2023 NASCAR Cup Series Preview

The Stars of the NASCAR Cup Series makes their return to Los Angeles for the second annual Clash At The Coliseum this year to kick off the 2023 season. There will be plenty of changes when the green flag drops on Sunday, here I will go over all the rule changes and the new drivers in new places as we kick off the 75th year of NASCAR racing.

NASCAR's First Street Race: While it isn't the massive overhaul some would have expected, there will be a few tweaks to the 36 Race Schedule in 2023, the biggest happening on July 4th weekend as NASCAR will run it's first race ever on a street circuit in Chicago. This had been rumored for a while as they would run a simulated race here on IRacing. The track's layout will span the cities Lake Shore District with twelve 90 Degree corners. This is sure to create plenty of opportunities for beating and banging as each driver will enter the corner's hard trying to make up ground. There will be a lot of hype around this race so it will be exciting to see how it turns out.

North Wilkesboro's Triumphant Return: maybe one of most popular announcements that NASCAR has ever made, North Wilkesboro Speedway will make it's return for the NASCAR All-Star Race in May. Since moving the race to Texas in 2021, The shine on the All-Star race really lost it's luster. To most fans and drivers, there was nothing really special about it as it was just another race at a cookie cutter mile and a half track. Things are certainly much different as North Wilkesboro Speedway returns after a 27 year hiatus. The track's racing surface will remain untouched so it will be like the track never left. This race will be the biggest ticket of the season as racing fans old and new are sure to pack the seats. We can expect to see this track on the schedule permanently in the future but it might come at a cost that may seem unpopular among fans but that is much further down the line, but for now it's good to have Wilkesboro back.

The Rule Changes: There have been quite a bit of new regulations that NASCAR have changed for this season. The most controversial of these is the banning of the "Hail Melon" move that Ross Chastain made at Martinsville. The new rule states that anyone that attempts to ride the wall to advance their position will receive a time penalty. Personally, I kind of had a feeling this was coming as drivers like Kyle Larson and Joey Logano have been vocal about eliminating the move. Personally I get why they are doing this as it's a major safety concern.

Another major rule change implemented this year is the elimination of the top-30 rule. Since NASCAR brought this new points system into action in 2014, a win would guarantee a playoff birth for each driver. This came under the condition that the driver attempted to qualify each race and was able to make the top-30 in points. For 2023, the top-30 criteria has been eliminated. This will benefit drivers like Corey Lajoie who nearly won last year at Atlanta. While I understand why the sport is making this change for the car owners, I personally don't like it. I believe that there is less incentive to run up-front in all of the other races, plus a lot of these teams will have a hard time making it out of the first round of the playoffs because of how disadvantaged they are on resources. Overall though making the playoffs would be MASSIVE for a team like Spire as they get a much bigger cut of the revenue at the end of the season should they win a race this year.

New Faces In New Places: There will be plenty of drivers who have switched teams this season including 2-time champion Kyle Busch and his move to Richard Childress Racing from Joe Gibbs Racing. He replaces Tyler Reddick who moves to Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin's team 23XI Racing. Reddick replaces Kyles brother Kurt Busch who retired at the end of the season due to concussions. Kyle Busch's replacement at JGR is Ty Gibbs who will be promoted from the Xfinity series after winning the title last season. Ty will be sporting a new number in 2023 as he will drive the #54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry for Rookie Of The Year. Other major driver/team changes are Noah Gragson moving up to drive the #42 for the Newley named Legacy Motor Club (Formally Known as Petty-GMS) Ryan Preece returning from a one year hiatus to drive the #41 for Stewart-Haas Racing and Ty Dillon moving to the #77 for Spire.

Jimmie's Return: Two of NASCAR's greatest champions Jimmie Johnson and Richard Petty have teamed up to form the Legacy Motor Club. They will field two cars driven by Erik Jones and Noah Gragson and occasional starts by Jimmie Jonson as he will attempt the Daytona 500 this year. This is a great look for the sport as all of the legends we grew up watching are sticking around in some capacity.

Farewell Season's: As we all know, it is confirmed that 2014 Cup Series Champion Kevin Harvick will call it a career at the end of the season but another driver that could join him next season is Martin Truex Jr. Truex has not announced his plans for 2024 but after signing a one year deal last season and John-Hunter Nemechek waiting in the wings, it has been highly rumored that 2023 will be it for the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series Champion. NASCAR regular Aric Almirola has also been rumored to retire at the end of the season as well.

The Car: 2022 was a tough year for NASCAR's new car as there were plenty of safety concerns with how it was built. We saw four drivers miss races due to injuries which would cost Kurt Busch his Career. The drivers are saying the new upgrades have been better but only time will tell. Some of the major differences are the lowering of the spoiler and the use of mufflers to the car. They will be testing some of these at the Coliseum this week. Personally, I believe the new mufflers on the cars will cause some concern with heat but from what I have read the cars appeared to do fine after a test session at Phoenix. There is also talk of completely removing the spoiler from the back of the car. I will be interested to see how this works.

Possible 2024 storylines: It's never to early to look towards the future as the NASCAR landscape changes quickly. A lot of the protentional storylines center around Stewart-Haas Racing, Joe Gibbs and Toyota as they all try and lock up their driver-lineups. Tony Stewart will have to find a driver to replace the retiring Kevin Harvick and Aric Almirola. Some drivers to look out for are Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Michael McDowell and even Denny Hamlin.

This will be an important season for NASCAR as change will become more and more imminent over the next 12 months.