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Up to Speed: The Pressure to Win in NASCAR 2021 is Already On
Raise your hand if you thought that, two races into the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season, the two race winners would be Michael McDowell and Christopher Bell. If you made that prediction a few weeks ago, a fellow race fan might have assumed that you’d spent too much time around the gasoline fumes on pit road. But sometimes nothing is stranger than the truth. The 2021 Cup Series season has begun with two very unexpected winners. McDowell was a highly unlikely winner of the Great American Race.
Up to Speed: Can Denny Hamlin Finally Win a Championship in 2021?
Denny Hamlin set out to do something nobody else has done before: win three consecutive Daytona 500s. Despite leading six times for a race-high 98 laps, the three-peat was denied with a fifth-place finish. But the story of Hamlin’s 2021 season goes far beyond the Great American Race. He will get to experience the highs and lows of team ownership for the first time. He and his peers in the NASCAR Cup Series will get to tackle some new tracks as the season progresses.
Up to Speed: Will Clint Bowyer Stay Candid in the Broadcast Booth?
Lost in the conclusion of the 2020 NASCAR season was the rather abrupt departure of Clint Bowyer from the driver’s seat. Bowyer, who was wrapping up his 15th full-time season as a Cup Series racer, faced an uncertain future with Stewart-Haas Racing. Despite some speculation that SHR’s driver lineup would not change for 2021, Bowyer announced late last year that he had accepted a broadcasting job with FOX Sports, signaling the end of his career as a Cup Series regular.
2021 NASCAR Preseason Power Rankings No. 12: Aric Almirola
In three seasons at Stewart-Haas Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series, Aric Almirola has proven his ability to be a contender for the playoffs. He has also shown an affinity for strong runs, including wins, at restrictor plate tracks. Almirola’s performances have earned him the loyalty of primary sponsor Smithfield. But the 2021 season could be a crucial one in determining the future of the Almirola/SHR/Smithfield relationship.
2021 NASCAR Preseason Power Rankings No. 28: Daniel Suarez
Daniel Suarez is getting a fresh start – again. For the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season, Suarez will compete with Trackhouse Racing Team, a brand-new operation created by former driver Justin Marks. Having secured a charter and established a technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing, Trackhouse will race full time in 2021 with Suarez as its sole driver.
2020 NASCAR Team Reviews: Roush Fenway Racing
Heading into 2020, Roush Fenway Racing had reason to be optimistic in the NASCAR Cup Series. The previous year, veteran Ryan Newman put an RFR Ford in the playoffs for only the second time in the last five seasons. That was Newman’s first season with Roush, and it left fans wondering if Newman and the No. 6 team could make more progress in 2020. Meanwhile, the No. 17 car got a new driver in Chris Buescher. Buescher had competed for RFR in the Xfinity Series and won a championship in 2015.
Up to Speed: The Future Is Bright For Hendrick Motorsports
It wasn’t long ago that Hendrick Motorsports had one of the oldest driver lineups in NASCAR. Five years ago, at the time of Jeff Gordon’s final race in his famed No. 24 car, the organization’s youngest driver was Kasey Kahne at 35 years old. With Gordon’s career wrapping up amid a bourgeoning youth movement in NASCAR, many wondered who would take the reins at HMS as the team’s other drivers got closer to retirement.
Up to Speed: 2020 Is Another Black Mark Against The NASCAR Playoffs
As usual, Martinsville Speedway provided no shortage of entertainment. Sunday’s race, the penultimate event of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season, offered up plenty of close quarters short track racing. It also featured a tighter battle among the playoff drivers than most fans would have foreseen, given the points among the drivers. But the biggest surprise was how that battle ended.
Up to Speed: How Will 23XI Racing Perform in 2021?
As NASCAR’s 2021 Cup Series lineup slowly comes into focus, the new team owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin is beginning to take shape. Several weeks ago, Jordan and Hamlin announced their organization would debut next season with driver Bubba Wallace. We also learned last week that the team, as previously speculated, will be called 23XI Racing (pronounced “twenty-three eleven”) and that Wallace will drive car No. 23.
Up to Speed: Chip Ganassi Racing Wastes Its 2020 Potential
Back in the spring of 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic began to heat up, Chip Ganassi Racing had a mess on its hands. While participating in an iRacing event on Easter Sunday, Kyle Larson uttered a racial slur over what he thought was a private communication line. Unfortunately for him, the line wasn’t private. Within the next 24 hours, Larson’s major sponsors had denounced him and he was suspended by NASCAR. The following day, CGR fired him.
Up to Speed: Alex Bowman’s Title Hopes Saved Again by the ROVAL - Frontstretch
For the first time in his NASCAR career, Alex Bowman has made it to the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. Entering Sunday’s race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, Bowman was seventh in points, holding a 22-point advantage over the cutline. Like most of the playoff contenders, he fought through an up and down race. The biggest blow to Bowman’s playoff hopes would have been somebody below the cut line winning the race, or a bad performance from the No. 88 team.
Up to Speed: Time to Eliminate the Double Yellow Line Rule
Sunday’s (Oct. 4) NASCAR Cup Series playoff race was a typical Talladega Superspeedway thriller. But once the dust had settled on its photo finish, the YellaWood 500 looked more like the yellow line 500. Following a chaotic last-lap ending, Denny Hamlin walked away with the checkered flag. Behind him, drivers who appeared to score top-10 finishes were issued post-race penalties instead.
Up to Speed: The Parallel Careers of Jimmie Johnson & Matt Kenseth
With the 2020 season entering its final stage, NASCAR is beginning to look toward next year. This last week in September brought considerable news regarding driver lineups for 2021. There have also been rumors that major changes could be in store for the Cup Series schedule. But even as more news trickles out about the status of NASCAR in 2021, it still seems hard to believe that Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth will not be regular competitors next season.
Up to Speed: Tough Decisions Ahead for Ford’s NASCAR Teams
The more things change for Matt DiBenedetto, the more they stay the same. Returning to Bristol Motor Speedway for the 2020 Bass Pro Shops/NRA Night Race, he was in need of an outstanding performance. For the first time, DiBenedetto came to Thunder Valley as a NASCAR playoff driver. But a pair of lackluster results in the first two races of the Round of 16 put the Wood Brothers Racing team 25 points below the playoff cutline.
Up to Speed: Is Austin Dillon’s Playoff Run for Real?
For the first time in his NASCAR Cup Series career, Austin Dillon has scored back-to-back top-five finishes. Last week at Darlington Raceway, Dillon pulled off a surprising second-place result. He followed that performance up with an even stronger run at Richmond Raceway Saturday night (Sept. 12). Although Dillon finished fourth, he led 55 laps and appeared to have the fastest car on track at certain points of the event.
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