NASCAR HISTORY HIGHLIGHTS BY YEAR - 2020's
2020 - The Next Gen car was supposed to be introduced and raced full time in 2021. But Covid-19 kept that from happening. So the release and competition of the new car was pushed back to 2022. Covid-19 was the biggest story of 2020. The season kicked off as usual, but was haulted when a pandemic occured and virtually the whole country shut down. After a two month break, NASCAR returned to racing but did not have practice or qualifying. They whole season was completed; along with a lot of testing for the new NextGen cars. It was determined that all tracks except super sweedways would run with a 670 horsepower motor, and low down force, with just a four-inch spoiler. Other changes included going from 15-inch wheels to 18-inch wheels; from tires eight inches wide to ones 12 inches wide. Also instead of the normal 'H-pattern shifter there would be a sequectial shifter where you pushed the shifter forward to backwards to shift up and down. Most all parts would come from an assortment of suppliers with individual race teams being limited what they could produce on their own. Chassis "green house" would be produced and the front and rear ends would now be "bolt on". This would allow for teams to just change a front or rear clip after a crash, and thus prevent having to throw the whole car away. Also cars could now be adjusted to run on all the various track since they had a standardized body and chassis. NASCAR had to juggle it's schedule, with different states having different rules on how they dealt with Covid. Darlington saw back to back races in May; as did Charlotte. The season opening Daytona saw a terrifying last lap crash that left everyone who saw it with the idea NASCAR had just lost another driver to a violent crash. Ryan Newman was leading coming off the final corner to the checkered flag with Ryan Blaney right behind. Blaney accidently spun Newman just before the start finish line and he flew up into the air and went upseide down. While he was upside down he was struck in the driver side window. Newman had to be extracated, and was rushed to the hospital, with NASCAR being very closed-mouth about his condition. In a mircle, Newman not only survived; but walked out of the hospital just two days later. He suffered a closed-head injury and had to sit out the season while that healed. He only ended up missing a couple races due to racing being shut down for Covid. Denny Hamlin went on to win the 500. In other races, Rookie Cole Custer would win an exciting race at Kentucky with a daring four wide pass on the final lap. William Byron would also collect his first career Cup win at Daytona in August. Chase Elliott would continue to be the road course king as he claimed wins at the Daytona Road Course and the Roval at Charlotte. Elliott was in a must-win situation when the series whent to Martinsville before the Championship. He had a stout car and got the win, to advance him to the Championship race. At Phoenix he was strong again and claimed the win and the Cup Championship. In the Truck Series, Sheldon Creed wpould claim the CHampionship while Austin Cindric would claim the Xfinity series Championship. Denny Hamlin and NBA star Michael Jordan formed a new Cup team to compete in 2021 and selected Bubba Wallace as the driver. Inducted for this years NASCAR Hall of Fame Class were: drivers, Buddy Baker, Tony Stewart asnd Bobby Labonte. Also inducted was car owner Joe Gibbs, who saw Stewart and Labonte both drive for him and won Cup Championships while doing so. Finally we have engine builder Waddell Wilson. Wilson worked with Stewart at Ranier Racing during a limited run in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 1996. The Landmark Award for Outstanding Contributions to NASCAR was Eddel Ford II. He is a direct descendant of car maker Henry Ford and is on the Board of Directors at Ford Motor Company. Unfortunately we lost drivers Dick Passwater and John Andretti. Also chief engine builder at Petty Enterprises Maurice Petty, and New Hampshire Motor Speedway track owner Bob Bahre. Jimmie Johnson ended his Cup career and switched to driving Indy cars part-time in 2021, running just the road courses. He announced that he would start racing Indy cars full time in 2022. This would also be the final season for Cup driver Clint Bowyer.
2021 - NASCAR introduced a vastly different race schedule. Some due to Covid and some were planned changes. The sanctioning body delivered with a 36-race schedule that featured more road racing, less races on intermediate tracks and its first race since 1970 on dirt. Included in the changes are several new venues – Nashville Superspeedway, Circuit of the Americas, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, Road America, and Daytona Road Course. Also Bristol was transformed into a dirt track for one race as 2,300 load of dirt was hauled in for the race. In the racing news; we saw a surprise winner in the Daytona 500. Michael McDowell drove the under funded Front Row Ford to victory. McDowell was running third as the field entered the final corner and team-mates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano took each other out and McDowell squirted through to get the win. It was the first career win for McDowell. The following week we had another first time winner as Christopher Bell pulled the upset win on the Daytona Road Course. Other notable wins included: Chase Elliott winning at the new venues of Road America and Circuit of the Americas. Full time Xfinity driver, AJ Allmendinger grabbed a Cup win, when NASCAR ran the road course portion of the track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Another first time winner saw Bubba Wallace be leading at the right time, when the rains came and concluded the race at Talladega. Kyle Larson returned from his suspension to drive for owner Rick Hendrick. Larson showed Hendrick that he was right to put his faith in him, as he went to victory lane ten times and claimed the Cup Championship.
The Truck Series saw Ben Rhodes win that Championship; again Kyle Busch raced five times in a series and won all five races.
Daniel Hemric finally broke through to get his first career Xfinity win; and also claim the Xfinity Championship.
This year NASCAR reduced the number of people inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame from five down to three. In addition to the reduction of inductees; drivers were split into two different ballots. Two nominees were from the "Modern Era" ballot; and one from a NASCAR "Pioneer" ballot. The Pioneer ballot includes nominees whose careers began in 1961 or earlier. Inducted into this years class were: Dale Earnhardt Jr, and Mike Stefanik as Modern Era; while Red Farmer was the Pioneer inducee. The Landmark Award for Outstanding Contributions to NASCAR was Ralph Seagraves. He was an executive for RJ Reynolds Tobacco. Unfortunately we lost race drivers Jack Ingram, Charlie Glotzbach, Ramo Stott, John Wes Townley, Eric McClure, Bob Keselowski, and brothers Bobby and Al Unser. BIg changes are once again planned for 2022 as the next Gen car will be introduced and several "old" tracks are trying to make a come back and get back on the Cup schedule. Nashville Fairgrounds, North Wilkesboro and Rockingham are investing huge sums of money to rebuild or improve their facilities. The value of NASCAR Charters rose dramatically as "new" teams were formed in anticipation of getting into Cup racing with the new Next Gen car leveling the playing field. New teams so far going to Cup are Kaulig Racing; TrackHouse Motorsports, Gallagher Motorsports, and Our Racing. News just keeps coming in 2021. Other surprises we saw, Chip Ganassi sell his entire NASCAR outfit to TrackHouse Racing and get out of NASCAR competition. Brad Keselowski announced that he would leave Team Penske as a driver; and go to join Jack Roush as a driver-owner
2022 - This was certainly a year for "new" things and a series of 'first'. Most notably was the introduction of the new NextGen car. NASCAR didn't allow teams to build their own race cars any more. Race chassis were provided by a single manufacturer; and assembled as the Chassis; a front clip and a rear clip. It was hoped that teams would be able to simply replace a front or rear clip and not have to discard an entire race car after a crash. The car was fitted with a rack-and-pinion steering system. The four speed H-pattern was replaced by an X-Trac supplied transaxle. To change gears now drivers simply bump the shifter lever forward or backward. The old 15-inch wagon wheels will be sent to pasture with the introduction of the Next Gen and be replaced by a BBS supplied 18-inch forged aluminum wheel. The change to a center-lock wheel met the most pushback from teams, but it was required because of the destruction the 10,000-rpm air gun would cause each time it is was slammed against the aluminum wheel. The aluminum wheel would also tend to wallow out the holes from a five lug nut set-up. With a new wheel came a new tire. It goes from 8 inches wide to now being 12 inches wide; and has a short sidewall; eliminating the inner-liner (this would cause problems all season). The bigger tires allowed for larger brakes and better stopping power. Another notable item, was a NASCAR-spec underbody and rear diffuser designed to discourage competitive advantage in that area and reduce the dreaded “aero push”. More air was directed under the car and the 'wake' behind the car became much narrower; allowing the following cars to be able to get air on their nose with a better chance to pass. For the first time the Busch Clash was contested someplace other than Daytona. The grass at Los Angeles Coliseum was covered with plywood; a plastic membrane; several inches of dirt and eventually paved to create a 1/4 mile track. Joey Logano would claim the win. One of several 'first,' was Austin Cindric won his first Cup race as he won the Daytona 500 to kick off the season; with Bubba Wallace second; and Chase Briscoe third. The fourth race of the season saw second year driver Chase Briscoe break through and get his first win. Track House racing was formed in 2022 and driver Ross Chastain would get his (and the teams) first win at COTA. Shortly after that Chastain's team mate Daniel Suarez broke through and got his first Cup win at Sonoma. Tyler Reddick got his first Cup win at Road America; making five first time winners in 2022; tying the record for most ever first time winners in the modern era. Kyle Busch continued his record winnings streak when he won on the dirt at Bristol. He is now tied with Richard Petty; winning 18 years in a row. Speaking of Kyle Busch; M&M's (which had sponsored his for many years) announced they were getting out of NASCAR at the end of 2022. So, the team was searching for a new sponsor for Busch. As time dragged on; Busch openly said; he would go to a different team if necessary. While all this was unfolding; Tyler Reddick announced he would be going to drive for 23XI Racing in 2024. So, he had 1 1/2 years left in his contract with Richard Childress Racing. Childress wasn't happy about the news, because he had only been told about the move an hour before the official announcement. Fast forward to mid-September, and now Kyle Busch is moving over to RCR to drive the #8 car in 2023. Childress said Reddick would still have his ride for 2023 at RCR; but 23XI bought out Reddick's contract and he will start driving for them in 2023. Joe Gibbs grandson, Ty Gibbs, is expected to drive the ride that was occupied by Busch in the upcoming 2023 season. Reddick won again after he was eliminated from the play-offs when he claimed the victory at Texas. Also in 2022, we had 19 different winners; also tying the modern day record. Notable drivers "not" to win in 2022 was Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex. We had 16 different winners in the first 26 races; but Kurt Busch suffered a concussion at Pocono and was not released to drive before the Chase started. After the season, Busch announced he was done driving full time. After the Chase started, we had three drivers "not" in the chase claim wins. Erik Jones won the Southern 500; and was followed with wins by Bubba Wallace at Kansas, and Chris Buescher at Bristol. Other drivers with wins included Austin Dillon, who won the summer race at Daytona to just edge himself in the Chase. Kevin Harvick struggled all season; but managed to put together back-to-back wins at Michigan and Richmond. Chase Elliott won a season high five races and was the regular season champion. Hendrick Motorsports won 10 of the 26 regular season races. During the Chase; Alex Bowman also suffered a concussion in the Texas race; and didn't return until the final race at Phoenix. Cody Ware also had a crash at Texas, and received an impaction fracture to his right ankle. Driver rumblings grew louder as they criticized NASCAR for the new car not being as safe as the previous edition. Fire had also became an issue, as the cars would build up rubber in the exhaust area and catch fire; and then also burn the sides of the cars carbon fire; eliminating the car from the race. This happened on several occasions. Major drivers such as Kevin Harvick; Martin Truex; After the chaos with blown tires; even the most popular driver, Chase Elliott, spoke up and stated his opinion about the lack of safety in the new cars. Fan complaints increased as did driver complaints; and NASCAR saw they were in a position something had to change. Other notable items, was that 7 time Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson ran his first Indy 500 and had a good showing until just a few laps to go when his car got out from under him and he crashed. Later in the year he announced he was done driving 'full-time' in the Indy Car series; then later he bought into part ownership with Petty/GMS Racing. He announced he would compete in a third car part time in 2023. It was announced that AJ Allmendinger would return to full time Cup competition in 2023 driving for Kaulig Racing. Allmendinger is a great road course racer; and with seven road course events on the schedule, it is highly likely AJ might win one of those and put Kaulig Racing in the Chase. He has also shown great improvement on all the other tracks on the Cup schedule. Along the lines of drivers moving; Ty Dillon was let go from the #42 Petty GMS car at the end of 2022, and replaced with Noah Gragson. Cole Custer lost his Cup ride and will be replaced by Ryan Preece for 2023. Custer will drive for Stewart-Hass in the Xfinity Series in 2023.
Crew chief for Alex Bowman; Greg Ives; decided he would retire from his crew chief position at the end of the season after 17 seasons.
Also, ongoing talks with 'Dodge' to return to NASCAR racing stalled and no plans have been announced. NASCAR is working toward having a 'wet-weather' package for 2023 to use on short tracks. Rockingham Speedway continues to make improvements to the facility in hopes of luring the Cup Series back to compete there. The Cup cars saw a 'number shift' in 2022 as the door numbers were moved forward some to allow more room for sponsorship signage on the rear quarter panels. This year also saw the Drivers Advisory Council created with Jeff Burton as Director. This council is an independent group of eligible members that, through its passion for competition and sustainability of racing, is committed to further improving the areas of safety in motorsports, growing and enhancing the sport. This was the last year for Camping World to sponsor the Truck Series as original series sponsor Craftsman, will step back in as the series sponsor in 2023.
After finishing second the previous two years in the hunt for the Truck Championship; Zane Smith finally managed to nab the championship. He will run some races in 2023 in the Cup Series, while returning to the Truck series full time.
Ty Gibbs won the Xfinity Championship. That night after his family arrived home from winning the Championship; his father Coy Gibbs died in his sleep. Retired NASCAR drivers, Neil Castles and Buddy Arrington, passed away in 2022, as did promoter Bruton Smith.