The 2024 NASCAR season is right here.
The season unofficially started in hasty vogue on Feb. 3 with the Conflict exhibition race on the Los Angeles Coliseum. Denny Hamlin received the race because it was moved up a day due to incessant rain in Southern California.
This week, issues get actual. The Daytona 500 is Sunday and drivers take the monitor Wednesday for front-row qualifying forward of Thursday’s qualifying races.
If you happen to want a fast refresher of what is completely different heading into the 2024 season, we have you coated. Here is a quick have a look at what’s new for this season as NASCAR embarks on one other 9-month season that may conclude Nov. 10.
Stewart-Haas Racing has two new drivers
Half of Stewart-Haas Racing’s driver lineup can be new for the 2024 season.
Kevin Harvick retired on the finish of the 2023 season, whereas Aric Almirola stepped away from full-time driving. In Harvick’s place is former JR Motorsports Xfinity Sequence driver Josh Berry, and Noah Gragson takes the place of Almirola within the No. 10 automotive. They be a part of Chase Briscoe and Ryan Preece at SHR.
Berry, 33, received 5 races over the previous three seasons in NASCAR’s No. 2 collection. He was an harm substitute at Hendrick Motorsports and Legacy Motor Membership in 2023 and had a high 5 and three high 10s in 10 races whereas he took the place of Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman. He’s the uncommon Cup Sequence rookie in fashionable NASCAR who’s getting a shot in his 30s.
Gragson’s rookie 12 months in 2023 lasted half the season earlier than he was suspended after which subsequently misplaced his journey at Legacy Motor Membership for liking a social media submit mocking George Floyd’s loss of life. After lacking the remainder of the 12 months, he acquired a second likelihood at SHR.
Stewart-Haas has a variety of work to do to be aggressive, nonetheless. Harvick was the one driver who confirmed any constant velocity in 2023. He was thirteenth within the standings whereas everybody else was exterior the highest 20. Preece was twenty third in factors, whereas Briscoe was thirtieth in a depressing season that included a large factors penalty. It’s going to take a variety of work for SHR to get again to the heights it hit within the early 2010s when Tony Stewart and Harvick every received a championship in a four-year span.
Each Harvick and Stewart are doing one thing new in 2024 as nicely. Harvick is becoming a member of Fox’s asserting sales space and can function an analyst for the community’s portion of the Cup Sequence schedule. Stewart, in the meantime, is ready to race full-time within the NHRA’s High Gasoline division in 2024 for his spouse, Leah Pruett.
Legacy Motor Membership heads to Toyota
Newly inducted NASCAR Corridor of Famer Jimmie Johnson can be doing one thing at Daytona Worldwide Speedway that he’s by no means accomplished in his whole Cup Sequence profession: drive a Toyota.
Johnson’s Legacy Motor Membership switched from Chevrolet to Toyota forward of the 2024 season as there at the moment are eight full-time Toyota entries within the Cup Sequence. John Hunter Nemechek strikes up from the Xfinity Sequence to crew with Erik Jones. Johnson will drive a part-time schedule for the second consecutive season after his retirement from full-time racing with Hendrick Motorsports following the 2020 season.
Legacy was one of many worst groups on the grid in 2023 — Jones was twenty seventh within the standings and Gragson’s No. 42 automotive completed thirty second — but it surely may very well be considerably improved in 2024. Don’t be shocked if Jones is in rivalry for a win or two over the course of the season.
Spire expands to a few full-time vehicles
Spire Motorsports will discipline vehicles for Corey LaJoie, Carson Hocevar and Zane Smith in 2023 because it grows from two vehicles to a few. LaJoie acquired plaudits for his greatest Cup Sequence season ever in 2023, however he was solely twenty fifth within the factors standings and had simply three high 10s.
Smith and Hocevar ought to each be higher than Ty Dillon was in 2023. Dillon was final amongst full-time drivers within the factors standings and had 88 fewer factors than the motive force instantly above him within the standings. Smith is a former Truck Sequence champion and Hocevar confirmed promise filling in for Gragson a season in the past.
Getting Hocevar to rein in his aggressive driving can be a big activity, nonetheless. He’s developed a popularity for needlessly inflicting contact and crashes within the Truck Sequence, together with when he was racing for the championship at Phoenix in November.
Different driver strikes
Justin Haley strikes from Kaulig Racing to Rick Ware Racing in 2024. Haley’s swap can be a take a look at of RWR’s dedication to getting higher in 2024. Ware has been the worst multi-car crew within the Cup Sequence over the previous few seasons as solely Reside Quick’s No. 78 automotive completed beneath the 2 RWR vehicles within the house owners factors standings. Reside Quick bought its constitution to Spire forward of the season.
As Haley strikes to RWR, Daniel Hemric takes over for him within the No. 31 automotive. That is Hemric’s second full-time shot within the Cup Sequence after he was twenty fifth within the standings in 2019 in his rookie season at Richard Childress Racing. After he was one-and-done within the Cup Sequence, Hemric dropped all the way down to the Xfinity Sequence and scored his first nationwide collection win ever within the closing Xfinity Sequence race of the 2021 season to win the second-tier collection title.
Kaulig is staying at two vehicles in 2024, however Hemric would be the crew’s solely full-time driver. AJ Allmendinger will drive for the crew within the Daytona 500 and can share the automotive with Josh Williams and Chicago road course winner Shane van Gisbergen as he begins his transition to NASCAR.
Iowa is on the Cup Sequence schedule
The Cup Sequence will head to Iowa Speedway for the primary time in 2024. The NASCAR-owned monitor has hosted the Truck Sequence and Xfinity Sequence because it opened in 2019, however hasn’t held a NASCAR race of any type since 2019.
The 0.875-mile monitor has produced multi-groove racing within the two decrease collection, and the hope is that its format and worn pavement will do the identical within the Cup Sequence.
If you happen to don’t rely the Cup Sequence’ return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval as a brand new monitor, Iowa is the one new monitor on the 2024 Cup Sequence schedule. Nevertheless, the playoffs will look completely different, due to the Olympics.
NASCAR is taking a two-week break between races at Indianapolis on July 21 and Richmond on Aug. 11 due to NBC’s Olympics commitments. Which means Darlington’s Labor Day weekend race is the ultimate race of the common season and never the playoff opener.
A second race at Atlanta will open the playoffs, adopted by the primary playoff race at Watkins Glen and the Bristol evening race. The addition of Watkins Glen among the many closing 10 races signifies that two street programs can be part of the postseason for the primary time ever because the Charlotte Roval stays within the playoffs.
