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  • 2020 NASCAR Cup Rookie of the Year mid-season review

    2020 NASCAR Cup Rookie of the Year mid-season review

    Five months after the first green flag of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season waved, the series has reached its halfway mark of this year. During the first 18 races of the 36-race schedule, a lot has occurred within the sport both on and off the track. From Ryan Newman’s harrowing accident on the final lap of the Daytona 500 to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that paused the on-track racing from nearly two months, from the sport returning at Darlington Raceway in May to running doubleheaders and four to five division series races a week, this season has been like none other in recent years. Among the storylines that have been ongoing throughout this year’s racing season has been the battle for this year’s Rookie-of-the-Year title between six up-and-coming competitors working their way to emerge as the next future stars of the Cup Series.

    Through the first 18 Cup races of this season, Tyler Reddick continues to lead the way in the rookie standings. Even though he is currently 17th in the regular-season standings and is 14 points shy of moving into the top-16 cutline to qualify for the Playoffs, Reddick has recorded a stage win at Talladega Superspeedway in June, the most top-10 results (six) and the best average result (17.17) among his five fellow rookie contenders. He is coming off a career-best result of second place at Texas Motor Speedway, where he finished behind teammate and race winner Austin Dillon following a late strategic call for fuel only. His previous best result was fourth place at Homestead-Miami Speedway in June. In addition to his stats, another factor the Corning, California, native has displayed through the first half of this season is the speed to keep pace and contend against NASCAR’s elite on a weekly basis. With eight races remaining until the Playoffs is set, Reddick and his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE team led by crew chief Randall Burnett look to carry the speed and competitiveness throughout this season and from winning the previous two Xfinity Series championships towards contending for the 2020 Cup title.

    Trailing behind Reddick is Christopher Bell. For Bell, it has been an up-and-down first half of his rookie Cup campaign that has seen a major improvement entering the second half of the season. For the first five races of the year, the Oklahoma native and the No. 95 Leavine Family Racing Toyota Camry team finished no higher than 21st, sustained two DNFs and were ranked 32nd in the regular-season standings. Since the second Darlington race in May through last weekend’s race at Texas, Bell has recorded five top-10 results and has worked his way up to 21st in the standings. His highlight run was at Pocono Raceway in June, the first of two Pocono races of the weekend, where he rallied from starting 36th to record a career-best fourth-place result ahead of former boss Kyle Busch. He is, however, 102 points below the top-16 cutline to make the Playoffs and needs to generate more strong results to come within reach of the Playoffs mark. With Bell and Leavine Family Racing’s future uncertain beyond 2020, the combo aims to strive for more and emerge as a competitive single-car organization for this season and beyond.

    Also trailing Reddick for the lead in the rookie standings is Cole Custer. While Reddick leads this year’s rookie class, the thing that Custer has, and the others rookies do not have, is a win. That was the case in July, when Custer made a bold, four-wide pass for the lead on the final lap against top names like Ryan Blaney, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. to score his first NASCAR Cup career win in his 20th series start and in an upset fashion. The victory not only made Custer as the first rookie contender to win a Cup race since 2016, but it also guaranteed the Californian and his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang team a spot to this year’s Playoffs with an opportunity to contend for a Cup title. Prior to the win, Custer’s season started off on a low note with a lone top-10 result (ninth) at Phoenix in March along with seven results outside the top 20 in the first 16 races of the season. The turning point came at Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the Fourth of July weekend, where he recorded his first top-five finish in NASCAR’s premier series. A week later, ironically, Custer won his first Cup race at Kentucky. Despite being involved in a multi-car wreck last weekend at Texas, Custer and his team appear to adapt to this year’s weekly approach of starting in a position based on a random draw and diving into competitive race trim on race day. With the Playoffs a month away from commencing, Custer and his team have time to continue to gain more momentum and contend for more wins and points that would make the Californian not only a potential Rookie-of-the-Year winner, but also as a title threat for this season.

    Next up is John Hunter Nemechek. A third-generation driver from Mooresville, North Carolina, the opportunity for Nemechek to move to the Cup level came in the final three races of the 2019 season, when he took over the Front Row Motorsports Ford entry driven by Matt Tifft. When Tifft suffered a seizure and opted to focus on his health, Nemechek was named one of two full-time competitors for FRM. He started off his rookie season strong by finishing 11th in the Daytona 500 before he recorded finishes outside the top 20 the following three races. He rebounded on a strong note at Darlington in May by finishing ninth for his first top-10 career result in the Cup level. He finished in the top 20 in four of the next seven races before recording a career-best finish of eighth at Talladega, a result where Nemechek was in race-winning position before being involved in an incident approaching the finish line. Thus far, he has finished in the top 20 nine times and he is currently 25th in the regular-season standings, 120 points below the cutline. With the recent string of consistent finishes inside the top 15 to 20 results and the momentum building for Front Row Motorsports, Nemechek looks to place an FRM entry into their first postseason appearance since 2016 and extend the on-track success previously displayed by his father, Joe.

    Behind him is Brennan Poole. Like Bell, this season marks Poole’s first season ever racing in the Cup level, an opportunity that he announced last December when signing with Premium Motorsports. Unlike Bell, Poole has struggled in keeping pace with his fellow rookie contenders. His lone highlight was finishing 16th in the season-opening Daytona 500 in his first Cup race. For the next 17 races, he has finished no higher than 24th, which occurred at Bristol Motor Speedway in May. With the Texas native 32nd in the regular-season standings, he needs to grab a win and work his way into the top 30 in the standings to have any shot towards making this year’s Playoffs.

    Last but not least is Quin Houff, who was promoted to a full-time driving role in StarCom Racing’s No. 00 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for the 2020 and 2021 Cup seasons. Since his start this season, however, Houff has finished no higher than 23rd, which he finished at Indianapolis. He has also recorded five DNFs this season, including last weekend at Texas, where a last-minute turn to slow and come to pit road resulted with him clipping the cars of Bell and Matt DiBenedetto before wrecking himself out of the race. It was a move that was met by sharp criticism by Brad Keselowski. He is 34th in the regular-season standings and like Poole, he needs to grab a win and generate consistent results towards the front to work his way into the top 30 in the standings and have any shot for this year’s Playoffs.

    While Reddick leads the 2020 Cup Rookie-of-the-Year standings through the first half of this season, Harrison Burton leads the current Xfinity Series rookie standings while Christian Eckes leads the current Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series rookie standings.

    The Cup rookie contenders will embark on an 18-race stretch to conclude this year’s racing season and strive for more on-track success for the future, beginning on Thursday, July 23, for the Super Start Batteries 400 at Kansas Speedway. The race will air at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

  • Cup rookies prepare for first tackle at Talladega

    Cup rookies prepare for first tackle at Talladega

    It has been a month since NASCAR returned to on-track racing amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and a number of firsts have occurred since the sport’s return. From midweek races to series’ doubleheaders at the same track and even quadruple-header weekends among the sport’s three major national division series, NASCAR has provided its share of resolving the unexpected and creating memories through the first half of the 2020 season. With Talladega Superspeedway next on the schedule, the unexpected is a term that every driver and team can annually anticipate from the drop of the green flag to the checkered. It is also a venue that can provide the element of surprise for anyone, especially for this year’s Cup rookie class.

    When the first green flag of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season flew at Daytona International Speedway in February, six rookies embarked on a yearlong journey filled with firsts and a new approach towards each track like none other from their previous seasons. This weekend will mark their first time racing at Talladega, one of the world’s fastest racing venues, in NASCAR’s premier series, which has not raced on a superspeedway event since the Daytona 500 in February.

    For years, Talladega is a track that does not yield a simple race-winning path for anyone after 500 miles. It is a track that requires patience, aggression and boldness for any competitor to emerge victorious ahead of a steaming pack of other competitors fighting towards the same goal. It is also a track that can make any dreams come true. Since its inception in 1969, 11 competitors have scored their first Cup win at Talladega, not since Ricky Stenhouse Jr. made the last accomplishment in 2017, which provides a golden opportunity for any rookie competitor to shine and rise to the occasion against NASCAR’s elite.

    Twelve races into the 2020 season, the reigning two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Tyler Reddick leads the Cup rookie standings. The Corning, California, native is coming off a career run last weekend at Homestead, where he finished fourth and picked up his first top-five career finish in the Cup Series. To go along with two additional top-10 results and fast racecars prepared by his team and crew chief Randall Burnett, Reddick is slowly peaking towards his first Cup win. When it comes to Talladega, there are two advantages for Reddick. The first is that Reddick is a former winner at the superspeedway event, having won last year’s Xfinity race at the track despite encountering early on-track issues. The second is that his team, Richard Childress Racing, has a rich history at Talladega with 12 wins, six poles and over 70 top-10 results, achieving results with names like Dale Earnhardt, Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer. With the results, Reddick looks to add his name to RCR legacy’s at the superspeedway venue in Alabama and extend his recent stretch of solid performances.

    Pursuing Reddick in the rookie standings is John Hunter Nemechek. The second-generation driver from Mooresville, North Carolina, has achieved three top-15 results since May, including his first top-10 career finish at Darlington Raceway (ninth), and has displayed a model of consistency in his first full-time season in NASCAR’s premier series. Nemechek has raced at Talladega seven times between the Xfinity and Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series, his best result being sixth in the 2017 Truck Series season and last year’s Xfinity Series season. An advantage Nemechek has towards Talladega is that his team, Front Row Motorsports, is competitive at superspeedway events (Daytona and Talladega). Since FRM’s started racing in the Cup Series in 2005, the team has notched 20 top-10 results, more than half coming at Talladega. In addition, Talladega serves as the track where the team notched its first Cup career win in 2013, when David Ragan and David Gilliland recorded a thrilling one-two finish for the team. With his consistent start, Nemechek looks to take the next step to finish at the front of the field and etch his name as the next upset winner at the world’s fastest racing venues.

    Next is Christopher Bell. The Norman, Oklahoma, native has achieved a multitude of accomplishments in racing, from sprint cars to stock cars. This includes winning the 2013 USAC National Midget title, three Chili Bowl sprint car titles, a NASCAR win at Eldora, the 2017 Truck Series championship and a combined 23 wins across the Truck and Xfinity Series in 14 different tracks, including his first road course win at Road America last season. There are a handful of accomplishments that Bell has yet to achieve, among which includes winning a Cup race and winning a superspeedway event. Thus far, Bell has achieved three top-10 results in his rookie Cup season and has raced at Talladega five times between the Xfinity and Truck Series, his best result being second in the 2017 Truck Series season and third in last year’s Xfinity Series season. His team, Leavine Family Racing, is competitive at superspeedway events despite scoring two top-10 career finishes at Talladega and his crew chief, Jason Ratcliff, has won at the track once in the 2011 Xfinity season with Kyle Busch. With his recent stride in producing decent results, Bell also looks to take the next step in his rookie Cup season by finishing towards the front and placing himself in position to emerge as an upset winner at a track that is very familiar with upset tales.

    While the last seven results since May have not fallen in the favors of Cole Custer, the Ladera Ranch, California, native remains in pursuit of his first breakthrough moment in the Cup Series while driving for one of the sport’s competitive teams, Stewart-Haas Racing. Entering this weekend, Custer has achieved one top-10 career finish in the Cup Series and has raced at Talladega four times between the Xfinity and Truck Series, with a best result of ninth in the 2018 Xfinity season. In 2018, Stewart-Haas Racing achieved its first Cup win at Talladega on a day where all four SHR cars led the field the majority of the race before Aric Almirola scored a breakthrough win of his career. This serves as an advantage for Custer to race towards the front competitively with a championship-winning team and possibly achieve his moment in NASCAR’s premier series.

    When it comes to Talladega Superspeedway, Brennan Poole has a notable moment at the track that is deemed heartbreaking. In 2016, Poole, driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, dodged a last-lap incident between Joey Logano and Elliott Sadler in the tri-oval to nip Justin Allgaier at the finish line and score what appeared to have been his first Xfinity Series career win. Upon reviewing the footage, however, NASCAR determined that Sadler, who had managed to straighten his car and continued to race despite wrecking, was ahead of the field at the moment of caution, which resulted in Sadler winning while Poole was demoted to third. To date, this remains the closest Poole has come in winning at Talladega. The Woodlands, Texas, native has raced at the track three additional times between the Truck and Xfinity Series, but all finishes have been outside the top 20. In his first 12 Cup career starts this season, Poole has recorded a career-best result of 16th from this year’s Daytona 500, but has finished as high as 24th in the last seven races. This weekend serves as an opportunity for Poole to hone his driving skills against the current Cup stars and claim the win that was taken away from him four years ago.

    Lastly, Quin Houff also looks to achieve a breakthrough moment of his racing career on the track. Through the first 12 races of this season, Houff has finished in the top 30 twice (Darlington & Bristol) while sustaining three DNFs and finishing outside the top 30 in five of the last six Cup races. Houff’s team, StarCom Racing, has raced in NASCAR since 2017 and has finished in the top 15 twice, both coming at Daytona and Talladega. Like Poole, Houff sets his focus on this weekend to etch his name against the sport’s elite.

    This year’s rookie Cup class are among six of multiple stars that includes Matt DiBenedetto, William Byron, James Davison, Ty Dillon, Brendan Gaughan, Gray Gaulding, Joey Gase, Timmy Hill, Corey LaJoie, Michael McDowell, B.J. McLeod, Ryan Preece, Daniel Suarez, Bubba Wallace and J.J. Yeley who will pursue their first win in the Cup Series this weekend at Talladega.

    All Cup Series competitors, including this year’s rookie class, will receive their first of two opportunities this season to conquer Talladega on June 21 with the race to air at 3 p.m. ET on FOX.