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10 Things We Learned in 2021
The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season was full of compelling storylines and sprinkled with controversy – particularly as the campaign neared its conclusion and the battle for the championship reached a fever pitch. Here are the 10 most interesting things we learned in 2021.
BY JARED TURNER
Kyle Larson Is a Bona Fide 10 Superstar KYLE LARSON DIDN’T JUST WIN THE 2021 NASCAR Cup Series championship. He also solidified his place as a bona-fide superstar of the sport. On the way to his championship, the first-year Hendrick Motorsports driver set a record for most laps led in a 36-race season. His 10 race wins were more than twice as many as any other driver, and his 18 stage wins far surpassed everyone else as well. The Elk Grove, California, native became the first driver since Jimmie Johnson in 2007 to earn 10 victories in a single season, and Larson won more races in 2021 than he did in his previous years in the Cup Series combined, when he competed for team owner Chip Ganassi. “I’m just very fortunate to have all the opportunities I’ve ever been given, and it’s hard to think about what else I would like to accomplish, but I love winning races, and I love driving all sorts of vehicles,” said Larson, who in addition to his duties as a full-time Cup Series driver competes regularly in sprint car and midget races across the country. “I don’t think that I’ll ever be able to top this year, but I hope I can someday.” Among those most impressed by Larson in 2021 was his first-year boss, NASCAR
Hall of Fame team owner Rick Hendrick. “I had heard stories that he couldn’t close, that he was fast and he would run near the wall and he’d wreck,” Hendrick said. “When we got him in the car, it was pretty obvious that he was pretty quick, that he could run the whole race, and he was fast, and he took care of the car. I knew his talent from watching him when he was driving for Chip and could see some of the things he could do with the car. So he’s impressed me. I think his ability to know how to race has impressed me a lot this year because he’s fast, but he knows how to race, and he knows when to race, and when he needs to just take care of it.”
9An Underdog Can Soar on NASCAR’s Biggest Stage
RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU PREDICTED MICHAEL MCDOWELL
would win the 2021 Daytona 500? Yeah, we didn’t either. Yet, that’s exactly what happened in February’s 63rd running of The Great American Race.
Driving for an underfunded team in Front Row Motorsports and making his 358th start in NASCAR’s premier division, McDowell bagged his first Cup Series win on the grandest stage of all. And McDowell did so in electrifying fashion by passing Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski for the lead when the two Team Penske teammates collided and wrecked in accordion-style fashion in Turn 3 on the final lap at worldfamous Daytona International Speedway.
“So many years just grinding it out and hoping for an opportunity like this,” said McDowell, a 36-year-old Phoenix, Arizona, native who made his first Cup Series start in 2008. “We had our Ford partners (Keselowski and Logano) at the end, and they all crashed, but luckily, I was able to make it through. I’m just so thankful.”
For McDowell, going to Victory Lane in the prestigious season opener at The World Center of Racing was sweet redemption after years of trying but failing to scratch at NASCAR’s highest level. It also proved that an underdog driver can soar on the sport’s grandest stage when facing the longest of odds. Although McDowell didn’t do anything of note the rest of the season, his victory at Daytona gave him national exposure unlike anything he had ever enjoyed and guaranteed him entry into the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs for the first time.
8Some Drivers Really Don’t Like Each Other
THE MAJORITY OF THE 2021 NASCAR CUP SERIES SEASON
was free of major controversy, with drivers more or less staying out of each other’s way and not making enemies. But everything changed once the playoffs began. Chase Elliott and Kevin Harvick tangled on track during the night race at Bristol Motor Speedway and then got up in each other’s faces on pit road after the checkered flag waved. The two former champions collided again a few weeks later on the ROVAL at Charlotte Motor Speedway, with Harvick’s No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford sending Elliott’s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for a spin. Harvick later admitted to wrecking Elliott intentionally as payback for what Elliott had done to him at Bristol, and it was only after NASCAR threatened both drivers with major consequences if they continued to feud that Elliott and Harvick essentially called a truce in the final month of the season. However, just as things began to settle down between Elliott and Harvick, business picked up between Denny Hamlin and Alex Bowman in the season’s penultimate race at Martinsville Speedway. Battling for the lead in the final laps at the Virginia short track,
Bowman – a non-playoff driver – washed up into championship-contending Hamlin, sending Hamlin’s race-leading No. 11 Toyota spinning and ruining the veteran driver’s shot at a victory.
Hamlin, who qualified for the Championship 4 in spite of the accident, later called
Bowman “a hack” and expressed his anger by interrupting the Hendrick Motorsports driver’s post-race celebration. As this was happening, Kyle Busch took verbal shots at Brad Keselowski during an interview on pit road after those two drivers banged together racing for second on the final lap. Clearly, some drivers didn’t send each other Christmas cards this year.
7Hendrick Motorsports Is King of the Hill
KYLE LARSON’S IMPRESSIVE MARCH TO THE NASCAR CUP SERIES
championship was by no means the only notable accomplishment for Hendrick Motorsports in 2021. Joining Larson in Victory Lane over the course of the season were the other three Hendrick drivers – Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott and William Byron – who combined for seven wins of their own, giving Hendrick Motorsports a total of 17 victories in 36 races. All four Hendrick drivers made it to the playoffs, while two of the four – Larson and Elliott – reached the Championship 4. It was an all-around dominant season for the organization, whose four drivers are all under the age of 30 and represent one of Hendrick’s youngest driver lineups in the company’s 35-year-plus history.
“I really like our lineup right now,” team owner Rick Hendrick said after the season’s final race at Phoenix Raceway where Larson delivered the organization’s second consecutive championship and 14th overall at NASCAR’s highest level. “I like the chemistry between the four drivers. That’s important that they get along. Of course they want to beat each other, but I’ve got a lot invested in William. I’ve got a lot invested in Chase, Alex and Kyle. I hope we can keep the band together because we’ve got such a good core working together.
“I can’t emphasize enough: You don’t hear any friction between our guys and our crew chiefs. They really work well together. To me, that’s what makes an organization work is all the people really pulling together.”
6Stewart-Haas Racing Has Some Catching Up to Do
BY ALL ACCOUNTS, IT WAS A DIFFICULT SEASON FOR
Stewart-Haas Racing as the organization co-owned by Tony Stewart and Gene Haas went to Victory Lane only once in 36 races and saw its flagship driver – Kevin Harvick – go winless for the first time since he joined the organization in 2014. Meanwhile, SHR’s two youngest drivers – Cole Custer and rookie Chase Briscoe – failed to make the playoffs and finished outside the top 20 in points while being unable to find Victory Lane. SHR’s lone win came from Aric Almirola, who outside of triumphing at New Hampshire Motor Speedway endured one of the most difficult and frustrating seasons of his Cup Series career. Undoubtedly, the organization has some work to do if it wants to close the gap on Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske in 2022. This was the first time since SHR opened its doors in 2009 that all three of its main rivals outperformed the organization in such overwhelming fashion. “I definitely had higher expectations coming into the year,” said Briscoe, who posted just three top-10 finishes in his first Cup Series season with the organization after winning nine races as a full-time Xfinity Series driver for SHR in 2020. “It was a weird year. As a company, we struggled way more than we thought we would. You base your expectations off of last year, and we just weren’t quite there from a performance standpoint.” Harvick, who won a series-high nine races in 2020, tried to keep the disappointments of 2021 in perspective.
“I’ve personally been through some pretty tough years, and this one was just a struggle because you had to work so hard to get everything you have,” he said. “I think from a team standpoint, we’ve also learned a lot about the other side of the fence as far as having to dig your heels in and do things that you haven’t had to do. … But when you look at the overall picture and the grind that we’ve been through this year, I think everybody’s done a good job.”
5Bubba Wallace Can Win in NASCAR’s Top Series
ALWAYS UNDER SOMEWHAT OF A MICROSCOPE AS THE ONLY AFRICAN AMERICAN DRIVER TO RACE FULL TIME IN THE
NASCAR Cup Series, Bubba Wallace sent a loud message to his doubters by winning the fall Cup Series event at Talladega Superspeedway in his home state of Alabama.
Of course, some fans – particularly on Twitter – wanted to discredit Wallace’s win since it came in a race cut short by rain, but Wallace is hardly the first driver to win in this fashion. In fact, it happens almost every season and sometimes multiple times in a season. In scoring the victory, Wallace made history as the first African American driver to earn a win in NASCAR’s premier series since the late NASCAR Hall of Famer Wendell Scott did so at Speedway Park in Jacksonville, Florida, on Dec. 1, 1963.
Wallace finished the season with a career-high three top-five finishes in his 23XI Racing Toyota co-owned by three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny
Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan.
However, Wallace’s final ranking in the standings – 21st – was just one position better than where he finished in 2020, his final season with Richard
Petty Motorsports. Wallace did not make the playoffs by virtue of his win, because it didn’t come during the 26-race regular season but after the playoffs had already started. Nevertheless, the Mobile, Alabama, native has reason to feel optimistic about 2022 and the rest of his future in the sport knowing that he’s checked the race winner’s box.
4Kurt Busch Is Not Ready to Retire
WHEN THE 2021 SEASON BEGAN, MANY IN THE NASCAR WORLD
wondered if it would be Kurt Busch’s last season in the Cup Series. Forty-two years old (now 43) and one of the oldest drivers in the sport, Busch hadn’t ruled out retiring at some point in the near future.
The 2004 Cup Series champion put this speculation to rest, however, when 23XI Racing announced in late August that Busch would become the driver for the organization’s new second team beginning in 2022. Busch, who is bringing longtime sponsor Monster Energy with him, will compete as a teammate to Bubba Wallace who was the organization’s lone driver in its 2021 debut season. Busch signed a multi-year deal, signaling a commitment that goes beyond the 2022 campaign and that he’s nowhere near retirement.
After spending the last three seasons in a Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, Busch looks forward to seeing what he can do in a Toyota fielded by his new team owners, Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan.
“I cannot begin to express my gratitude for this opportunity,” said Busch, who has been a fulltime Cup Series driver since 2001 and earned 33 wins in the sport’s premier division. “Racing to win is what I live for. Helping to continue developing a new team, alongside Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin and Toyota is exactly what I want to be part of. Winning is important to 23XI, it’s important to Monster Energy and it’s important to me. That is our goal.”
Busch will campaign the No. 45, a new number for him and one that has been out of the sport for many years.
“When we started this team, our vision was to grow to a multi-car organization. To be able to expand in just our second year is a huge step for us,” Hamlin said. “Kurt brings a wealth of knowledge and a championship mindset to our team, and will be able to help us grow stronger and more competitive each and every week.”
3NASCAR Tracks Are Once Again Open for Business
AFTER A 2020 SEASON IN WHICH THE COVID-19
pandemic forced all but four NASCAR Cup Series races to be held at reduced fan capacity, tracks reopened for business in a big way in 2021. Aside from the early months of the season, tracks operated at maximum capacity, which was a welcome sight for anyone who loves the sport. Unfortunately, as COVID-19 cases rose during the summer months, many tracks began limiting fan access to the infield and to the drivers in general. However, the show went on as scheduled and the pandemic had very little impact on the competition side of things. Many fans who hadn’t been to a race track since 2019 returned to the grandstands, and drivers – on many occasions – thanked the fans for coming out and talked about how much they enjoyed seeing fans back at the track. The final race of the 2021 Cup season, run at Phoenix Raceway in Arizona, was a sellout. So from a fan participation and engagement standpoint, the season couldn’t have ended on a stronger note.
With COVID-19 cases now on the decline again throughout much of the United
States, expect all tracks to operate at full capacity for the duration of the 2022 season, beginning with February’s Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, which was only able to host a limited number of spectators for the 2021 Daytona 500. Seeing a full house at Daytona for the sport’s biggest race will be a positive way to kick off 2022 and build momentum for the season.
2More Road Courses Created More Drama
AN EXPANDED SLATE OF ROAD COURSES ON THE 2021
NASCAR Cup Series schedule only added to the drama, just as NASCAR hoped it would. Few will forget the last lap of the first Cup Series race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course when part-time Cup Series driver A.J. Allmendinger emerged as an unlikely winner after rookie Chase Briscoe and veteran Denny Hamlin tangled on the final lap, with Hamlin spinning and NASCAR penalizing Briscoe for cutting through the grass moments earlier. The two drivers later had a fairly intense post-race discussion on pit road while surrounded by cameras and hordes of onlookers. But this was just one example of the excitement that road-course racing generated in 2021, when the series competed on road circuits eight times if you include the non-points-paying pre-season exhibition race on the Daytona International Speedway road course. Along with Indy, Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, and Road America in
Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, joined the tour as new road course venues. While drivers at least publicly seemed OK with having more road courses on the schedule than are customary, several competitors didn’t support NASCAR’s decision to move a Cup
Series race from the fabled 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval to the IMS road course.
Although the race ended up being one of the most action-filled of the season, many of the sport’s top drivers expressed their desire for the Cup Series to return to the IMS oval in the relatively near future. It won’t happen in 2022, however, as the series is set to race on the road course for the second consecutive year.
WHILE HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS RULED THE 2021 SEASON
with 17 wins in 36 races culminating in a championship by Hendrick driver Kyle Larson, rival organizations Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske weren’t too far behind in terms of performance.
With drivers Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski, Team Penske captured a handful of victories and placed all three of its drivers in the playoffs. JGR, meanwhile, recorded at least one win with all four of its drivers and placed two of them – Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin – in the Championship 4.
Altogether, JGR drivers accounted for nine wins – second only to Hendrick in that category. Perennial Championship 4 contender Kyle Busch had an off year by his lofty standards, notching just two wins in his familiar No. 18 Toyota, while second-year teammate Christopher Bell went to Victory Lane once – in the second race of the season, held on the Daytona International Speedway road course.
Hamlin led the standings for most of the regular season but ultimately missed out on the regular season championship by a narrow margin when Kyle Larson came on strong in the regular season’s final weeks.
Hamlin finished third in the standings – one spot behind championship runner-up Truex, whose four victories were second only to Larson’s 10.
With just a little more speed or better track position in the season’s final race at Phoenix, JGR could have been celebrating a championship in spite of Hendrick being the overall more dominant team.
