With the Cook Out CLASH at Bowman Gray coming up quickly, the 2025 NASCAR season will soon be in motion with a range of new teams, drivers and more changes. Please note this article will mostly focus on the Cup Series, while my expansion of knowledge and interest in the Xfinity will grow throughout this year.
Teams and Drivers
To understand many of the lineup changes, it’s important to wind the clock back to 28th May 2024, when Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) shocked the sport by announcing they would close down their operations at the end of the year, leaving four charters for sale and four drivers as free agents before 2025.
From there, all SHR drivers would use the rest of 2024 as an audition, fundamentally, to keep their jobs into 2025. Eventually, throughout the silly season, the puzzle pieces slotted into place. Here’s how they look:
- On 20th June, Gene Haas announced he would retain one charter and run his team under the name Haas Factory Team, keeping the no. 41 car and placing 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Cole Custer behind the wheel.
- Noah Gragson and his crew chief Drew Blickensderfer moved to Front Row Motorsports’ new no. 4 car.
- Josh Berry took the no. 21 car for the Wood Brothers, replacing last year’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 winner, Harrison Burton, who now drives for AM Racing in the Xfinity Series.
- Ryan Preece moved to RFK’s new no. 60 – their first team expansion in almost a decade. This could be a great step for Preece: a motivated driver now in a motivated environment.
- However, the biggest upgrade went to Chase Briscoe, who took retiring Martin Truex Jr.’s no. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. He will have a lot of pressure and expectation upon him this year, but his focus and commitment will bring new life into the 19 team.
Truex announced his retirement from full-time racing last year, but is confirmed on the entry list for this year’s Daytona 500 with Tricon in the no. 56 car – and is likely to make more future one-off appearances.
Michael McDowell’s tenure with Front Row Motorsports (FRM) came to an end last year. He and FRM crew chief Travis Peterson now take on new challenges in the no. 71 car for Spire Motorsports alongside Justin Haley and Carson Hocevar.
Todd Gilliland transfers from FRM’s no. 38 to the no. 34 car to replace McDowell, meanwhile Zane Smith jumps from Spire to the no. 38 alongside Gragson in the no. 4.
23XI Racing also expanded to a three-car team and will field the no. 35 full-time in 2025. They signed young hotshot Riley Herbst in a potentially risky but golden opportunity for both parties. He is still a question mark in the Cup Series, but his talent and mindset under Michael Jordan’s leadership should keep him in a rhythm and allow his skills to grow.
Trackhouse made a huge signing in the form of Shane Van Gisbergen who will drive the returning no. 88 full-time. Connor Zilisch will drive the twin no. 87 part-time starting at COTA on 3rd March, representing Red Bull in NASCAR for the first time since 2011.
Kaulig Racing has got rid of the no. 31 and replaced it with the no. 10 car, in which Ty Dillon will make his full-time Cup Series return. AJ Allmendinger will also return to full-time Cup racing in the no. 16.
Legacy Motor Club driver and seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson will only race twice this year, in the no. 84. The 2024 Hall of Fame inductee has run a limited schedule in recent years but will only enter the Daytona 500 and Coca-Cola 600 this year – the latter marking his 700th Cup Series start.
It’s very possible this news slipped under the radar, as in November last year JTG Daugherty Racing announced they would rebrand into Hyak Motorsports for 2025 and beyond thanks to new ownership. They retain Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the no. 47 car, albeit without Kroger this year.
Team Lineups: My Verdict
I think Spire’s lineup of McDowell, Hocevar and Haley (who will have Rodney Childers as crew chief) is quietly the strongest lineup of 2025. Spire is an exciting prospect expanding quickly with their third car last year and some big signings this year. It might be a bold prediction, but I see them challenging for wins a couple times through the season – and if not, I expect at least two of their cars on the Playoff fringes by the end of the regular season. Definitely one to watch – certainly on super speedways!
Schedule Changes
Starting with the biggest schedule news from August last year: NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series will race at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in 2025. The event, on 15th June, will be NASCAR’s first points-paying venture into Mexico and will hopefully ignite a push for more international races in the future. Personally, I’m hoping for a Montreal return to the schedule.
This year, the Clash will visit Bowman Gray Stadium – its first NASCAR event since 1971 – hopefully kicking off the year with a great exhibition race. The revival of the old stadium aims to bring in old fans of the sport and bring more value to the old venue.
Homestead-Miami shifts to 23rd March from a late-season playoff race. Personally, I don’t like this move, because Homestead Miami is a perfect venue for a playoff race thanks to its test of skill and ability while being a multi-groove racetrack with varying strategy. However, this could be a temporary move as potential rumours circle of a championship finale race from ’26 onwards.
Watkins Glen also gets a date change, shifting from the Round of 16 to the third-to-last race in the regular season schedule on 10th August.
Daytona becomes the regular season finale, Darlington opens the playoffs in style and Gateway moves to a Round of 16 slot. New Hampshire also becomes a playoff race (17th September) for the first time since 2017. Talladega moves from the Round of 12 to the Round of 8 this year, falling on 19th October.
Rockingham returns to the schedule for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and Xfinity Series in April (18th-19th) this year, while Lime Rock Park will host a Truck Series race on 28th June.
Amazon Prime and TNT Sports will show five races each during the middle portion of the season, with Amazon beginning theirs on 25th May with the Coca Cola 600, ending with Pocono on 22nd June.
TNT Sports will host the first-ever in-season tournament across the following five races of Atlanta, Chicago, Sonoma, Dover and Indianapolis – where drivers will compete for a $1 million prize. It’s an interesting concept and a great way to boost fan engagement in the sport.
Format Changes
Recently, there were rumours of planned tweaks to the playoff format this year as an experiment in preparation for a shakeup in 2026. However on Tuesday, NASCAR confirmed to the media there would be no changes this year.
This comes after the dramatic and controversial championship finale in November last year where Joey Logano won the championship despite his average finish of 17th all season. Fans are begging for changes to allow the best drivers all season to compete for the championship rather than “lucking” into wins and advancing through the Playoffs after a poor regular season effort.
NASCAR officials updated the Damaged Vehicle Policy (DVP) for the Cup Series starting this season. Cars will now be permitted to continue in the race after repairs in the garage.
A revised race preparation programme announced in December means altered practice and qualifying formats for all three series. Group practice goes from 20 to 25 minutes; single-round qualifying at every track for super speedways and starting position based solely on qualifying results, rather than row-by-row designations according to qualifying group.
2025 has a lot to live up to after last year’s twists and turns. A shaken-up field of talented drivers and crews will face many new challenges this year as the series ventures into Mexico, visits old tracks and competes for huge monetary prizes in the journey to the NASCAR Cup Series Championship.
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