The 2025 Nascar Season is less than a month away. While the offseason is one of the shortest in sports, the premier series in stock car racing had many changes. This will be the first installment of a season preview series in which we take a deeper dive into NASCAR from team changes, schedule shakeups, and everything in between. We will start with the teams in the upcoming season.
Drivers in New Places
With the closure of Stewart-Haas Racing many changes happened in the sport. 23XI, RFK Racing, Front Row Motorsports, and Trackhouse Racing all added another charter to their teams. Two of those charters came from the SHR closure while the other came from Rick Ware Racing. Haas will now run only one team this season.
Listed below are the current projections for full-time drivers in the upcoming season:
- Chevrolet:
- Hendrick Motorsports
- No. 5: Kyle Larson
- No. 9: Chase Elliott
- No. 24: William Byron
- No. 48: Alex Bowman
- Hyak Motorsports (Formerly JTG Racing)
- No. 47: Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Kaulig Racing
- No. 10: Ty Dillion
- No.16: A. J. Allmendinger
- Richard Childress Racing
- No. 3: Austin Dillion
- No. 8: Kyle Busch
- Spire Motorsports
- No. 7: Justin Haley
- No. 71: Michael McDowell
- No. 77: Carson Hocevar
- Trackhouse Racing
- No. 1: Ross Chastain
- No. 88: Shane Van Gisbergan (Rookie)
- No. 99: Daniel Suárez
- Hendrick Motorsports
- Ford
- Front Row Motorsports
- No. 4: Noah Gragson
- No. 34: Todd Gilliland
- No. 38: Zane Smith
- Haas Factory Team
- No. 41: Cole Custer
- RFK Racing
- No. 6: Brad Keslowski
- No. 17: Chris Buescher
- No. 60: Ryan Preece
- Rick Ware Racing
- No. 51: TBA
- Team Penske
- No. 2: Austin Cindric
- No. 12: Ryan Blaney
- No. 22: Joey Logano
- Wood Brothers Racing
- No. 21: Josh Berry
- Front Row Motorsports
- Toyota
- 23XI Racing
- No. 23: Bubba Wallace
- No. 35: Riley Herbst (Rookie)
- No. 45: Tyler Reddick
- Joe Gibbs Racing
- No. 11: Denny Hamlin
- No. 19: Chase Briscoe
- No. 20: Christopher Bell
- No. 54: Ty Gibbs
- Legacy Motor Club
- No. 42: John Hunter Nemechek
- No. 43: Erik Jones
- 23XI Racing
Manufacturer Makeup
Chevy will make up most of the field as they have a guaranteed 15 cars in the field compared to Ford’s 12. The change is thanks to 23XI snagging one of the Stewart-Haas Racing charters while Trackhouse stole another from the former Ford team. Many more changes could come thanks to the current lawsuit that NASCAR is facing from two teams, but that will be another topic for another day.
For the top dogs in the sport nothing much on the driver side has changed except for Joe Gibbs Racing. Martin Truex Jr’s retirement was filled pretty easily thanks to the team’s addition of Chase Briscoe. The former SHR driver has raced only in Fords for his XFinity and Cup career. While driving in a Toyota has its perks, it also means limited teams to work with as the make only has eight other spots in the field.
Checkered Flag Thoughts
NASCAR has had its fair share of trying to find its footing in the 2010’s and 2020’s. That being said, the field this season seems to be one of the most exciting ones in a while. Although the drivers may change teams, many of the names are ones from previous seasons, and keep a sense of complacency to the average fan.
The one thing that has not changed is the NASCAR schedule. In Part Two of the series we will break down the sport’s new season, including an in-season tournament and a race outside of the United States.
