfinity Series raced on Saturday, saw his best finish in the series to date of twelfth.
The only active NASCAR driver from Hawaii, Rodgers will be sponsored by GoodRx, a company that provides prescription prices. The effort is also supported by his Will Rodgers Liver Health Foundation and RaceToEndHelpC.com; he was diagnosed with Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC) as a toddler.
Sam Hunt Racing is in its first full-time Xfinity season, and currently sits twenty-fifth in points after thirteen races. Brandon Gdovic, Kris Wright, Santino Ferrucci, Colin Garrett, John Hunter Nemechek, and Grant Enfinger have also made starts in the #26. Gdovic holds the car’s best finish to date of eighth in the season opener at Daytona.