Athlon Sports Preseason Sports Magazine's provide in-depth analysis of the upcoming seasons and events. Each preview includes great feature stories, team previews, depth charts, predictions, schedules and more.
NASCAR history is littered with era-defining milestones that mark turning points for the sport. The Richard Petty-David Pearson duel at Daytona in 1976. The King’s win at the 1979 Daytona 500 while Cale Yarborough and the Allison brothers brawled in the infield. Dale Earnhardt’s record-tying seventh championship in 1994. The subsequent rise of Jeff Gordon and then Jimmie Johnson as the new occupants of the sport’s competitive and marketing throne. Earnhardt’s tragic 2001 death, which robbed the sport of its ultimate competitor but also spurred reforms that made the sport safer. The 2022 season could mark another significant turning point for NASCAR. The sport is unveiling its Next Gen car, one that the governing body promises will rede-fine the competitive landscape for the better. The car’s debut at the February…
From the time the green flag flew on a thrilling Daytona 500 until the checkers dropped at the finale in Phoenix, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season was action-packed. Here are a few of the highlights from the year that was.…
GENERATIONAL RIVALRIES There’s a big-time rivalry brewing between Chase Elliott and Kevin Harvick, one that exploded at Bristol Motor Speedway in the fall of 2021. A closer look reveals that the Elliott-Harvick feud is a symptom of a changing of the guard between generations. Harvick is the last of a dying breed, age 46 and carrying the banner for a mostly retired group of successful drivers from his era: Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth. Elliott is at the forefront of fresh young talent, NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver who surpassed a nine-race winner in Harvick to capture the 2020 Cup Series championship. In the end, Father Time will decide this battle once and for all: Harvick is signed for just two more seasons with Stewart-Haas Racing.…
A look at raw numbers of Twitter followers tells only a partial story, and that’s particularly true with NASCAR. Many of the sport’s most prominent social media personalities have left the competitive sphere (or will soon do so) but are exerting influence on other platforms. As you’ll read later in this magazine, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is launching his own media empire with his company Dirty Mo Media. Junior, the 15-time Most Popular Driver during his racing career, still wields a lot of social media power, boasting 2.4 million Twitter followers. Veteran Kevin Harvick, who made an emotional appearance on the “Dale Jr. Download” podcast in 2021, has more than a million. Jeff Gordon, who last raced in 2016, has 1.2 million. Among the youngsters, reigning Most Popular Driver Chase Elliott…
It’s been a part of the sport for as long as anyone can remember — until now. NASCAR Cup Series cars of 2021 barely resembled the Fords, Chevys and Toyotas you drove on the street, but there was one thing you still had in common with your favorite race team when you had a flat tire. You’d have to take five lug nuts off the wheel. Pit crews have done that for decades, at least a half-dozen times per race each week in NASCAR. That’s five lug nuts apiece, painstakingly glued in the perfect spot by crewmen to get drilled into place in a matter of seconds. It’s why we should take a moment to appreciate their existence as NASCAR transitions to one giant lug nut per tire with the…
So how does Kyle Larson’s 2021 season stack up with the best in NASCAR’s modern era? Last year, Larson became the first driver both to reach 10 wins and earn the championship under NASCAR’s current playoff format. Doing both is a little more difficult than it might seem. Bill Elliott, despite winning 11 races and the Winston Million in 1985, lost the championship to Darrell Waltrip. Rusty Wallace earned a career-high 10 victories in 1993 but trailed Dale Earnhardt in points for nearly the entire season. In the last 35 years, only three drivers in addition to Larson have earned double-digit wins and won a championship in the same season. (Jeff Gordon actually did it twice, in 1997 and 1998; we’ve listed his better season.) Here’s a closer look at…
