Rivals Ty Gibbs

and Noah Gragson for Top Cup Series Newcomer

Ty Gibbs and Noah Gragson ruled the roost last season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, amassing 15 victories between them and staging a hardfought championship battle. Along the way, Gibbs and Gragson also became bitter rivals after having more than one on-track altercation, and the feelings of animosity between them were so strong that Gragson bluntly declared heading into the final race that he simply didn’t like Gibbs.

Now, the two are moving to full-time Cup Series status after both making cameo Cup Series starts last season to fill in for injured drivers. Expect the uber-talented youngsters to continue their rivalry as newcomers to NASCAR’s top series, where they’ll undoubtedly be trying to one up each other all season for multiple reasons that include, perhaps most importantly, personal bragging rights.

Jimmie Johnson’s Impact as a Team Owner

Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson will be wearing a new hat – the hat of Cup Series team owner. While Johnson, who’s been out of the sport since his final driving season of 2020, will be only a minority owner of Petty GMS, the future NASCAR Hall of Famer is bound to exert a tremendous influence on the organization and its two young drivers – Erik Jones and Noah Gragson.

Johnson’s mere presence around the shop should lift the organization, which went to Victory Lane once last year in its first season with Allegiant Air CEO Maury Gallagher and seven-time Cup Series champion Richard Petty as partners in team ownership. Add Johnson to the mix and you’re talking about a team whose co-owners have a combined 283 wins in NASCAR’s premier series.

A Safer Version of the Next Gen Cup Series Car

The Next Generation Cup Series car that debuted last season certainly had its benefits, like improving the overall quality of the racing on many tracks – most notably the 1.5- and 2-mile venues. However, after Kurt Busch and Alex Bowman both suffered a concussion in the second half of the season from a high-speed, rear-end impact, NASCAR began working diligently to improve some of the safety features on the Next Gen vehicle.

Following a crash test of the car in early October, NASCAR informed teams of some structural changes it would make to the rear of the Next Gen car prior to the 2023 season. With those changes expected to be in place at Daytona, drivers should be far less likely this season to suffer any ill effects from an accident on the race track.

A Continuation of Last Year’s Rivalries

The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season featured no dearth of rivalries. Whether it was William Byron versus Joey Logano at Darlington, Denny Hamlin versus Ross Chastain at World Wide Technology Raceway, Brad Keselowski versus Austin Dillon at New Hampshire, or Kyle Larson versus Bubba Wallace at Las Vegas, fireworks erupted early and often – creating authentic animosity between the participants involved in these incidents.

Will the drivers who didn’t quite see eye to eye a year ago turn the page and forget about their disagreements, or will they find themselves in situations that only heighten their disdain for one another? If the latter is true, look for retaliation to be a theme of 2023 – and NASCAR to intervene if things get too out of hand.