The series that probably had the most drama throughout the 2024 season was the NASCAR Cup Series. From all-out brawls to short tempers to teams feuding with NASCAR, the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series had it all! It got all of us and fans alike excited for what’s to come in 2025. Many teams will be the same and will be hoping to build on what they created last year. Others will be looking to do something a little different. There’ll be new faces in new places for some of these drivers. Here’s who you might want to watch out for come 2025.
In most cases, putting Kyle Busch on a list like this would be blasphemous. But let’s face it: 2024 was an awful year for the 20-year vet and his number 8 RCR crew. Clearly, the team just wasn’t up to speed with the rest of the field. And, whenever Busch tried pushing the envelope and getting more out of the car than the car had to give, he usually spun out or wrecked. Kyle Busch went winless for the first time in his NASCAR career in 2024.
Now, it would be easy to say that this trend will continue and that Kyle Busch’s winning ways are behind him. But we don’t think that’s the case. He showed us all his talent when he left the comfort of his JGR M&Ms 18 for the middling RCR team. He won 3 races in 2023 alone, putting aside his late-season collapse that carried into 2024 like a bad hangover. But we expect KFB to return to form in 2025. He ain’t done yet, guys. Watch out for Kyle Busch to grab a number of wins in 2025.
Heading into 2024, nobody was expecting Carson Hocevar to set the world on fire. He was driving for Spire Motorsports, a team that has improved over the years but was still solidly a mid-pack team. Considering the team he was driving for, he did pretty well. He outran both of his teammates pretty consistently and even scored a 3rd place finish at Watkins Glen, his best of the season. He finished in the top 20 23 times, 6 of them being top 10s.
While not exactly championship material, this does provide a solid foundation for the team to build on in 2025. It is clear that Hocevar is Spire’s new cornerstone driver. They’re looking to build this team around him, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of those top-20 runs turn into top-15 and top-10 finishes.
There will be a lot of eyes on SVG in 2025, and that’s for a very good reason. I personally think that he’s a virtual shoo-in for the NASCAR Playoffs. Think about it: he won in his debut Cup Series race. That’s nearly unheard of! In 2024, he ran a handful of races for Kaulig in the Cup Series, backing up his win with a 2nd place finish at Watkins Glen.
On the Xfinity side of things, he ran the full 2024 season, including 3 wins. Needless to say, he qualified for the 2024 Xfinity Series post-season but was eliminated in the Round of 12. He improved on the ovals throughout the year, ending the season with two top-10 finishes at Kansas and Darlington, respectively. Look for SVG to win at least one of the road course races in his Trackhouse number 88 in 2025.
Many fans consider Ryan Preece a NASCAR bust. He has had an abysmal NASCAR Cup Series career so far. But to be fair, look at who he was driving for. His first full-time season returned in 2019 when he drove the 47 car for JTG Daugherty Racing. For the 2020 and 2021 seasons, they moved him to the number 37 open entry, replacing him with Chris Buescher. In 2022, he dropped to part-time after signing a developmental contract with Stewart-Haas Racing.
He was officially called up to the Majors for the 2023 season, taking over the struggling number 41 team from Cole Custer. But Preece didn’t perform any better in the car. His best points finish was 23rd, and Tony Stewart already had one foot out the door. SHR was on a downward trajectory even before Preece joined the team. Meanwhile, RFK, with the help of co-owner Brad Keselowski (who is actually present in team operations), is trending in the right direction.
They won one race in 2022 with Chris Buescher and followed that up with three more wins for the 17 car in 2023. Brad got his first win for the team at Darlington in 2024, and Buscher scored a win at Watkins Glen. In 2025, Ryan Preece will run an expansion team in the number 60 car for RFK Racing. Look for this team to run just as well as its 6 and 17 teammates.
In Kevin Harvick’s departure, Chase Briscoe became The Guy at Stewart-Haas Racing. Though, even he didn’t run that great. He did, however, deliver SHR their final victory and Playoff berth, so there’s that. Most of his issues over the last couple of years were almost entirely on the team. Even Kevin Harvick couldn’t win in their equipment at the end, and after he left, the team crumbled and folded in on itself. In 2025, look for Briscoe to make a huge jump in performance. He’s leaving the floundering SHR team for the thriving team of Joe Gibbs Racing. He will drive the number 19 Bass Pro Shops Chevy, teaming with MTJ’s former crew chief, James Small.
He might not win off the bat. It may take a few starts for him to get used to his new environment. But once everything is adjusted, I wouldn’t be surprised one bit to see Chase Briscoe become a legit championship threat.
That does it for us, Daily Downforce readers. What drivers do you think we ought to keep an eye on next year? Who will take a step forward, and who do you think will regress? Let us know by commenting on our posts! And be sure to come back here all offseason long for the latest breaking news and silly season rumors in NASCAR.
EchoPark Speedway, or Atlanta Motor Speedway, is often touted as the most exciting track on the NASCAR circuit. What was first seen as a Frankenstein experiment, Marcus Smith’s idea to turn AMS into a baby Daytona worked out in the end. We’ve gotten great race after great race and tonight was no different as fans saw Tyler Reddick power by Carson Hocevar to go two in a row to start the season.
But not everyone had a season to remember. Many drivers and teams had a season that they’d sooner forget. These are the biggest losers of the 2026 EchoPark Speedway racing weekend.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race officials rightly got blasted online by fans after they made the extremely questionable decision to put the Truck race on Saturday on the weather clock. That would have been an understandable move if circumstances were different. But they caught flak because 1.) EchoPark Speedway has lights, 2.) the weather had moved out for the weekend, and 3.)…umm…they were only 10 laps shy from the scheduled distance anyway.
Now, we know who the defenders are. The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Race was slated to follow, but NASCAR has pushed races off in the past. And really, how much time would the CW have lost? Ten minutes? Twenty? If that? That, in my book, makes the NCTS officials some of the biggest losers on the weekend. They owe us fans ten more measly laps for racing!
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Of any driver currently in the Chevy ranks, none has had the support thrown behind them like Corey Day. Day, a protege of proven NASCAR champion Kyle Larson, apparently has turned some heads on the dirt scene. Makes sense, since Larson himself said that he’d rather win the Chili Bowl than the Daytona 500. But unlike other drivers, such as Connor Zilisch, who have excelled in other racing disciplines outside of NASCAR, Day’s career so far has been lukewarm at best. And his race yesterday was the epitome of a rookie race, ladened with senseless mistakes.
The incident that hurt the most was the one where he wrecked his fellow HMS/JRM teammates, Carson Kvapil and Justin Allgaier. He simply just took them out while racing for the race lead. Though he was, somehow, able to rebound to finish the race in the 4th position, yesterday was a sloppy performance that even Corey himself acknowledges that he’d rather put behind him.
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Chastain did it again! And now, the feelings are mixed. Remember when Ross Chastain used to just send drivers willy-nilly, and it really got on fans’ nerves? Well, thankfully, he’s calmed down in recent years and has become a more respectable veteran of the sport. That is not to say that he still doesn’t have his…moments. Saturday night at the O’Reilly Auto Parts race, Ross Chastain, going for the win, entered turn 1 and sent leader Austin Hill.
Hill was the overwhelming favorite to win this race, and fans have grown sick of him. So, really, this was a welcome return to form for Chastain, a version of him that used to be loathed by fans. Thus, while fans might have won out by Chastain doing what he does best and slaying Austin Hill, the RCR team, and really, anyone who has Chastain in their rearview mirror in the closing laps, are the real losers this weekend.
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There were a couple of drivers who ended 2025 on a sour note and were looking to turn things around and start 2026 strong. One of those has to be Josh Berry and his entire Wood Brothers team. After floundering around with Harrison Burton for a few seasons, the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford got the shot in the arm that they needed with a new crew chief and Josh Berry as their new driver. They led a bunch of laps at Atlanta in 2025, only for a wreck with 10 laps to go to take them out of contention. Not to worry, though: they followed it up with a win at Las Vegas.
But since that win, the team suffered a steep decline heading into the summer months. By the time the postseason rolled around, they had the single worst Playoff performance in history with three straight last-place finishes. Though he had a promising start to the season with a 9th-place run in the Daytona 500, it was the same old same old tonight. Berry showed some speed in the first stage but ultimately crashed after Christopher Bell forced the issue in the beginning of Stage 2. It’s a familiar routine for the Wood Brothers. Yet another last-place finish. That makes them one of the biggest losers of the weekend. If only they could have capitalized.
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This one’s a tired subject, so I won’t dwell on it too long. Kyle Busch’s late career decline at Richard Childress Racing should be studied. Though he showed speed early on, it was yet again a single-car spin that ended his day prematurely. Granted, he didn’t spin completely on his own. He was tagged from behind by Noah Gragson. But, that was after he checked up twice and recklessly pulled up in front of him in a hole that was barely there. Yet another disappointing outing for Rowdy Nation.
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The checkered flag has flown in the second race of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Season. And, at the end of the day, it was Tyler Reddick who went back-to-back to win at EchoPark Speedway. Tonight, Reddick became the sixth NASCAR Cup Series driver to win the first two races of the season. He is the first since NASCAR Hall of Famer Matt Kenseth did it to kick off the 2009 season.
But, of course, Reddick wasn’t the only one to have a great start to the season. Several drivers leave Atlanta with a great points day, including Carson Hocevar, Bubba Wallace, William Byron, and Ryan Blaney. Here are the highlights of tonight’s race:
From an awful showing in the 2025 Playoffs to yet another last-place finish, Josh Berry’s 2026 season is off to a rough start. Today, he got together with Ty Gibbs after Gibbs had an awful start to the year last year. The No. 54 was able to turn it around later in the season, though. But, for their 2026 outing, there’s a lot left to be desired. Check it out.
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Kyle Busch’s 2025 season was abysmal. But, after he put his No. 8 RCR Chevy on the pole for the 2026 Daytona 500, things seemed to be looking up. He smartly survived last week by lying back on the last lap and safely navigating through the crash, finishing 15th. And he was a contender early in this race. However, late, Kyle Busch continued his dismal legacy at RCR by spinning after contact with Noah Gragson. His day ended prematurely. Check it out:
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We got our first big crash of the race at Lap 224 when both Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano got loose in front of the field. You can read all about that incident with the link below:
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Things started to get real for the NASCAR Cup Series drivers as we got inside 40 laps to go. We got our first Big One of the afternoon at Lap 224. It was triggered as the field came out of Turn 4 and entered the dogleg. Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin, both whose cars were upset by the dirty air, got together. Logano was able to scoot on virtually unscathed. However, Hamlin turned in front of the pack, collecting several stars and heavy hitters. Here’s what happened:
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