More Clutch Performances from Christopher Bell

The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season will be remembered for various outcomes and developments, but few will be more memorable and potentially consequential than Christopher Bell establishing himself as the sport’s new Mr. Clutch.

Not once but twice in playoff elimination races did the Joe Gibbs Racing driver prevail in a must-win scenario to punch his ticket to the next playoff round. And Bell did this on two completely different types of tracks – Martinsville Speedway (an oval short track) and the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL (a road course). If Bell can continue to rise to the occasion when it matters most, he’ll further solidify his place as NASCAR’s newest No. 1 clutch performer, and he might even inherit Kevin Harvick’s old nickname of “The Closer.”

A Breakout Season for Chris Buescher

The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season featured the emergence of several surprise contenders, most notably Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, Chase Briscoe, Daniel Suarez and Austin Cindric who all made the playoffs by virtue of earning the first win of their respective careers.

So, who’ll be the big surprises of 2023? One driver who could be poised for a breakout season is Chris Buescher, who went to Victory Lane in the Bristol night race last fall but missed the playoffs because his win came after the regular season. Buescher’s victory provided a bright spot in an otherwise disappointing season for the newly rebranded Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing organization. If RFK Racing as a whole can make some improvements, it might be enough for Buescher to enjoy his first multi-win season at the Cup Series level.

Aging Owners Making Exit Plans

At age 73, Rick Hendrick is the youngest among the crop of NASCAR Cup Series team owners who’ve been in the sport for more than two decades. The others – Richard Childress, Joe Gibbs, Roger Penske and Jack Roush – are all over the age of 76, with Penske, the oldest of the bunch, checking in at 85.

While none of these NASCAR Hall of Fame owners are known to be in particularly poor health, time is certainly not on their side when it comes to how much longer

Drivers Aiming to Make Good on Their Second Chance

Second-chance opportunities tend to be rare in NASCAR, so when a driver gets one, they’d better take advantage of it. So it will be in 2023 for Ryan Preece and A.J. Allmendinger – drivers who once had a full-time Cup Series ride, lost it and now are back in the game.

Preece, who ran a part-time Craftsman Truck Series schedule last year, is taking over the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford. Allmendinger, meanwhile, has been named a full-time Cup Series driver for Kaulig Racing where he spent the last two seasons in a full-time Xfinity Series role and made select Cup Series starts. Allmendinger last competed as a full-time Cup Series driver in 2018 as part of JTG Daugherty Racing where he was replaced in 2019, coinci dentally, by Preece.

Alex Bowman on the Hot Seat

After winning a career-high four Cup Series races in 2021, Alex Bowman understandably harbored aspirations of making frequent trips to Victory Lane in 2022. It didn’t happen, though, as Bowman prevailed at Las Vegas in Week 3 but never again.

To be fair, Bowman did miss five of the season’s final six races due to the lingering effects of a concussion he suffered in an accident at Texas in late September, but the Hendrick Motorsports driver’s season had not lived up to expectations even before his unfortunate injury and absence from competition. If Bowman doesn’t take it up a notch or two this season – a year when his contract with Hendrick Motorsports is up for renewal – it’s possible team owner Rick Hendrick will opt to move in another direction for 2024 and beyond.

More Daredevil Moves in Critical Moments

Ross Chastain turned the NASCAR world on its proverbial head in the nextto-last race of the 2022 Cup Series season when he made the decision to never lift off the throttle in Turns 3 and 4 on the final lap at Martinsville. Chastain, who needed to pass two cars to advance to the Championship 4, actually gained five spots – more than enough to remain title-eligible heading into the next weekend’s season finale.

While Chastain’s video-game-style move damaged the right side of his car, it was well worth it to keep his championship hopes alive for another week. Now the question becomes whether Chastain’s maneuver – which looked like a video on fast-forward – will become commonplace as drivers seek to do whatever it takes to avoid elimination in the playoffs.