Here is a look at key questions heading into the NASCAR Cup season. Cars hit the track Feb. 2 at the Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium and Feb. 16 for the Daytona 500.
Busch saw his streak of 19 consecutive Cup seasons with at least a victory end in 2024.
He enters this year with a career-high 57-race winless streak. Busch failed to finish in the top 10 in the final nine races of last season.
He’ll get his first chance to break the winless streak with the Daytona 500 — a race that has eluded him in 19 previous attempts. Then again, Dale Earnhardt didn’t win the Daytona 500 until his 20th try in 1998.
Imagine what it would be like if Busch, in his 20th attempt, won the Daytona 500 for Richard Childress Racing just like Earnhardt.
Hendrick Motorsports has won 14 of last 30 Cup championships but none the past three seasons. Since 1995, Hendrick Motorsports has not gone more than four seasons without a Cup championship.
The result last November at Phoenix was disappointing for an organization that had spent so much time improving its performance at that track — which will again host the championship race this season.
“This is not our best track,” Jeff Gordon, vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, told NBC Sports last November after Joey Logano won his third title. “ … But those guys (Team Penske) don’t really show the speed until they really need to. That’s what we have to figure out. Where are they finding that? What are they doing different than what we’re doing to extract that and that’s what motivates us.”
RFK Racing took a step back last season, winning only two races (compared to three in 2023) and having only Brad Keselowski in the playoffs instead of both he and Chris Buescher (as in 2023).
Still, RFK Racing’s six wins since Keselowski joined as owner/driver before the 2022 season is more than the organization had the previous eight seasons combined. RFK Racing expands to three cars this year with the addition of Ryan Preece.
A key to a better season will be more speed, particularly in qualifying.
Buescher and Keselowski each qualified outside the top 15 for nearly two-thirds of last season’s races. That hurt both in scoring stage points.
Keselowski scored points in the first stage five out of 23 times he qualified outside the top 15. Buescher scored points in the opening stage three out of 22 times he qualified outside the top 15.
Keselowski has a new crew chief this season, reuniting with Jeremy Bullins. They won five races together, including four in the 2020 season when Keselowski finished second in the points.
This organization came close to a title in 2022 when Ross Chastain finished second to Joey Logano for the championship. Since then, the organization has not had a car advance past the second round.
Daniel Suarez made the playoffs last year, while Chastain did not. The team expands to three cars this year, adding Shane van Gisbergen.
With five road courses in the regular season — including the inaugural race in Mexico City — there’s the possibility that van Gisbergen, Suarez or Chastain, if not two of them, could win to earn a playoff spot.
Chastain won at Circuit of the Americas in 2022, Suarez won at Sonoma in 2022 and van Gisbergen won the Chicago Street Race in 2023.
Of course, there are other tracks that are good for Chastain, who won at Kansas last year, and Suarez, who won at Atlanta last year in the closest three-car finish in series history.
That’s a focus for the 23XI Racing driver. He has started slowly in each of the last three seasons.
Wallace has averaged 4.6 fewer points per race in the first 12 events of the season compared to the remaining 14 races in the regular season during the past three years.
If he had matched his productivity in the final 14 races of the regular season during the season’s first 12 races, that would have gained him 55 additional points. That would have been enough to have secured a playoff spot last year even without a win.
Wallace has never won a Cup race in the regular season. Both of his series victories came in the playoffs after he had failed to qualify for the postseason.
Wallace enters this year with a new crew chief in Charles Denike. He had been a crew chief in the Truck Series since 2020, winning 10 races, including eight over the past two seasons with Christian Eckes. It will be up to Denike to help provide Wallace that chance for a faster start this year.
The three-time Cup champion has won all his titles in even-numbered years (2018, ’22 and ’24). He has made the championship race a series-record six times — all during even-numbered years.
He’s never made the title race in an odd-numbered year since the playoff format debuted in 2014. He’s never finished better than fifth in the points in an odd numbered year in that time.
“I don’t understand it,” Logano said of the unique streak after winning his third title in November. “Hopefully, we break the streak (in 2025).”
This is among the intriguing teams for 2025.
Spire Motorsports has made numerous changes, adding championship crew chief Rodney Childers to Justin Haley’s team and bringing in Michael McDowell and crew chief Travis Peterson for the No. 71 team. Pair them with Carson Hocevar, last year’s Cup rookie of the year, and there’s the potential for this team to surprise some fans.
There’s much work to do, still. While Hocevar was 21st in points last year, Spire’s other two cars were outside the top 30 in points.
McDowell and Peterson provide the team with playoff experience. Childers adds championship experience. They could provide the spark for this organization to climb the standings.
While Team Penske has won the past three Cup championships — Joey Logano in 2022 and ’24 and Ryan Blaney in 2023 — consider this:
In 2024, Team Penske’s first Cup points win didn’t come until the season’s 15th race. Austin Cindric won at Gateway on June 2.
In 2023, Team Penske had two wins in the first 14 points races after Ryan Blaney’s victory in the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend.
In 2022, Team Penske had two wins in the first 14 points races of the season, including Cindric’s Daytona 500 victory.
Team Penske won four playoff races last year: Logano at Atlanta, Las Vegas and Phoenix and Blaney at Martinsville. All four of those tracks are in the first seven races of the 2025 season. Maybe this is the year Team Penske collects more victories early in the season.
Christopher Bell won at New Hampshire on June 23 last season in the 18th race of the year. Joe Gibbs Racing did not win another Cup race the rest of the year and enters this year with an 18-race winless streak.
The organization — other than Bell — had a significant drop in the second half of last season.
Bell led at least 100 laps in five of the last 18 races last year. He also had nine top-five finishes in that stretch, including a pair of runner-up results and a pair of third-place finishes.
Denny Hamlin led 943 laps last year but led only 26 in the 10-race playoffs. Hamlin had six top 10s in last year’s playoffs — his fewest in the playoffs since 2020.
Ty Gibbs finished last season with five consecutive finishes of 30th or worse. He had four top-10 finishes in the last 22 races. He has a new crew chief in Tyler Allen this season.
Martin Truex Jr. had three top 10s in the final 18 races last season. Truex is no longer racing full time. Chase Briscoe takes over the No. 19 ride this season.
With an eye toward helping the entire organization, Joe Gibbs Racing moved Hamlin’s crew chief, Chris Gabehart to competition director in the offseason. Chris Gayle, who had served as Ty Gibbs’ crew chief, moves over to Hamlin’s team this year.
Zane Smith is age 25 and Todd Gilliland is 24. But don’t look at those numbers, look at their career Cup starts.
Gilliland has 108 career Cup starts entering this season. Gragson has 75; Smith has 45. That’s 228 combined Cup starts for those three drivers.
Their combined total is less than what Michael McDowell, who left for Spire Motorsports, had the past seven years at Front Row Motorsports. McDowell made 252 starts in that time.
The key for this organization is maximizing resources to help their young drivers progress.
Ahead of last year’s playoffs, Bowman had to fend off a rumor that he would be out of a ride if he didn’t perform well in the playoffs.
Part of his time at Hendrick Motorsports has been clouded by rumors that he would lose his ride, but this year will be his eighth full-time season at the organization. Only Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Terry Labonte, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chase Elliott and Ken Schrader have had longer tenures at Hendrick Motorsports.
Bowman has eight career Cup wins. Other than his four-win season in 2021, he’s never won more than one Cup race in a season.
Injuries sidetracked his 2022 and ’23 seasons, but he was healthy last year. Bowman had one win last season but tied his career high for top-five finishes with eight and set a career high in top 10s with 17. If he can build upon those results, the rumors could fade away.
Denny Hamlin’s quest for his first Cup championship continues with Chris Gayle as his new crew chief. Gayle takes over for Chris Gabehart, who moves into the role of competition director at Joe Gibbs Racing.
The last two times Hamlin started a season with a new crew chief, he won the Daytona 500. His first Daytona 500 win came in 2016 in his first season with Mike Wheeler as crew chief. Hamlin’s second Daytona 500 victory came in 2019 with Gabehart as his crew chief (they won the Daytona 500 also in 2020).
Gayle is Hamlin’s sixth full-time crew chief. Hamlin has averaged 3.6 wins a season in his first year with a new crew chief. In all other years of his Cup career, Hamlin averages 2.6 wins a season.
Other new pairings to watch this season will be Jeremy Bullins reuniting with Brad Keselowski, former championship crew chief Rodney Childers going to Spire Motorsports and working with Justin Haley, and former Truck Series crew chief Charles Denike paired with Bubba Wallace.
Three new races are in the playoffs this year.
World Wide Technology Raceway (a track where Team Penske has won two of the three previous Cup races) makes its playoff debut. New Hampshire Motor Speedway (where Joe Gibbs Racing has won the past three times, including twice by Christopher Bell) and Darlington Raceway (where there was has been a different winner in each of the last nine Cup races there) return to the playoffs.
Those tracks replace Homestead, Watkins Glen and Atlanta’s second date.
The first 10 races are critical for points. Three races are at drafting tracks (Daytona, Atlanta and Talladega), two are at short tracks (Martinsville and Bristol), two are at 1.5-mile tracks (Las Vegas and Homestead) and there’s a road course (Circuit of the Americas), 1-mile track (Phoenix) and intermediate (Darlington).
No driver below eighth in the standings after 10 races made the playoffs via points last season. A strong start will be key.
As long as the weather cooperates — unlike last year — fans should see a driver compete in both the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day for the first time since Kurt Busch did in 2014.
A year’s experience in the Indy 500 could prove helpful for Larson. He’ll be among the contenders to win the Coca-Cola 600.
Last year, rain delayed the Indianapolis 500 and Larson stayed to compete in that race. He arrived at Charlotte midway through the Coca-Cola 600 and was in the pits ready to take over the No. 5 car before rain ended that event. Despite missing one race, he still nearly won the regular season title.
That won’t be an issue this year. Car owner Rick Hendrick has said that Larson would leave Indy to make it on time to start at Charlotte.
Also, NASCAR issued a series of rule changes ahead of the 2025 season. One is that if a playoff waiver is granted for missing a race for a reason other than medical, family emergency or birth of a child, the driver will forfeit all current and future playoff points (earned prior to the playoffs) and will start the playoffs with no more than 2,000 points.
That will be enough to make sure Larson is at Charlotte on time on Memorial Day weekend.
Kyle Busch tops the list. Last year was the first time he’s missed the playoffs since 2012.
Chris Buescher came .001 seconds short of making the playoffs last May after finishing second by that much to Kyle Larson at Kansas. Buescher made the playoffs in 2023.
Bubba Wallace missed the playoffs last year after making it in 2023. He starts this year with a new crew chief.
Ross Chastain made the playoffs in 2022 (finishing second) and 2023 before failing to do so last year.
Bell made the championship race in 2022 and ’23. He came within a controversial call of making it last year but didn’t, saying at Phoenix last November: “I feel cheated out of a chance to compete for a championship.”
Bell was upset that the Chevrolet teams of Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain blocked cars from passing Chevy driver William Byron in the final laps in the Martinsville playoff race. Byron could not afford to lose any positions or he would fall out of a transfer spot to the Championship 4, allowing Bell to make the title race.
In the Next Gen era (since 2022), Bell has eight wins, 37 top-five finishes and 62 top 10s. He had six top-five finishes and led 15.3% of the laps in last year’s playoffs.
In the last three playoffs, Bell has finished in the top five in half of the 30 races. He has three playoff wins during that time and started on the pole seven times.
The pairing of Bell and crew chief Adam Stevens has been among the best in the garage since they were put together in 2021. It seems only a matter of when they’ll win a championship together.
The simple answer is of course. However, Larson has scored five of the last six playoff wins by Hendrick Motorsports. The other Hendrick playoff win was by William Byron at Texas in September 2023.
Chase Elliott’s last playoff win came in October 2022 at Talladega. Alex Bowman’s last playoff victory came in October 2021 at Martinsville and he had already been eliminated from title contention.
Since the 2021 playoffs, Larson has scored 10 of Hendrick’s 13 playoff wins.
Eight of Byron’s 13 career Cup wins have come at the beginning of the season, between the months of February and April. That includes last year’s Daytona 500.
He has only one win in the playoffs.
Last year, he didn’t win in the playoffs but finished with seven consecutive top-10 finishes. He did not finish worse than sixth in any of those races, claiming a spot in the title race.
In the past two playoffs (20 races), Byron has one win, 11 top fives and 16 top 10s. He’s building toward becoming a dominant driver in the playoffs.
It’s easy to select Chase Briscoe with his move to Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 19 team. While the team did not win in Martin Truex Jr.’s final full-time Cup season, the team and organization have the resources to succeed.
Shane van Gisbergen joins Trackhouse Racing’s Cup effort and should be viewed as among the favorites for the road course races: Circuit of the Americas (March 2), Mexico City (June 15), Chicago (July 6), Sonoma (July 13), Watkins Glen (Aug. 10) and Charlotte Roval (Oct. 5).
Former Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell moved from Front Row Motorsports to Spire Motorsports with crew chief Travis Peterson. McDowell is a driver to watch on superspeedways and road courses.
Gibbs has made 87 career Cup starts entering this season. He’s finished in every spot in a Cup race but first, eighth, 24th, 29th, 38th and 39th (He has finished 22nd seven times, more than any other position).
One hundred starts can be a key number for young drivers. That’s equivalent to 2.8 seasons.
Among current Cup drivers, here is who won their first Cup race before their 100th career series start:
Shane van Gisbergen (Chicago Street Race in July 2023 in 1st start)
Justin Haley (Daytona in July 2019 in 3rd start)
Brad Keselowski (Talladega in April 2009 in 5th start)
Austin Cindric (Daytona 500 in February 2022 in 8th start)
Jimmie Johnson (Fontana in April 2002 in 13th start)
Joey Logano (New Hampshire in June 2009 in 20th start)
Denny Hamlin (Pocono June 2006 in 21st start)
Chris Buescher (Pocono in Aug. 2016 in 27th start)
Kyle Busch (Fontana in September 2005 in 31st start)
Christopher Bell (Daytona road course in Feb. 2021 in 38th start)
Chase Briscoe (Phoenix in March 2022 in 40th start)
Erik Jones (Daytona in July 2018 in 57th start)
Martin Truex Jr. (Dover in June 2007 in 58th start)
Ryan Blaney (Pocono in June 2017 in 68th start)
Tyler Reddick (Road America in July 2022 in 92nd start)
William Byron (Daytona in August 2020 in 98th start)
Kyle Larson (Michigan in August 2016 in 99th start)
Chase Elliott (Watkins Glen in August 2018 in 99th start)
While Austin Dillon won at Richmond — his victory did not qualify him for the playoffs after he wrecked two leaders on the last lap — last year was a poor season for Richard Childress Racing.
Kyle Busch went winless for the first time in 20 seasons and missed the playoffs. Dillon finished 32nd in points. Combined, Dillon and Busch had one win, six top fives and 15 top 10s.
Car owner Richard Childress vowed changes last year. Among the changes for this season:
Keith Rodden was promoted from interim competition director (a position he moved into in late June) to vice president of competition.
John Klausmeier joined the organization from Stewart-Haas Racing to become RCR’s technical director, overseeing all technical engineering and focusing on vehicle systems engineering, design and metrology. All competition departments will report to Klausmeier, who will report to Rodden.
Richard Boswell is Dillon’s new crew chief. Boswell had been Chase Briscoe’s crew chief at Stewart-Haas Racing.
Among the drivers who broke long winless streaks in 2024 were Brad Keselowski (110 races), Chase Briscoe (93) and Austin Cindric (85).
Here are drivers, who have won at least one Cup race in their career who are on the longest active winless streaks:
142 starts — Jimmie Johnson
141 — Justin Haley
79 — Erik Jones
79 — Bubba Wallace
57 — Kyle Busch
48 — Michael McDowell
34 — Daniel Suarez
28 — William Byron
27 — Chase Elliott
25 — Denny Hamlin
Denny Hamlin’s plan was for the team he co-owns with Michael Jordan to regularly contend for a championship by its fifth season.
Tyler Reddick won the regular season championship last year and reached the Championship 4, marking the first time a 23XI Racing car had reached the title race.
Reddick seeks to make the championship race again, while teammate Bubba Wallace looks to make the playoffs and Riley Herbst joins the organization.
Reddick was strong for part of last season, scoring two wins, 10 top fives and 15 top 10s in a 19-race stretch from March to August but struggled in the playoffs. Although Reddick won at Homestead, he had six finishes or 20th or worse in the playoffs.
Since the beginning of the Next Gen car era in 2022, there have been an average of 17.3 winners per season.
There were 19 different winners in 2022, 15 winners in 2023 and 18 last season.
The one constant has been that a Hendrick Motorsports driver has had the most wins in each of those seasons.
Chase Elliott had a series-best five wins in 2022. William Byron led the way with six victories in 2023. Kyle Larson won a series-best six races last year. None of those drivers won the championship in those years.
Ryan Blaney and Denny Hamlin have each finished runner-up seven times in the past two seasons. Tyler Reddick, Brad Keselowski and William Byron are next with six runner-up finishes in the past two seasons.
Keselowski led the way last year with four runner-up results in 2024.
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