2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 03:44, 26 November 2017
The 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will be the 70th season of professional stock car racing in the United States, and the 47th modern-era Cup series season. The season will begin at Daytona International Speedway with the Advance Auto Parts Clash, the Can-Am Duel qualifying races and the 60th running of the Daytona 500. The regular season will end with the Brickyard 400 on September 9, 2018. The playoffs will end with the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 18, 2018. Martin Truex Jr. enters as the defending champion, having won his first in the series.
It will be the fourth season of the current 10-year television contract with Fox Sports and NBC Sports and the third of a five-year race sanctioning agreement with all tracks.[1][2]
Chevrolet has announced that, due to the discontinuation of the Holden Commodore (VF) (marketed in the United States as the Chevrolet SS), starting in 2018, they will be fielding the Camaro ZL1.[3]
Teams and drivers
Complete schedule
Chartered teams
Non-chartered teams
| Manufacturer | Team | No. | Race driver | Crew chief |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chevrolet | StarCom Racing | 00 | Derrike Cope | Tony Furr |
| TriStar Motorsports | 72 | Cole Whitt | Frank Kerr | |
| Ford | Team Penske | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Jeremy Bullins |
| Wood Brothers Racing | 21 | Paul Menard | Greg Erwin |
Limited schedule
| Manufacturer | Team | No. | Race driver | Crew chief | Round(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chevrolet | Beard Motorsports | 75 | Brendan Gaughan | Darren Shaw | 4 |
| Ford | MBM Motorsports | 66 | Mark Thompson | George Church | 1 |
| Timmy Hill | TBA | ||||
| David Starr | TBA | ||||
| Toyota | BK Racing | 83 | TBA | TBA | TBA |
| TBA | TBA | TBA | Danica Patrick | TBA | 1 |
| Rick Ware Racing | 52 | Cody Ware | TBA | TBA | |
| B. J. McLeod | TBA | ||||
| Kyle Weatherman | TBA | ||||
| John Graham | TBA |
Changes
Teams
- Team Penske will expand to a three-car team with the addition of Ryan Blaney in the No. 12, previously with Wood Brothers Racing in the No. 21 in 2017.
- Front Row Motorsports will expand to a three-car team. A driver, number, and crew chief are yet to be determined.
- On August 29, 2017, Hendrick Motorsports announced that the current No. 24 team driven by Chase Elliott would be changing to the No. 9 team, while the No. 5 would become the new No. 24 team to be driven by rookie William Byron. Alan Gustafson is expected to remain as Elliott's crew chief while Darian Grubb will work with William Byron.
- Furniture Row Racing will downsize from a two car team to a one car team, shutting down the No. 77 team as sponsor 5-hour Energy moves to the No. 78 team.
- On September 25, 2017, it was announced that a new Chevrolet team, StarCom Racing, would open and run the No. 00 car full-time, with driver Derrike Cope, moving from Premium Motorsports.
- On November 22, 2017, Rick Ware Racing announced an expansion from a 30-race open team to 1 full-time team for Ray Black Jr. and 1 part-time team for Cody Ware, Kyle Weatherman, B. J. McLeod and John Graham.
Drivers
- On April 25, 2017, Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced that he would retire from full-time racing.[5] On July 20, 2017, Alex Bowman was announced as his full-time replacement.
- On July 11, 2017, it was announced that Erik Jones will be replacing Matt Kenseth in the No. 20 car for Joe Gibbs Racing. On November 4, 2017, Kenseth announced he would be stepping away from full-time racing and will not compete in any 2018 events.
- On July 26, 2017, it was announced that Paul Menard will replace Ryan Blaney in the No. 21 car for Wood Brothers Racing.
- On August 1, 2017, it was announced that Kurt Busch will become a free agent after driving the No. 41 car for Stewart Haas Racing.
- On August 7, 2017, it was announced that Kasey Kahne would be leaving the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports car at the end of 2017. On August 8, 2017, it was announced that William Byron was named as his full-time replacement in the renumbered No. 24 car and will be running for Rookie of the Year honors. On September 19, 2017, it was announced that Kahne would be driving the No. 95 Chevrolet Camaro for Leavine Family Racing, replacing Michael McDowell.
- On September 12, 2017, Danica Patrick announced that she would not be returning to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2018. Later that day, Richard Petty Motorsports announced that Aric Almirola would not be returning to the No. 43 team in 2018. On October 25, 2017, Richard Petty Motorsports announced that Darrell Wallace Jr. would drive the No. 43 and compete for Rookie of the Year Honors. In 2017, Wallace Jr. was going to run the full NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule driving the No. 6 Ford Mustang for Roush Fenway Racing, but the team shut down in June due to a lack of sponsorship. Wallace would also drive the No. 43 in the cup series, filling in for Almirola when he was injured in a crash at Kansas. Wallace also drove the No. 98 Ford Mustang for Biagi-DenBeste Racing in the Xfinity Series at Chicago, and the No. 99 Chevrolet Silverado for MDM Motorsports in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at Michigan.
- On September 25, 2017, Derrike Cope announced he would leave the No. 55 car of Premium Motorsports to drive the new No. 00 for StarCom Racing.
- On October 10, 2017, Front Row Motorsports announced that Landon Cassill would not return to drive the teams No. 34 entry in 2018. On November 24, 2017, it was announced that Michael McDowell would take over the 34, as the team finalizes its No. 38 car with current driver David Ragan.
- On November 8, 2017, Stewart-Haas Racing announced that Aric Almirola would take over the No. 10 Ford full-time in 2018, replacing Danica Patrick.
- On November 15, 2017, it was announced that Danica Patrick would be stepping away from NASCAR. She plans to race in the Daytona 500 (NASCAR) and the Indy 500 (IndyCar).
- On November 22, 2017, it was announced that Ray Black Jr. would compete full-time and challenge for Rookie of the Year with Rick Ware Racing's No. 51 chartered entry. The No. 51 did not have a charter in 2017. RWR also announced a part-time No. 52 team with drivers Cody Ware, Kyle Weatherman, B. J. McLeod and John Graham.[6]
- On November 24, 2017, Front Row Motorsports announced that Michael McDowell will pilot the No. 34 for the 2018 season.
Crew Chiefs
- Jeremy Bullins will move over from the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing team to the new No. 12 Team Penske team to continue to be Ryan Blaney's crew chief.
- Greg Erwin will move from the No. 22 Team Penske team in the NASCAR Xfinity Series to the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing team to be Paul Menard's crew chief.
- Travis Mack will move from being the car chief for the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports team to the No. 95 Leavine Family Racing team to be Kasey Kahne's crew chief.
- Championship winning crew chief Darian Grubb will be the crew chief for the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team and William Byron. In 2017, Grubb was the crew chief for Kasey Kahne in the final 9 races of the season after Keith Rodden left as the crew chief role.
- Bootie Barker will leave the No. 13 team at the end of the 2017 season. Germain Racing will announce a 2018 crew chief for Ty Dillon at a later date.
- Jason Ratcliff will move over from the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team to the No. 20 JGR team in the NASCAR Xfinity Series to be the crew chief for Christopher Bell. Chris Gayle moves over from the now shut down No. 77 Furniture Row Racing team to continue to be Erik Jones' crew chief.
Manufacturers
- Chevrolet is running a new entry for this season: As the SS sedan was discontinued in 2017, its replacement will be the Camaro ZL1.[7]
- MBM Motorsports purchased an old Richard Petty Motorsports Ford and will run it in the Daytona 500 with Mark Thompson behind the wheel.[8] MBM ran Chevrolets and Toyotas in 2017.
- After running Chevrolets for the 2017 season, Rick Ware Racing announced that they will run with all 3 manufacturers in 2018.
Rules
- On November 22, 2017, NASCAR announced that it will standardize at-track team rosters with reducing the number of crew-members over the wall from six to five to promote better competition through increased parity, and to improve safety. This marks the first change in number of crew-members since 2011 where they went from seven to six crew-members.[9]
Schedule
The final schedule – comprising 36 races, as well as exhibition races, which are the Advance Auto Parts Clash, Can-Am Duel 150s qualifying duel races for the Daytona 500 and the All-Star Race – was released on May 23, 2017.[10] Key changes from 2017 include:
- The Daytona 500 is held one week earlier. As a result of this, all races from Atlanta until Talladega (spring), and also Pocono and Michigan in June will move one week earlier than 2017.
- The Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway will move from Sunday afternoon to Saturday night due to attendance issues.
- The AAA 400 Drive for Autism will move after the GEICO 500 and before the Go Bowling 400. Due to Daytona moving a week earlier, Dover was forced to move to May, similar to 2016 and (some) years before that when Daytona was on Presidents Day Weekend.
- The new date that Las Vegas Motor Speedway acquired from New Hampshire Motor Speedway was moved to the first race of playoffs to replace TheHouse.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway which move back to July before the Coke Zero 400 powered by Coca-Cola. That means the Coke Zero 400, Quaker State 400 presented by Advanced Auto Parts and New Hampshire 301 will move one week later than 2017.
- The 25th Annual Big Machine Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway will move to September to become the final race of the regular season while the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway will move to the second race in the Round of 16.
- The Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway will move one week earlier to become the elimination race of the Round of 16 and will utilize the track's road course layout instead of its quad-oval. That means the Apache Warrior 400 at Dover International Speedway will move one week earlier to become the first race of the Round of 12.
- In broadcasting changes, additional off-week in June for the Father's day weekend was added between Michigan and Sonoma with the third off-week being after Bristol August race.
Schedule changes
In 2015, NASCAR and 23 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series tracks agreed on a five-year contract that guarantees each track would continue to host races through 2020.[13] Despite the agreement, Speedway Motorsports decided to transfer one of its Cup Series races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway to Las Vegas Motor Speedway to form a race weekend involving each of the three national series in the fall.[14] On July 27, 2016, Daytona International Speedway announced that the 60th running of the Daytona 500 would be moved one week earlier to be held on February 18, 2018.[15]
Several changes were announced with the release of the final schedule. The 25th Big Machine Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway moved to September to become the final race of the regular season, while the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway moved to the second race in the Round of 16. The new date that Las Vegas Motor Speedway acquired from New Hampshire Motor Speedway was moved to the first race of the playoffs to replace Chicagoland Speedway, which became race 17 of the regular season. Dover International Speedway's spring race, the AAA 400 Drive for Autism, was moved one month early to precede Kansas Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway. The track's fall race, the Dover 400, was moved one week later to become the first race of the Round of 12. Also, Charlotte Motor Speedway's Bank of America 500 moved one week earlier and will utilize the track's road course layout instead of its quad-oval. With an additional off-week in the schedule for 2018, the Father's Day off-week that Fox added for the U. S. Open will be restored, with the third off-week being after the Bristol August race.[10][16]
See also
References
- ^ "NASCAR, FOX extend, expand rights agreement". NASCAR.com. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. August 1, 2013. Retrieved May 18, 2017.
- ^ Cain, Holly (July 23, 2013). "NASCAR, NBC Sports Group reach landmark deal". NASCAR.com. Daytona Beach, Florida: NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved May 18, 2017.
- ^ Folsom, Brandon (August 10, 2017). "Chevy Camaro returning to NASCAR Cup Series in 2018: 'It's a monster'". Detroit Free Press. Gannett Company. Retrieved August 11, 2017.
- ^ "2018 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Team / Driver Chart". Jayski.com. Jayski's Silly Season Site. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
- ^ Valade, Jodie (April 25, 2017). "Dale Earnhardt Jr. to Retire From Racing". The New York Times. Charlotte, North Carolina: The New York Times Company. Retrieved May 18, 2017.
- ^ "Ray Black Jr. Joining Rick Ware Racing Full-Time for 2018 Cup Series Schedule". www.frontstretch.com. Retrieved 2017-11-22.
- ^ Burden, Melissa (August 10, 2017). "Camaro ZL1 will be Chevy's new NASCAR entry". The Detroit News. Digital First Media. Retrieved August 11, 2017.
- ^ "Richard Petty Motorsports Are Selling Cars, That Means A Manufacturer Change Is Coming - Apex Off". Apex Off. 2017-11-02. Retrieved 2017-11-14.
- ^ "NASCAR to standardize at-track rosters beginning in 2018". Official Site Of NASCAR. Retrieved November 22, 2017.
- ^ a b "Playoff makeover headlines 2018 NASCAR schedules" (Press release). Daytona Beach, Florida: NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. May 23, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
- ^ http://www.chicagolandspeedway.com/Articles/2017/09/The-House-To-Sponsor-Chicagoland-XFINITY-and-Truck-Series-Races-in-2017.aspx
- ^ "OVERTON'S MARINE PARTNERS WITH POCONO RACEWAY FOR MULTI-YEAR NASCAR SPONSORSHIP". Pocono Raceway. July 10, 2017. Retrieved July 10, 2017.
- ^ Scott, David (October 26, 2015). "NASCAR signs 5-year deals with tracks". The Charlotte Observer. The McClatchy Company. Retrieved May 18, 2017.
- ^ Long, Dustin (March 8, 2017). "Las Vegas gets second Cup date in 2018; New Hampshire loses a Cup date". NASCARTalk.com. NBC Sports. Retrieved May 18, 2017.
- ^ "59th Running Of The DAYTONA 500 In 2018 Returns To Traditional Date On Presidents Day Weekend" (Press release). Daytona International Speedway. July 26, 2016. Retrieved May 20, 2017.
- ^ Cain, Holly (May 23, 2017). "Playoff makeover, Daytona's return to history highlight 2018 NASCAR schedule". NASCAR.com. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved May 23, 2017.