Stewart-Haas Racing taps Noah Gragson for Cup Series return in 2024

Posted on December 13, 2023December 13, 2023 by Zack Albert

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Stewart-Haas Racing announced Wednesday that Noah Gragson will return to the NASCAR Cup Series in 2024, taking over the team’s No. 10 Ford in a multiyear agreement and completing a journey back to the sport’s top circuit after an abbreviated rookie season.

Gragson replaces longtime Cup Series veteran Aric Almirola, who announced in October he would leave SHR after six seasons with the No. 10 team. Earlier Wednesday, Joe Gibbs Racing tabbed Almirola for part-time duty in the Xfinity Series.

Gragson will work with veteran crew chief Drew Blickensderfer, who returns for his third season with the No. 10 Mustang team. Stewart-Haas Racing indicated that sponsorship partner announcements for Gragson and the No. 10 group would be made at a later date.

In a 45-minute sitdown with reporters, Gragson said he was humbled by the opportunity for a second chance at a career in NASCAR’s top division. NASCAR suspended the 25-year-old driver indefinitely in August for a member-conduct violation related to his activities on social media, and Legacy Motor Club suspended and ultimately parted ways with Gragson after a 21-race stint in its No. 42 ride.

NASCAR reinstated Gragson on Sept. 12 after he completed diversity and inclusion training with the RISE group. Wednesday, Gragson said he found balance and focus in the months that he’d been away from the sport, revealing he had been working with a psychiatrist and had become an avid reader of self-help books to develop better habits in approaching his work and life to help prepare him for his Cup Series return.

“I think just all the opportunities and experiences and time I’ve spent with different people and just listening and learning, right, I think that’s given me a new understanding,” Gragson said. “And being out of the race car, it’s not fun watching somebody else do your job, right? And I’ve grown a new appreciation and love back for the sport, where I might have been a little burnt-out last year and be the first one to admit it. But the passion and the love I have for the sport is higher than it’s ever been right now.”

Gragson specifically addressed the incident that prompted his suspension, liking a social-media meme that made light of the death of George Floyd, who was killed in police custody in May 2020. Gragson said he faulted neither NASCAR nor Legacy Motor Club for his suspension, indicating that he placed both parties in a position where they were forced to react. As for why he engaged with the social-media post, Gragson answered with one word.

“Ignorance,” he said. “I had a lot of garbage on my feed. I was careless when I first got on social media and would accept friend requests from different people, and all of a sudden, you’re friends with people you don’t even know on there, and you’ve just got garbage on your feed, right? So I’ve become a lot more aware of other people, and I was very selfish in the past and only wanted to do things for me. And through this whole process, I’ve learned how to acknowledge others. Everyone’s going through stuff, right? Everyone’s going through their battles. Everyone’s got their challenges in life, and it’s allowed me to just be open-minded to other people.”

Gragson said he had conversations with Bubba Wallace, the Cup Series’ lone Black driver, and with Kyle Larson, who was suspended for most of the 2020 season for using a racist term during an iRacing event, to learn more about their experiences. But he also said his time of reflection was spent visiting civil-rights museums through the RISE program, seeing first-hand and gaining perspective about the struggles of minorities through history and into today.

A standout among those experiences, Gragson said, was a trip to the International Civil Rights Center & Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina. The building was formerly a Woolworth’s retail store where four students from N.C. A&T University participated in a non-violent “sit-in” protest at a whites-only lunch counter in 1960.

“To say I was uneducated is an understatement,” Gragson said. “It was impactful, and to be able to learn and understand, and through this whole process put myself in other people’s shoes.”

Stewart-Haas Racing

Gragson’s first Cup Series effort came after four seasons in the Xfinity Series with JR Motorsports, where he scored 13 wins and reached the Championship 4 in 2021 and 2022. At Legacy Motor Club, Gragson joined a team that has been in a state of flux before, during and after his time there, with a change in ownership through mergers, a full rebranding, and a shift in manufacturers from Chevrolet to Toyota for 2024.

At the time of his suspension, Gragson ranked 33rd in the Cup Series standings, and his most memorable moment was a testy post-race confrontation with Ross Chastain in May at Kansas Speedway. His best finish last season was 12th place in March at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and his 21-race campaign was dotted by six DNFs.

“At the time, you’re going week by week just in hopes to have a good run,” Gragson said, adding that team co-owner Jimmie Johnson has kept in touch with him to offer support. “Looking back at it, there’s definitely a lot of opportunities and self-reflection that I’ve learned where I could have been a better leader for our team. I could have been a better driver. I could have worked harder, too, and I always say what you don’t know. I try and help some young guys out with racing, and Rajah Caruth always comes to our hauler. I always tell him, ‘Well, you don’t know what you don’t know.’ It’s easy to look back and Monday-morning-quarterback it, and it’s hard to ask questions that you don’t know, but looking back and self-reflecting, I think there’s a tremendous amount of value to myself and learning what I could have done better through that whole process. It was a challenge, no doubt.”

Gragson described the time between his September reinstatement and signing in December as a blur. He said that a dinner to get better acquainted with team co-owner Tony Stewart and SHR competition director Greg Zipadelli was less about making overtures for a potential job than it was establishing a baseline.

“I didn’t want to sell them,” Gragson said. “I wanted to tell them exactly where I was in life and have them make that decision. I wanted to be honest and open with them, and I didn’t go in there to pitch them. I went in there to tell them exactly where I’m at.”

With the move for 2024, Gragson joins a team with a new-look roster eager to return the organization to its winning ways. Stewart-Haas Racing made improvement with its Xfinity Series program last season, but the Cup Series side weathered a winless season marked by the key departures of veterans Kevin Harvick and Almirola.

MORE: Season in review: Kevin Harvick

In step Gragson and his former JR Motorsports teammate Josh Berry as the team’s newcomers, joining returning drivers Chase Briscoe and Ryan Preece in the four-team stable with an established group of crew and engineers offering their support.

“The pressure hasn’t been really a focus to me. It’s been working my tail off every single day and becoming the best teammate, driver, leader that I can be for the organization,” Gragson said. “They’re a bunch of racers, and they want to win races. Tony, Gene (Haas), Zipadelli — everyone involved, everyone on the shop floor. They want to win races, and I want to win races as well, and we’re working hard to do that.”

Contributing: Cameron Richardson

Posted on December 13, 2023December 13, 2023 by Zack Albert

Trackhouse Racing and Kaulig Racing partnered Wednesday to announce that Shane van Gisbergen will compete full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2024. In addition, it was announced SVG will take part in seven Cup Series races under the partnership.

The Matt Kaulig-owned team is set to field a full-time No. 97 Chevrolet entry for the 34-year-old New Zealander known as “SVG,” whom Trackhouse signed on Sept. 13 to bring his talents from the Australia-based Supercars Championship to NASCAR. The No. 97 is a nod to the car number he carried in winning three Supercars titles for the Red Bull Ampol Racing/Triple Eight Race Engineering team.

RELATED: 2023-24 Silly Season

Primary sponsorship for 17 of van Gisbergen’s Xfinity races will come from WeatherTech, the Illinois-based manufacturer that recently extended its entitlement sponsorship deal with the IMSA sports-car series through the 2030 season. It was also announced that WeatherTech will be the primary sponsor for Zane Smith for the Daytona 500 in the No. 71 Chevrolet fielded by Spire Motorsports and for four of van Gisbergen’s Cup races (Circuit of The Americas, Charlotte, Watkins Glen, fall Talladega).

The seven Cup races for van Gisbergen in 2024 include COTA, both Talladega Superspeedway races, Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Coca-Cola 600, the Chicago Street Race, Watkins Glen International and the October race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Trackhouse Racing

Trackhouse founder Justin Marks indicated in September that van Gisbergen’s 2024 itinerary would be a curated combination of events from all three of NASCAR’s national series. With a full Xfinity Series schedule ahead of him, SVG will be exposed to a variety-packed list of 33 races — including superspeedways, intermediate-sized layouts, short tracks and road courses.

Van Gisbergen was recruited for stock-car racing in the United States last year by Marks through his Trackhouse Project 91 initiative. SVG helped that part-time program — designed to showcase international racing stars — to break through in its second year of operation, wowing the Cup Series regulars with a stunning victory in his debut at the inaugural Chicago Street Race.

MORE: 2024 Cup schedule | 2023 Xfinity schedule

At Kaulig, van Gisbergen will partner with Xfinity Series teammates AJ Allmendinger, who stays with the organization but shifts from the Cup tour, and newcomer Josh Williams.

Van Gisbergen is set for his Xfinity Series debut in the season-opening United Rentals 300 (Feb. 17, 5 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Daytona International Speedway. He has three NASCAR national-series starts — two in Cup (Chicago, Indianapolis road course) and one oval appearance in the Craftsman Truck Series (Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park).

Posted on December 13, 2023December 13, 2023 by Cameron Richardson

Joe Gibbs Racing announced its full NASCAR Xfinity Series lineup for 2024 on Wednesday. One of the key pieces to the roster is veteran Aric Almirola, who moves to a part-time role with the organization and will split time in the No. 20 Toyota with John Hunter Nemechek.

Almirola most recently ran six full-time seasons in the Cup Series piloting the No. 10 Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing.

He racked up two wins and 19 top-five finishes while making the playoffs four times and scoring a fifth-place result in the final standings in 2018.

After competing in the Cup Series 36 races a year for more than a decade, the 39-year-old admitted to wanting a change of pace.

“I feel like I still have a lot left to give to this sport,” Almirola said. “I just needed to slow down. When you’re Cup racing, I felt like I was on the treadmill at like 15 miles per hour like as fast as it would go, and you are not allowed to stop it. Like you just had to keep running as fast as you could go, and I just got to the point where I felt my legs were going to give out and I was going to get spit off the back of the treadmill.”

The 2024 campaign marks the reunion of Almirola and JGR. Almirola made his Xfinity debut with the organization in 2006 and scored a win in 2007 at the Milwaukee Mile, a victory that came after a driver change placed Denny Hamlin behind the wheel of the No. 20.

But as Almirola was prepping to step aside from racing after 2023, team owner Joe Gibbs picked up his phone.

“It was out of nowhere,” Almirola said. “I got a call from Coach [Joe Gibbs] in early September, and he said, ‘Hey, I heard you’re going to retire,’ and I said, ‘Yes, sir, I am.’ He said, ‘Well, if you are, I’d like for you to come back to Joe Gibbs Racing and retire from here.’ I was humbled, shocked, and I was excited. I wanted to stay involved in the sport and contribute somehow, someway. I just didn’t want to do it seven days a week for however long the Cup schedule is.”

While a pairing with JGR isn’t a new venture for Almirola, taking a step back from the competitive side and leaning into mentor and collaborator roles for the organization serves as progression in Almirola’s career. He will work alongside a young lineup of Sheldon Creed and Chandler Smith – both announced Wednesday as full-time drivers for JGR in 2024 – and a host of up-and-comers in part-time driving duty.

Brittney Wilbur | NASCAR.com

Almirola said he’s welcoming his role with open arms for a simple reason.

“Because I’ve made all those mistakes,” Almirola said. “Throughout the course of my career, I’ve made so many mistakes on the race track, off the race track and so I do feel like I have a lot to give to speed up the learning curve and eliminate some of those mistakes potentially. Not everybody learns from being told. I certainly didn’t. Sometimes you have to experience things yourself and learn the hard way.”

Learning from a Hall of Famer in his early days at JGR, Almirola received detailed, hands-on experience, whether he was racing or not, to help prepare him for competition every weekend down the road.

“My mentor was Tony Stewart. When I showed up here at 19, 20, 21 years old, I looked up to Tony. Like he was the man at that time,” Almirola said. “I had such an admiration for him for all that he had accomplished.

“When I met him, it was instant that we built a relationship, and he kind of took me under his wing. When I didn’t race, I would still go watch and be a part of the team. I would stay after the [Xfinity] race Saturday night and I would sleep on the couch of Tony’s motorhome and nine times out of 10 we left Saturday and we would fly to a dirt track somewhere and he would either race his sprint car or we’d go and watch. We’d get back to the track at 2, 3, 4 in the morning and stay and watch the Cup race on Sunday.”

Despite scoring a win in the Xfinity Series last season at Sonoma Raceway, Almirola said there’s still a significant learning curve to acclimating to the Xfinity car from the Cup Series’ Next Gen platform, and that he’ll lean on his teammates “hopefully” as much as they lean on him.

While the goal is to always win, Almirola is set on living in the moment and enjoying whatever comes with being around his team and at the track.

“Of course, I’m still going to be very competitive. Every time I strap in the race car, my focus is going to be on doing whatever I need to do to go win in the race, but I am racing purely for the joy of it.”

MORE: JGR reveals 2024 ARCA lineup

Posted on December 13, 2023December 13, 2023 by John Crane

Joe Gibbs Racing unveiled its NASCAR Xfinity Series driver lineup for the 2024 season on Wednesday, with two full-time and six part-time drivers completing the roster.

Sheldon Creed and Chandler Smith will race full-time for the team. Creed will pilot the No. 18 Toyota, while Smith will drive the No. 81 Supra, marking the first time the number has raced for JGR in the Xfinity Series since 2021 at Road America. Sam McAulay will serve as crew chief for Creed, and Jeff Meendering will sit atop the No. 81 pit box in 2024.

John Hunter Nemechek and Aric Almirola highlight the part-time roster, with the pair slated to split time in the No. 20 Toyota. Ryan Truex, Taylor Gray, William Sawalich and Joe Graf Jr. will race in the No. 19. Seth Chavka and Tyler Allen will serve as crew chiefs for the No. 19 and No. 20, respectively.

Creed transitions from Richard Childress Racing, where the 26-year-old spent each of the last two Xfinity seasons as driver of the No. 2 Chevrolet. Creed concluded the 2023 campaign with seven top-five and 15 top-10 finishes to go along with a seventh-place finish in the driver standings. Creed, the 2020 Craftsman Truck Series champion, takes over for Sammy Smith, who will join JR Motorsports next year.

“Honestly, I’m just really excited to be here. JGR has been extremely good in both Xfinity and Cup, not just the last couple years but, you know, for a long time,” Creed said. “Excited to be here and excited to get rolling with my guys.”

Chandler Smith competed with Kaulig Racing during the 2023 season as pilot of the No. 16 Chevrolet, where he amassed one win, eight top fives and 13 top 10s and a ninth-place finish in the final standings. The 2023 campaign was the 21-year-old’s first full-time season in the Xfinity Series.

The move acts as a homecoming of sorts for Smith, who was a part of Toyota Racing Development’s TD2 program from 2018-22.

“Toyota, all the executives, everybody at TRD and Toyota, they were my family. They picked me up when I was 14 years old and gave me opportunities that I wouldn’t have been able to have without them,” Smith said. “So, to be able to come back and be with people that believe in me and put me in the best equipment to go win championships and trophies under their banner, that’s who I want to go to bat for every single weekend.”

The part-time side of the roster additionally sees a shake-up. After announcing in October that he would not return to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2024, Almirola will run a part-time schedule in the No. 20 with Nemechek, who will make the jump to Cup and drive the No. 42 full-time for Legacy Motor Club. Nemechek will race in 10 Xfinity contests, according to a JGR press release.

Brittney Wilbur | NASCAR.com

As a full-time Xfinity Series driver with JGR in 2023, Nemechek finished fourth in the driver standings and compiled seven wins, 17 top fives and 24 top 10s. In 104 Xfinity starts, Almirola holds four victories, with his most recent coming in June at Sonoma Raceway.

Truex and Graf will return as part-time drivers for the No. 19. Joining the duo will be Gray and Sawalich, who both saw action with Tricon Garage in 2023. Sawalich, 17, additionally raced with JGR in the ARCA Menards Series last year, claiming the East Series championship. Per a JGR press release, Sawalich will make his Xfinity debut at Homestead-Miami Speedway following his 18th birthday on Oct. 3 and additionally get starts at Martinsville Speedway and Phoenix Raceway to close the season.

MORE: 2024 Xfinity Series schedule | JGR reveals ARCA lineup

The 2024 Xfinity Series will begin on Feb. 17 at Daytona International Speedway (5 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on December 13, 2023December 13, 2023 by Holly Cain

Editor’s note: This continues the series where we review the top 20 in 2023 NASCAR Cup Series points.

Season in review: Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford
Crew Chief: Rodney Childers
Final 2023 Ranking: 13th
Key stats: 0 wins, six top fives, 14 top 10s, 157 laps led

How 2023 ended: The 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion finished out his certain NASCAR Hall of Fame career with a top-10 finish (seventh) in the Phoenix Raceway finale, leading 37 laps at a venue where he is the all-time winningest driver with nine wins and an amazing 31 top-10 efforts in 42 starts. It is indicative of the 47-year-old’s storied career. And he concluded the competitive part of that with his head held high – qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs for the 14th consecutive season.

Best race: Harvick earned the best finish – runner-up – of his farewell season at the Darlington spring race, finishing a scant 0.781 seconds behind Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron for the win. He led the race twice and was passed by Byron for the trophy with only two laps remaining.

Other season highlights: Twice Harvick put together a strong run of top-10 finishes, including a summer streak of four consecutive from the Loudon one-miler to the Pocono 2.5-miler to the Richmond short track and wide-open Michigan two-miler where Harvick has six career wins, including three consecutively from 2019-2020.

Stat to Know: Harvick’s streak of 14 straight playoff appearances is the longest in NASCAR Cup Series history. He finishes with 60 career NASCAR Cup Series wins, the 2014 title and two NASCAR Xfinity Series championships (2001 and 2006).

Quotable: “It’s been an emotional roller coaster for sure. I think as you look at this last week, this really means a lot to me just because I love driving the race car, I love being around the people more. I love our sport. It’s given our family so much through the years to be thankful for and proud of. I can’t wait to be able to walk in that tunnel with my head up and look around, just look at all the really cool things that are NASCAR racing in every venue that we go to with great fans and people all over the place.’’

Looking ahead: While Harvick’s No. 4 SHR Ford will have a new driver next year in NASCAR Xfinity Series standout Josh Berry, Harvick will still be a consistent part of the sport. He will join the FOX Sports television booth calling the racing action for the first half of the season – the 2007 Daytona 500 winner starting those full-time duties, appropriately enough, with the Feb. 18 season-opening Daytona 500.

Posted on December 12, 2023 by Zack Albert

Legacy Motor Club announced Tuesday that Jason Burdett will join the organization for the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series as the crew chief of the No. 84 Toyota for Jimmie Johnson, a seven-time series champion and the team co-owner.

Burdett, 46, moves to the LMC group after nine seasons with JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series. There, he netted 18 victories as a crew chief, working seven seasons with veteran Justin Allgaier and one each with Regan Smith and Brandon Jones.

The shift to Legacy M.C. represents a reunion with Johnson, who joined Hendrick Motorsports in the same year as Burdett — 2001. Burdett replaces Todd Gordon, who served as crew chief for Johnson’s three races last season.

“I have a very long history of working with Jason at Hendrick Motorsports – we spent a lot of time together throughout the years,” Johnson said. “Jason is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met in the sport. He’s solid and he’s created an amazing ‘legacy’ for himself. I’ve always had a great working relationship with him, and I’m just genuinely excited he has joined the Club.”

The team indicated that Johnson will continue to drive on a part-time basis in 2024 but that Burdett will be full-time in helping the team’s offseason transition from Chevrolet to Toyota. Legacy Motor Club also firmed up two key personnel appointments for the No. 84 Camry XSE, tapping Evan Bensch as lead engineer in a move from LMC’s No. 43 team and bringing back Robbie Fairweather as car chief.

Three of the races on Johnson’s Cup Series slate for 2024 have been announced so far, with AdventHealth joining the team as a primary sponsor for springtime events at Texas (April 14), Kansas (May 5) and the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte (May 26).

MORE: AdventHealth signs with LMC

“Jason comes to Legacy M.C. at a great time,” said Joey Cohen, LMC’s vice president of race operations. “Not only is he a perfect fit to lead our 84 team with JJ and their past experiences, but he also will help tremendously in the operational transition to Toyota and greatly assist the crew chiefs on the Nos. 42 and 43 teams. We are excited for Jason to begin his ‘legacy’ and continue his winning ways with our Club. Additionally, Evan and Robbie bring consistency and experience to the Club and they will work great alongside Jason.”

Burdett got his start as a tire specialist with Robert Yates Racing in 1995 after starting his career in motorsports at short tracks in his native New York. He was later a key contributor to the success of Nos. 24 and 48 teams for Jeff Gordon and Johnson during his time at Hendrick Motorsports, celebrating a Cup Series title with Gordon in his first Cup Series season. Save for a crew-chief stint at Michael Waltrip Racing in 2007, Burdett was a fixture for the Hendrick crew before his departure to JRM in 2015.

Posted on December 12, 2023 by Staff Report

NASCAR officials reinstated Cup Series driver Cody Ware on Tuesday.

Ware had been suspended indefinitely by the sanctioning body on April 10 after the 28-year-old (then 27) was arrested by the Iredell County (N.C.) Sheriff’s Office on a felony charge of “assault by strangulation — inflict serious injury” and a misdemeanor charge of “assault on female.” The charges have since been dropped.

Ware made seven Cup Series starts to begin 2023 behind the wheel of the No. 51 for Rick Ware Racing — the Cup Series team owned by his father — before being vacated from the seat and missing the rest of the season. Several drivers filled in for Ware in the No. 51 the rest of the year, including seven from Cup veteran Ryan Newman.

Ware has raced in the Cup Series since 2017. His best finish in 97 career starts is sixth place in August 2022 at Daytona International Speedway.

Posted on December 12, 2023January 23, 2024 by Cara Cooper

In only his second year of racing, Lucas Belbeck already has two championships.

Not bad for a 15-year-old.

After winning the Future Stock division rookie of the year and track title at Canada’s Edmonton International Raceway in 2022, Belbeck returned this summer to win both awards in the track’s PURE Stock division.

Belbeck finished 2023 with four victories to claim the division by 13 points.

“I was extremely surprised how well I was doing,” Belbeck said. “I was expecting low to mid-field the entire season.”

Belbeck started the season in a Pontiac G6 and was racing in the middle of the pack for the first couple of races.

The engine in Belbeck’s car went out early in the season, forcing him to borrow a car from a friend. He ran the new car for the rest of the year while seeing his finishes get better and better.

Belbeck’s first win in 2023 came at the halfway point of Edmonton’s season. From there, he rolled.

“The first night that I got a win [in PURE Stocks], it was just a hard fight to get to first place,” Belbeck said. “I had to stay with the car ahead of me to make it to the end, and just be patient and wait for my chance for them to mess up, and I got into first and led the race.

“Just slowly as the season went on, I started getting better finishes, a couple podiums, and just [found consistency with] fourth, third place finishes. We ended up coming out on top.”

Lucas Belbeck earned his second straight title at Edmonton International Raceway in just his second year of racing at the track. (Photo: Lucas Belbeck)

Racing has come pretty natural for Belbeck, even though it wasn’t a sport he or his family had tried before. Belbeck grew up participating in hockey, lacrosse and swimming, but his friend’s dad would be the one to ask if he would be interested in trying racing, even if it was just for a day.

“We kind of went along with it,” Belbeck said. “It was extremely nerve-wracking. I didn’t know how it was going to go and it felt weird at first because it had never really drove a car much before this, so it was a scary feeling.”

Those apprehensive feelings didn’t last long, as Belbeck said it was quick for him to get comfortable between the wheel.

“First getting in the car it was kind of nerve-wracking, and then it just hits that you have to focus in,” he said. “The adrenaline hits and you don’t think about anything else but the race. It’s a mindset to get into, and it’s just, I don’t know, it’s perfect.”

Belbeck attributed a lot of his success to his mentor and fellow Edmonton champion Mitchell Bushnell, along with his dad, Jeremy, who Belbeck credits for always motivating him.

“They knew I could do better, so they pushed me to those standards,” Belbeck said.

Jeremy also competes in Edmonton’s PURE Stock division, having made his debut in the class this season. Belbeck said there has been a learning curve for both father and son, but the two are learning every week by racing alongside one another.

“It’s been interesting,” Belbeck said. “Perseverance, I definitely learned from [Jeremy]. There’s been a lot of technique because he’s done a lot of things that you can use skills from to bring into racing and he’s taught me a lot of skills. A lot of it is just perseverance and just staying in there.”

With two straight titles at Edmonton International Raceway under his belt, Lucas Belbeck is looking forward to 2024. (Photo: Lucas Belbeck)

There’s competition between the father and son, but they also share a bond as teammates working together, helping each other on the track, while also competing against one another.

The teamwork and spirited battles have raised an important question for Bilbeck: Is getting a win over his dad more fun?

“Yeah, kind of,” Belbeck said with a laugh.

After winning two titles in two years, Belbeck will look to make it three in a row when he moves up to Edmonton’s Thunder Car class in 2024.

When he first started competing, advancing into the Thunder Cars division was always a goal for Bilbeck because of how fond he is of those cars.

But he wasn’t expecting the move for at least five years.

“I’m very excited,” he said. “The rear-wheel drive is going to be interesting.”

The Belbecks are building the car this winter from the ground up. It’s a demanding process, but the young driver enjoys working in the garage just as much as he driving.

There really isn’t an aspect of racing he doesn’t enjoy.

“The other sports, there’s a team there, but in racing it’s you in the car by yourself,” he said. “On a team you’re relying on a lot of other people to be there to help you, and in racing if you mess up it’s on you. You can’t blame anyone but yourself. When you’re out there it’s you and only you.”

Belbeck is ready for the challenge of 2024 and beyond. He’s learned a lot in a short amount of time, and it has translated into tremendous success so far.

“I’ve learned [about] being confident in my own abilities in the car, and then just staying calm when things are starting to go wrong,” he said. “Just hold on and keep going.”

Posted on December 12, 2023December 12, 2023 by Brandon White

Toyota Racing Development is set to build upon a solid foundation within the heart of short-track racing in the southeast.

The 2024 season will see TRD partner with four-time NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series champion Lee Pulliam and his Late Model Stock operation. Joining Lee Pulliam Performance and TRD is driver prospect Isabella Robusto, who will race most of the year in the team’s No. 55 Toyota.

Pulliam never imagined his small shop based in Alton, Virginia would one day receive support from a major manufacturer like Toyota. He is eager to make the most of this partnership by continuing to develop the next generation of competitors that now includes Robusto.

“If a company like Toyota calls you, you’re going to sit down and listen,” Pulliam said. “This is an opportunity I’ve worked hard for during my whole career. To be associated with a manufacturer like that is a tremendous deal that will be a great asset for our company.

“Everybody at TRD are racers at heart, so they want to be successful and do this deal at 110 percent, which is the same thing I want.”

With a resume that includes victories in Late Model Stock crown jewels like the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 and Myrtle Beach 400, Pulliam established himself as one of the best in the discipline during the 2010s.

When Pulliam elected to start scaling back his driving career near the end of the decade, he wanted to pass down everything he knew about proper race craft. He began emphasizing driver development at Lee Pulliam Performance.

One of the more notable alums to come through Pulliam’s shop is Corey Heim. In his lone full-time season with Pulliam on the CARS Tour, Heim earned one victory and a third-place points finish, which laid the foundation for him to become a successful full-time driver with TRD in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

Lee Pulliam’s legacy in Late Model Stocks includes building a program in which young drivers can develop their craft on short tracks. (Photo: Logan Whitton)

Pulliam cherishes being a mentor to drivers like Heim and so many others, adding he takes tremendous pride in seeing his development drivers find success at the top levels.

“Racing is a tough business, and you’re looking for every little edge you can get,” Pulliam said. “I was able to take some of things I learned over the years to speed up the learning process. Corey was naturally talented, but there were things I could help him with that he never really thought about.

“I want to see my drivers be successful not only when they’re in my car, but when they’re in a Truck, Xfinity car or Cup car.”

Pulliam has every reason to believe Robusto can advance through the developmental ladder just like Heim.

Robusto caught the attention of many in the short-track industry with an impressive Pro Late Model performance at Hickory Motor Speedway that saw her lead a race-high 48 laps. While battling for the win, Robusto made hard contact with the inside wall, which subsequently kept her out the rest of the year due to lingering effects from a concussion.

The path back to the driver’s seat has been long and arduous for Robusto, but she is determined to pick up from where she left off at Hickory. She knows leaning on Pulliam for guidance will only expedite her development.

“I’m feeling good and ready to get back into a race car,” Robusto said. “It’s been a long, nine-and-a-half months of sitting on the sidelines, but I think 2024 is going to go really well running with Lee. They ran so well this past year, so I think everything is going to turn out well.”

Pulliam is no stranger to finding success with female drivers. Amber Balcaen took home a checkered flag in one of Pulliam’s cars at Motor Mile Speedway. Julia Landauer claimed a Limited Late Model title for Pulliam at the same facility in 2015.

Having seen Robusto put together several strong runs that include an impressive third in the 2022 South Carolina 400, Pulliam is eager to start working with her and build upon the potential she displayed before her season-ending crash at Hickory.

“It’s always fun when you can take a female racer and whoop the boys,” Pulliam said. “It’s going to be a challenge, because the CARS Tour is about as tough as it gets, but I really feel like she’s up to it.”

Despite being sidelined for most of 2023, Isabella Robusto is ready to compete for wins in her first year with Lee Pulliam Performance. (Photo: Adam Fenwick/NASCAR)

One factor both Pulliam and Robusto believe will hasten their progress together is having short-track veteran Brenden “Butterbean” Queen a part of the program.

Queen built upon an already solid racing career in his first season with Pulliam by tallying four CARS Tour victories and crown jewel wins in the Hampton Heat and Thanksgiving Classic. With so much experience at her disposal with Pulliam and Queen, Robusto is confident she can find consistency right from the start.

Being out of a Late Model Stock for a prolonged period is something Robusto knows will result in a learning curve. Despite this, Robusto trusts everyone at Lee Pulliam Performance to guide her in the right direction so she can make her own history with the organization.

“Just taking everything in and being a sponge between [Lee] and Brenden is going to be important,” Robusto said. “I want to learn everything from their driving style to race craft and add that on to what I’ve already learned. My goal is to work on anything I need to change in the first part of the year so we can get after it for the second half.”

Pulliam believes the combination of Robusto and Queen can be one of the most potent in Late Model Stock racing, but he is also keeping his expectations in check.

Even though Heim found immediate success with his team, Pulliam knows each driver is different when it comes to the development process. He plans to work diligently with Robusto over the winter to ensure she is ready to contend with the best in Late Model Stock competition.

“With any driver, you always want to get that first race under their belt to see what areas we need to improve on,” Pulliam said. “We’d love to compete for wins right out the gate, but we need to see where we land and get better week-by-week. I think we have a talented enough group for us to go to Victory Lane next year.

“We just want to do the best job we can and represent TRD the best we can so we can have a long-term relationship.”

The influence of TRD has provided Pulliam plenty of optimism about the future of his operation. With more resources being poured into his shop, Pulliam looks forward to continuing TRD’s successful reputation at some of the southeast’s most cherished short tracks.

Posted on December 12, 2023December 12, 2023 by Zack Albert

After last year’s blockbuster move that sent Kyle Busch to Richard Childress Racing after a 15-year tenure with team owner Joe Gibbs, this offseason might seem a bit lighter on the transition front for the two-time Cup Series champ. Still, Busch said before the NASCAR Awards in Nashville, there’s plenty of movement afoot.

Busch will return to the No. 8 Chevrolet in 2024 with a year of seasoning in Richard Childress’ system under his belt, a year in which he added three Cup Series wins both to his impressive tally and the long ledger of RCR success. What’s changing this offseason is a departure from his role as a team owner in the Craftsman Truck Series, a development that’s meant moving out of the former Kyle Busch Motorsports shop in Mooresville, North Carolina.

“That’s been our offseason project so far, which has been stressful to say the least,” Busch said, noting that he’s relying on himself, wife Samantha and her parents and one other helper to make the move. That’s meant equipment, vehicles and scores of trophies from Busch’s 229 NASCAR national-series wins.

While that transition has been a crunch all its own, the shift in ownership to Spire Motorsports has unfolded in an overlapping time frame. Busch joked about the rapid-pace nature of the change-over while in Nashville, wondering aloud how long his key-card access to the building might last.

“Dude, the ink hasn’t even dried and the money didn’t even clear in the bank, and the sign out front was changed,” Busch said with a smirk. “So I was like, ‘Damn, guys.’ Like, I’m trying to have meetings in the conference room, and I still own the place, and they’re in there every day and they’re running out of there. I’m like, ‘get the hell out of here. You still got five more days, four more days.’ … It is a little bit weird, for sure, to kind of see all of that changing and the moving of the guard, but you know, it is what it is. It was the right time.”

If there’s another shift that’s altering the status quo, it’s a perceived rise in Busch’s popularity. Chase Elliott was just hours away from winning the NMPA’s Most Popular Driver Award for a sixth consecutive year, but Busch said there was at least colloquial evidence that he was making gains in that department. “I don’t know if I believe that, but I’ll take it,” he said.

The other evidence comes from the unscientific measure of crowd reaction from each week’s driver introductions. Busch says he remembers being the fans’ prime focus of jeers when he was at his most polarizing, but others have drawn the vast share of catcalls in recent seasons. He says he now wonders, “Wait, who was that?” when the boo-birds arise before or after his turn on the pre-race stage, with former teammate Denny Hamlin siphoning away some of the heat.

“When you’re young, you come in and you start beating up on the guys that have been here for a while, people don’t really take well to that,” Busch said. “So you’re not very well-liked, especially doing it the brash way that I did early on, it certainly got some more eyeballs on my name. But you know, as I’ve gotten a little bit older, as I’ve matured a little bit, as I’ve not won as often, people are starting to be like, ‘Hey, man, that guy used to win all the time, but I want him, like I’m gonna pull for him, I want him to win. Let’s see him win some more,’ so it turns the table, for sure.

“I think that that’s pretty awesome. I remember, how many times did Jeff Gordon get booed after a win, right, like in the late ’90s especially? And then his last win that he had at Martinsville, I mean, the crowd went nuts. So it was, times change and the tables turn.”

Popularity aside, Busch’s first year with the Childress organization extended his run of consecutive Cup Series seasons with at least one victory to 19 straight. He crossed that achievement off the list early, winning in the second race of the year at Auto Club Speedway – timing that Busch said was “huge” in taking the pressure off his first RCR campaign.

Wins followed at Talladega Superspeedway and World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, but Busch’s moment in the Cup Series Playoffs was short-cut by elimination in the Round of 12. His win total and 10 top-five finishes marked improvements over the previous year, but more substantial gains were offset by six DNFs and the fewest laps led (241) in his Cup career.

“Well, we started the year really, really good,” Busch said. “Man, if we could have ended the season how we started the season, we would have certainly been something to contend with for the end of the year. I mean, our stats weren’t too far off of the champion’s stats. We had more top fives, we had more top 10s, we just had more DNFs, you know, and the average finish obviously was a couple points worse, but that was from those DNFs. So just need better consistency and taking those finishes of from 12th to 15th and not over-forcing it or over-pushing those runs that we have and spinning out and crashing.”