Trey Poole has been named the full-time spotter for Chase Elliott and the No. 9 Chevrolet throughout the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, Hendrick Motorsports confirmed Tuesday.
Poole, a cousin of Elliott, has previously served as a second spotter for the No. 9 team at road courses and fulfilled the primary role on an interim basis back in 2021.
Elliott, the six-time winner of the NMPA Most Popular Driver Award, won the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series championship and has 18 career wins. Eddie D’Hondt previously served as his full-time spotter for all eight seasons of Elliott’s career.
D’Hondt will shift to Stewart-Haas Racing for the upcoming campaign, working with the No. 4 team and rookie Josh Berry. D’Hondt and Berry previously worked together in five Cup races in 2023 while Elliott recovered from a leg injury last spring.
Elliott’s 2023 season went without a victory for the first time since 2017, missing seven races — six due to a broken left leg suffered in a snowboarding accident and one due to suspension. Last year marked Elliott’s first without qualifying for the playoffs, snapping an eight-year streak.
In the first race of the 2023 season at Colorado National Speedway in Dacono, Colorado, Brett Yackey was involved in a crash. A hit to his left front sent him spinning, and he was left sitting in the middle of the track. Somehow, he and his team were able to get the car back out and salvage a good finish.
“We finished the race on essentially seven cylinders, and able to finish fourth,” Yackey said.
Yackey knew in that moment if he wasn’t able to finish the race, his championship hopes would have ended before the season got going. Instead, coming home with a top five gave him hope.
“To get lucky enough to be able to continue to race, we felt like we had a good chance of racing for the championship the rest of the season,” he said. “Because our bad luck — but also our good luck — was out of the way.”
The rest of the season wasn’t totally smooth sailing, but Yackey’s team climbed the rankings quickly at the 0.375-mile NASCAR Home Track. They eventually reached the top, and Yackey won the track’s Super Late Model championship by 17 points.
Yackey finished the season with one win and 12 top fives in 14 races.
It was his second Super Late Model track title, and his third Colorado state championship.
(Photo: Joe Starr Photos/Facebook/Brett Yackey Racing)
After the hiccup in Week 1, about halfway through the season, Yackey said the team found a setup that really worked, and they only got better from there.
“We never had the starting position we really wanted, so we struggled a little bit to have the great finishes we really wanted,” he said. “We were always finishing 2, 3, 4. It wasn’t until the last night of the season everything finally clicked.”
Going into the championship race, Yackey had an 11-point lead in the standings.
Instead of keeping it close and worrying about finishing position, he made sure he locked up the title, winning the race for “one of those storybook endings for the season,” he said.
“When you win the championship but you don’t win the race, there’s somebody celebrating the win and you celebrating the championship. It’s kind of cool, but you’re splitting the glory.
Instead, when you win both, you just go out with a bang. It was really cool for myself but my crew, as well. They’re always working so hard, and I couldn’t do it without them.”
This was Yackey’s sixth track title at Colorado National. He also has championships in the track’s pure stock and super stock division, and two in the late models class.
He called 2023 “one of my most fun seasons.”
“I have my family’s help and support; that’s always great,” Yackey said. “My crew guys are awesome. I hang out with them outside the track. We spend a lot of time together. That also really helps the team dynamics, and we just have a great time… I had probably my best crew, my best overall season. I didn’t win the wins I wanted, but we were consistent and we had a lot of fun. And that’s what we’re doing it for at the end of the day is fun.”
Yackey has been racing at Colorado National since 2014, when he was 14 years old. His dad Bruce has won multiple Colorado state championships and a dozen titles at CNS.
Yackey’s mom also raced, and Bruce still competes in the same division as his son.
“It’s just always been in our entire family,” Yackey said. “It’s really cool. There’s nothing like racing against your own family. I guess the biggest thing is just having somebody out there who is a friend or teammate instead of just a sole competitor. Obviously we race each other hard and have a lot of fun, but when you need it you have a friend out there.”
(Photo: Facebook/Brett Yackey Racing)
Even though Yackey has years of experience and thousands of laps under his belt at CNS, he never feels like that experience gives him a leg up on the competition.
“We have so many racers who race there all the time,” he said. “Older racers, my dad has raced forever, so there’s a lot of experience in our division in general. I just feel like my biggest perk, or the best thing I had going for me going into the last night was just being able to do my thing. I was already leading, we had been finishing good. I always feel like our cars are some of the best prepared cars out there, so it was really just in my hands when I got in my car to do the right things and just make it work.”
After the season ended at Colorado National, Yackey and his team went to Arizona to compete at Tucson Speedway on Thanksgiving weekend. There, he set the quick time and won the feature race.
Despite struggles at the beginning of 2023, Yackey’s team built momentum throughout the summer and are feeling good at the beginning of the new year. The team is building a new car for 2024 and will race in Arizona, Idaho and Wisconsin at the beginning of the year before starting another full season at Colorado National.
The good thing about finishing 2023 on such a high note is there is a lot of momentum heading into the future.
“I would certainly think that we’ll be able to transfer this season into next and be able to start off on the right foot,” Yackey said. “There’s a big learning curve with a new car, but we’re pretty confident with what we’re bringing to the track every week.
“So we’re just going to keep having fun and doing the best we can, and at the end of the day it’s just a hobby for us, and we’re having so much fun.”
The NASCAR fraternity lost a legend with the passing of Cale Yarborough, a NASCAR Hall of Famer who scored three consecutive NASCAR Cup Series championships and 83 wins as one of the toughest competitors to ever climb behind the wheel of a stock car.
Members of the NASCAR community took to social media to pay their respects to a racing icon.
Cale Yarborough was my childhood hero. What an honor to be tied with the legend for 83 Cup series wins. He was “the man” and the legacy of Cale Yarborough will forever live on. My deepest condolences to Cale’s family. pic.twitter.com/xcikjl2pu6
Sad news about the passing of Cale today. A legend behind the wheel for sure, but he had a personality, grit, and swagger that attracted fans around the world to him and to Nascar. He truly made the sport far better for being a part of it. My heart goes out to his family. pic.twitter.com/D8lFkCF8HL
Tough news the past couple mornings, my thoughts are with the families of Gil de Ferran and Cale Yarborough. Two of the greatest racers to ever compete who were looked up to by so many. They will never be forgotten and their legends will live on forever.
Thank you Cale Yarborough for everything you did for NASCAR. He was one of the greatest, and my favorite driver growing up. He was everything I wanted to be as a driver. He could win at any track, and was as tough as the come. Rest in Peace pic.twitter.com/sxPgopUJ90
Cale Yarborough was one of the toughest competitors and one of the greatest drivers. so many looked up to him and admired him. thank you for all you did for the sport of NASCAR.
My heart is sad today. Cale was a part of so many of my childhood memories. I watched him race my dad and all the greats and I was blessed to race against him. Cale was a great man. I’ll always remember him sawing the wheel fighting for the win. My prayers go out to his family. pic.twitter.com/Iv0JOe6CS1
Cale Yarborough, a tenacious driver whose hard-charging style produced three NASCAR Cup Series championships, has died. He was 84.
Yarborough was a four-time Daytona 500 winner and a five-time victor in the Southern 500 – figures that rank second all-time for each crown-jewel event. His three Cup Series titles came consecutively from 1976-78; only Jimmie Johnson, who won five straight crowns from 2006-10, has claimed more titles in a row. Yarborough and Johnson are tied for sixth on the Cup Series’ all-time list with 83 victories each.
The rest of Yarborough’s life story veered between stock-car accomplishment and surreal folklore — with varying degrees of truth behind it — that underscored his toughness. Townsfolk in the South Carolina community of Sardis, where he settled, told the tales of how Yarborough survived a lightning strike, once flew and landed an airplane with no training and plucked water moccasins and wrestled an alligator in the Palmetto State swamps.
Yarborough is forever linked with the historic Darlington Raceway, the hard-edged track one county over where he made his big-league debut. Darlington honored Yarborough in 2016 by dedicating the same garage that he snuck into as a youth in his name. He was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2012 as part of the stock-car shrine’s third class of honorees.
“Cale Yarborough was one of the toughest competitors NASCAR has ever seen,” NASCAR Chairman & CEO Jim France. “His combination of talent, grit and determination separated Cale from his peers, both on the track and in the record book. He was respected and admired by competitors and fans alike and was as comfortable behind the wheel of a tractor as he was behind the wheel of a stock car. On behalf of the France family and NASCAR, I offer my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Cale Yarborough.”
William Caleb Yarborough was born March 27, 1939, as the oldest of Julian and Annie Yarborough’s three boys in Florence County, South Carolina. The family farmed tobacco and cotton, and Yarborough was driving a tractor to help with plowing by age 9. When his father was killed in a private airplane crash when Yarborough was 11, the youngster grew quickly into a more prominent role managing the family’s land and business affairs. The experience served him well in later years as a farmer, a businessman and a multiple-term member of the Florence County council, but he had designs on a faster-paced career.
“Somehow, I knew there had to be a better way to make a living than digging around in the dirt and picking tobacco worms off leaves by hand,” Yarborough said in 1988.
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Yarborough followed other sporting pursuits in his youth, finding success as an amateur boxer and in football as a bullish, standout fullback. He received a football scholarship to Clemson under Coach Frank Howard, but moonlighted in racing at local tracks closer to home during the summer months. His first cars used his Timmonsville (S.C.) High School jersey number – No. 35.
When Yarborough told his coach that he needed to return for one final race to keep his edge in the track standings, Howard gave him an ultimatum.
“He said, ‘If you go back, pack your clothes, don’t come back. You either go and race or play football.’ So I packed my clothes and left,” Yarborough told reporters in 2008. “Of course, he kept calling. I told him, I said, ‘You told me to pack my clothes, and that’s what I did. I’m going to make racing my career.’ He says, ‘Son, you’ll starve to death.’ I said, ‘Well, I may.’
“In the end, Frank Howard is one of my biggest fans. He used to love to go to races and stand in my pits. I’ll never forget that he was at Talladega when I won a race there. He was in the winner’s circle. He walked up to me and put his hands on my shoulder and he always called me boy. He said, ‘Boy, I ain’t never been wrong many times in my life, but I want you to know I was wrong this time.’ ”
Yarborough caught the eye of Darlington track president and general manager Bob Colvin at a soap-box derby race. He encouraged the young driver to make his Cup Series debut there in the 1957 Southern 500 as a teenager. He finished 42nd in the 50-car field, but not before drawing the ire of NASCAR officials for not meeting the era’s minimum age requirement of 20 years old. Yarborough fibbed on his license application, telling race organizers he was 21. His No. 30 Pontiac was flagged off the track after the ruse was uncovered, and officials realized that Yarborough and not team owner Bob Weatherly was behind the wheel.
His career looked bleak early on as he struggled to find a competitive ride. Yarborough took on jobs in logging and turkey farming to make ends meet and support his wife, Betty Jo, who he married at age 22. His prospects rose with his association with Ford and team owner Banjo Matthews in the mid-1960s. “Banjo helped me a lot,” Yarbrough said of the legendary car builder who provided his big break. “He gave me the first real good ride that I had.”
He scored his first Cup Series win at Valdosta, Georgia, while driving part-time for Kenny Myler in 1965, but Yarborough’s career became more established when he signed with the Wood Brothers three years later. Yarborough scored his first Daytona 500 win in 1968, edging Lee Roy Yarbrough by 50 feet. Months later, he added a victory in the Southern 500 at Darlington that he still held in high regard after his retirement.
“That was considered my home race track. That was on the old race track before they remodeled it,” he said. “I wouldn’t take that win for all the rest of ’em put together almost.”
Yarborough’s partnership with the Wood Brothers produced 13 Cup Series victories, but his future in stock-car racing was uncertain after Ford withdrew its factory support in 1970. By then, he had already dabbled in IndyCar racing, but made more of a go of it in the early ’70s paired with team owner Gene White. Yarborough notched his best Indianapolis 500 finish of 10th place in his fourth and final appearance in the race in 1972.
The following year, Yarborough made a full-fledged return to NASCAR, connecting with car owner Richard Howard and the legendary Junior Johnson, who served as the team’s manager and later its owner. Their eight-season partnership yielded some of Yarborough’s biggest successes – 55 wins, 39 pole positions and the run to three Cup Series titles. He was also the championship runner-up in three other seasons during that span, finishing second to Benny Parsons (1973), Richard Petty (1974) and Dale Earnhardt (1980).
“Cale never gave up under no circumstances,” Johnson told reporters in 1988. “He kept going after it.”
“Cale just dominated everything,” Petty told SpeedSport in 2019, referring to Yarborough’s time with Johnson. “He sat on the most poles and he won a ton of races. It was just his time. He was tough to race against whether he won championships or not. Of all the drivers running, he was probably the most determined driver there was. He would be 14 laps behind or 14 laps ahead, but he would pass every car he could see. He never gave up.”
That stretch of his career also linked him to one of the most dramatic races in NASCAR history, the 1979 Daytona 500. His last-lap duel with Donnie Allison resulted in a crash that eliminated both front-runners, clearing the way for a Petty victory. Yarborough fought with both Donnie and brother Bobby Allison in the infield at the crash site, an overflow of emotion that captivated viewers of the first NASCAR race televised live flag-to-flag.
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“One Yarborough against two Allisons, that wasn’t even fair,” he said years later, able to smile about the incident after the passage of time. “But that’s the way it ended up. We were friends the next day and we’ve been friends ever since.”
Yarborough dialed back his racing schedule as he reached his 40s, citing a need to spend more time with his family. “Don’t get the idea that I plan to quit winning,” he told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution before the 1980 season finale, as a warning to the rest of the field. “I just plan to drive less and maybe win more.”
Yarborough won multiple races in each of those first five years as a part-timer, including back-to-back Daytona 500 wins in 1983 and 1984. The first of those came in a reserve car after a wild flip in qualifying demolished his primary No. 28 Harry Ranier-owned entry. The second came also by way of a last-lap slingshot pass, with CBS Sports’ in-car camera riding along and showing Yarborough pumping his first shortly after crossing the finish line.
He retired from full-time driving in what he described as a crossroads moment after the 1988 season, when he split driving duties with Dale Jarrett in cars he owned under the Yarborough Motorsports banner.
“I must have changed my mind 40 times on the way up here today, but I know deep down that it’s time to quit, and that’s what I’m going to do,” Yarborough said during his retirement announcement at Charlotte Motor Speedway, site of his last Cup Series win in 1985. “But it’s not like I’m giving up the sport. It would be impossible to just walk away. I’m going to be around, hopefully for a long time as a team owner.”
Yarborough spent the next 11 years involved in Cup Series team ownership, with a rotation of drivers filling the seat. John Andretti gave Yarborough his only win as a car owner, prevailing in Daytona’s 400-miler in July 1997.
He spent a quieter life on his 4,000-acre farm in later years, making occasional appearances at Darlington events. Yarborough was also a surprise guest at the 2008 NASCAR Awards banquet, congratulating Jimmie Johnson on tying his record of three consecutive championships, a mark he would break the next year.
“All records are going to be broken and tied. Tied, really, is all he’s done, so buddy, you’ve got some work to do,” Yarborough said to laughs from the gala crowd. “But if anybody was to tie my record, I’m glad Jimmie did it. He’s a great man, great race car driver and got a great future ahead of him.”
At the time of his retirement from driving, Yarborough counted restaurants, auto dealerships, textile interests, dry-cleaning franchises and his farming operation among his business interests. But he looked back ever fondly on his dream of chasing a career in racing, kick-started from sneaking into the Darlington garage for the second Southern 500 back in 1951.
“Racing is kind of like a big, tall ladder,” Yarborough said during his NASCAR Hall of Fame induction speech. “When you begin, you start off on the bottom step of that ladder, and it’s a long, hard climb to the top. But I feel like tonight that I’m finally standing on the top step
Season in review: Ryan Blaney
No. 12 Team Penske Ford Crew chief: Jonathan Hassler Final 2023 Ranking: 1st Key stats: 3 wins, 8 top fives, 18 top 10s, 562 laps led
How 2023 ended: There’s an old saying in NASCAR that sometimes you save the best for last, which was the case with Blaney in 2023. He won (Talladega Superspeedway and Martinsville Speedway) or finished runner-up (Homestead-Miami Speedway and Phoenix Raceway) in four of the season’s final six races, plus sixth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and 12th at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course. He also started the playoffs with ninth and 12th-place back-to-back finishes at Darlington Raceway and Kansas Speedway, respectively.
Best race: Even though he won three races in 2023 — including leading 163 of the 400 laps en route to victory in the Coca-Cola 600 (the longest race of the season) — none of Blaney’s wins were more crucial than his dominating victory (led 145 of the race’s 500 laps) in the fall playoff race at Martinsville, which assured Blaney would advance to the Championship 4 round the following week at Phoenix Raceway.
Other season highlights: Blaney has won at least one race in six of his eight full-time seasons in the NASCAR Cup Series. Ironically, the 2023 champ failed to win even one race in 2022 (he was also winless in 2016).
Stat to know: Blaney won the 2023 Cup championship after earning the fewest top-five finishes (8) since an equal amount in 2018. While Blaney equaled his single-season best for wins (also in 2021), his 562 laps led were only the fourth-most he’s earned in a season during his Cup career.
Quotable: “I don’t really expect to be treated any different. I’m still the same person. We just accomplished something. I think that’s how everyone else wants to approach it. I can’t change how everyone else feels, but I think internally for you, you hold your head high, and you have a lot of confidence going into Daytona – and in all of our group. My guys deserve to hold their heads high, too, going into L.A. and Daytona knowing what they’ve done the previous year, but then you’ve got to do it again. It’s a new year. Once it turns to 2024, ‘23 is forgotten about, so you can’t really focus too much on what we did last year because living in the past is no good. You’ve got to turn your focus on ‘24.” – Reigning NASCAR Cup champion Ryan Blaney on how being a champion will impact his reputation in the NASCAR garage.
Looking ahead: Blaney needs to have another season in 2024 like he had in 2023. But he also knows how quick and fleeting fame and success in the Cup Series can be as Team Penske teammate Joey Logano won his second Cup title in 2022 and failed to get past the second round in 2023. Still, look for Blaney to have yet another stellar season, having developed into one of the best young drivers (he turns 30 on Dec. 31) in the series.
With the 2023 season complete, NASCAR.com breaks down the season for each driver who finished top 20 in points. See a full analysis of how each driver performed throughout the year and a look ahead to what’s next.
Season reviews are being rolled out in reverse order of first place to 20th in the driver standings, concluding with 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney. Track them here:
Season in review: Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Crew chief: Cliff Daniels Final 2023 Ranking: 2nd Key stats: 4 wins, 15 top fives, 18 top 10s, 1,127 laps led
How 2023 ended: Larson finished oh-so-close to claiming his second NASCAR Cup Series championship, ending the year as runner-up behind champion Ryan Blaney. Larson’s four wins, 15 top fives and 18 top 10s equaled his second-best career overall season performance, while his second-place overall season finish was the highest of his career after his championship-winning season in 2021.
Best race: Of Larson’s four wins in 2023, his win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to open the Round of 8 stands out. Larson started from the outside pole and then dominated, leading essentially half (133 laps) of the 267-lap event.
Other season highlights: Larson had three outstanding finishes that did not result in a win, but were still strong outings, nonetheless. The first was the spring race at Phoenix, where he started from the pole and led a season-high 201 laps (in a 317-lap event), only to finish fourth. The other two races that stood out were his pair of outings at Kansas Speedway, where he started from the outside pole and led 85 laps to finish second in the spring race, and once again started from the outside pole to lead 99 laps and finish fourth in the fall playoff race.
Stat to know: One thing Larson, Daniels and the rest of the No. 5 team are expected to put increased focus on in 2024 is finishing races. Larson failed to finish eight races in 2023 (his most DNFs since 2019), nearly one-fourth of the season’s 36 races: seven DNFs and one DVP (Damaged Vehicle Policy).
Quotable: “I was just not as good as a few guys, especially Blaney and Ross (Chastain) probably. It would’ve been difficult, but my team did a really good job all season. I’m extremely proud of them. We had an up-and-down year, and we finally put together two solid weeks in a row (sixth at Martinsville, third in the season finale at Phoenix). I don’t know if we’ve done that all year. We’ll come back next year and try to be stronger.” – Larson on both the season finale as well as his overall 2023 season performance.
Looking ahead: Larson was considered one of the favorites to win the 2023 NASCAR Cup championship. While Ross Chastain won the season-ending race, Ryan Blaney finished second to earn the championship and Larson was an extremely close third, finishing just one point behind Blaney. Larson has now reached the championship race twice in the last three seasons, ultimately winning the title in 2021 and runner-up in 2023. He’s a perennial favorite to win the championship, so keep an eye on the No. 5 throughout 2024 as he again chases title No. 2.
Hendrick Motorsports is set to celebrate its 40th anniversary when the NASCAR Cup Series starts back up next year. The organization added 10 victories to its total last season, and the last of William Byron’s six wins in 2023 pushed team owner Rick Hendrick to the 300-win milestone.
With another landmark occasion looming in recognition of the team’s longevity, Byron says he has all the incentive he needs – commemoration or not — to keep his foot in the gas after last season’s breakout.
“I mean, I’m not going to go into next year just because it’s the 40th year and say, ‘man, I really want to win,’ but I hope I win more races than I did this year. I hope I win 10,” Byron said during NASCAR Champion’s Week in Nashville. “So that’s the goal, and I told everybody that we just want to be the fastest next year. We were really good this year, we were always in the mix and always one of the guys, but just want to be faster next year.”
Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet was among the fastest on the circuit last season, and his six-win total and average finish of 11.0 were tops among Cup Series regulars. The 26-year-old driver also established personal bests in top fives (15), top 10s (21) and laps led (1,016).
His winning ways and a gutsy performance at Martinsville in the Round of 8 finale spurred him into the Championship 4 field for the first time at Phoenix, where he finished fourth behind eventual champion Ryan Blaney and teammate/series runner-up Kyle Larson.
“When you look at the results, I felt like we finally put together what we’re capable of, and just the consistency and the being there every week,” Byron said, noting that certain tracks remained as potential spots for improvement. “… I feel like the next step for us is just pushing all those little boundaries — me as a driver, us as a team — and just being a little bit more aggressive and being a bit more on the edge. That’s honestly what I’m focused on.”
Staying on top and making a push for a double-digit win total carries potentially burdensome expectations, which Byron said comes from within.
“There’s definitely going to be pressure — I mean, internal pressure of trying to be the best,” Byron said. “I mean, you don’t want to go out there and suck, and so I think you’re gonna go out there and try to do the best you can. I think if you put the right amount of preparation into it, I don’t think you’ll feel the pressure that you can’t overcome. I think if you if you put the right amount of prep into it and you feel good about your team, I think we can go out there and use that pressure. There’s always going to be pressure. I mean, we’re not going to go out there and just be on cruise. So it’ll be tough but yeah, we want to try to one-up what we did this year.”
Editor’s note: This continues the series where we review the top 20 in 2023 NASCAR Cup Series points.
Season in review: William Byron
No. 24, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Crew Chief: Rudy Fugle Final 2023 Ranking: 3rd Key stats: Six wins, 15 top-fives, 21 top-10s, four pole positions, five pole positions, 1,016 laps led
How 2023 ended: The 25-year-old Charlotte native – youngest of the final four championship challengers – enjoyed the best season of his NASCAR Cup Series career, advancing to his first Championship 4 and ultimately finishing third in the driver standings. Byron earned pole position and finished fourth place in the Phoenix championship race leading 95 laps – most among the Playoff finalists. He had an amazing run in that final 10-race playoff stretch winning at Texas and claiming six top-five finishes. He followed his Texas win with runner-up showings at the Talladega Superspeedway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course in that consequential fall stretch of the season. It was the best full-season performance of Byron’s six-year career and proved that he was championship-ready.
Best race: Statistically, Byron’s most impressive outing was his victory in the Spring Las Vegas race. He led 176 of 271 laps and was able to hold off his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson by more than a half-second for the victory. The next week, he won at Phoenix, marking the first back-to-back race wins in his NASCAR Cup Series career – Byron’s work on the “Western Swing” of the schedule quickly established himself as a serious title threat and he backed it up with four more victories on the year.
Other season highlights: The 2023 season was a career highlight reel for the young driver who set career-high marks in wins (six), top-fives (15), top-10s (21), and laps led (1016). His 11.0 average finish was also the best of his career. Byron not only won races but was considered a trophy contender each week at every kind of venue. He proved his versatility too, earning victories on 1.5-milers, short tracks and a road course (Watkins Glen International)
Stat to Know: Byron’s six-race win total tripled his previous single-season tally. His high marks in top-fives and top-10s were not just personal best, but series’ best marks. His nine stage wins were the season standard and only his teammate, Kyle Larson, led more laps (1,127 laps) on the season. It was Byron’s best statistical season in his six-year career.
Quotable: “It’s been a great season. It stinks to come up short, but I’d like to think we’re going to be back in this position and we’re going to have more shots at it. We just have to keep working. Keep working on the short-track program for us – that’s definitely been the tough part of our season.’’ – William Byron.
Looking ahead: The future is what it’s all about for Byron, who has proven himself championship caliber at every step of his NASCAR career, culminating with a personal best effort in 2023. He was a winning threat at every type of track and never wavered in his championship pursuit even though he was the youngest of the four title contenders. While Byron concedes his No. 24 team would like to finetune its work at certain types of venues, the way he and the team elevated its game proved he is to be taken as a serious threat going forward. The team maintained focus – a nod to Byron’s successful longstanding relationship with crew chief Rudy Fugle – and his competitors fully concede that Byron’s time has come. Expect him to be strong again right out of the gate in 2024.
Christopher Bell was reflective by the time he rolled into NASCAR Champion’s Week festivities in Nashville last month. The Music City greeted him just more than three weeks after his title hopes ended early in the season finale at Phoenix Raceway, a brake failure precipitating a race-ending crash in Stage 2.
That early exit still stung weeks later, and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates could commiserate after their own troubles in the Cup Series Playoffs. But Bell seemed to indicate that he’d made peace with the hand that cruel fate had dealt him and his No. 20 Toyota team at Phoenix, taking solace in his season-long strength.
“I mean, it was certainly disappointing, but it is what it is,” Bell said before the NASCAR Awards gala. “Denny Hamlin had a steering failure at Homestead that probably took him out of it, Martin Truex (Jr.) had an engine failure at Homestead that probably took him out of it, and that’s just in my group. I’m sure that everyone has those problems that have hindered them, and unfortunately mine came in the championship race. But it just wasn’t meant to be and I’m OK with that. Hopefully my time will come.”
Bell can take heart in the fact that he is the only Cup Series driver to make the postseason’s Championship 4 cut the last two seasons. The 29-year-old netted victories on the dirt surface at Bristol in a nod to his racing upbringing, and he added a title-berth clincher with a clutch performance at Homestead-Miami in the postseason’s Round of 8.
Bell set a career-high mark with six pole positions, and four of those arrived in the 10-race playoffs. But the Oklahoma native also said that the potential for registering more wins was there, as he finished second or third five times in the 2023 campaign.
“I definitely feel like there is unfinished business and you know what, regardless of if we won the championship or not, I would have felt that way, just because we left so many races on the table that could have had top five, top threes, possibly wins,” Bell said. “And so I left Phoenix feeling very calm, and I was looking forward to what what’s ahead of us. So I feel good. I feel really good, and I love my team, and I think that we have not reached our ceiling yet, so that gives me confidence.”
