2023 Silly Season Recap, Season Preview, and LA Clash Preview | Chasing The Cup S2:E1

In the season 2 premiere of Chasing the Cup, host Will England recaps the 2023 silly season and previews the upcoming season. Kyle Busch moves to RCR, AJ Almanager joins College Racing, Ryan Preece takes over the number 41, Noah Gregson drives the number 42, Tyler Reddick replaces Kurt Busch in the number 45, and Ty Gibbs replaces Joe Gibbs in the number 54. The schedule includes the return to North Wilkesboro and the addition of the Chicago street course. The Xfinity series will race at Sonoma for the first time. The Truck series will race at North Wilkesboro and the Milwaukee Mile. There are also some changes to the rules packages. There are also some big stories from the off-season, including TV negotiations, Toyota expanding their Cup series lineup, and Kevin Harvick announcing his retirement. Hello everyone and welcome to the season 2 premiere of Chasing the Cup. I am your host Will England and I'm back for another season of Chasing the Cup. And in this first episode of season 2, I'm going to be doing a recap of the 2023 silly season as well as doing a 2023 season preview. I'm also going to go over some big news stories that happened over the offseason and I'm going to preview the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum. But first, let's recap the 2023 silly season. The first driver is probably the most high profile during the 2023 silly season when after losing his old ride due to a lack of sponsorship, he moved to the RCR number 8 and that driver is Kyle Busch. After years and years waiting for Joe Gibbs Racing, Kyle moves over to RCR to take over the number 8 from Tyler Riddick and my expectations for Kyle Busch are high. He better do well compared to what he did last year because near the end of the season last year, Kyle Busch fell like a rock and the result, especially that race at Martinsville where he was running off the pace in last multiple laps down, that was just embarrassing for Kyle and Joe Gibbs Racing. And so I hope that this new change for Kyle will lead to some better results on the racetrack. The next car is the number 16 where AJ Almanager has been moved up to run full time in the 16 for College Racing and my expectations are kind of in the middle for AJ. He can definitely win and make the playoffs but he didn't even win a race last year. During his races, they are in part time for college so my expectations for him are to win and at least make it to the playoffs. Next up is the driver of the 41. After running part time in all three national series, Ryan Preece will take over the number 41 instead of Cole Custer. After having three mediocre seasons, Cole Custer will move back down to the Xfinity Series to drive the double zero and Ryan Preece has been promoted to the 41 to run full time and my expectations for Preece are pretty high. I want him to do way better than Cole Custer did during the past few seasons and if he does that then it would affect my expectations. Next is the driver of the 42. After having a subpar driver driving in the number 42, the Legacy Motor Club has gotten rid of Ty Dillon and in his place, they've got a young phenom. In the number 42, it is Noah Gregson who finished second last year in the Xfinity Series points and he'll drive the number 42 for Legacy Motor Club and my expectations for Noah Gregson are for him to be very consistent and try to win at least one race. I'm not sure if he can win his first race this year because he is a rookie but as long as he has an average finish of about 16th or better then I think it'll be a successful season because he would've developed that consistency. Next up is the driver of the 45. After the concussion at Poconov, Kurt Busch has retired from full time racing and yet he is still not cleared to run part time this year and replacing him in that number 45 car is Tyler Reddick who moves over from the 8 at RCR. And my expectations for Tyler Reddick are very high. He better win big and make the playoffs and show what talent he has behind the wheel because I think this will be the ride that cements his legacy for the rest of his career. And finally, we have the driver of the 54. After the 2022 season, Joe Gibbs retired to number 18 after Kyle Busch left the team and replacing him will be Ty Gibbs but instead of the 18, it'll be the 54 car for Joe Gibbs racing. And my expectations for Ty Gibbs are pretty high. He has shown in his few starts that he has talent to run pretty well but he has got some issues mentally and so I hope that he can get all those mental issues out of the way and try to develop some consistency and try not to kill pit crew members on pit road or speed during the caution. And so that's it for the 2023 cup series silly season and now let's take a look at the 2023 season previews. Starting off with this year's schedule, there's not been that many changes for the cup series schedule. The few changes that were made were pretty big. Starting off with the all-star race. For the first time since 1996, NASCAR will return to North Wilkesboro. For the all-star race, the tickets have already been sold out for the race and the final major change to the schedule is the Chicago street course. This will be the first time that the NASCAR cup series has raced on a street course and right now in my opinion it's 50-50 on if the race happens or not because I believe that there is a chance that this race may not come to fruition primarily because of Chicago politics especially around Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Let's just say that she's not very popular around those parts and a lot of the things that she's done have been pretty controversial and so I think it'll be questionable if the Chicago street course happens because this race is Lori Lightfoot's baby. To be honest, if she leaves office, I don't think this race will happen because I don't think any other mayor would keep the race but we'll see what happens. One big change that was made to the NASCAR Xfinity schedule was the Sonoma raceway. For the first time ever, the Xfinity series will race at Sonoma and to be honest I'm kind of excited to see what these Xfinity cars can do at Sonoma. They might be able to put on a good show and of course also the Xfinity series will join the Cup Series at Chicago and the Xfinity series will also continue to go to Road America with a July 29th date. And finally, the Truck Series has a couple notable changes. They will join the Cup Series at North Wilkesboro but unlike the Cup Series, the truck race at North Wilkesboro will be a points paying race as well as the other big change is the return of the Milwaukee Mile for the first time since the late 2000s so it'll be interesting to see Milwaukee Mile return to the truck schedule because it's a pretty good race track and I'd like to see what the Truck Series can do at that race track. And as for the rules packages, there are some changes that NASCAR has made and some changes that they might implement in the future this season. First off is that the short flat ovals, NASCAR will implement the wet weather equipment and for the LA Clash and the Chicago Street Course, NASCAR will implement mufflers for the first time. I'm sorry to hear the diehard screeching saying, NASCAR needs to be loud, they don't need mufflers to silence them. Well, from what I've heard from listening to the videos, there's not going to be that much change besides turning the harsh level down. They'll be loud still, the sound won't be harsh. And last week, NASCAR tested some of these changes at Phoenix including the muffler as well as testing a new rules package for short tracks and right now, NASCAR believes that they're onto something by having a smaller blade. The drivers seem to like a 2 inch blade or smaller for the cars and they seem to be pleased with it and NASCAR seems to be pleased with it, but they'll have to do some further testing to see how that can be implemented. But right now, everything will remain the same until they decide on a short track rules package. Pretty much every track except the Super Speedways will have 670 horsepower with a small blade and the Super Speedways will have a large spoiler with a 510 horsepower restricted engine. And so that's it for the 2023 season preview, now let's go over some big stories that happened during the off-season. Starting off with TV negotiations, it has been rumored now that Amazon is likely to join into the TV negotiations to be a streaming partner. So it'll be interesting to see if Amazon gets the rights. Toyota is planning to expand the Cup Series lineup in 2024. The driver lineup for the Garage 56 entry will be Jimmy Johnson, Mike Rockenfeller, and Jensen Button. And they'll drive the Garage 56 entry 24 hours of them all. Travis Pastrana will join 2311 Racing to run a third entry for the Daytona 500. Speaking of the Daytona 500, it has sold out again for the umpteenth year. Former Mountain in the Middle actor, Franky Nunes will run full-time in the Arkham Anarch Series for Rhett Jones Racing. Kevin Harvick has announced that 2023 will be his final NASCAR Cup Series season. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick, and Justin Marks will purchase the car's tour. Jordan Anderson Racing has hired two drivers for their Xfinity program. Parker Ritzloff will join the team in the 31, and Jeff Burton will drive the 27. The SRX Series has announced their 2023 schedule, they'll race at Stafford Motor Speedway on July 13th, Thunder Road Speed Bowl on July 20th, Motor Mile Speedway on July 27th, Berlin Speedway on August 3rd, Eldora Speedway on August 10th, and Lucas Oil Speedway on August 17th. And I might be able to go to the Motor Mile Race on July 27th, stay tuned. 3F Racing is looking to enter their first NASCAR race in 2023. Thor Sport will switch back to Ford for 2023, and joining them will be Haley Deegan and she'll drive the number 13 for Thor Sport Racing. In my opinion, this will be Haley Deegan's last chance to prove that she's got the talent to run in the Truck Series. She impressed everyone in her first Xfinity start last year, but she's been pretty mediocre in her past two seasons in the Truck Series, so it'll be interesting to see what she can do with Thor Sport, which is a better ride. But can that lead to better results on the racetrack? We'll see. And Rex will be partnering with ESPN to bring back Thursday Night Thunder, starting with the first race on July 13th. Fox Sports is making a big investment into the Arkham Anarch series, as they'll carry all 20 races on FS1 and FS2. Sam Hunt Racing will field two full-time drivers. Kez Grala will pilot the 26, and Connor Mosak will drive the 24. Carson Josevar will return full-time for Nis Motorsports in 2023. John Hunter Nemechek will run full-time for Joguibs Racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in the number 20. And finally, Sammy Smith will join Joguibs Racing full-time for the 2023 season in the number 18. And so that's it for the news that happened during the off-season, now it's time to preview the 2023 Busch Light Clash. To kick off NASCAR's 75th anniversary season, we have the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum. The race will be 150 laps and 37.5 miles, and the race will be on February 5th at 8 p.m. Eastern Time, as well as beforehand the heat races. And so for my pick for the 2023 Busch Light Clash, I'm gonna go with Kyle Busch. After finishing second in the number 18 for Joguibs Racing, I think Kyle Busch will start off the year in this new partnership with RCR with a bang, and get the victory in the Busch Light Clash at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum. And so that's it for this week's episode. If you enjoyed it, please like and subscribe for more. If you're going out to L.A. this weekend for the Clash, I hope you have a good time, and if you're not, have a good time wherever you are, NASCAR is back. So stay tuned for more episodes of Chasing the Cup, and I'll see you next week.