NASCAR: Top 3 seats still open for 2021
By Asher Fair
Top 3 open seats for 2021: No. 1 – Front Row Motorsports (two cars)
This is really two cars, but they are two cars at the same team, and we know for a fact that one of the two drivers from 2020 won’t be back behind the wheel next year.
Front Row Motorsports have not yet confirmed who will drive the #34 Ford or the #38 Ford in the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season. Michael McDowell has driven the #34 Ford since the 2018 season and is expected to return for what would be a fourth year in 2021 after a career year in 2020, but that has not been confirmed.
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As for the #38 Ford, that car will have a new driver if it is to be run again. John Hunter Nemechek had been expected to return for what would have been a second season with the team, but he opted to give up his ride in order to sign with the Kyle Busch Motorsports Truck Series team to pilot the #4 Toyota next year.
Front Row Motorsports are by no means one of the sport’s most competitive teams, but they are undoubtedly an attractive option for the few remaining free agents on the market.
McDowell’s 2020 season netted the best ever result for one of Bob Jenkins’s drivers in the championship standings (23rd place), save for Chris Buescher’s 16th place finish in 2016 when he qualified for the playoffs as a result of his massive upset win at Pocono Raceway and thus secured a top 16 finish.
And while it didn’t get the publicity it probably should have because of the fact that the “Big 3” also ascended from the Xfinity Series to the Cup Series in 2020, Nemechek’s rookie season was nothing to sneeze at either.
McDowell posted the team’s best ever average finish for a full season since they opened in 2005 (20.9), and Nemechek quietly posted the second best (22.4).
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Which drivers will end up competing for Spire Motorsports, Gaunt Brothers Racing and Front Row Motorsports in the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season?