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NASCAR: Full-time lineup loses two drivers before 2020 season even starts

By Asher Fair

DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 13: Daniel Suarez, driver of the #96 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Toyota, crashes in the infield grass during the NASCAR Cup Series Bluegreen Vacations Duel 1 at Daytona International Speedway on February 13, 2020 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 13: Daniel Suarez, driver of the #96 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Toyota, crashes in the infield grass during the NASCAR Cup Series Bluegreen Vacations Duel 1 at Daytona International Speedway on February 13, 2020 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images) /
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The full-time driver lineup for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season has already lost two competitors before the season opener.

Following an offseason that featured quite a bit of change as far as the driver lineup is concerned, the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season was slated to begin with 36 drivers set to compete in all 36 races on the schedule.

However, not all of these 36 drivers were slated to drive chartered entries, meaning that they weren’t all guaranteed to compete in every race on the schedule.

Daniel Suarez was confirmed behind the wheel of the non-chartered #96 Toyota at Gaunt Brothers Racing while Timmy Hill was confirmed behind the wheel of the non-chartered #66 Ford at MBM Motorsports.

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J.J. Yeley was initially slated to drive a chartered entry for the full season, but it was B.J. McLeod who was confirmed behind the wheel of the chartered #52 Ford at Rick Ware Racing for the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. Yeley was placed behind the wheel of the non-chartered #54 Ford at the last minute.

But the whole issue of charters, of which there are 36 in the Cup Series, really didn’t matter a ton last season, as the only race to feature more drivers on the entry list than are allowed in a race (40) was the Daytona 500. A total of 42 drivers were entered for this event.

But this year’s Daytona 500 saw 43 drivers on the entry list. With 36 guaranteed entries (featuring 33 confirmed full-time drivers), this meant that three full-time drivers would be among the seven drivers competing for four open spots.

As you might expect, not all of them made it, and before the 2020 season even had the chance to officially get underway, the total number of drivers who can possibly compete in all 36 races on the schedule has already shrunk.

None of them successfully qualified for the race in this past Sunday afternoon’s single-car qualifying session, putting the pressure on them to perform in Thursday evening’s Bluegreen Vacations Duels.

Hill is in after racing his way in during the second Duel, which is a big, big positive for MBM Motorsports, which have never fielded a full-time entry before, as a whole. They never technically confirmed a full-time entry this season, but they made clear in mid-December that their plan was to run an entry for Hill on a full-time basis this year.

They did indicate that their plan moving forward could be determined by whether or not the 26-year-old Port Tobacco, Maryland native qualified for the season opener, and that he did.

But Suarez and Yeley weren’t as fortunate.

In the two 60-lap Bluegreen Vacations Duels this past Thursday evening to set the starting lineup for Sunday afternoon’s 200-lap main event around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) superspeedway oval in Daytona Beach, Florida, there were a total of two caution flag periods, one in each race.

The first Duel featured a caution flag period for a wreck involving Suarez, knocking him out of the race and ending his bid to compete in the 62nd annual running of the “Great American Race”. The second Duel featured a caution flag period for a wreck involving Yeley, knocking him out of the race and ending his bid to compete in the race as well.

As a result, there are 34 full-time drivers set to compete in the season opener tomorrow afternoon, down from the 36 who entered the season with aspirations to compete in every race.

The plan is still for both Suarez and Yeley to run full-time beginning in next Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, so both are technically still full-time drivers, just without the potential to compete in every race on the 2020 calendar.

Yeley should be good to go behind the wheel of the chartered #52 Ford (although Rick Ware Racing have had problems carrying through with full-time entries in the past).

Suarez, meanwhile, could end up finding himself in another vulnerable position should another entry list feature 41 cars or more, although on raw speed, the #96 Toyota should qualify comfortably for each event.

The full-time driver lineup for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season can be seen here.

The six part-time drivers slated to join the 34 full-time drivers in Sunday’s season-opening Daytona 500 are McLeod (chartered entry), Spire Motorsports’ Ross Chastain (chartered entry), Rick Ware Racing’s David Ragan (chartered entry), Kaulig Racing’s Justin Haley (officially raced his way in after timing his way in), Beard Motorsports’ Brendan Gaughan (officially timed his way in) and Premium Motorsports’ Reed Sorenson (officially timed his way in).

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Tune in to Fox at 2:30 p.m. ET this Sunday, February 16 for the live broadcast of the 62nd annual Daytona 500 from Daytona International Speedway.

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