NASCAR: 10 drivers who won’t be back with their 2020 teams
By Asher Fair
These 10 drivers will not be returning to the teams for which they competed in the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season this year.
For as crazy as the 2020 NASCAR season was, Silly Season may have been crazier. Several drivers will not be returning to the teams for which they competed throughout the 2020 season, with several set to retire, others set to switch teams and others set to drove down to lower levels of the sport.
Here are 10 drivers who will not be driving for the same teams they drove for in 2020 in the upcoming 2021 campaign.
NOTE: This list includes only drivers who competed (or in one case, intended to compete) full-time in the 2020 season.
Drivers moving on after 2020: Corey LaJoie
Corey LaJoie will not be back behind the wheel of the #32 Ford for what would have been a third year with Go Fas Racing in the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season. After several seasons of competing for backmarker teams, he made a decision similar to that of Matt DiBenedetto in 2018, also his second season with Archie St. Hilaire’s team, to give up his ride and try to find something better.
In fact, Go Fas Racing sold their portion of the charter they had used to run the #32 Ford (the other portion continues to be owned by Joe Falk) to the new team started by a partnership involving B.J. McLeod and Matt Tifft, Live Fast Motorsports, to run the #78 Ford. Go Fas Racing plan only to compete in five or six races throughout the 2021 season.
LaJoie recorded three top 10 finishes in 72 starts over two seasons at Go Fas Racing, all at superspeedways. He finished in a career-high sixth place at Daytona International Speedway in July of 2019 en route to a career-high 29th place finish in the championship standings. He is set to compete full-time for Spire Motorsports behind the wheel of the #7 Chevrolet next year.