NASCAR: 2022 season sees family connection renewed

After a year away from full-time NASCAR Cup Series competition, Ty Dillon is set to return in 2022, joining Petty GMS Motorsports.

The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season is scheduled to get underway this Sunday, February 20 with the 64th annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway (Fox, 2:30 p.m. ET).

After failing to qualify for the “Great American Race” last year, marking the first time he missed it since making his Cup Series debut in 2014, Ty Dillon is back behind the wheel for this year’s running of the 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked oval in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Dillon, who was initially signed by GMS Racing to drive the #94 Chevrolet for the team’s first ever Cup Series season in 2022, is set to drive the #42 Chevrolet full-time for Petty GMS Motorsports after Richard Petty Motorsports merged with GMS Racing and opted to honor the Petty legacy with a number change.

The 29-year-old Lewisville, North Carolina native competed full-time in the Cup Series from 2017 to 2020 for Germain Racing behind the wheel of the #13 Chevrolet, but the Bob Germain-owned team sold their charter for the 2021 season and shut down. Their charter went to 23XI Racing, the new team started by NBA legend Michael Jordan and Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin.

Dillon was unable to land a full-time ride for 2021. He joined Gaunt Brothers Racing for a part-time schedule, which included the Daytona 500 (prior to his DNQ), and he competed in select races in the Xfinity Series for Joe Gibbs Racing, Our Motorsports and Jordan Anderson Racing, plus one Truck Series race for Bret Holmes Racing.

But with him back in the series for 2022, the Dillon brothers are again set to compete against one another.

Austin Dillon, who has competed full-time for Richard Childress Racing since 2014, is very much looking forward to competing against his brother on a weekly basis for what will be the fifth season.

“It’s great to have my brother back out on the track,” Austin told Beyond the Flag. “I think he’s pumped up, he’s fired up; you can tell. Any time you got him out there — just hopefully another teammate who you can talk to and get information from.”

Richard Childress Racing and Petty GMS Motorsports have a technical alliance, as the former has had a technical alliance with Richard Petty Motorsports for the last several seasons, and they also announced a technical alliance with GMS Racing when it was confirmed that GMS Racing would be moving to the Cup Series for the first time in 2022.

The Dillon brothers are one of two pairs of brothers to be competing in the Cup Series together in 2022. The Busch brothers, Kurt and Kyle, are the other; this is set to be their 18th straight season together as full-time drivers at NASCAR’s top level.