NASCAR Cup Series silly season has been relatively tame thus far, but there are still several drivers facing uncertain futures.
NASCAR Cup Series silly season has been loaded with interesting speculation and headlines, but there hasn’t been much to discuss other than drivers re-signing with their current teams.
So far, the only driver we know for a fact will not be back in his current ride next year is Aric Almirola, and that was announced before the 2022 season even started. Almirola stated back in January that he plans to retire once the season ends, leaving Stewart-Haas Racing’s #10 Ford without a driver.
Here are five other drivers who may not be back with their current teams in 2023.
Drivers who could be out: No. 1 – Ty Dillon
Ty Dillon missed the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season after Germain Racing shut down and sold their charter to the new 23XI Racing team post-2020, but he returned in 2022.
He was initially set to drive the #94 Chevrolet for GMS Racing, but he ended up behind the wheel of the #42 Chevrolet after GMS Racing and Richard Petty Motorsports formed a partnership to become Petty GMS Motorsports.
This resulted in Dillon having a teammate, as Erik Jones returned for a second season behind the wheel of Richard Petty’s #43 Chevrolet. Unfortunately for Dillon, he has been handily beaten by his teammate in 2022. Jones sits eight positions and more than 100 points ahead of Dillon in the point standings, and Jones has beaten Dillon’s best finish of 10th place on four occasions.
Given how strong Jones has been and the fact that he has proven Petty GMS Motorsports are capable of competing for decent results, could Petty GMS Motorsports look to replace Dillon after year one?
Drivers who could be out: No. 2 – Kyle Busch
Kyle Busch’s future with Joe Gibbs Racing continues to be up in the air, even several months after making the cryptic remarks he made at Talladega Speedway.
Busch stated that it could very well be “goodbye” from Joe Gibbs Racing, perhaps even the Cup Series as a whole, without significant sponsorship coming in to replace M&M’s.
M&M’s had announced before the season that the 2022 season would be their final season sponsoring the #18 Toyota. The impending loss of a longtime partner caught everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota by surprise, and a contract extension that would ordinarily be nothing more than a formality is anything but.
Busch has said that, if sponsorship can’t be found, he would say that he lost his ride, as opposed to saying he has retired from Cup Series competition. While there have been a number of promising developments regarding potential sponsorship for the #18 Toyota since Busch made those cryptic remarks, that is still very much a possibility.
Could the sport’s highest paid driver ultimately need to take a pay cut to return for a 16th season behind the wheel of the #18 Toyota? That is probably more likely than him going elsewhere, given the fact that there are no other Toyota seats open.
A manufacturer switch would be far more complicated than it seems, considering the fact that his Kyle Busch Motorsports team is also aligned with Toyota.
Drivers who could be out: No. 3 – Cole Custer
We already know that Stewart-Haas Racing have to make one change to their driver lineup for the 2023 season, with Aric Almirola having announced before the 2022 season started that it would be his fifth and final season behind the wheel of the #10 Ford.
And even though Stewart-Haas Racing did change their driver lineup after each of the five seasons from 2016 to 2020, they never replaced more than one of their four drivers during that span.
One year after making no changes to their driver lineup for the first time since between the 2015 and 2016 seasons, could they make multiple changes?
It’s no secret that Stewart-Haas Racing have struggled since the start of last season, but the struggles of Cole Custer himself make the team’s overall struggles look like nothing. None of the team’s four drivers currently sit in the top 10 in the point standings, yet Custer is 11 spots lower than their next lowest.
It has been more than a full calendar year since Custer finished a single race in the top 10, and it has been almost two years since he finished higher than 10th.
What could save Custer is the fact that many people expect the 2023 season to be Kevin Harvick’s final season in the Cup Series, so Stewart-Haas Racing will probably need to find a replacement for him sooner rather than later. Would it really make sense to replace a young driver the year before (especially with Almirola already needing to be replaced)?
Ordinarily no, but considering how badly Custer has struggled, Stewart-Haas Racing may look to make a change. Custer should be safe, but there is little reason to believe that the team won’t at least consider their options.
Drivers who could be out: No. 4 – Corey LaJoie
Spire Motorsports is by no means a dream landing spot for a NASCAR Cup Series driver, but you have to wonder just how much longer they want to wait before they replace Corey LaJoie behind the wheel of the #7 Chevrolet.
LaJoie, who has never spent more than two seasons with the same team, said before the 2021 season that he felt that he and the #7 team had a chance to get into the playoffs on points.
Yet he ended up a dozen and a half spots lower in the standings than the final driver who locked in on points, and the 2022 season has been even worse for him.
The only full-time driver he ranks ahead of in the point standings is Rick Ware Racing’s Cody Ware, and he has yet to finish higher than 15th place in a non-superspeedway race since joining the team last year.
He sits in 31st place in the point standings — even behind RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski, who was issued a 100-point penalty earlier this year.
Without Keselowski’s penalty, LaJoie would be 59 points out of the top 30. Even if he pulls off an upset victory before the regular season ends, the fact that he isn’t in the top 30 would keep him out of the playoffs.
The 30-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina native is perhaps best known for his podcast Stacking Pennies. Unfortunately, he has been doing just that in 2022. In seven of his 18 starts so far this year, he has scored just one, two or three points, including four of his last five and five of his last seven.
He does have a career-high fifth place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway to his name this year. But if not for that single result, he could find himself in a heated battle with the other Spire Motorsports entry and the two Rick Ware Racing entries to crucially keep the #7 team inside the top 33 in the owner standings.
Drivers who could be out: No. 5 – Harrison Burton
Harrison Burton has had a disappointing first season in the NASCAR Cup Series behind the wheel of the #21 Ford for Wood Brothers Racing, to say the least. While he does bring sponsorship, could it end up being his first and only season in the series?
After spending the last two seasons competing for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series, Burton replaced Matt DiBenedetto at the Team Penske-affiliated team in 2022.
In two seasons behind the wheel of the #21 Ford, DiBenedetto earned six top five finishes and 20 top 10 finishes. He finished in 13th and 18th place in the championship standings in 2020 and 2021, qualifying for the playoffs in the former.
Burton sits in 28th place in the point standings (would be 29th if not for Brad Keselowski’s penalty) and hasn’t finished a single race in the top 10. In fact, the lower of DiBenedetto’s two single-season average finishes was 16.9. Through 18 races in 2022, Burton has only topped that mark on three occasions.
The problem for Burton is that this wasn’t exactly unexpected. Yes, he did win four races for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2020, but he went winless last year, which is never a good sign when you’re competing for a top-tier team.
Additionally, driving for a top-tier Truck Series team in Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2019, he went winless and finished in 12th place in the championship standings. The kicker? Only 10 other drivers ran the full schedule.
Barring a significant improvement from Burton throughout the latter half of the 2022 season, the start of the Gen 7 will mark a new low for Wood Brothers Racing. As they continue to pursue their 100th win — and first in over five years — will they decide to move on?