Chase Briscoe, after a mega-season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, takes over the No. 14 Ford for Stewart Haas Racing following Clint Bowyer’s move to the FOX’s television booth. The young Hoosier will have HighPoint as a sponsor for several races on the No. 14 flagship car at SHR, and John Klausmeier will be the crew chief.
Corey LaJoie will drive the No. 7 car for Spire Motorsports, which purchased the Leavine Family Racing charter to expand to a two-car team. LaJoie moves over from Go Fas Racing and brings crew chief Ryan Sparks with him. The No. 77 Spire Motorsports machine will have a variety of drivers this season, most likely including Justin Haley as he campaigns again for the Xfinity Series title with Kaulig Racing. Drivers will be named at a later date.
John Hunter Nemechek’s maiden run in the Cup Series ended at Phoenix, as the young driver announced a return to the Truck Series. Anthony Alfredo, a 21-year-old racer from Ridgefield, Conn., has bee named to take Nemechek’s place in the No. 38 Ford at Front Row Motorsports. After several impressive NASCAR Xfinity Series runs last season at RCR, he’ll compete for Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors in the Cup Series. Michael McDowell will be back in the team’s No. 38 Mustang.
Matt DiBenedetto will return to the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford but will give up that seat to Austin Cindric, the NXS champion, in 2022. The team is aligned with Team Penske.
B.J. McLeod and former driver Matt Tifft, in partnership with Joe Falk, bought out the Go Fas Racing charter to form Live Fast Motorsports and McLeod plans to campaign the season in the No. 78 Ford with partial backing from Keen Parts.
With the folding of Germain Racing, Ty Dillon’s plans were unknown at press time. He has since joined Gaunt Brothers Racing for the Daytona 500 and Joe Gibbs Racing for select NASCAR Xfinity Series races.
Several teams did not make changes for 2021, which is the last year for the current generation of NASCAR stock cars before they are replaced by the Nex Gen car. Among those are JTG Daugherty Racing, which has Ryan Preece and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. back on board.
Penske Racing returns Brad Keselowski in its No. 2, Joey Logano in the No. 22 and Ryan Blaney in the No. 12, all Ford Mustangs. Stewart-Haas Racing’s contingent of Kevin Harvick, Aric Almirola and Cole Custer return in their respective rides, while Ryan Newman is back in the No. 6 at Roush Fenway Racing alongside Chris Buescher in the team’s No. 17 Mustang.
Kurt Busch returns to Ganassi for another turn in the No. 1 Chevrolet, partnering Chastain, and RCR returns its core of Austin Dillon in the No. 3 and Tyler Reddick in the No. 8.
Quin Houff is expected back with StarCom in its No. 00 Chevrolet and the four-car stable planned by Rick Ware Racing had not been set by press time. The team has announced a multiyear sponsor in Thriv5, but exact plans were not known at the time of this writing.
MBM Motorsports has several options depending on sponsorship and several other teams have plans in the works that will be released closer to the season opening.
As with every preseason, there is abundant hope and scores of best-laid plans. How it all comes together is anyone’s guess.
In one of the biggest shuffles of drivers and teams in recent memory, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season will certainly take on a different shine than had Johnson, Kenseth and Bowyer not retired. The major teams — JGR, HMS, SHR, Penske, Ganassi, et al — have all made changes not unlike those made in other offseasons: nothing major, just shuffling their respective decks.
Most of the rest of the teams are finalizing sponsorship and available personnel to campaign either the full season or parts thereof. In other words, it’s just like every other year, only different.
The season is largely dependent upon the status of the pandemic and other considerations. When it gets here, at least you’ll know the players. You certainly already know the game.