Preseason preview: 10 things to watch in the 2024 Cup Series season

The dawn of a new year and a soon-approaching NASCAR season have arrived. The next turn of a calendar page will mean preparing for cars on the track, first at the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum in Los Angeles (Feb. 4) and then with the official season-opening Daytona 500 (Feb. 18). In the interim, here's 10 topics worth extra focus as the 2024 Cup Series campaign draws near.

New cars for Ford, Toyota

Chevrolet won the Cup Series manufacturer's championship for the third consecutive year in 2023, but the bowtie bunch will face renewed challenges from the circuit's other two automakers this year. As last season wound down, Ford and Toyota unveiled new Next Gen models for competition in 2024. With those fresh designs comes revitalized hope, as Ford's Mustang Dark Horse and Toyota's Camry XSE racers aim to break up Chevy's recent roll. Wind-tunnel data, computer modeling and other tests have spurred optimism, but the true test of performance for the new Ford and Toyota entries will come once the green flag drops for 2024.

Iowa ready for its Cup debut

The newest addition to the NASCAR schedule puts another dot on the Midwest map as Iowa Speedway gears up for its first Cup Series race on June 16. The 7/8-mile oval last hosted NASCAR events for the Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series in 2019, but has been a regular stop for the ARCA Menards Series and the IndyCar Series in the years since. Now stock-car racing's big leagues gain a short track as the schedule enters a key summer stretch.

Playoff shuffle

Also new to the Cup Series calendar are tweaks for the postseason rotation. The elimination races -- Bristol for the Round of 16, Charlotte's Roval in the Round of 12 and Martinsville's Round of 8 ender – remain the same, but the rest of the list has some key revisions early on. The topsy-turvy nature of the recently redesigned Atlanta Motor Speedway will likely shake up the order as the Sept. 8 playoff opener, followed by Watkins Glen's postseason debut – adding another road course to the final 10-race span. The regular-season finale that will set the playoff field also has a new venue with Darlington's annual Southern 500 on Labor Day weekend.

Wonder from Down Under

Less than a year after his brilliant NASCAR debut, Shane van Gisbergen will transform his racing career with an expanded stateside role in 2024. The 34-year-old New Zealander, who surged onto the Cup Series scene in 2023 with a sterling drive to victory in the inaugural Chicago Street Race, will embark on a full Xfinity Series schedule with Kaulig Racing in partnership with Trackhouse Racing. Van Gisbergen's schedule will also include at least seven Cup Series events. SVG's background in the Aussie-based Supercars tour provides him a natural habitat for his skills to show on road courses, but how he adapts to NASCAR's various ovals will be a focal point in his development.

Unchartered waters

RFK Racing added another limited-schedule team to the Cup Series garage with the advent of its Stage 60 operation. That team will join the likes of Trackhouse's Project 91 initiative, the 23XI Racing No. 67 venture, Legacy Motor Club's No. 84 team and others as potential wild-card entries for 2024 with substantial backing behind them. Veteran David Ragan will drive the No. 60 Ford in a bid for the Daytona 500 field, which should have more intrigue in the qualifying races as this year's entry list fills up and gains clarity. But extra non-chartered entrants are also likely to have an expanded presence at road courses and potentially superspeedways, with new drivers entering the mix.

SHR in a post-Harvick era

It's difficult to quantify the void that Kevin Harvick leaves at Stewart-Haas Racing. A 60-time winner and future Hall of Famer is nigh impossible to replace, but SHR will press on this season with newcomers Josh Berry and Noah Gragson joining incumbent drivers Chase Briscoe and Ryan Preece in the four-car fold. Stewart-Haas went winless last year, with only Harvick reaching the Cup Series Playoffs. The promise of a bounceback season rests on a relatively new group of drivers, who will lean on the organization's veteran infrastructure with the hopes that SHR's Cup Series campaign mimics the championship-winning run of its Xfinity Series operation from last year.

A fine freshman class

A trio of drivers with an array of backgrounds will vie for Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors, as Josh Berry, Carson Hocevar and Zane Smith make up this season's Cup Series class. Berry brings a rich short-track pedigree to Stewart-Haas Racing's No. 4 team, and Hocevar and Smith make the jump to Spire Motorsports after recent seasoning in the Craftsman Truck ranks, where both have prospered as race winners. How quickly all three adjust to the rigors of the Cup Series' schedule and competition level will decide the first-year laurels.

Hendrick's high bar

Hendrick Motorsports will celebrate its 40th anniversary season this year, but its on-track prospects are in need of a rare partial rebound. William Byron enjoyed a breakout season in 2023, and teammate Kyle Larson joined him in the Championship 4 field for the Phoenix Raceway finale. Fellow Hendrick drivers Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott, however, both missed regular-season races with injuries (and in Elliott's case, also a suspension) and failed to qualify for the 16-driver playoffs. Bowman's No. 48 team and Elliott's No. 9 group both have title-contender history, and cracking back into Victory Lane after a fruitless 2023 would provide both with a measure of relief and a re-establishing of their race-winning cred.

Lasting switch for Legacy M.C.

The Legacy Motor Club name didn't even exist in the public view one year ago. It's been quite the swirl of change, both before and after that Jan. 11 rebranding launch, and that transformation continues this season. The product of the merger of Richard Petty's and GMS Racing's operations added a partner in Jimmie Johnson before last season; in May, the team announced that it would switch from Chevrolet to Toyota in 2024. The change in manufacturers has meant a steady offseason effort to prepare for the new year, and the addition of John Hunter Nemechek with returning driver Erik Jones could create some new chemistry. All facets will need to jell quickly to erase what was a rocky 2023, when both teams finished outside the top 25 in the Cup Series standings.

Larson attempts 'The Double'

The makings of a memorable Memorial Day Weekend are already in place as Kyle Larson searches for a new niche in racing history. In what's being billed as the "Hendrick 1100" by his NASCAR team, Larson will bid to make his Indianapolis 500 debut before jetting to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the same-day Coca-Cola 600 on May 26. The two-race feat hasn't been done since Kurt Busch's double duty in 2014, and only Tony Stewart (in 2001) has completed all 1,100 miles of the challenge. Larson seamlessly passed his rookie orientation last fall, and Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske said that interest in his pursuit has driven up ticket sales for the annual 500-miler. Larson's versatility, talent and speed will only feed the hype.