NASCAR: 5 drivers who will make huge improvements in 2024
By Asher Fair
2. John Hunter Nemechek
I am going to cheat a little bit here since John Hunter Nemechek hasn't competed full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series since 2020, but that is exactly why he is poised to make huge improvements in 2024 with a Legacy Motor Club team switching manufacturers from Chevrolet to Toyota.
Following his rookie season with Front Row Motorsports in 2020, Nemechek made the decision to drop back down to the Truck Series so that he could re-align with Toyota, as he simply felt that that was a better decision than sticking around in non-competitive machinery just to say he competes in the Cup Series.
He knew that there was never a guarantee of a return to the Cup Series, but after spending three years re-climbing the ladder, he is back. In 2021, he won five Truck Series races -- including three ahead of Kyle Busch in second place -- and he added two more wins in 2022.
He moved on from the Kyle Busch Motorsports Truck Series team and joined the Joe Gibbs Racing Xfinity Series team in 2023, where he also made the Championship 4 after recording a series-high seven wins.
The 2024 season is set to be Nemechek's 12th season in NASCAR on some level, so it's easy to forget that he is still just 26 years old.
With far more experience now than in 2020 -- and with arguably a stronger team -- he is poised for a very strong year that should undoubtedly produce more than three top 10 finishes and a 27th place finish in the point standings like he recorded four years ago.