Silly Season for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season has not lacked storylines thus far, but there are still plenty of other driver situations to sort out.
Driver movement and signings for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series lineup have been quite frequent throughout the 2020 season.
But even with so many high-profile drivers having found homes for at least the 2021 campaign, there are still a number of free agents still on the market. Here are the top five.
Top 5 remaining free agents: No. 5 – Ryan Preece
Ryan Preece took a step back in his sophomore NASCAR Cup Series season after finishing in 26th place in the championship standings as the rookie driver of the #47 Chevrolet for JTG Daugherty Racing last year.
Now piloting the #37 Chevrolet, the 30-year-old Berlin, Connecticut native only finished in 29th place in the standings after the 36-race season, and his average finish of 23.1 from a year ago has dropped more than one full place to 24.3 this season.
However, it may not be time to give up on Preece yet, despite his apparent dropoff from 2019 to 2020, and he has, in fact, been rumored to return.
He started the season without finishing higher than 12th place in the first 28 races. Then he recorded two top 10 finishes in three races, including an impressive season-best ninth place run at Bristol Motor Speedway.
After recording just seven top 20 finishes in the 26-race regular season, he recorded eight through the first nine races of the playoffs. Most notably, he beat teammate Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in six of these nine races after beating him only eight times throughout the regular season.
While it was in doubt a few months or even weeks ago, it is expected that he will be back behind the wheel of the #37 Chevrolet in 2021.
Top 5 remaining free agents: No. 4 – Michael McDowell
Michael McDowell was easily one of the most underrated and underappreciated drivers throughout the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season. While it is assumed that he will be back behind the wheel of the #34 Ford for Front Row Motorsports in the 2021 season, he is not yet under contract for next year.
The 35-year-old Phoenix, Arizona native finished the season in 23rd place in championship standings after entering the year with career-best finishes of 26th in 2017 and 2018.
Additionally, his average finish of 20.9 is the best of his career by more than one full place. He set his previous career-best of 22.2 back in 2017.
While he did not record a single top five finish this season after recording two last year to triple his career top five finish total, he shattered his career-high top 10 finish mark. Entering the year, he had never recorded more than three in a two-year span.
This season alone, he recorded four, and most notably, none came in superspeedway races. He finished in eighth place at Pocono Raceway, seventh at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 10th at the Daytona International Speedway road course and 10th at Bristol Motor Speedway.
He entered the season with just eight career top 10 finishes in 321 starts, and he hadn’t finished in the top 10 in a non-superspeedway race since 2016 when he finished in 10th place at Homestead-Miami Speedway driving for Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing.
Top 5 remaining free agents: No. 3 – Corey LaJoie
Corey LaJoie believes in his abilities behind the wheel of a race car, so much so that he made the decision to not return to Go Fas Racing for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season in the hopes of landing a better ride with a more competitive team.
The 28-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina native has been competing in the Cup Series since 2014, but he hasn’t had the break he needs to showcase them behind the wheel for a competitive team up to this point, having driven for teams such as Randy Humphrey Racing, BK Racing and TriStar Motorsports before landing his first full-time ride with Go Fas Racing last year.
Considered by many to be the most untapped potential in the Cup Series, he is not in a bad position to try to advance his career, even having surrendered his ride.
He entered last year with just two top 23 finishes to his name in 57 starts. But he recorded four top 12 finishes for the team in 2019 before they formed their technical alliance with Stewart-Haas Racing, including two top seven results, and he recorded six top 19 finishes this year at six different race tracks.
While his handwritten cursive letter to Rick Hendrick did not land him a ride as Jimmie Johnson’s replacement and the fact that he was already somewhat in connection to the Stewart-Haas Racing organization at Go Fas Racing did not land him a ride as Clint Bowyer’s replacement, where else could he go?
Top 5 remaining free agents: No. 2 – John Hunter Nemechek
John Hunter Nemechek, who had competed and impressed in NASCAR’s lower ranks for several seasons, burst onto the scene late last year in a three-race stint for Front Row Motorsports as the replacement for Matt Tifft, and that performance justifiably landed him a full-time ride with the team behind the wheel of the #38 Ford in 2020.
The 23-year-old Mooresville, North Carolina native somewhat came back down to earth after recording five top 16 finishes in the season’s first nine races, including a ninth place finish at Darlington Raceway. Such a run is challenging to pull off in his equipment and even more challenging to do as a rookie. But he had an impressive rookie year moving forwad nonetheless.
He recorded 16 top 20 finishes and an average finish of 22.4, and he led all rookies in laps and distance completed in what was a stacked class of first-year drivers.
Nemechek is not yet under contract with Bob Jenkins’s team for 2021, but it is expected that he will return.
His name had been thrown around as a possibility to drive for some of the sport’s more competitive teams, including Hendrick Motorsports, Chip Ganassi Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing, but with none of those speculated moves having come to fruition, a return to the #38 Ford is even more likely.
Top 5 remaining free agents: No. 1 – Ty Dillon
Ty Dillon did not make the decision to leave Germain Racing at the end of the 2020 season, and Germain Racing did not make the decision to release him.
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However, long-time primary sponsor GEICO, which recently signed on as a Premier Partner of the NASCAR Cup Series, made the decision not to continue sponsoring the #13 Chevrolet after next year, which forced Bob Germain to sell his team. GEICO had been the team’s primary sponsor for more than a decade.
Their charter was sold to the new team co-owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan and NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin, 23XI Racing. They hired Bubba Wallace, not Dillon, to drive their car, the #23 Toyota, next year.
Meanwhile, Dillon does not have a seat for 2021.
Dillon has competed in the Cup Series full-time since the 2017 season when he signed with Germain Racing. He is the grandson of Richard Childress Racing team owner Richard Childress, so there have been talks about that link leading to a future full-time ride, even if only in the Xfinity Series. Notably, Germain Racing have had a technical alliance with Childress’s team for several years.
Where will these five drivers end up in the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season?