As a Cup champion will switch teams for the second year in row, a key question becomes what is more valuable in NASCAR’s top series: Youth or experience?
Brad Keselowski moved this year from Team Penske to what is now RFK Racing to be an owner/driver. Kyle Busch moves next year from Joe Gibbs Racing to Richard Childress Racing.
In both instances, the move came near the peak season, statistically, for each as a driver. David Smith — who operated his own analytics website and worked for NBC Sports before joining RFK Racing before this season — noted that the age 39 season was a driver’s peak season. Keselowski turned 38 before this year’s Daytona 500. Busch turns 38 next May.
As the Cup lineup trends younger, what is the place for drivers in their late 30s?
Keselowski was replaced by Austin Cindric, who turned 24 earlier this month. Joe Gibbs Racing is expected to replace Busch with Ty Gibbs, who turns 20 in October.
Cindric is worthy, having nearly won back-to-back Xfinity championships the previous two seasons. Gibbs won in his first Xfinity start last year. He’s won more than 20% of his Xfinity starts.
“We know Ty Gibbs is ready to race (in Cup),” David Wilson, president of Toyota Racing Development told NBC Sports in July.
Cindric and Gibbs were among eight drivers in last weekend’s Cup playoff race at Kansas Speedway who are age 25 or younger.
The average age of last weekend’s Cup race — won by 28-year-old Bubba Wallace — was 30.4 years.
That’s a slightly younger average age than the field for last weekend’s IndyCar season finale at Laguna Seca. The average age for that race — won by 25-year-old Alex Palou — was 30.8.
Car owner Rick Hendrick started the change toward younger drivers in Cup, hiring a 21-year-old Jeff Gordon to run the full season in 1993. Two years later, Gordon won the first of his four championships.
It took time for other others to follow, but the sport has gradually looked to younger drivers. That became more important when the economy forced companies to scale back sponsorship of teams. Younger drivers don’t cost as much as veterans. That helped drive some of the sport’s movements in recent years.
Joe Gibbs Racing planned to keep Busch after Mars, Inc. announced last year that it was not returning to the team and sport after this season. JGR had a company to sponsor Busch’s No. 18 team until the deal fell through because of economic factors.
Without a sponsor, JGR could not offer Busch what he felt the only active two-time Cup champion deserved, something he alluded to last month at Watkins Glen when he foreshadowed change.
“You want to be able to go somewhere that you feel like you have a legit shot to race to win,” Busch said. “You know, trust me, I don’t feel like it’s fair to me or my family or anything else if we’re going to have to spend less time together moving forward because we are going to have to change our lifestyle, no question.
“There’s a big change coming. And so, is it worth it to go run around and not have an opportunity to win right away versus building something versus jumping in something that can win. All those questions are certainly being weighed out.”
Busch said this week, after announcing he will join RCR, that he was told at one point that returning to the No. 18 car at JGR was no longer an option.
Asked how could a deal not get done with JGR, Busch said: “Only thing I can say to that is it didn’t happen. Apparently, they’ve got other irons in the fire, maybe other sponsors for other drivers and that’s the road they’re going down.”
Asked if he felt JGR was looking at a cheaper option than paying a former champion, Busch paused and said: “Fair assessment.”
For as much as people prefer sports to be about the events, it’s often about business. Without the financial resources, teams can’t compete. Owners such as Roger Penske, Gene Haas and Hendrick can have an advantage because they have other companies and can connect those companies with sponsors, making deals more valuable to companies.
It’s not surprising that Hendrick (nine titles), Penske (two) and Haas (two) have combined to win 13 of the last 16 Cup championships. Joe Gibbs has two titles and Barney Visser, whose Furniture Row Racing team no longer is in the sport, has the other title in that time.
This is what teams such as RFK Racing and Richard Childress Racing face to win a championship.
None of RFK’s cars made the playoffs this year. Both of RCR’s cars made the playoffs. Tyler Reddick enters Saturday night’s elimination race two points above the cutline, while teammate Austin Dillon is three points below.
Richard Childress Racing seeks to have a driver finish in the top 10 in points for the first time since 2014. Busch is expected to help the organization, which has three wins this year, become even more competitive.
“I know how serious (Busch) is about wanting to win that next championship,” said Childress, who last won a Cup title in 1994 with Dale Earnhardt. “I think with his knowledge of cars and his knowledge as a racer, he’s going to bring some stuff to the table.”
Kevin Harvick said in July he would be for having Busch join Stewart-Haas Racing because of how Busch could help a team.
“I know there’s a lot of things that go on around Kyle, but in the end Kyle is still one of the best that’s ever come through this garage,” Harvick said. “There’s a lot of teams that can say that they’ve never had one of those types of drivers. He literally could rebuild an organization if somebody took a chance that hasn’t had one of those types of drivers.”
Harvick, who is 46 years old, has won twice this season. He’ll likely need to win Saturday night to advance to the second round after a fire and crash sidelined him in the first two races of this round.
Hamlin also has shown what an older driver can do. The 41-year-old seeks his fourth consecutive appearance in the title race.
“I still think that there’s a level of experience that really, really matters in our sport,” said Hamlin, who owns 23XI Racing with Michael Jordan. “I feel as good as I’ve ever been in the car. My craft, I feel as good as ever.
“I’ve been lightning fast even though the win column hasn’t shown it as much this year. So I’m pretty happy with where I’m at considering my age. When I see Harvick, still being competitive and winning at this age, it just makes me look at my future and say, you know, I’ve got a longer runway than I thought.”
Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick both enter Saturday’s playoff elimination race at Bristol Motor Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET on USA Network) outside a transfer spot.
Busch and Harvick have combined to win three of the last eight titles. Busch’s championships came in 2015 and ’19. Harvick won the 2014 crown. They account for 32% of all Cup title race appearances.
Neither driver has been eliminated in the first round since the playoff format debuted in 2014. Harvick was in a must-win situation in 2015 and won to advance to the second round.
He is in a similar situation after a fire eliminated him at Darlington and a crash ended his race early last week at Kansas. Harvick goes into Bristol 35 points from the transfer spot and all but needs a victory to move on in the postseason.
“It is what it is,” Harvick said last week at Kansas of his deficit. “We were racing to win anyway today, so that is what we will do again next week.”
Busch entered the 2015 first round elimination race outside a transfer spot by one point and finished second to Harvick at Dover to advance. Busch and Harvick took the spots of Jimmie Johnson and Jamie McMurray, eliminating them.
Busch is two points out of a transfer spot this time. While he doesn’t need to win, he is winless in his last 17 short track races, dating back to 2019. His longest short track winless drought is 18 races from 2012-15.
Busch has 23 total wins at Bristol. He has eight Cup wins on concrete and won the spring race there on the dirt. He also has nine Xfinity wins and five Truck victories there.
“If I can have past Bristol results be Bristol results, then, yeah, shouldn’t be a problem,” Busch said after the Kansas race of advancing to the next round. “But if I have Bristol results similar to what’s happened this year every week, then no, it’s going to be an uphill battle.”
A look at what it will take for drivers to advance to the second round of the Cup playoffs.
Christopher Bell — Has clinched a spot in the second round. Reached the second round in last year’s playoffs before he was eliminated.
William Byron (+48 to the cutline) — Needs to score eight points to guarantee advancement to the second round. Was eliminated in the first round in 2020, made it to the second round in 2021.
Denny Hamlin (+47 to the cutline)— Needs to score eight points to guarantee advancement to the second round. Has made it to the title race each of the past three years.
Joey Logano (+40 to the cutline)— Needs to score 16 points to guarantee advancement to the second round. Has made it to the title race every even-numbered year of the Cup playoffs: 2014, ’16, ’18 and ’20.
Ryan Blaney (+36 to the cutline)— Needs to score 20 points to guarantee advancement to the second round. Has been eliminated in the first round only once. That was in 2020.
Alex Bowman (+30 to the cutline)— Needs to score 26 points to guarantee advancement to the second round. Has made it to at least the second round in each of the past four seasons.
Chase Elliott (+28 to the cutline)— Needs to score 28 points to guarantee advancement to the second round. Has made it to the championship race each of the past two seasons.
Kyle Larson (+27 to the cutline)— Needs to score 29 points to guarantee advancement to the second round. Reigning Cup champion.
Ross Chastain (+26 to the cutline)— Needs to score 30 points to guarantee advancement to the second round. First time in Cup playoffs.
Daniel Suarez (+6 to the cutline)— Needs to score 50 points to guarantee advancement to the second round. First time in Cup playoffs.
Tyler Reddick (+2 to the cutline)— Needs to score 54 points to guarantee advancement to the second round. Eliminated in the first round last year in his first time in the Cup playoffs.
Austin Cindric (+2 to the cutline)— Needs to score 54 points to guarantee advancement to the second round. First time in Cup playoffs.
Kyle Busch (-2 to the cutline)— Needs to score 55 points to guarantee advancement to the second round. Two-time Cup champion who has never been eliminated in the first round.
Austin Dillon (-3 to the cutline)— Needs to score 55 points to guarantee advancement to the second round. Has twice been eliminated in the first round.
Chase Briscoe (-9 to the cutline)— Needs to win or have help to advance (others falling out of the race early or finishing poorly). First time in Cup playoffs.
Kevin Harvick (-35 to the cutline)— Needs to win or have help to advance (others falling out of the race early or finishing poorly). The 2014 Cup champion has never been eliminated in the first round.
Saturday night’s race at Bristol is a mystery for teams.
The spring Bristol race was on dirt, so this marks the first time on the track’s concrete surface. Other than wheel-force testing with one car per manufacturer, no teams have been on the track. And the right side tires are different from anywhere else the series runs (the left side tires are the same as those used at Pocono).
“It’s certainly an unknown,” Randall Burnett, crew chief for Tyler Reddick, told NBC Sports. “I think it makes for exciting races when you go into an unknown like that. … I think you’ve really got to do your homework, and I think our team strives on that.
“These tracks that we’ve had a lot of unknowns, I feel like we’ve unloaded well and rose to the challenge. I look forward to these kind of races.”
Chris Gabehart, crew chief for Denny Hamlin, calls Bristol the “the last challenge of the Next Gen car and the last unknown setup-wise of the Next Gen car.”
While the series will race at Homestead-Miami Speedway for the first time this year later in the playoffs, teams will be able to test there ahead of time. That will give them a better understanding of what is needed there than what teams have going into Bristol.
“I don’t know where you go get notes for Bristol,” Gabehart told NBC Sports. “It’s very unique, so I am so thankful to be going into Bristol with a very large (points) cushion. Some of those guys toward the back of the (playoff) standings, having to go to Bristol and run 500 laps with this car, it’s going to be a nail-biter.”
Jeremy Clements said on Wednesday’s NASCAR America MotorMouths that an appeal panel rescinding the penalties against his team and putting him back in the Xfinity playoffs this week felt like “we won again. We’re celebrating again.”
Clements won at Daytona last month to earn a spot in the playoffs, but NASCAR penalized the team three days later for an intake manifold infraction found at the NASCAR R&D Center. Among the penalties was that Clements’ victory would not count toward playoff eligibility.
“We ended up noticing that there were other winning engines there and they didn’t have their intakes, and we, unfortunately, brought ours just because we didn’t know and it didn’t need to be,” Clements said on why the team appealed.
Part of the argument from Clements and his team was that other organizations did not have their intake manifolds inspected and that the Clements team shouldn’t be penalized for bringing their intake manifold to the R&D Center.
Clements said the appeal panel “just had common sense and that’s what prevailed. Just so happy to get this victory back and be back in the playoffs.”
With Clements back in the playoffs, it meant one person was dropped. Ryan Sieg, who was holding the final playoff spot after Clements’ penalty, fell out of a playoff spot with Clements back in.
Landon Cassill holds the final playoff spot going into tonight’s regular season finale for the Xfinity Series at Bristol (7:30 p.m. ET on USA Network). Cassill leads Sieg by 19 points. Sheldon Creed trails Cassill by 32 points.
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Tyler Reddick admits it will be a “unique challenge” to go through next season without his crew chief, who will move to Kyle Busch’s team at Richard Childress Racing in 2023.
Reddick spoke publicly for the first time Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway since it was announced this week that Busch would drive the No. 8 car and have Reddick’s crew chief Randall Burnett. Reddick and Burnett have been together since 2019, winning a title in the Xfinity Series and two Cup races this year.
The announcement came two months after Reddick’s deal to join 23XI Racing in 2024 became public.
Car owner Richard Childress said this week that he informed Reddick of the changes about an hour before Tuesday’s press conference with Busch. Childress he made the changes since Reddick will be gone after next season and to build up Busch’s team.
“None of it surprised me, honesty,” Reddick said of the changes.
“I’m going to be moving on in 2024 to a new group of people, new team. It’s a unique challenge to be able to go through that next year with a new group of people. If anything, it will probably help me when I move on to (23XI Racing in 2024), kind of getting used to working with different people and going through that process.”
Childress said this week that he would field three chartered teams next year, keeping Reddick with Busch and Austin Dillon. Childress has only two charters and would need to lease a charter or purchase one to give all three teams a charter.
With Childress providing little details of how he’ll have three teams, questions remain if Reddick moves to 23XI Racing a year early.
“It’s out of my hands,” Reddick said of where he’ll race next year. “As I’ve said to everybody, I intend to finish what I agreed to do at RCR. I want to see that through the end, whether it was with the No. 8 car or whatever car it will be. Richard has told me he will share a lot of those details.”
Change is not new to Reddick, the only driver in NASCAR history to win back-to-back Xfinity championships with different teams. He won the 2018 crown with JR Motorsports and moved to Richard Childress Racing in 2019 and won the championship that season.
“It certainly doesn’t hurt,” Reddick said of that experience. “I’ve been through that similar situation before. .. Just like any of us would do, we just try to make the most out of what lies ahead, or what our situation is, and give it 100% effort every day and hope it is enough.”
For now, though, Reddick’s focus is on advancing to the second round of the playoffs. He enters Saturday night’s Cup elimination race two points above the cutline after finishing 35th last weekend at Kansas because of a crash.
Reddick will start Saturday night’s race 17th in the 36-car field at Bristol.
“Even though we had a rough weekend at Kansas, falling out, we still just approach it like any other race we’ve had so far this year and go out and give it our best effort,” Reddick said.
BRISTOL, Tennessee — Aric Almirola will take the green flag in front of eight playoff drivers in the Cup starting lineup Saturday night as the first round concludes at Bristol Motor Speedway (USA, coverage starts at 6:30 p.m. ET).
Almirola, who failed to make the playoff (after re-signing a contract extension for the No. 10 Ford), captured the fourth pole position of his Cup career. His most recent was 47 starts ago (last year at Nashville Superspeedway).
The Stewart-Haas Racing driver became the 14th pole-sitter in Cup this season by turning a lap of 14.946 seconds on the 0.533-mile oval in qualifying Friday.
It was the sixth top 10 starts in seven races at the short track for Almirola, whose previous best in qualifying at Bristol was second.
Retweet to congratulate @Aric_Almirola on winning the pole for Saturday night's race at @BMSupdates. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/InKjswzQuk
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 16, 2022
Here are the starting positions of the 16 playoff drivers:
Chase Briscoe (second), Alex Bowman (third), Denny Hamlin (fourth), Kyle Larson (fifth), Ryan Blaney (sixth), Kevin Harvick (seventh), Christopher Bell (eighth), Austin Cindric (ninth), Ross Chastain (12th), Joey Logano (15th), William Byron (16th), Tyler Reddick (17th), Kyle Busch (21st), Chase Elliott (23rd), Austin Dillon (28th) and Daniel Suarez (29th).
UNDER THE LIGHTS AT BRISTOL: Details for Saturday’s race
Four drivers will be eliminated after Saturday’s 500-lap race concludes the first round of the playoffs. Only Bell is locked into the second round.
Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Chase Briscoe and Austin Cindric are below the cutline to start the first race on Bristol’s high-banked concrete with the Next Gen car. Busch and Harvick are trying to avoid first-round elimination for the first time in their careers.
Harvick finished second at Bristol last year after winning therein 2020.
Busch has a series-leading eight victories in NASCAR’s premier series at Bristol — most recently in a 2019 win that is among his six top-five finishes in the past eight races there.
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Aric Almirola won his first pole since June 2021 and will lead the field to the green flag in Saturday night’s Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“We’re showing what we’re capable of,” Almirola told NBC Sports’ Kim Coon.
This is Almirola’s fourth career Cup pole. His last pole was at Nashville in June 2021. He is the 14th different driver to win a pole this season.
Almirola will be joined by Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Chase Briscoe on the front row.
Alex Bowman qualified third. Denny Hamlin will start fourth. Kyle Larson, who signed a contract extension through 2026 to remain at Hendrick Motorsports, completed the top five.
Almirola and Brad Keselowski were the only non-playoff drivers to qualify in the top 10. Keselowski will start 10th.
Daniel Suarez, who is six points above the cutline going into Saturday’s elimination race, qualified 29th. That’s worst among the 16 playoff drivers. Austin Dillon, who is three points below the cutline, qualified 28th.
The Cup race will be at 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday on USA Network. Countdown to Green airs at 6:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Kevin Harvick says that Stewart-Haas Racing should have been more assertive in pursuing Kyle Busch, who announced this week that he’ll drive for Richard Childress Racing next season.
“If it was my move, I would have been way more aggressive in trying to make sure (Busch) was on our team,” Harvick told reporters Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Asked why that didn’t happen, Harvick said: “I’m not in charge.”
Harvick publicly expressed his favor for Busch in July at Indianapolis, saying he would be “100% open” to having Busch as a teammate.
“I know there’s a lot of things that go on around Kyle, but in the end, Kyle is still one of the best that’s ever come through this garage,” Harvick said in July. “There’s a lot of teams that can say that they’ve never had one of those types of drivers.
“He literally could rebuild an organization if somebody took a chance that hasn’t had one of those types of drivers.”
Richard Childress Racing will get that chance with Busch. RCR is experiencing a revival this year. The team’s three victories are its most in a season since Harvick won four times there in 2013.
Both of RCR’s drivers, Tyler Reddick and Austin Dillon, are in the playoffs. Reddick enters Saturday night’s elimination race two points above the cutline and Dillon is three points below the cutline.
Harvick left RCR for Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014, winning the championship that season. SHR has two drivers in the playoffs this season: Harvick and Chase Briscoe. Both are below the cutline. Briscoe is nine points below the cutline, and Harvick is essentially in a must-win situation, 35 points below the cutline.
Since 2019, Harvick has scored 15 of SHR’s 18 wins. Briscoe, Cole Custer and Aric Almirola each has one win in that span.
Harvick’s contract goes through 2023. Stewart-Haas Racing had an opening this season. Aric Almirola announced in January that he would retire from full-time Cup competition after this season.
Almirola was brought back and signed to a multi-year deal in August to help keep sponsor Smithfield with the organization.
Harvick admitted Friday that it wouldn’t have been as simple as just signing Busch this year because Busch owns a Camping World Truck Series team.
With Busch moving to Richard Childress Racing, a Chevrolet team, Kyle Busch Motorsports will field Chevrolets next year but additional details have not been announced.
“There’s just way more that goes into it,” Harvick said of signing Busch. “I’m just the guy giving opinions. I’m not the guy spending the money. There’s just way more dynamics that go into it. Kyle’s situation is complicated, more than most, with his trucks and everything that goes into that with the manufacturer and things like that.”
Harvick admits Busch and car owner Richard Childress make a good pairing.
“Richard loves to win,” Harvick said. “Even when Kyle finishes second, he’s mad and that’s very Richard Childress. Richard may do a better job of covering it up and talking about it.
“Richard Childress is a hardcore racer. He has no intentions to do anything else other than win. I think that the move he just made shows you that.”