The epilogue to Martin Truex Jr.’s 2023 season should almost be delivered in two parts.
The afterword to the veteran’s NASCAR Cup Series campaign begins with a three-win regular season, one that cemented his spot atop the standings once the calendar turned to summer. It’s the 10-race postseason where things turned sour with a string of subpar finishes, and it’s that nettlesome stretch that his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 team will aim to mend before the new season arrives.
“I think just going back to Victory Lane, it’s what it’s all about when the year starts, and you want to be able to go out and win races,” Truex said before the NASCAR Awards celebration in Nashville last month. “So we really had a really good regular season, and kind of the wheels fell off in the playoffs, but a lot of it was circumstances, and, of course, we made some mistakes and things along the way. We’re gonna try to work on those in the offseason. But, overall, a lot of highlights, a lot of good things, and a lot to build off of.”
The highlights that stood out began with a victory to open the month of May at Dover Motor Speedway, where Truex snapped a 54-race skid and helped to erase the memory of a winless 2022. More strong runs followed and wins at Sonoma and New Hampshire helped to keep him on the inside track to the Regular-Season Championship.
The 15 playoff points he gained by securing that trophy were pivotal in helping Truex advance to the Round of 8, where elimination finally capped a rocky postseason that netted zero top-five finishes. The arrival of the offseason, Truex says, provides the chance for a reset for the No. 19 crew but also some needed downtime before the groundwork for the 2024 season is established.
“I think we do (reset), and we don’t get a whole lot of time to do that, but in the process of preparing for next year, we go over everything, and we talk about everything,” said Truex, who re-signed with JGR with a one-year extension in August. “We’re all gonna get together and have a big go-kart race, so just kind of lay low, do some fun stuff with low pressure, and then in January, kind of ramp it up with getting ready for the season and the details of things. But the guys are working hard already and excited for that to come when it does.”
MOORESVILLE, N.C. – Second-generation racer and champion Layne Riggs is the newest driver of the No. 38 Ford F-150 for Front Row Motorsports, the team announced Thursday. Riggs, the 21-year-old son of former NASCAR Cup Series driver Scott Riggs, is making the step from the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series after starts in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck and Xfinity Series this past year.
The Bahama, N.C. native is the next FRM development driver after both Todd Gilliland and Zane Smith have won races and Smith a championship with the team. Riggs will be making his full-time NASCAR national series debut in 2024 but already has championship experience while climbing through the ranks of NASCAR.
Dylan Cappello will step up from his lead engineer role to be the crew chief of the team. Chris Lawson will step down from his crew chief role and serve as a consultant to the team to begin the season while working on other projects outside of NASCAR.
Beginning his career at the age of 10, Riggs competed in Limited Sportsman events at the Orange County (N.C.) Speedway, where he raced for multiple seasons, eventually earning the track championship. Riggs then moved his career to the CARS Tour, where he raced late-model stock cars for several seasons. He finished his stint in the series with six wins, eight poles, 32 top-five, and 41 top-10 finishes.
In 2022, Riggs focused on the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series. He built an impressive track record featuring 16 wins, 29 top-five, and 35 top-10 finishes across some of the toughest NASCAR tracks in the southeast. Riggs was crowned the 2022 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series National Champion.
This past season, Riggs gained more attention during limited starts in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck and Xfinity Series. He finished third at the Indianapolis Raceway Park in the truck race and followed that with 10th and 11th-place finishes at the end of the season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Martinsville Speedway in the Xfinity Series.
Riggs is now set to compete for the Sunoco Rookie of the Year title in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and is signed to a multi-year agreement with FRM.
“I’m really thankful for this opportunity to compete full-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series with one of the best teams in the sport,” said Riggs. “I’ve dedicated my life for an opportunity like this, and I’m incredibly appreciative of Bob (Jenkins) and everyone at Front Row for providing me the opportunity to take my next step in my racing career.”
In addition to his racing schedule, Riggs is set to complete his Mechanical Engineering degree at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC) while participating in full-time competition.
“I really appreciate Layne’s dedication to his education while also competing at the highest levels,” said Front Row owner Jenkins. “That comes from great parenting and a sense of dedication from Layne. We’ve already seen a lot of potential in Layne and he’s a perfect fit for our program to develop him into a national series NASCAR winner.”
FRM is set to announce team partners for Riggs in the lead-up to the Fresh From Florida 250 at the Daytona International Speedway — a race that FRM is the two-time defending winner of.
Joey Logano was able to appreciate watching Ryan Blaney celebrate last month at the NASCAR Awards in Nashville, his teammate succeeding him as the Cup Series champion to keep the title in Team Penske’s possession. That appreciation came with a light-hearted warning from one champ to another, with Logano telling Blaney from the stage not to get too comfortable.
“We’ll go for three in a row next year,” Logano told the crowd at the Music City Center. “It’s my turn, so enjoy it. My turn’s next year.”
Still, there’s a kernel of truth to every tongue-in-cheek joke, and Logano said he’s every bit as driven to vie for his third Cup Series crown with the No. 22 Ford team when next season fires up in February. But there was also a measure of grace as he noted Blaney’s growth into a champion in his eighth full season at the Cup Series level.
“We’ve all seen the amount of speed that he’s had his whole career, like just raw speed,” Logano said. “The kid’s quick as can be. But it seemed like it took a minute for the race-crafting to meet up to the talent that he has. And really, I think in the last seven weeks of what he was able to put together was exceptional — really, really good. And he put them both together, and now I’ll tell you, he’s gonna be tough to beat for a long time, now that he’s got confidence on his side, he’s done it already. He’s gonna be tough for a long time.”
Blaney’s title run has added to team owner Roger Penske’s remarkable recent spate of success, something that Logano has regularly fed. In the last six years, Team Penske has won 12 championships and accumulated 148 victories across four sanctioning bodies – in NASCAR, IndyCar, IMSA and Supercars competition.
Of that total, Logano has added two Cup Series crowns of his own during that span, plus 16 wins – 14 in Cup and a pair in Xfinity. That overall mission, Logano says, starts at the top with Penske, who has long made thoughtful investments into the personnel who make the organization go – “human capital,” as Logano put it.
“It’s just the type of people we are, honestly, I think is what it is. You put a bunch of winners around each other, you’re gonna win,” Logano said. “I said it last year in my speeches, you can’t fly like an eagle when you’re working with a bunch of turkeys, and there’s a lot of eagles that work in that building. If you believe in the saying, ‘you are who you hang out with,’ you’re going to become that way, too. That’s what culture is, right? That’s what we’ve built around there.”
Logano added a victory to the company tally last season, converting a dominant run from the pole at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March. The win clinched his return to the Cup Series Playoffs, where he absorbed a first-round exit after a race-ending crash in the Round of 16 elimination event at Bristol.
“I’m not sure I’m over it yet,” Logano said. “That might be the good thing about it.”
And if the 33-year-old veteran needed more incentive for a third Cup Series title for 2024, an early appearance on the Nashville stage – well before Blaney’s gala-concluding speech – may provide the extra boost.
“A little more angry. I mean, honestly, that’s what the banquet does to you,” Logano said. “If you’re not the 12 team, nobody else wants to be here. I mean, this is what it’s about. It’s about the champion. It should be about the champion when you come to the banquets. They should be celebrated, but I can tell you right now, when you sit down there and you watch someone else be celebrated, it’s the most motivating thing you can ever ask for. So you come here and you leave a little mad, but motivated to go up there and do something better.”
Season in review: Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford Crew chief: Paul Wolfe Final 2023 Ranking: 12 Key stats: 1 wins, 11 top fives, 17 top 10s, 308 laps led
How 2023 ended: After winning the NASCAR Cup championship for the second time in his career in 2022, a 2023 title defense was filled with tough luck for Logano, who finished 12th in the driver standings. Logano was not able to advance in the playoffs after an early exit in the Round of 16 at Bristol — the first reigning champ to be eliminated in the opening round. However, to Logano’s credit, he rallied back in the final races by collecting three top-10 finishes at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course, Homestead-Miami Speedway and Martinsville Speedway in the second half of the postseason.
Best race: Logano’s best race was winning the spring event at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Not only did he start from the pole, he also dominated the afternoon, leading 140 of the race’s 260 laps.
Other season highlights: Logano strongly started the season off on the right foot, finishing runner-up in the Daytona 500. No. 22 had the same number of top-five (11) and top-10 (17) finishes in 2022 and 2023. The No. 22 team showed that it still has the juice to fight for wins after making a crucial pit call for Logano to set him up for a fifth-place finish at the Kansas fall race.
Stat to know: After winning his second Cup championship in 2022, Logano was considered by many observers as the driver to beat in 2023. Unfortunately for him, it didn’t turn out that way. His 12th-place finish in the final standings was his second-lowest season finish since he was 17th in both 2012 and 2017. Even though he finished 12th, the perennial title contender has made the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs 10 of the last 11 seasons (he failed to do so in 2017).
Quotable: “It means a lot to get this one in Victory Lane. It’s been a lot of years coming. Atlanta, this means so much to me to win here. So many memories of driving my Legends car right here where we’re standing when I was 9 years old. This is a really special one and a dream come true.” – Logano on his first Cup win at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Looking ahead: Look for Logano to come back strong in 2024, especially since teammate Ryan Blaney won the Cup crown in 2023. Combined with Logano’s title in 2022, that gave Team Penske back-to-back championships for the first time in team history. It also was Team Penske’s fourth Cup championship since 2012 (Brad Keselowski in 2012, Logano in 2018 and 2022, and Blaney in 2023).
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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).
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.”
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.
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.
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).
“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.
