Noah Gragson is going to have his hands full in 2022.
For starters, he’s slated to drive for three different NASCAR teams. He re-signed with JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series for a full-time schedule. He’ll also make a run for the Daytona 500 with Beard Motorsports, and then he’ll tap in for an additional 14 Cup Series races with Kaulig Racing.
“Well, I already told the Kaulig guys that I’d like to apologize for Saturdays in advance, but Sunday, I’m going to be full on board with them,” Gragson said Wednesday on a Zoom teleconference. “So, I’m gonna race the (expletive) out of them on Saturday and race them hard on Saturdays, and then be all in and a teammate on Sundays.”
The Xfinity Series usually plays on Saturdays. Gragson’s No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet will be in direct competition with Kaulig Racing’s No. 10, 11 and 16 Chevys of Landon Cassill, Daniel Hemric and AJ Allmendinger, respectively. Gragson owns five career Xfinity wins but has yet to win a championship in three years of work. His best finish yet has been third, last year.
The Cup Series then races on Sundays for the most part. Gragson will split driving responsibilities in the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet there with Hemric and Allmendinger. JR Motorsports does not have a Cup program and therefore won’t be a competitor at that level.
The Beard Motorsports opportunity is different because Gragson isn’t technically guaranteed a spot in the Daytona 500 (Feb. 20 at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). He’ll have to qualify the organization’s sole No. 62 Chevrolet, which he failed to do in 2021. If he makes it, the season opener will mark his first official career Cup Series start, with more guaranteed down the road with Kaulig Racing regardless — the first of those coming on March 20 at Atlanta.
“It’s going to be a challenge out there,” Gragson said. “But I really don’t have any expectations going into the season other than learning. And then once we get a few races down the road, we can kind of regroup and reevaluate where we’re at on speed and we’ll have a clearer vision on what’s a realistic expectation.”
The Xfinity Series schedule alone consists of 33 events. Say Gragson does earn a bid into the Daytona 500, he’ll then add 15 Cup Series races to his plate. That’s 48 races total – 12 more than a normal Cup Series calendar.
Certainly more than Gragson has ever experienced in a single year with NASCAR.
“It’s definitely mentally taxing and physically taxing on your body,” Gragson said. “And mentally I need to do a better job of not being so hard of myself when maybe we don’t have a good weekend.”
Gragson is taking on all that he can in order to build his racing resume and knowledge. There’s still more to be accomplished in the Xfinity Series, and he has barely scratched the surface when it comes to the Cup Series, especially with the introduction of the brand-new Next Gen car. The 23-year-old plans to learn from his experienced teammates at each level – Justin Allgaier and Josh Berry at JR Motorsports and Hemric, Allmendinger and Justin Haley at Kaulig Racing.
The line between teammate and competition, though, may be a little blurred at times with some of them.
“I’m sure,” Gragson said, “there’s going to be more apologizing throughout the season.”
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour is here to shine bright and early in 2022.
The season-opening race at New Smyrna Speedway on Saturday, Feb. 12 is the earliest kickoff to the official modified season since at least 1988, when the tour opened with the Winston 150 at Orange County Speedway in Rougemont, North Carolina, on March 6.
A new season provides a clean slate — new opportunities for some, the same opportunities as 2021 for others. Before the green flag drops on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. ET (FloRacing), check out the storylines leading into the weekend:
Justin Bonsignore enters 2022 as the defending champion of the Whelen Modified Tour, collecting each of the last two titles and three of the last four. Nobody has won more tour races dating back to 2018 than Bonsignore, who has gone to Victory Lane a stellar 19 times over that span.
His No. 51 team has garnered respect from its competitors, but with that respect comes one goal: knocking Bonsignore off the top of the mountain.
Patrick Emerling and his No. 07 team gave him their best effort in 2021, but that effort fell 22 points short by the season’s end at Stafford Motor Speedway. Emerling collected three wins compared to Bonsignore’s two, but Bonsignore’s consistency carried him to a championship yet again, notching 11 top fives and 12 top 10s compared to Emerling’s nine top fives and 11 top 10s.
The heat will come from many directions in 2022, but Bonsignore remains the man to beat heading into the season.
Some familiar faces will be wheeling new rides in 2022, perhaps none more notably than 2011 tour champion Ron Silk.
After four seasons driving the No. 85 car for team owner Kevin Stuart, Silk will transition to the No. 16 car with newly-formed Haydt Yannone Racing to compete for the 2022 tour title. Silk is a 17-time race winner on the tour and has won at least twice annually in each of the last three seasons, including a three-win campaign in 2019.
Additionally, three-time race winner Craig Lutz has transferred over to the No. 82 car for the 2022 season in Danny Watts Jr.’s machine, building on one start the duo made together back at Riverhead Raceway on Sept. 18.
Tommy Catalano, who made 11 starts in 2021, returns to his family’s No. 54 team for a full-time campaign this year. The Ontario, New York native has made 49 career starts on the tour including a full season of racing in 2019.
Two other familiar names for modified fans in New Smyrna will be Matt Hirschman and Jimmy Blewett. The two northeastern stars have both found success on the half-mile high banks in eastern Florida, with Hirschman winning three of the last four World Series of Stock Car Asphalt modified titles and Blewett being the 2008 winner.
Ryan Preece, a part-time NASCAR Cup Series driver and 2013 tour champion, returns to New Smyrna to race in Jan Boehler’s No. 3 car. Preece won three races a season ago and will surely be back for more as the season continues.
After starring in football and basketball and becoming a budding race-car driver, Steve Grissom had a big decision to make when he graduated high school.
Grissom, a standout offensive lineman, defensive end and linebacker, could play college football at the University of Alabama for legendary Paul “Bear” Bryant, or he could try to become a NASCAR driver.
When your father is Wayne Grissom, who owned a number of race cars and sponsored other drivers, it wasn’t a difficult choice: Steve took pit road over pigskins.
“And I’ve never once regretted it,” Grissom told NASCAR.com. “For as long as I can remember, I always wanted to race, from the first race I ever went to. I knew that was me and what I wanted to do.
“I started driving dirt cars when I was 15. There kind of never really was a question in my mind. I was going to pursue the racing avenue.”
A native of Gadsden, Alabama, Grissom began working on his father’s race cars while still in elementary school, moving from under the hood to behind the wheel in short order.
After cutting his chops first on Alabama-area short tracks and then in the Winston All-Pro Series, Grissom became a full-time driver in the NASCAR Busch Series in 1988 (now the Xfinity Series), eventually winning the championship in 1993.
David Taylor | Getty Images Sport
“That year’s championship was definitely the highlight (of my career),” Grissom said. “We were also fortunate to win the (Xfinity) race at Daytona (1996, the final win of his Xfinity career), which was pretty special, as well as Rockingham (1990), Indianapolis Raceway Park (1990), Martinsville (1990), winning both races in the same year at Bristol (1995), South Boston (1991), Volusia County (1992) and a few others.”
After winning the championship in 1993, Grissom moved up full-time to the NASCAR Cup Series in 1994, finishing second to Jeff Burton in Rookie of the Year honors. While he’d go winless in 151 Cup starts, one of Grissom’s greatest achievements in NASCAR’s top series came in 1997, when he started on the outside pole in the Daytona 500.
Unfortunately, his day ended early when he was involved in a wreck 88 laps into the 200-lap event, finishing 40th in the 42-car field.
While Grissom competed in all three of NASCAR’s premier series, it was the Xfinity Series where he enjoyed the greatest amount of success.
He made 309 Xfinity Series starts in nearly 25 years, earning 11 wins, 42 top-five and 74 top-10 finishes. He’d also make 151 Cup Series starts and 24 Truck Series starts, but was winless in both.
Grissom’s Xfinity Series championship in 1993 was something he’ll always be proud of, forever being known as a series champion.
He beat Ricky Craven by 253 points, and had a number of other rivals, including Joe Nemechek, Ward and Jeff Burton, Robert Pressley, Todd Bodine, Hermie Sadler and Mike Wallace.
And in some ways Grissom, now 58, is still the same guy today that he was back then.
“I don’t really know so much that it changed me as you’re all caught up in the racing at the time and maybe don’t think as much about it or it didn’t register then,” Grissom said. “Now you look back on it, I’m not sure how many champions there’s been since then, but to be one of those (is special). I’m not sure it sunk in then. Still, to be one of those, it means something, it’s a sense of pride.
“Not all of the guys who raced in the series have been fortunate enough to even win a race (in their career).”
While next year will mark the 30th anniversary of Grissom’s championship, fans have not forgotten him. He still gets autograph requests in the mail, folks asking him to sign a trading card or hero card, and even fans who bump into him around town.
“It’s still pretty neat,” Grissom said of interacting with fans. “You do run into the people, old race fans that maybe don’t keep up with it as much as they used to, but you do run across people.
“They used to drive from your hometown to come watch you in (an Xfinity) race. It was something. They’d make a six-, eight-, 10-hour trip to watch you in (an Xfinity) race at a short track or something.
“The fans you bump into, be it at a restaurant or what have you, the old NASCAR fans, they still talk about North Wilkesboro, Rockingham, Martinsville, kind of the roots of NASCAR. And then there’s Charlotte and Daytona and stuff. Those are important, but NASCAR was kind of born on the short tracks and that’s what they all still want to talk about, (how it was) back in the day.”
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ISC Archives | CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images
After his roughly 30-year racing career ended, Grissom moved into the business world. He’s owned a number of different enterprises over the years — including a hot dog stand in suburban Charlotte for several years that was part of a partnership with another former NASCAR driver, Robert Presley — as well as laundromats and commercial real estate.
“I’m just me and I’ve got my businesses,” Grissom said. “They keep me pretty well tied up and kind of always on the go.”
Grissom still considers himself a race fan, but his business ventures keep him from devoting as much time to watching or attending races as he’d like. His last in-person race was the 2019 Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway; the pandemic has kept him from attending any in the last two years.
“I miss it a good bit,” Grissom said of NASCAR and racing. “I always enjoyed obviously the driving part of it and stuff, but I don’t really keep up with it a ton now.
“You bump into guys and ask them what’s going on here or there, but really, keeping up with it, I’ve got my two twin daughters, Katie and Stephanie, who have been playing softball for a while (currently student-athletes at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.), so that keeps me busy.
“And my son Kyle, who works with me now, was racing here (primarily sportsman ranks) up until a few years ago. He was going to races since he was two weeks old, so he kind of grew up in it. He was 4 years old when he started in go-karts. He’s 32 now and he and I kind of stay busy with our businesses.”
Given that it’s been nearly 40 years since Grissom began racing in NASCAR, the sport has obviously gone through quite a bit of change. He remembers what it was like back then as if it were just yesterday.
“When I first came along to the Busch deal, there weren’t any tractor trailers, everybody had open trailers kind of a thing,” Grissom said. “That being said, guys might have one or two or three full-time people, have two or three cars from Daytona to Martinsville, Hickory to Charlotte or Darlington. You just didn’t have big operations.
“And during my time it kind of changed, to all of a sudden you started riding in a four-door dually to the race track, then started flying airplanes to the race track, that kind of stuff. From that standpoint, you used to work on the car, drive the truck, paint the car, put the motor in, pack wheel bearings, whatever needed to be done.
“Now, you have specialists to do everything. It’s just a lot different from when I first started to the way it is now. I’m sure Richard Petty has seen the difference (he added with a laugh), it definitely is a big deal.”
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Steve’s father, Wayne, had the largest impact upon his son’s life in racing, from teaching him about mechanics to sponsoring his race car.
Wayne Grissom passed away last August at the age of 86, but his son will forever be grateful for the influence his father had upon him.
“I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do it if it hadn’t been for him,” Steve said of his father. “I think about that from time to time now and what he meant. He had everything to do with me having the opportunity to do and get and be what I was able to do. He was definitely very important.”
One of the best pieces of advice Wayne passed along to his son was to accept what you have.
“You can look back and there (might have been) an opportunity here or there that you might have changed this or that,” Steve said of his career. “But Daddy always said, ‘the eyes are put in front of your head so look forward, don’t look back.’ ”
The Steve Grissom file:
* Age: 58
* Hometown: Gadsden, Alabama
* Wife: Married 39 years to Susan
* Children: Son Kyle (32 years old) and twin daughters Katie and Stephanie (20 years old)
Career highlights:
* NASCAR Cup career: 151 races, 0 wins, five top-five and 18 top-10 finishes. Best season finish: 21st (1997).
* NASCAR Xfinity Series career: 309 races, 11 wins, 42 top-five and 74 top-10 finishes. Also four poles. Best season finish: Won 1993 championship.
* NASCAR Truck Series career: 24 races, 0 wins, six top-5, 11 top-10 finishes. Competed only in the 2000 season, finished 10th.
Like most good ideas, it started with a basic sketch.
The Next Gen car that debuts in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series has new features aplenty, not the least of which is the break from the long-standing five-lug wheel to a single, center-locking fastener on the larger aluminum wheels. Pit stops are about to change, some in subtle ways and others evolutionary.
So Brian Haaland, pit crew coach at Joe Gibbs Racing, and his team drew up something new for their playbook, cracking into the logistics of starting pit service quicker on the right side of the car. If the right-front changer was in position to start at zero seconds when the car rolled to a stop and the stopwatch began, then the rear changer would start work about a half-second later, waiting for the car to pass by before sweeping around the back end.
How to start both at zero? JGR rear-tire changer Lee Cunningham thought out loud: If you backed the car in, no problem.
“Just this idea popped up: Wait a minute, why aren’t you waiting on the car, and that’s truthfully how it started,” Haaland said. “How can I draw this up? I got a little napkin out and started drawing it up and it just evolved.”
James Thomas | NASCAR Digital Media
What Joe Gibbs Racing is calling its “Next Gen pit stop” had launched, at least on paper. The new choreography operated under a new premise, sending all four crew members involved in jacking the car and changing tires around the front of the car first. The quartet would then relay race over to the left, with the right-front changer circling around to the left rear, and the right-rear changer then hitting the left front. The fifth crew member, the fueler, was free to do his or her job without changers or carriers scurrying around behind.
“We got together as a staff and really worked on it, like how would these details go and then we came out and tried it,” Haaland said. “It worked, right, to kind of our surprise. We were early enough in development with the other stuff and this one that we saw enough promise to keep pushing at it, and we found some crazy speed with it.”
It’s the latest nuance to a NASCAR season that comes preloaded with change. The over-the-wall dance of right-side/left-side service will still be a familiar friend with the all-new car, but the tire-changing tango will be a bit quicker — keeping the athletes working pit road even more so on their toes.
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Interviewed in 2014 for a feature about the history and evolution of the NASCAR pit stop, Chris Rice — then the competition manager for RAB Racing — said the sport had reached its limit. Pit stops in the 11- to 12-second range back then were the benchmark for an efficient crew. “The only way to get faster is go to one lug nut,” Rice said, “and I don’t ever see that coming because we’re running a stock car.”
That changed in March 2020, when NASCAR competition officials released images of the beefier 18-inch wheels the Next Gen car would ride on, complete with a single-lug mounting system to keep them secure at speed. Reminded about his declaration nearly eight years later, Rice — now the team president at Kaulig Racing — takes any friendly jabs with his trademark good humor.
“Well, the first thing I want to say is I was wrong,” Rice said, breaking into a wide smile. “That’s always good. But you know, the cool thing about it is that it’s something different, right? So we’ve evolved ever since you and I’ve had that conversation over the last couple of years. Racing had to step up to a different level.”
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media
With the new mounting system comes larger, heavier air guns to accommodate the single fastener. The larger wheel and tire combo is slightly more cumbersome in the changing process, but the time saving arrives in changing one larger lug nut versus unbolting and resecuring five smaller ones. The new sound is also notable: The single lug goes on and off with a louder ratcheting noise, replacing the high-pitched, five-beat staccato whirring from the previous system.
The new system also places a new strategy factor into the hands of crew chiefs, since the time to change tires no longer syncs with the extra amount of time needed to add a full load of fuel. The gas can’s flow rate remains the same, so crew chiefs have a call to make – leave pit road quicker without a full tank or wait the extra moment for the second fuel can to empty.
“For the crew chiefs, it’s going to be kind of depending on your track position, you’ll potentially maybe add another pit stop because you won’t have enough fuel in the car to run the distance, or you may wait and take a few seconds of fuel just so you can make the distance and eliminate a pit stop,” said Ryan Sparks, crew chief for Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 Chevrolet and driver Corey LaJoie. “You know it’s going to depend a lot on tire wear of the race track and just kind of what kind of surface you’re on, and where you’re at track position-wise what kind of decision you make. But it is definitely going to bring another element of strategy into the mix, which should be interesting.”
And the slight uptick in tire-changing speed has placed extra emphasis on the other crew members to perform.
“Now the gas man’s so important to be able to get a second can in the quickest,” said Josh Shipplett, a tire carrier for 23XI Racing’s No. 45 Toyota and driver Kurt Busch. “If you’re two or three tenths (of a second) quicker on that exchange, it’s another half-gallon of gas you’re getting in the car.”
Said Adam Stevens, crew chief for JGR’s No. 20 team and pilot Christopher Bell: “There’s going to be a lot of times where you’re waiting on fuel, so that can exchange, it’s going to be mission critical. Getting plugged in as soon as possible is going to be critical and having a clean plug, so you don’t catch an air bubble. I mean, all of that stuff is going to be immensely important this year. It was always important, but it’s a lot more important.”
And to change tires quicker, the car will need to come off the ground quicker.
“All your speed right now is going to be made from the jack man. So his around time, getting around the car is super important,” Sparks said. “Just him coming off the jack from the right front to the left rear, that’s where all the speed is made. So you know the tire changers of old had fast hand speed, hitting the five lugs and that used to be where a lot of your speed was? Now I’d say the majority of it is still or is now in the jack man.”
James Thomas | NASCAR Digital Media
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Joe Gibbs Racing’s pit crews did their best to stay limber on a chilly recent Monday morning, convening in the purpose-built pit stall behind the sprawling shop. Temperatures hovered just above the overnight low, but heaters worked to keep those behind the wall toasty.
Each team was assigned an hour-long block on the workout schedule for pit practice. The six Toyota teams – four from JGR and two from affiliate 23XI — shared the time slots, two teams per hour. Video boards showed pit-stop replays from five angles, and a countdown clock ticked down the days, hours and minutes remaining until the season-opening Daytona 500.
Crews alternated from right-side changes, then lefts before diving into the new Next Gen choreography for four-tire stops. The crews’ times regularly dipped into the mid-10-second range, the result of weeks of drills and trial and error. In the early phase, Haaland admitted, the error portion was slightly more prominent.
“When we started this out, it was 20 of them a day. When that lug nut goes spinning, it’s halfway down the parking lot before we can get a hold of it,” Haaland said. “That’ll be something to watch for at the race track. That’ll be a big concern, just guys not being patient enough or hitting the lug nut completely square, it can shoot right out of that socket.”
James Thomas | NASCAR Digital Media
This Monday practice goes far smoother, without errant lugs bounding down the pavement. JGR’s crews have adapted to their new method and unveiled it on social media Jan. 25, but they will have to keep the previous technique in their bag for a while longer.
NASCAR officials initially banned the new choreography this offseason, instituting a rule that stated the rear tire-changer must approach the car from the back as before. Competition officials indicated routing both air hoses around the front end of the car raised concerns, as the risk for tangling and tripping ran higher, even with a crew member managing the hoses and taking up any slack from behind the wall.
JGR responded by inviting NASCAR officials to its Huntersville, North Carolina, shop to watch the technique in person to allay their uneasiness. After a review, the rule was later rescinded but will remain in place until the Cup Series visits Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 20, allowing other teams to perhaps play catch-up.
“We reached out to NASCAR and asked them to come and just look and see our pit stop, and blow it apart, tell us what’s not safe or what you don’t like about it,” Haaland said. “And so I applaud them for coming over spending the time just to learn more about it.”
The learning experience has continued with the Toyota pit crews, with relative newcomers along with veterans adjusting to the new ways of pit service.
“To me, it’s the perfect time to do it, because everything’s different anyway,” said Jake Lind, a tire changer with the No. 45 team. “It’s more difficult, breaking old habits that you’ve done forever. This with the single lug — different wheel, different gun, different everything? You have to change everything anyway. What’s a couple more things, basically.”
But the seemingly small extras can add up. A slip or miscue can throw off the timing for other crew members working in unison, especially with the margin for error – and elapsed time – shrinking. And the “feel” for over-the-wall veterans in securing the new wheels will take its own adjustment period.
“Just to my position, the hardest part I think is just learning what is a tight wheel and what isn’t a tight wheel,” said Houston Stamper, tire changer for the No. 19 JGR Toyota and driver Martin Truex Jr. “When you hit five lug nuts for 16 years, you know without a shadow of a doubt whether that wheel’s going to hold or not, or if it’s going to be borderline. That’s probably the one thing I’m concentrating on the most is really trying to zero in on what’s going to be tight and what isn’t going to be tight.
“There’s only one lug nut, so I don’t really have a lot of wiggle room anymore. It’s got to be tight enough for Martin to make it around the race track, but it also can’t be so tight that we jeopardize time on pit road. There’s definitely a fine line, and I think it’s there, we’ve just got to find it.”
Sometimes learning the new roles isn’t enough. Learning the new names of those roles has required some adjustment, too.
“I mean, I think it’s taken me three months to not call myself a rear changer anymore because I did it for 20 years,” Lind said. “Just a force of habit. So now I’m right-front, left-rear. OK, so I’m a front changer on that side and a rear changer on the other.”
Said Shipplett: “People have always asked me if I’m a front carrier or rear carrier. Now it’s, well, I do both.”
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The final round of pit stops last year for the outgoing sixth-generation stock car and its five-lug setup was a dazzler. From the first pit stall, the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports crew ripped through its four-tire stop in the Cup Series season finale at Phoenix Raceway, getting driver Kyle Larson back on track lickety-split and providing him an edge for the final run to the checkered flag. Larson won the race and with it, his first Cup championship.
No. 5 crew chief Cliff Daniels was back at Phoenix last month for the final preseason test of the Next Gen car. Asked if his team had properly applied its athleticism and fast reflexes to the new style of pit stops, Daniels said the proof would come once the regular season starts at Daytona International Speedway.
“It’s hard to say, you know? Everybody’s trying to learn what they can through pit-stop practice right now, which there’s just a totally different cadence and nuance to it,” Daniels said. “And just like us with the car, the guys pitting the cars, until you’re out there in competition, you’re not going to know. Practice is only going to tell you so much, then you’ve got to really do it when the pressure is on and you’re in the moment and learn as you go.”
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media
Teams will get that first chance next week in the run-up to the Daytona 500 on Feb. 20 (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM). Next Gen cars were on track for the first time in competition last Sunday at the Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, but live pit stops were not a component of the short-track exhibition.
Come Daytona, the simulated stops crew members have been practicing will unfold with other teams in neighboring stalls, all trying to gain an upper hand. That margin for error will shrink again.
“I mean, everything just happens so fast with a single lug that pressure points are a lot different,” Stevens said. “Pit road is going to be a busy place. The big thing is that there’s going to be criss-crossing traffic a lot, and there’s going to be cars coming in while cars are going out because the stops are so fast. It puts a lot of stress behind the wall, you know, tires rolling everywhere. Just anything that you ratchet the speed up, the opportunity for mistakes is a lot bigger.”
The degree of difficulty also comes with the opportunity for pit-road glory. Teams should continue to fine-tune their approach as the regular season gets underway, gaining precious time as their reps increase in practice and on race day.
The new tools and framework for single-lug stops are in place, but some of the same guiding pit-road principles still apply.
“You know, there’s a lot of things that are similar for the guys that are pitting the car,” Haaland said, “but it really comes down to putting in the work every single day and kind of swallow your pride because you’ve had this experience or whatever, and just have an open mind and be willing to learn new things because it’s new for all of us.
“It’s exciting, because it’s something different and the guys have bought into it. The stops are fast and it’s fun.”
It’s hard to believe, but we’re somehow already a week into February and have a preseason race under our belt — just blink and before you know it, haulers will be headed to Daytona International Speedway.
Kyle Larson’s Phoenix Raceway triumph for his first NASCAR Cup Series championship is still fresh in our minds, yet it’s time to turn the page and talk 2022.
So, here’s the big question now that we’ve seen a glimmer of what the Next Gen has to offer in its maiden voyage: Will the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver claim a second straight title or will another take his crown?
DECOLA: It’s tempting to ride the hot hand and stick with Kyle Larson again. After all, the 2021 championship was his to lose from the springtime-on, and nobody out there would argue he wasn’t the most deserving champion of 2021.
But he won’t be in 2022.
If this were a typical season where the car specifics were largely carried over from year to year, the 10-time ’21 winner would be the obvious pick to become the sport’s first repeat champion since a certain seven-time champ picked up five of those in a row.
It’s not, though, so he isn’t. The overhaul that the sport has undergone in the three months since the Californian hoisted his first Bill France Cup are the most drastic since the days of, well, Bill France. It’s still way too early to tell how things will all shake out over the coming 36-race campaign, but it feels safe to assume that we assuredly won’t see a carbon copy of ’21.
Larson will likely still get a handful of — but definitely not 10 — wins and it’s hard to see him falling out of championship contention given his overall talent level but there are too many unknowns in the Next Gen era’s infancy to deem him an outright favorite to repeat.
Therefore, I’ll shake it up and say right now that I’m looking at Ryan Blaney as this year’s champion.
Still just 28 years old, Blaney clearly has plenty of room to go before he hits his ceiling yet has rounded into a polished driver capable of battling NASCAR’s elite for race wins. This is the year he joins them in the hunt for a championship.
Not only has his average finish been bettered essentially year over year since breaking in his fire suit with a half slate in 2015, last season’s career-best 11.9 mark was fifth-best in the series behind only Denny Hamlin, Larson, Kevin Harvick and Chase Elliott, respectively. Those are unquestionably championship-caliber names, and the next four drivers behind him on the list are all former title-winners, themselves.
Let’s not forget, too, that team owner Roger Penske allowed his flagship, champion driver Brad Keselowski — who’d been in the Cup Series full-time with the team since 2010 — to leave and partner with another longtime Ford organization in the revamped Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing.
There were lots of factors at play there, but something tells me there’s a reason The Captain was OK with the departure of his longest tenured driver.
WAACK: For the first time since Jimmie Johnson accomplished the feat five years in a row, the NASCAR Cup Series is going to see a back-to-back champion.
That’s right, I’m picking Kyle Larson to win it all this season — again. The pilot of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet is going to pick up right where he left off. He kind of already has, actually.
Last month, NASCAR hosted its final Next Gen organization test at Phoenix Raceway, the site of the 2021-22 championships. Larson, who won his 2021 title back in November, topped the Day 1 leaderboard with the fastest unofficial speed. He was eighth on Day 2 but split driving responsibilities with teammate William Byron. Safe to say, Larson is still fast.
Speaking of the Next Gen car, Larson is one of the most versatile drivers in the NASCAR garage. Because of his dirt background, he may be able to adapt to the Next Gen car quicker than his competitors. He’s already used to regularly hopping in different race cars and getting the most out of them.
Larson also proved he doesn’t favor one type of NASCAR track last year, too. Across his series-best 10 wins, each at a different venue, he won at short tracks (Bristol Motor Speedway, as an example), intermediate ovals (let’s say Charlotte Motor Speedway) and road courses (why not Sonoma Raceway). The other options were dirt and superspeedway — only one dirt race, four superspeedway events, of 36 overall.
It’d be surprising if Larson’s 2021 success didn’t carry over into 2022. But then again, Kevin Harvick won nine races in 2020 and none in 2021.
Live Fast Motorsports announced Thursday that Jessica McLeod has been appointed as the company’s new CEO. Jessica will be working directly with the company’s team owners, Matt Tifft, and her husband, co-owner and driver, B.J. McLeod.
“Jessica has been a crucial asset to LFM since the start,” Tifft said. “Her direction, hard work and dedication to the team have served as foundational assets leading us to successes in our team’s first year, 2021. Today as LFM starts our second year racing in the Cup Series, it feels right to give credit where credit is due, by naming Jessica with the well-deserved title and promotion of CEO.”
Jessica and B.J. are from Wauchula, Florida, and have had many business ventures within NASCAR’s K&N, Trucks, Xfinity and Cup Series. In the Xfinity Series, Jessica and B.J. co-own a racing team, B.J. McLeod Motorsports (BJMMS), which fields three full-time stock cars, the Nos. 5, 78 and 99. Now, Jessica climbs from general manager to CEO at LFM.
Said B.J.: “LFM is honored to name Jessica as CEO. Jessica’s commitment to this team is surreal. She carries tons of behind-the-scenes responsibilities and is a great leader to every employee and crew member on this team.”
As the Tour enters its 38th season of intense, ground-pounding, short-track asphalt Modified racing, the visit to Florida will mark the inaugural stop at New Smyrna, a half-mile banked oval. New Smyrna also serves as the official opening of the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Racing Series season. The Whelen Modified Tour will compete on the second of nine nights of the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing, one of the most prestigious racing events for grassroots competitors in the country.
It all leads up to the 64th running of the Daytona 500, set for Sunday, Feb. 20, at Daytona International Speedway, just about 15 miles up the road from New Smyrna.
The Whelen Modified Tour and New Smyrna Speedway together to open the season just seems like the perfect fit.
“It’s the right time. This is something that ever since New Smyrna Speedway joined the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Racing Series, it’s been in the works and it just hasn’t come together until now,” said Jimmy Wilson, director of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. “This really started to take shape about three years ago. We have both been working hard to make it happen.
“For me personally, New Smyrna is the first place I got a taste of the Modifieds, right at the World Series. There is nothing quite like it.”
New Smyrna Speedway
The race marks the first time the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will compete in a points-paying event in the state of Florida. Previously, the Tour competed in two non-points events at Daytona International Speedway as part of the “Battle at the Beach,” a track constructed on the backstretch of the Daytona’s 2.5-mile track. Winners in those two events were Steve Park and Doug Coby.
“Why not kick-off the season down in New Smyrna, where all of the eyes are on the area as part of the opening of the racing season,” Wilson said. “The entire NASCAR family will be there. You have the ARCA Menards Series, the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, the three national series divisions opening their season at Daytona; the only series we don’t have down there is Pinty’s.
“It’s huge for us to be part of it and get our season rolling at New Smyrna.”
Many of the drivers entered for Saturday’s 200-lap affair are no strangers to New Smyrna. During the World Series, the track holds Tour-Type Modified events five times, including two extra-distance races.
But the true difference between the Whelen Modified Tour opener and the New Smyrna weekly events is the lap distance. The longest lap count for Modified events at New Smyrna as part of the World Series is 100 laps, in the Richie Evans Memorial. In this year’s Modified Tour race, drivers will need to navigate double the distance with strategy in mind.
Teams will be allowed six change tires on top of the four with which they start the race, and they almost surely will need extra fuel to make it the full distance. As part of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour rulebook, teams are not allowed to change both tires and fuel on the same pit stop, adding a new layer to the race strategy.
When do you pit for fuel in order to make it to the end of the race? Do you save tires for the end in case of a late caution?
“New Smyrna is one of those tracks where if you start 10 cars or 40 cars, one way or another, it always turns into an entertaining race,” Wilson said. “I’ve seen it with Super Late Models, Modifieds, every division that runs there. I thought it was really important when we were putting this together for it to be a 200-lap race. Let’s double the distance. There will be multiple trips up and down pit road, and there is going to be a lot of strategy involved in who wins the race.”
The race serves as the beginning of a 16-race schedule for 2022, one that will bring teams to 13 different tracks and seven states. The storylines are endless heading into the new year, with Justin Bonsignore looking for his fourth championship while names like Ron Silk, Jon McKennedy, Kyle Bonsignore and others look to take him off the top.
“This certainly ranks up there,” Wilson said when asked whether this was one of the most anticipated seasons yet. “There has always been something we can point to every year. Coming out of what we did in 2020, and still feeling that pinch in 2021, we’re ecstatic to get back on track this year for 2022. Everything is finally coming into play for us with the schedule. We want to diversify the schedule and showcase some more tracks. Half of our garage area goes to New Smyrna for the World Series no matter what. We can’t think of a better way to kick-off the season.”
Whelen Modified Tour notes:
Justin Bonsignore opens his title defense at New Smyrna. The Holtsville, New York, native has won the last two championships and also captured the 2018 crown. He will look to become just the second driver (Doug Coby) in the modern era of the Whelen Modified Tour to win three consecutive championships.
Kyle Bonsignore, Justin’s cousin, opens the 2022 season with a new sense of pep in his step. Bonsignore will be working with Cam McDermott, one of New England’s sharpest crew chiefs, looking to become a major title threat to his cousin. Kyle’s first goal will be to kick the season off well at New Smyrna with a top-five finish, or maybe his second career Tour win.
FloRacing opens its full-time coverage of the Whelen Modified Tour on Saturday. The service will show all 16 race events live through FloRacing.TV, showcasing the series to a national audience. The events will also air on tape-delay on USA Network. Announced last week, Joe Coss and Ben Dodge will be full-time voices of the series in 2022.
Ron Silk swapped teams in the offseason, pairing with Haydt-Yannone Racing for a title run driving their No. 16. The team has plenty of experience together, running Tour-Type Modified races in 2021 with success.
Trevor Bayne is set to make his NASCAR Xfinity Series return, signing with Joe Gibbs Racing for select races in 2022.
Bayne, 30, will be behind the wheel of the No. 18 Devotion Nutrition Toyota Supra for seven starts. The 2011 Daytona 500 winner made the announcement himself on FS1’s NASCAR Race Hub on Wednesday night.
The former Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 Ford driver will make his first start Feb. 26 at Auto Club Speedway. He’s also scheduled to pilot the 2021 title-winning No. 18 at Phoenix Raceway (March 12), Charlotte Motor Speedway (May 28), Nashville Superspeedway (June 25), New Hampshire Motor Speedway (July 16), Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Oct. 15), and Homestead-Miami Speedway (Oct. 22). Jason Ratcliff will serve as crew chief. Additional drivers and sponsors will be named at a later date, according to the team.
He’s back!
Trevor Bayne will contest seven #NASCAR Xfinity Series races in the No. 18 Devotion Nutrition Toyota GR Supra, beginning at Auto Club Speedway on 2/26.
“Returning to NASCAR with Devotion Nutrition and Joe Gibbs Racing is beyond huge for me,” Bayne said in the team’s release. “Devotion is a super-passionate, family-run business with a mission to help people live a healthy lifestyle. Their passion is something I certainly relate to. Over the past three years I didn’t know if I’d ever get an opportunity to race for wins again, but my desire to do so never faded. I’m so excited to have this opportunity to work with Jason and everyone at JGR. I want nothing more than to come back stronger than ever and put that Devotion Nutrition Supra into Victory Lane.”
Bayne, whose last NASCAR action came in 2020 with eight Camping World Truck Series starts, made his Xfinity debut at the age of 18 in 2009, picking up two wins over 152 starts. He last appeared in the series in 2016 with a fifth-place finish at Watkins Glen International. Bayne was behind the wheel of two of NASCAR’s most iconic Cup Series rides for parts of nine seasons, driving the No. 21 Ford for four of them as well as well as the No. 6 Roush Fenway (now Keselowski) Racing Ford. He became the youngest driver ever to win the Daytona 500 with his Great American Race triumph in his second start ever.
“We are proud to be a part of Trevor’s return to the NASCAR Xfinity Series with Joe Gibbs Racing,” said Dana Lynn Kaye, owner of Devotion Nutrition. “We are extremely passionate about our brand and excited about the platform JGR and NASCAR provides to reach new consumers and educate them on how Devotion Nutrition can become an easy part of a daily healthy lifestyle.”
DAYTONA BEACH, FL — NASCAR announced Wednesday an official partnership with Stepp’s Towing Service, Inc., a Florida-based company that has been designated the Official Track Recovery Service Partner of NASCAR.
Stepp’s Towing Service will provide towing and wrecker vehicles for a majority of NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series events. NASCAR’s Track Services team members began training with the vehicles last month, working in conjunction with the American Medical Response safety team.
“Recovery response is a critical part of NASCAR, allowing us to safely host events without taking away from the excitement and competition that fans are used to seeing on the track each week,” said Mike Phillips, NASCAR’s managing director of track services. “The addition of Stepp’s Towing Service gives our on-track recovery teams the support they’ll need to continue providing a best-in-class on-track response throughout the season.”
Founded in 1960, Stepp’s Towing Service began as a single tow truck operation and has grown to offer a multitude of services, including towing, heavy transport, environmental response and auto salvage.
“We are extremely excited and proud to be an Official Partner and the designated Official Track Recovery Service Partner of NASCAR,” said Todd Stepp, president and CEO of Stepp’s Towing Service, Inc. “With over 60 years of experience providing top quality towing, heavy transport and recovery services in the state of Florida, we are fully committed and prepared to deliver that same level of service on a national basis across the NASCAR national series with a highly proficient, well-trained and dedicated team of towing professionals.”
The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season begins with the 64th running of the Daytona 500 on Feb. 20 (FOX at 2:30 p.m. ET).
There’s not much Kyle Busch hasn’t accomplished within the NASCAR Cup Series realm.
Busch is the only active driver with multiple championships, from his triumphs in 2015 and 2019. His 59 career wins top the current leaderboard of those in the garage. And he has won the sport’s All-Star Race (2017) and three crown-jewel events — Southern 500 in 2008, Coca-Cola 600 in 2018 and Brickyard 400 in 2015-16.
The only gem he’s missing there is the Daytona 500.
“I’ve yet to win that race,” Busch said Tuesday during a Zoom teleconference. “That’s kind of the biggest thing, the last checkbox on my radar, my career that I’ve yet to get.”
The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota will have his 17th chance at the Harley J. Earl Trophy next Sunday with the 64th running of The Great American Race at Daytona International Speedway (Feb. 20 at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“That would be nice,” Busch said. “And to do it in the Next Gen car would be fantastic as the first superspeedway race with it.”
The Next Gen car made its debut last Sunday in The Busch Light Clash exhibition at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Busch finished runner-up to Joey Logano by 0.877 seconds. Busch, however, led a race-high 64 of the 150 laps.
“We didn’t have a very good Phoenix test, which is representative,” Busch said. “And so we came out of the box at (the Coliseum) really good I thought and ready to go and the best of our team obviously, so that was really good. That was a little bit of a confidence booster for me and my guys getting into that part of the season, with Phoenix and Martinsville coming up (soon). Hopefully that bodes well. We’ll see.”
Results from the temporary quarter-mile track NASCAR built inside the Coliseum will translate more to a 0.526-mile Martinsville Speedway or 1-mile Phoenix Raceway than the 2.5-mile beast that is Daytona. Phoenix is the fourth race on the schedule, Martinsville eighth. So, pocket Clash notes until then. They, too, will have a different rules configuration than Daytona anyway.
Daytona will require Next Gen cars to have an engine-output target of 510 horsepower and a 7-inch rear spoiler. NASCAR held two offseason tests – one back in September, the other in January – to determine its superspeedway package. Busch wasn’t present at either, but he discussed findings with Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin, along with brother and fellow Toyota pilot Kurt Busch.
“There was a little bit of tandem effect that they were trying to do that seemed to be a little effective, not as bad as what we saw back in 2010, 2011, whenever that was when we were doing this,” Kyle Busch said. “But I think the other thing of this car is it’s going to react very similar in the draft. You’re going to need majority of cars to go faster than fewer cars, so whichever line has the most power in it is going to be the faster line. I anticipate there being two-wide action. I don’t know how slippery the cars felt while in the draft, especially the buffering effect that get as well as the straightaway looseness that you get when the cars aren’t loaded like you feel when you’re in the corner. A lot of unknowns for me, so I’m needing to get some of that track time, practice time to kind of feel all that out.”
And he’ll get that extra track time, as practice and qualifying make their return in 2022 after a two-year absence for the most part due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
There are two practices on tap next Tuesday, with single-car qualifying set for the following Wednesday. Next Thursday will then showcase the two Bluegreen Vacations Duels before a third practice Friday and the final practice Saturday.
That’s five days’ worth of work before the Daytona 500 itself.
“It’s a clean slate all over,” Busch said. “I mean, you want to win obviously.”
