Bob Pockrass
FOX NASCAR Insider
The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season may have followers questioning who’s scorching and who’s not, and whether or not it comes on the proper time. As Joey Logano demonstrated final 12 months when he turned a Fifteenth-place common season end right into a championship run, discovering the mojo on the proper time is vital.
As we stay up for the brand new season, listed here are 5 storylines that can have individuals speaking, and possibly speaking all 12 months:
1. Kyle Busch‘S future
Busch has a contract 12 months with Richard Childress Racing, and after a stable first season at RCR in 2023, he went winless in 2024, snapping a 19-year streak with not less than one win. He got here shut and the staff confirmed promise and enchancment at instances, however you’ll assume he must see extra ends in early 2025 to signal a contract extension. If the combating continued, the place would it not go? This is an effective query with no apparent reply.
2. Denny Hamlin on the monitor
Hamlin continues his quest to win that ever-elusive Cup championship, and he’ll achieve this with a brand new staff chief in Chris Gayle. The change in crew chiefs got here as a shock to Hamlin, who thought Chris Gabehart would stick with him, however Gabehart moved on to the position of competitors director at Joe Gibbs Racing. Sometimes the driver-crew chief relationship takes time to develop, and the one factor Hamlin does not have is time on his facet to win a title.
3. The first season of the SVG Cup
Shane van Gisbergen will likely be competing in his first full Cup season, and all eyes will likely be on him to see if an Australian Supercars championship-winning driver could make an efficient transition. Yes, he will likely be an element on the highway programs (he received in his Cup debut at Chicago in 2023), but when he can carry out persistently on the ovals it’ll show whether or not Trackhouse Racing made the proper transfer.
4. Short monitor tires
NASCAR and Goodyear appeared to have taken a step in the proper path with the Martinsville tire within the fall, which was a softer tire than beforehand used on quick tracks. If they will proceed to develop the tire to the purpose the place drivers on all quick tracks must handle tire put on, that may go a great distance in direction of offering compelling racing on these tracks.
5. Case 23XI/FRM-NASCAR
Ah, sure, the trigger. Unless the 2 sides attain an settlement, there will likely be a relentless stream of authorized briefs and discussions on necessary points and probably the most minute procedures. One necessary factor to regulate over the subsequent month is whether or not any selections might affect the variety of rental automobiles featured in a race and whether or not 23XI and Front Row Motorsports must area any automobiles as open entries. The lawsuit has the potential to alter the way in which the French household that runs NASCAR does enterprise – or function a validation, so far as legality, of its enterprise mannequin.
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He spent a long time overlaying motorsports, together with greater than 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene journal and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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