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With changes come ramifications, and the ripple effect created by NASCAR’s decision to to increase the traditional number of road course events from three to seven, including six in the regular season, could evolve into a tidal wave for its top programs. Gone are regular-season races at Auto Club, Texas, Michigan, Kentucky and on the oval in Indianapolis, replaced by Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Road America in Wisconsin and the Indianapolis and Daytona road courses. The new-look schedule should strengthen those teams with efficient road course navigators while penalizing those consistently good at facilities 1.5 miles or longer. Who benefits? Who is hindered? Let’s take a look: Hendrick Motorsports benefits It’s difficult to overstate how dominant Chase Elliott has been on NASCAR road courses over the last two…

1 What should NASCAR learn from Ryan Newman’s crash? The circumstances that led to Ryan Newman surviving his gruesome crash at Daytona International Speedway last February remain both unbelievable and extraordinary. Newman’s car could hardly have taken a bigger blow at a worse spot — Newman’s airborne machine fell in the path of Corey LaJoie’s Ford and endured a head-on collision directly against the driver’s window area — and yet there was Newman just two days later emerging from the hospital under his own power. Despite serious injuries, Newman missed just three races and returned to action in May after the pandemic pause. NASCAR rightfully received and deserved enormous credit for its cutting-edge approach to car construction that ultimately saved the lives of both Newman and LaJoie. It also went…

YEARS: 6 • STARTS: 198 • WINS: 4 • TOP 5S: 38 • TOP 10S: 76 • POLES: 6 • TITLES: 0 The saying “if it weren’t for bad luck, he’d have no luck at all” certainly seemed to apply to Ryan Blaney’s 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season. At times, Blaney appeared poised for a breakout season — he posted a career high in laps led — but the wins that looked like they’d come stayed just out of reach. Blaney wasn’t to blame for many of the incidents he found himself in. His equipment wasn’t to blame, either, as all five of the races he failed to finish were due to damage from on-track incidents. He didn’t suffer a terminal mechanical failure in 2020. It wasn’t all bad; Blaney…

DiBenedetto: AP Photo/John Raoux; Exercise: Twitter Workout Matt DiBenedetto is at the forefront of the sport’s fitness revolution | By Matt Crossman SPOTLIGHT NASCAR’s fitness revolution started with Mark Martin, a passionate weightlifter. It ran through Carl Edwards, Danica Patrick, Jimmie Johnson and others. Today one of the fittest drivers is Matt DiBenedetto, driver of the No. 21 for Wood Brothers Racing. He lifts weights Monday through Friday and follows a program called Muscle Anarchy through Th undrbro, a training and lifestyle brand owned by Dave Lipson, a former CrossFit athlete. DiBenedetto describes Muscle Anarchy as a blend of CrossFit and bodybuilding with a focus on functional weightlifting. He talked with Athlon Sports about his fitness routine and how it relates to his time behind the wheel. Athlon: What is…

YEARS: 3 • STARTS: 108 • WINS: 1 • TOP 5S: 9 • TOP 10S: 31 • POLES: 5 • TITLES: 0 Winning at the NASCAR Cup Series level requires the perfect storm of good equipment, a crew chief calling a quality race, the pit crew performing to perfection and the driver knowing when and how to make the final move. It’s deceptively simple — somebody has to win, but 39 others have to lose, too. William Byron found Victory Lane for the first time in 2020, in the final race of the regular season when a win would guarantee him a playoff berth. He did it with an aggressive move, touching off a multi-car crash in his rearview — perhaps it wasn’t the way he’d have wanted it, but…

Tyler Reddick won consecutive Xfinity Series championships before entering the 2020 Cup season as a member of a strong rookie class. Driving the No. 8 Chevy for Richard Childress Racing, Reddick showed flashes of the precocious brilliance that had led to those Xfinity championships, finishing his maiden Cup campaign with three top-5 finishes, including a runner-up in Texas, and nine top 10s. But sometimes his aggressive style backfired; he also crashed out of five races. Reddick spoke with Athlon Sports about a variety of topics, including rim riding, his heroes, and the best advice that Dale Earnhardt Jr. ever gave him. Athlon: You’re known as a rim rider. I’ve been watching this sport for a long time. I don’t understand why anybody would drive six inches from the wall. Hitting…

Track History Carl Moore, Larry Carrier and R.G. Pope were inspired to build Bristol Motor Speedway after a visit to the newly constructed Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1960. Instead of building a replica of Charlotte, the trio instead opted to carve a half-mile short track out of 100 acres of land nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The original configuration had 22 degrees of banking in the corners, but that was raised to 36 by the summer of 1969. The increased speeds resulted in battles of attrition and made races at Bristol a national attraction. Lights were installed in 1976, and the Night Race has become one of the most prestigious events on the schedule. Under Speedway Motorsports Inc. ownership, the track expanded its seating to 162,000,…

Track History Circuit of the Americas was built with one purpose in mind: bringing Formula 1 back to the U.S. The venue was built entirely with private money raised by Texas billionaire Red McCombs and bond trader Bobby Epstein on 890 acres of undeveloped land outside Austin, Texas. The 20-turn, 3.426-mile layout was sketched by Texas racer Tavo Hellmund and inspired by elements of legendary tracks like Interlagos Circuit in Brazil, Silverstone Park in England and Istanbul Park in Turkey. Featuring 133 feet of elevation shifts, the track has hosted Formula 1 races since 2012, IndyCar in 2019, various sports car divisions and the Virgin Australia Supercar Series, among others. The venue has also hosted Australian Supercars and various sports car divisions. In 2019, NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart…

Track History The inaugural Daytona 500 was held on February 22, 1959, and the first race on the track’s infield road course would come just two months later on April 5, a six-hour USAC-FIA endurance race shortened by darkness but won by Roberto Mieres in a Porsche. Premier road course racing has been part of the history of Daytona ever since. Bill France Sr. had always envisioned his new track to be a World Center of Racing for every discipline, and that included professional road racing and motorcycles on the road course. The marquee event is the Rolex 24, which has been contested every year since 1966 and annually kicks off Daytona Speedweeks in late January. The NASCAR Cup Series made its debut there in 2020 as a replacement race…

Track History NASCAR’s 1994 debut at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway signified its transition from regional niche motorsport to national sensation. In moving the Brickyard to the IMS Road Course, NASCAR has once again signaled its own evolution. Stock cars rarely produced excitement on the legendary oval, and attendance had fallen down near 30,000 in recent seasons. Roger Penske purchased both IndyCar and IMS in 2019, and one of his first decisions was to create a super weekend headlined by all three of the most prominent motorsport divisions in the United States. In 2021, the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and IndyCar Series will share the IMS Road Course in the hopes of creating a new tradition in the Circle City. The Road Course was first developed in advance of…

Track History Only one track from the original 1949 NASCAR Cup Series schedule remains on the Cup schedule today, and Martinsville Speedway isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Virginia businessman H. Clay Earles carved a paperclip-shaped half-mile oval out of the Henry County clay in 1947 with NASCAR founders Jim and Bill France serving as partners. In exchange for a quarter of the revenue from the first race, the Frances promised to deliver cars and advertising. It’s been on the schedule ever since. The track was paved in 1955 and has survived a series of national expansions that came at the expense of countless other short tracks that were on the initial schedules, including North Wilkesboro Speedway. While the track has undergone several modernization projects, Martinsville Speedway is revered due to…

Track History The Magic Mile is the largest sporting venue in New England. The current facility has only existed since 1990, but motorsports has taken place on the property for over six decades. Keith Bryar Sr., a tire salesman and Baptist minister, first opened a dirt track christened Route 106 Raceway on the property, later expanding the facility to include a 1.6-mile road course, where the NASCAR Grand American Series raced beginning in 1960. Bryar Motorsports Park remained in operation through the 1980s, but its facilities fell out of repair; eventually, only motorcycles still used its short paved oval. Enter Bob Bahre, who purchased the property from the Bryars and immediately announced his plans to build a one-mile speedway named New Hampshire International Speedway. The NASCAR Busch Series began racing…

Track History One of the most modern motorsports facilities in the country began its life as the Atlantic Rural Exposition Fairgrounds — a half-mile dirt track that hosted events alongside the Virginia State Fair. The NASCAR Cup Series has been racing on the Fairgrounds since 1953 in each of its various configurations. It was first paved in 1968 as the half-mile Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway. Due to the competitive racing and its proximity to downtown Richmond, it was routinely one of the most well-attended short track events during the 1970s and ’80s as the Cup Series began expanding to larger tracks and markets across the East Coast. Paul Sawyer owned and operated the facility from 1956 to 1999, overseeing its final reconfiguration to a ¾-miler. International Speedway Corp. then purchased the…

Track History NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. conceived Talladega Superspeedway — originally named Alabama International Motor Speedway — as the world’s largest and fastest racetrack and succeeded on both fronts. Following the success of Daytona International Speedway, which opened in 1959, France looked to replicate the model further inland and purchased 2,000 acres near what was once the Anniston Air Force Base. NASCAR broke ground in 1968 and built a venue that was larger than Daytona at 2.66 miles instead of 2.5 miles and had greater banking at 33 degrees instead of 31. Additionally, the start-finish line was painted at the entrance to Turn 1 to provide a unique experience. The track was initially so fast and so dangerous that it led to a walkout of drivers who were attempting…

The only guarantee in life is that no matter how much you like something, eventually it will change. And change is coming to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Some popular races have fallen off the calendar, replaced by some that hope to reverberate with fans just as much. Championship-caliber drivers have left their rides, and other championship-caliber drivers have taken over. Gone are popular dates at Eldora Speedway, Iowa Speedway and Michigan International Speedway. Added to the calendar for 2021 are two dirt dates, one on a dirt track laid over the concrete at Bristol Motor Speedway and the other at the legendary half-mile Knoxville Raceway in Iowa. For years, the Camping World Trucks only raced on ovals. With the addition of Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ont.,…

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BEST: Talladega GEICO 500 Most people will remember this event for that noose that caused an FBI investigation, initially thought to be aimed at Bubba Wallace. The photos of driver solidarity pushing Wallace’s car to the grid kept NASCAR in the national spotlight for positive reasons just two weeks after a controversial Confederate flag ban. But all that off-track commotion overshadowed what many felt was the best pack race this century. Fifty-seven lead changes included three in the final three laps as Ryan Blaney literally won by a nose (.007 seconds). Most importantly, there were no Big Ones, showing that drivers could put on an exciting race for 500 miles under this package without turning half the field into mangled sheet metal. WORST: Michigan Doubleheader weekend Manufacturing executives love this…

When the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season ended, Bubba Wallace wanted to get away from it all — away from the stress of COVID-19, the stress of the season, the stress of being the new face of NASCAR. He and his girlfriend Amanda decided to road-trip back home to Charlotte. They piled into his motor coach in Phoenix and hit the road. Fellow driver Daniel Hemric and his wife, Kenzie, followed along. At Santa Fe, N.M., Hemric and Kenzie broke up the convoy. They headed for Oklahoma, and Wallace and Amanda continued on to Big Bend National Park in Texas. They hiked and camped and decompressed after a whirlwind 2020 that altered the course of his life and career. “It was a blast,” he says. “It was nice to get…

After the sport shut down in March, NASCAR constantly drew and redrew its schedule, going through dozens of iterations before settling on one that allowed it to complete all 36 points-paying races. That required midweek races, doubleheaders, saying hello to a new venue (Daytona road course) and skipping some longstanding ones (Sonoma, Watkins Glen). As if that weren’t enough, in 2020 the sport also endured controversies that in other years would have been the story of the year — from the noose at Talladega to Kyle Larson getting fired for using a racial slur to Jimmie Johnson missing a race after testing positive for COVID-19 and failing to qualify for the playoffs because of it in his final season. There was good news, too. NASCAR’s favorite son won the championship,…

YEARS: 5 • STARTS: 185 • WINS: 11 • TOP 5S: 59 • TOP 10S: 96 • POLES: 9 • TITLES: 1 Sometimes flying under the radar is a good thing. Chase Elliott wasn’t really in the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series title conversation — until he inserted himself there by winning his way into the final elimination round. Even then, Elliott was overlooked as a championship favorite despite having effectively eliminated nine-time race winner Kevin Harvick the previous week. Denny Hamlin was the favorite based on his own seven-win season, and both Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano were former champions. It looked like Elliott would be the odd man out. But he wasn’t. Elliott led nearly half of the laps in the race, dominating as the season wound to an…

YEARS: 20 • STARTS: 718 • WINS: 58 • TOP 5S: 226 • TOP 10S: 389 • POLES: 31 • TITLES: 1 He’ll be the oldest full-time driver in the NASCAR Cup Series when the 2021 season opens. At 45, he’s at an age where most drivers at his level are thinking about retirement. But to Kevin Harvick, age is just a number. To say Harvick’s 2020 season was a good one is an understatement. His nine-win campaign, during which he posted an eye-popping 27 top-10 finishes, over 1,500 laps led and an average finish of 7.3, ranks as one of the best campaigns in NASCAR’s modern era. Perhaps the most remarkable feat in Harvick’s remarkable 2020 is that, over 36 races, he failed to complete only three laps. That’s…

YEARS: 6 • STARTS: 189 • WINS: 2 • TOP 5S: 16 • TOP 10S: 41 • POLES: 2 • TITLES: 0 Some drivers are simply solid: They’re good for a win or two a year, finish in the top 15 week in and week out and make the playoffs for their sponsors. They might not be the most aggressive or flashy; they just get the job done. Alex Bowman is a solid driver. Now it’s time to see if he can be more than that. Bowman had a solid 2020 season. He won at Fontana early on, but the first half of his year was inconsistent. He earned a playoff berth and finished the regular season 12th in points but looked a little lackluster. But the second half of…

YEARS: 12 • STARTS: 352 • WINS: 2 • TOP 5S: 24 • TOP 10S: 79 • POLES: 2 • TITLES: 0 There’s more competition than you think for top-15 finishes these days — that’s a testament to how much talent there is and how many capable teams are racing in the NASCAR Cup Series heading into 2021. A top-15 average finish is usually a ticket to the playoff s, and some playoff drivers don’t average that well and find their way in anyway. So it’s no surprise that Aric Almirola has been a perennial playoff contender since joining Stewart-Haas Racing in 2018. His 13.3 average finish last year was the second-best season average of his career, and his 18 top 10s and 305 laps led were both career highs.…

YEARS: ROOKIE • STARTS: 0 • WINS: 0 • TOP 5S: 0 • TOP 10S: 0 • POLES: 0 • TITLES: 0 They say when one door closes, another one opens, but in Chase Briscoe’s case, it was another door opening that led to the biggest opportunity of his young career. When Clint Bowyer had the opportunity to join the FOX broadcast booth for the 2021 season, that left the seat in his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing machine open. And with Briscoe having a breakout season for SHR in the Xfinity Series, it wasn’t long before he was invited to team owner Tony Stewart’s house to meet with potential sponsors for the new season. Except there was no sponsor to woo; the deal was done, and Stewart presented Briscoe with…

Track History After visiting the newly constructed Daytona International Speedway in 1959, pioneer era racer Curtis Turner sought to replicate its blueprint by building a similar state-of-the-art facility near Charlotte, N.C. Turner partnered with local businessman and short track promoter Bruton Smith to build Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1960 with NASCAR agreeing to sanction a 600-mile race on Memorial Day weekend to challenge the Indianapolis 500. Construction was burdened by weather delays, financial woes and demolition challenges resulting from a solid slab of granite that sat under the location selected for the track. The project came in over budget, and its first 15 years was spent in financial turmoil. Smith purchased the track outright in 1975 and began a longstanding tradition of hospitality, fan access and competitor amenities. Charlotte Motor…

Track History The genesis of Darlington Raceway began when racer Harold Brasington returned home from the 1933 Indianapolis 500 and wanted to build an equivalent superspeedway in South Carolina. Financial restraints and World War II prevented that vision from becoming a reality for over 15 years. Finally, Brasington secured the land from farm owner Sherman Ramsey on the condition that he did not disturb the pond on the property. As a result, Brasington was forced to modify his layout to make one end of the track tighter and narrower than the other when he began construction in 1949. A nuisance to Brasington, the lack of symmetry has tormented drivers and engineers for decades since the track opened on Labor Day, 1950. That inaugural Southern 500 realized Brasington’s dream, drawing 75…

Track History The Monster Mile was conceived in 1966 as a dual-purpose horse- and motor-racing facility. The moderately banked one miler was completed in 1969 and has remained on the Cup Series schedule ever since. Due to the high speeds and heavy loading of the modern stock cars, the track’s asphalt surface needed to be replaced with concrete starting with the 1995 races. In 2003, the track completed construction of the Monster Bridge, an air-conditioned, glass-enclosed structure that has 56 seats that overlook Turn 3. The trophy is a replica of the track’s iconic mascot, Miles the Monster. Capacity peaked at 135,000 in 2001, making the track the largest sporting venue in the Mid-Atlantic. A hotel and casino were added off Turn 3 once Delaware legalized gambling in 1994, and…

Track History Kansas Speedway was conceived in the late 1990s to provide NASCAR with a footprint in the Heartland. Prior to its opening race in 2001, NASCAR had no presence between Dallas and Indianapolis, with Midwestern fans left largely underserved. The facility broke ground in 1999, and the first race was won by Jeff Gordon in 2001. Since then, the track has gained a second date, and the area surrounding the track has expanded as a major entertainment hub for the region. NASCAR and Penn National Gaming jointly manage the on-site Hollywood Hotel and Casino overlooking Turn 2, which opened in 2012 and hosts more than 2,000 slot machines and 50 gaming tables. It will become even more important now that gambling is slowly becoming legal across the country. The…

Track History Due to its history and proximity to the United States auto industry, Michigan International Speedway is one of the most important annual stops on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule. The winner each season earns his manufacturer the Michigan Heritage Trophy. The track was designed by Charles Moneypenny, the architect and designer of Daytona International Speedway, with 18 degrees banking in the turns, 12 degrees in the dogleg and five degrees in the backstretch. Indy cars were first to race in the Irish Hills in 1968, with Ronnie Bucknum winning a 250-miler. The $20,000 purse was second only to the Indianapolis 500 at the time. NASCAR followed a year later with Cale Yarborough outdueling LeeRoy Yarbrough for the win. Today, MIS remains an important market as a centralized location…

Track History Phoenix Raceway opened in 1964 but wouldn’t host a Cup Series race until 1988. Prior to that, it was a desert showcase for open-wheel competition that included USAC Midgets, Sprint Cars and IndyCar. The track owes its oblong shape to wrapping around the nearby Estrella Mountains. The NASCAR West Series contested a series of races starting in 1975, and that paved the way for the premier division to become a mainstay in the Valley of the Sun. Alan Kulwicki won the first Cup race at Phoenix (1988) and introduced fans to the Polish Victory Lap, a clockwise cool-down lap that allowed the driver to wave to the fans in celebration. Kevin Harvick has become its most successful driver with nine wins over the past 19 seasons. International Speedway…

Track History After Wisconsin outlawed auto racing on city streets in 1953, World War I veteran Clif Tufte turned his attention to developing a permanent race course. His vision included 525 acres of farmland near the Village of Elkhart Lake, an acquisition that required financial assistance from the Sports Car Club of America. A highway engineer by trade, Tufte utilized the natural rolling hills and ravines to create what instantly became the most iconic and picturesque road course in the U.S. A photo finish decided the first club race at Road America in 1956. Since then, Elkhart Lake has become synonymous with road racing in North America with IndyCar and IMSA both sporadically running showcase events on the 14-turn, 4.048-mile circuit. What is now the NASCAR Cup Series contested the…

Track History Before Texas Motor Speedway opened in 1996, the Lone Star State was served by Texas World Speedway in College Station. That two-mile speedway hosted NASCAR, USAC and Indy cars sporadically from its inception in 1969 through the ’80s. But Texas World quickly began to decay, and Speedway Motorsports Inc. sought a location for a state-of-the-art facility for the modern motorsports experience. The $250 million project was completed in February 1996. The racetrack’s first Cup race was held in April 1997, a crash fest that included a 13-car pileup on the first lap and a record 73 laps run under caution that stands to this day. Texas Motor Speedway has also undergone several reconfigurations over the past 25 years, including one in 2017 that lowered the banking in Turns…

There is no doubt that the 2020 NASCAR season was among the most challenging and unpredictable in recent memory, if not ever. After enduring a nearly three-month shutdown, drivers and teams returned to action not necessarily knowing where they would be racing a few weeks down the road. The teams of the NASCAR Xfinity Series fought through some of the most challenging circumstances in the history of the sport and put on a season full of entertaining and engaging races. And in a series designed to make names we’ll all see racing on Sundays in the future, a handful of young drivers put themselves high on the list for openings in the Cup Series in the next couple of years. Chase Briscoe won a season-high nine times in 2020 driving…

Now that Jimmie Johnson has retired, the record of seven career NASCAR Cup championships appears safe for some time to come. The unpredictability of NASCAR’s 16-driver playoff format (which includes a four-driver, winner-take-all finale) reduces the chances of a dynasty developing like Johnson’s five straight titles from 2006-10. There’s no question Superman was the greatest driver of his era. Was he the best of all-time? Look to your right and judge for yourself which of this trio of seven-time champions — Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson — has the edge. *Petty raced before the modern era, where there were often 50-60 races in a full season.…

Michael Jordan, who has joined forces with Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace to create 23XI Racing, may be the most famous athlete to attempt a NASCAR crossover after a successful career — but this isn’t the first time someone’s tried it. A wide variety of successful athletes and coaches from stick-and-ball sports and other disciplines have attempted NASCAR ownership through the years. Unfortunately, most of them never got off the ground: NFL Hall of Famer Jim Brown, MLB Hall of Famer Hank Aaron and NFL head coach Dennis Green are just a few “wannabe” owners who couldn’t close the deal. With Joe Gibbs being the notable exception, Jordan is walking into a trend line of athletes with brand recognition, high expectations — and a long list of failed race shops.…

Be it by design or by necessity — and it’s certainly a little bit of both — the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series schedule looks radically different than any that has come before it. For one thing, there will be seven races on road courses this year, more than double the amount from the previous two seasons and the most in the 72-year history of the circuit. The previous high was five road courses in 1957, when there were 53 races on the docket. Three of these races will take place on new venues or configurations: Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Tex.; Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis.; and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, which replaces the Brickyard 400 on the track’s legendary oval layout. But wait, there’s more!…

It’s not just that Chase Elliott, NASCAR’s most loved driver, flipped off Kyle Busch, NASCAR’s most hated driver, after Busch wrecked Elliott late in a race at Darlington. It’s not just that Elliott did so on live TV. It’s not just that Elliott flipped off Busch on live TV in a highly anticipated midweek race that was likely many TV viewers’ introduction to NASCAR. It’s all of that — plus the fact that Elliott strategically placed himself to deliver the bird, then waited for Busch to drive by and raised his finger with transparently defiant body posture and spun his hips so he could continue the gesture for as long as possible. Nobody keeps stats on the duration of middle fingers given (unfortunately), but in sports history, this one has…

YEARS: 15 • STARTS: 549 • WINS: 27 • TOP 5S: 116 • TOP 10S: 228 • POLES: 19 • TITLES: In 2019, a faulty pit stop in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway played a deciding role as Martin Truex Jr. came up short in his quest for a second NASCAR Cup Series championship. In 2020, another pit road issue proved to be his undoing late in the season’s penultimate race at Martinsville Speedway. The miscue zapped Truex’s chance for a win-and-get-in Championship 4 advancement. The circumstances weren’t identical — at Homestead in 2019, his team bolted new tires on the wrong sides of the car, while a brutal vibration due to loose lug nuts forced him to pit road at Martinsville in 2020 — but the results proved…

YEARS: 6 • STARTS: 212 • WINS: 0 • TOP 5S: 6 • TOP 10S: 22 • POLES: 0 • TITLES: 0 Matt DiBenedetto's future has never been this cut-and-dried — even if it is exceedingly unique. DiBenedetto, 29, will definitely drive the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford this season. And when the season ends, he’ll definitely be looking for a new job. These circumstances are the product of forces from multiple angles. Chief among them is the rise of Austin Cindric as a budding talent in Team Penske’s Xfinity Series program. The Penske outfit wants to make room for Cindric at the Cup level no later than 2022, and its affiliation as a technical partner with WBR offers the perfect fit. The schedule to keep DiBenedetto in the…

YEARS: 20 • STARTS: 720 • WINS: 32 • TOP 5S: 150 • TOP 10S: 317 • POLES: 28 • TITLES: 1 Kurt Busch might be hanging up his helmet as a NASCAR Cup Series driver as soon as the end of the 2021 season. Or, he might be ready to sign another deal to keep going as NASCAR’s Next Generation car makes its debut in 2022. It’s a toss-up, and he’s not ready to commit either way — although he did agree to serve as a test driver of the Next Gen car last fall during a two-day test at Charlotte Motor Speedway. “I’ll give it 50-50. I’ve been at this game a long time,” Busch, 42, told CBS Sports in October. “I’ve been out there 21 years, and…

YEARS: 1 • STARTS: 38 • WINS: 0 • TOP 5S: 3 • TOP 10S: 10 • POLES: 0 • TITLES: 0 The NASCAR Cup Series featured a trio of rookies in 2020 who entered the season with high expectations. Cole Custer and Christopher Bell were projected to flirt with the playoffs and score top finishes, not only because of their success in the Xfinity Series, but also because they were driving for elite teams that contended for championships every year. It was easy to overlook Tyler Reddick — not because of his past performance, which includes two Xfinity titles, but because he drives for mid-tier Richard Childress Racing, a team that had struggled in 2019 and overall just doesn’t put the same level of cars on the track as…

Track History Atlanta Motor Speedway “has had more ups and downs than a monkey on the string, taken more cuffs and kicks than an unwanted orphan and [been] doomed to more deaths than a chicken-eating hound.” That description comes from its inaugural event press release in 1960 but still perfectly describes its tenuous existence today. An uncooperative local government and a skeptical local clientele seemingly didn’t want the track to open in the first place. It struggled to turn profits in the ’60s and ’70s, reorganizing under Chapter 10 bankruptcy in 1975. It was purchased by Speedway Motorsports Inc. in 1990 and enjoyed its most lucrative period, becoming NASCAR’s crown jewel in terms of luxury suites and the site of its season finale until 2000. Its importance once again began…

Track History The history of the Charlotte Motor Speedway infield road course long predates its usage in the Cup Series beginning in 2018. What is now called the Roval was installed in 1971 and was the first major upgrade for the speedway after it opened in 1960. Utilizing the banked turns of the oval, a 2.250-mile road course was built into the infield for usage by the Sports Car Club of America and International Motorsports Association. That layout was utilized for numerous club racing outfits until 2017, when track owner Bruton Smith and NASCAR revamped the layout to be used by Cup and Xfinity starting in 2018. The current layout runs 2.28 miles and was optimized for stock cars. The Roval also allowed Charlotte Motor Speedway to offer two different…

Track History Daytona is both the birthplace of and home to NASCAR, but it took over a decade to construct its signature venue. The sanctioning body was founded in 1948 while it was still racing on the sand and streets of Daytona Beach. But founder Bill France Sr. envisioned a track and event on the scale of the Indianapolis 500. France took his idea to the city and was leased 447 acres next to the regional airport for $10,000 a year over 50 years. To fund the project, France enlisted Pepsi-Cola and General Motors for capital. He was loaned $600,000 from Texas oil magnate Clint Murchison, and France sold 300,000 stock shares to complete the funding. Unlike Indianapolis, France ordered his 2.5-mile cathedral of speed to be banked for faster…

Track History Homestead-Miami Speedway owes its existence to a natural disaster. Hurricane Andrew leveled most of South Florida in 1992, and the development of a multi-purpose motorsports and entertainment facility was quickly approved in the hopes NASCAR would revive the local economy. The track opened in November 1995 and hosted the NASCAR Xfinity Series as a four-turn rectangular oval similar to Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Dale Jarrett won the inaugural event, installed as the season finale, opening the door for others. But tragedy struck in 1997 when driver John Nemechek was killed in a Truck Series crash. The incident resulted in a $8.2 million renovation to revamp Homestead into a more traditional, continuous-turn oval with six degrees banking (increased to 18-20 degrees in 2003). After that, the Cup Series debuted here…

Track History The site of Las Vegas Motor Speedway was once the home to the Las Vegas Speedway Park, a quarter-mile dragstrip that opened in February 1972 with a 1.6-mile road course. A .375-mile short track, now dubbed the Bullring, was opened in 1985. Kurt and Kyle Busch are its most notable graduates. A decade later, NASCAR’s upswing towards the mainstream was well underway, and casino operators Richie Clyne and Ralph Engelstad saw an opportunity. They built the 1.5-mile oval on the same property as the road course, along with a short track and a new dirt track, and Las Vegas Motor Speedway was born. Realizing they had no idea how to operate a racetrack, the casino magnates sold the property to Bruton Smith and Speedway Motorsports for $215 million.…

Track History Nashville Superspeedway was left for dead in 2011, just 10 years after it opened at a construction cost of $125 million. Dover Motorsports, which also owns Dover International Speedway, built the track outside of Nashville at the height of NASCAR’s booming national prominence with the expectation that it would eventually earn a Cup Series date. While the Xfinity and Truck Series raced there for a decade, as did the IndyCar Series, it was never awarded a Cup date. It was passed over in favor of Kentucky Speedway, and the track was shuttered. In the years since, it has been for sale but never sold, and even used as an unsold Nissan car lot. Meanwhile, Nashville has grown tremendously, and it remains a top-five NASCAR television market. So with…

Track History One of the most unorthodox tracks in all motorsports was naturally built by one of its most unique characters. Joe “Doc” Mattioli was a successful dentist who abandoned his practice in 1960 to pursue the more fulfilling work of operating a series of resorts in north Pennsylvania. He was talked into investing in a racetrack, one that broke ground in 1969, but was completed in 1971. The one-of-a-kind triangular-shaped superspeedway featured corners modeled after three other famous ovals. Turn 1 has 14 degrees of banking and was inspired by Trenton Speedway. Turn 2 has eight degrees of banking and is shaped like Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Turn 3 has six degrees of banking and is a replica of the corners at the Milwaukee Mile. USAC and IndyCar contested the…

Track History What was first conceived as a casual road course for club competition has evolved into one of the premier facilities on the West Coast. Sonoma began its life as Sears Point Raceway, a 2.52-mile course in California wine country, with races staged by the Sports Car Club of America. The SCCA held its first event on December 1, 1968, with the IndyCar and Trans-Am series following suit over the next several years. But the ’70s was a turbulent period for the facility, and it was shuttered on numerous occasions. A consortium of financial partners took control of Sears Point in the mid-’80s and began to modernize the facility for national competition. The NHRA sanctioned an event on its drag strip in 1988, and NASCAR came a year later.…

Track History While Road America is America’s most picturesque road course, Watkins Glen International remains its most decorated. The current facility was carved through 550 acres in upstate New York following a decade of road races partially contested on city streets. The most prestigious of those street races was the Watkins Glen Grand Prix in 1948 that took place on a 6.6-mile course encompassing asphalt, cement and dirt roads throughout the town. That event continued through 1952 but fell under scrutiny when a series of crashes killed competitors and spectators alike. The current facility opened in 1956 and quickly established itself as an international motorsports destination. NASCAR made its first visit in 1957, and The Glen hosted Formula 1 from 1961-80. The departure of F1 in 1981 shuttered the facility…

1. AUSTIN CINDRIC No. 22 Team Penske Ford - Cindric brings a deep racing pedigree to the Xfinity circuit. His grandfather, the late Jim Trueman, owned Bobby Rahal’s 1986 Indy 500 winner, and his father, Tim Cindric, has been president of Team Penske for two decades. Cindric fulfilled his destiny with an Xfinity title in 2020 and will look to do what only seven drivers have done before him: win back-to-back series titles. 2. Justin Allgaier No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet - Allgaier has been a contender since joining JR Motorsports after an abortive two-year run in the Cup Series. The former 2008 ARCA Menards Series champion has bloomed into a perennial contender because he is competitive on every type of track: superspeedways, intermediates, short tracks, and road courses. 3.…