Nascar Offseason News and Updates

 



The Nascar offseason is well underway as we are about to be a month past the championship race. December is here and it has brought a lot of Nascar news since November. Silly season news(Nascar free agency) has taken over the Nascar world as drivers and teams solve their questions for the 2022 season. Starting off, Brad Keslowski will move into the newly named Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing also abbreviated as “RFK racing”. With this move Keslowski will now be a co owner with Jack Roush in the Nascar Cup Series. “RFK Racing” will field two cars in 2022, consisting of Chris Buscher driving the number 17 car and Keslowski driving the Number 6. 


( RFK Racing's new team car for 2022)

Since Keslowski has left “ Team Penske”, Austin Cindric takes his place in the number 2 car. This will be Cindric’s first full Cup season as he will be leaving the Nascar Xfinity Series behind. Staying in the Penske affiliated camp, Harrison Burton will also be moving up from the Nascar Xfinity Series. Burton will take over the number 21, Wood Brothers Racing Ford. With this move, Cup series veteran Matt DiBenedetto is out of a ride for 2022 currently. Dibenedetto has considered running Cup, Xfinity or even Trucks as he heads into his next opportunity. Austin Cindric and Harrison Burton will be in the running for the 2022 rookie of the year. 


Moving on to a team that will depart from Nascar this offseason is Chip Ganassi Racing. Ganassi Racing has sold out to newly second year branded Trackhouse Racing. The “Trackhouse” team will field two cars in 2022, with Ross Chastain driving the number 1 car, alongside Daniel Suarez in the number 99 car. With Chip Ganassi Racing closing down after the 2021 season, this means Kurt Busch, their second driver at the time, will leave for 23xi Racing. Busch will drive the number 45 car alongside Bubba Wallace in the 23 car, as 23xi enters their second season in the Cup Series. Both of these teams in their second year will look for a giant leap of improvement come February. 


Another offseason move involves JTG Daugherty Racing and Front Row MotorSports. JTG Daugherty racing will scale back to a one car team, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will drive the number 47 car in 2022. This will leave Ryan Preece in search of a job heading into the new year. Following this move, Front Row MotorSports announced Michael McDowell will return for next year, as now second year driver Anthony Alfredo will not. Alfredo, who didn’t have quite the ideal rookie season, will be in search of a new team. Alfredo’s replacement will be four year Nascar Trucks driver Todd Gilliland, he will step in place full time next year and drive the number 38 car. 


( Ty Dillion driving the number 94 car during the Charlotte Roval Next Gen Test)



A new Cup Series team in 2022 will be GMS Racing. Ty Dillion who’s older brother is Nascar veteran Austin Dillion will be back in the Cup Series. Dillion, whose last full time season was in 2020, attempted to qualify for the 2021 Daytona 500 is officially back. Dillion, who was not a lock for last year's Daytona 500 didn’t make it, but this year he is a lock come February. GMS Racing secured a charter from Richard Petty MotorSports earlier in the week. A full time guaranteed charter is huge for a team like “GMS”, as they will have a driver and now a complete team for their first Cup season. As a result, Ty Dillion is back in the Cup series and will drive the number 94 car.  


( The number 16 Kaulig Car in the garage area)


Lastly, Kaulig Racing will be another new team in the Nascar Cup Series. Kaulig Racing has been in Nascar for a numerous amount of years running full time in the Nascar Xfinity Series. Things will change as Kaulig will now run two cars next year in the Cup Series. One full time car and one part time, Justin Haley will run full time in the number 16 car for Kaulig in 2022, as A.J. Allmendinger will run part time. Allmendinger will run 12 to 15 races next year in the second car. Free agent drivers still out there are Matt DiBenedetto, Ryan Newman, Ryan Preece, Anthony Alfredo and Aric Almirola. DiBenedetto is once again out of a ride after Harrison Burton was announced to be his replacement. Newman is also out of a job currently, with Keslowski joining the rebranded team RFK Racing. Keslowski will take Newman’s number 6 car as Newman is in search of a job. Preece will join these other two drivers with JTG Daugherty Racing shrinking to a single car team. Moving on to Aric Almirola, in regards to his camp nothing has been announced at the moment, but Almirola is expected to return with Stewart Haas Racing for the 2022 season. 


( The Busch Clash Logo for 2022 in February)



This is not the end of the Nascar offseason as there is still the month of January and the beginning of February left. More news and updates will continue to come out in the Nascar world as we are a month and some change into the offseason. For next year’s 2022 Busch Clash exhibition race, along with the season opener 2022 Daytona 500 information please view the links below.  


( All images creditied to https://www.foxsports.com/nascar/cup-series.)


For next year's race information please view:

 https://www.nascar.com/2022/busch-light-clash-at-the-coliseum/

https://www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com/







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