NASCAR Cup Series: Several Silly Season announcements still looming

The 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season is in the books, but there are still several remaining unconfirmed seats in the 2020 driver lineup.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch capped off the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season with his second career championship, winning the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway to knock off his three Championship 4 rivals, teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin as well as Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick.

Now the focus has shifted to the 2020 season, which is scheduled to get underway in under 13 weeks on Sunday, February 16 with the 62nd annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.

There have been several recent driver confirmations for the 2020 driver lineup, but there are still several seats without confirmed drivers and several notable drivers seeking a ride.

What could the next announcement be?

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Go Fas Racing have formed a technical alliance with Stewart-Haas Racing for the 2020 season. They have not confirmed who will drive the #32 Ford next year, but Corey LaJoie has stated that he hopes to be back. He is expected to return.

Front Row Motorsports officially have two open seats open, as Michael McDowell is slated to return behind the wheel of the #34 Ford. Matt Tifft, who sat out the final four races of the 2019 season after suffering a seizure at Martinsville Speedway, and the team cut ties, leaving the seat of the #36 Ford open, and David Ragan retired after the 2019 season ended, vacating the seat of the #38 Ford.

John Hunter Nemechek, who replaced Tifft in three of the four races he missed at the end of the season, has been tipped to drive for Front Row Motorsports full-time next season. Given his equipment, he was impressive in his first three Cup Series starts, recording an average finish of 23.67 without finishing lower than 27th place.

Go Fas Racing ruled out signing Stewart-Haas Racing Xfinity Series star Cole Custer immediately after forming a technical alliance with Stewart-Haas Racing, and Custer was then confirmed as the replacement for Daniel Suarez at the Stewart-Haas Racing Cup Series team.

So could Suarez end up in a Front Row Motorsports Ford next year? He certainly has a decent amount of funding and was shocked to find out that he would be replaced by Custer behind the wheel of the #41 Ford.

Daniel Hemric, who lost his ride at Richard Childress Racing to Tyler Reddick for next year, was rumored as a potential Front Row Motorsports driver for next year after losing his ride, but he is set to drive part-time for JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series in 2020 instead.

Also unconfirmed for next season are two full-time rides with Rick Ware Racing, which have already confirmed J.J. Yeley has one of their three full-time drivers, and full-time rides with StarCom Racing, Premium Motorsports and Spire Motorsports.

StarCom Racing and Premium Motorsports are the only two teams of these four teams that had full-time drivers in the 2019 season, with Landon Cassill driving the #00 Chevrolet for the former and Ross Chastain driving the #15 Chevrolet for the latter.

Cassill is expected to return to StarCom Racing while Chastain is set to drive full-time for Kaulig Racing in the Xfinity Series next year, although he could very well continue competing in the Cup Series as well. He competed in 77 of the possible 92 races in the Cup Series, Xfinity Series and the Truck Series in 2019.

How will the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series driver lineup end up looking? There are still several confirmations that have not yet been made, but with the offseason between the 2019 and 2020 seasons having just gotten underway, there should be more big news announced in the near future.