NASCAR: What the 2020 Rookies of the Year had in common

In the three NASCAR national series, all three Rookies of the Year, Cole Custer, Harrison Burton and Zane Smith, made the playoffs by winning a race in 2020.

With the 2020 NASCAR season complete, NASCAR has officially crowned the Rookies of the Year in the three national series.

Driving the #41 Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing, Cole Custer won the Cup Series Rookie of the Year. Driving the #20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, Harrison Burton won four races en route to capturing the Xfinity Series Rookie of the Year title.

Finally, driving the #21 Chevrolet for GMS Racing, Zane Smith missed winning the championship by one spot, but he was crowned Truck Series Rookie of the Year.

All three NASCAR Rookies of the Year claimed their prize by winning a race and thus making the playoffs in their respective series.

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In the Cup Series, Custer aced the final restart at Kentucky Speedway in July to notch his first career victory. After making the Xfinity Series Championship 4 in 2018 and 2019, Custer’s victory helped Stewart-Haas Racing land all four of their drivers in the Cup Series playoffs this year. They were the only four-car team to accomplish that feat this year.

Custer also became the first Cup Series Rookie of the Year to win a race in his first season as a full-time driver since Joey Logano accomplished that feat in 2009. Chris Buescher did win a race as a rookie in 2016, but he was bested by Chase Elliott for top rookie honors that year.

Also of note, Justin Haley won the weather-shortened second Cup Series race last July at Daytona International Speedway. It was his first Cup Series win, but he was ineligible for Cup Series points, so he still retains his Cup Series Rookie of the Year eligibility.

“They [Stewart-Haas Racing] worked with me and helped me get better this season,” the 22-year-old Custer said following the Cup Series season finale. “I think we have a lot to look forward to next year and we have a lot to build on.”

“It was definitely a rookie season with a lot of peaks and valleys,” Custer continued. “It was a really interesting season to be a rookie with no practice, no testing or qualifying, so it was a lot of just learning on the fly, but I think we all managed it very well. We had a really good rookie class of me, Tyler (Reddick), Christopher (Bell) and John Hunter (Nemechek). I think we all had really good runs throughout the year and it definitely means a lot to win the Cup Series Rookie of the Year.”

Custer bested Tyler Reddick and Christopher Bell, the other two drivers who comprised the Xfinity Series “Big 3” the previous two seasons. Additionally, John Hunter Nemechek, Brennan Poole and Quin Houff competed as rookies this season.

Harrison Burton, son of former Cup Series driver and current NASCAR on NBC broadcaster Jeff Burton, and rookie teammate Riley Herbst both made the playoffs this year. Burton finished in eighth place in the championship standings and Herbst finished 96 points behind him in 12th.

Myatt Snider, Jesse Little, Joe Graf Jr., and Kody Vanderwal all completed their Xfinity Series rookie campaigns this year as well.

Burton won at Auto Club Speedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and Martinsville Speedway this season. The 20-year-old notched four wins in 2020 after not reaching victory lane at all in his 2019 full-time season in the Truck Series.

He won in the Xfinity Series’ first trip to Martinsville Speedway since 2006. His victory there broke his father’s record of youngest ever Xfinity Series winner at the four-turn, 0.526-mile (0.847-kilometer) oval in Ridgeway, Virginia.

Burton’s four wins this year netted him the third highest win total in the Xfinity Series, behind only those of Championship 4 driver Chase Briscoe and champion Austin Cindric.

Of all three NASCAR Rookies of the Year, Zane Smith finished the best. He won at Michigan International Speedway and Dover International Speedway and scored the third highest amount of playoff points en route to advancing to the Truck Series Championship 4.

“I’m happy for Sheldon [Creed, his GMS Racing teammate who won the championship], had an amazing year, along with us,” Smith told Frontstretch after the season finale. “Nothing hurts more than being the first loser. An amazing year, Rookie of the Year, just one spot short.”

Smith narrowly made the Championship 4 thanks to back-to-back third-place finishes in the round of 8. In the season finale, he ultimately finished in second place, 0.617 seconds behind Creed.

Fortunately for the 21-year-old, he is set to get another shot at the Truck Series title next year, as he is slated to return to drive the #21 Chevrolet for a second season.

Smith and Christian Eckes both made the playoffs in their rookie seasons. Eckes finished in eighth place in the championship standings.

Rookie Derek Kraus finished 11th place in the standings as the highest finishing non-playoff driver. Eckes’s teammate, Raphael Lessard, won his first career race in the playoffs at Talladega Superspeedway, but he was not a playoff driver and ended up in 12th in the standings.

Tanner Gray, Tate Fogleman and Spencer Davis rounded out the Truck Series rookie field.

Congratulations to Cole Custer, Harrison Burton and Zane Smith on winning the Rookie of the Year Award in their respective NASCAR series.