Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr. among key players in silly season
By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer
DOVER, Del. — Kyle Busch certainly got the buzz of "silly season" going a week ago, but the constant chatter typically starts in May.
Check the calendar: It’s now May.
Teams (and sometimes drivers) often have to make decisions about the future in May or June. With the Memorial Day race weekend in Charlotte, that's around the time when key meetings often take place in planning for 2023.
Who will be talking, and who will be deciding this time around? Here’s a look.
But first, a caveat: It is only May, after all. There tends to be an unpredictable development in the summer or early fall, such as Trackhouse buying Chip Ganassi Racing (announced in June last year) or Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan starting 23XI Racing (announced in September 2020).
With driver contracts often having performance clauses and options, it can be difficult to pin down who could be on the move. A driver who feels safe in May might not end up being safe come the fall.
But so far, there are three key players this silly season: Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and Stewart-Haas Racing.
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Kyle Busch tells Bob Pockrass he isn’t getting antsy about not having a firm sponsorship deal for 2023, but he doesn’t think there would be a place for him anywhere else if JGR doesn’t finalize a deal.
Busch and Truex are not signed for 2023 at Joe Gibbs Racing. And SHR is the one team with a known job opening, as Aric Almirola already announced that this is his final full-time year.
JGR owner Joe Gibbs said a week ago that he was confident the team would find sponsorship for Busch (Mars is leaving after this year) and retain him.
"There were some discussions and such," Busch said Saturday of his talks with JGR after some cryptic comments a week earlier. "There is nothing to elaborate on. It’s all good."
Truex’s situation is nowhere near as tense. The 2017 Cup champion turns 42 later this year and must decide in the next couple of months whether he wants to continue as a full-time Cup driver. If he does, his sponsors are expected to stay with him.
Truex has said he plans to take all the time he can to make a decision, and it likely will come down to what he believes he can accomplish, as NASCAR has transitioned to the new Next Gen car this season.
"I love racing," Truex said Saturday. "I love working with my team. Working with my guys has always been the most satisfying part of this job.
"Working with a group to try to be successful together — that’s been a lot of fun. It’s not different now. I don’t think too much about what I like better or worse about the car. It is what it is, and you’ve got to deal with it."
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Martin Truex Jr. still has several weeks to decide whether he will return to full-time Cup racing next season.
If there is an opening at JGR, there could be some thought that the team might elevate Ty Gibbs (grandson of Joe Gibbs) to the Cup level. But JGR seems determined to keep the 19-year-old Gibbs, who has seven wins in 28 career Xfinity starts, full-time in the Xfinity Series for one more season before elevating him to Cup.
Both SHR and JGR likely would love to have Tyler Reddick, but Richard Childress Racing holds an option on Reddick for 2023, and the team has indicated that it will likely pick up the option, making Reddick a free agent after next season.
If things fell apart at JGR for Busch, SHR would seem like a possibility, as that team has been known to spend big money on talent, though whether it could put a deal together for Busch at this time is unclear. Busch would have to figure out what to do with his truck team, which also plays a vital role in the development of Toyota drivers.
Ryan Preece is driving select races for SHR and its affiliates this year and is a candidate for Almirola's ride, but it likely will come down to sponsorship. Smithfield Foods, which has been with SHR for several years, has not announced whether it will return next year.
Erik Jones is a driver making his case to return to the sport’s elite, as he nearly won last month at Talladega and entered Dover 17th in the Cup standings. He has one top-5 and three top-10s for Petty GMS Racing this year.
Jones is only 15 points behind SHR’s Chase Briscoe, and he is comfortable at Petty GMS, especially with new crew chief Dave Elenz. Jones said he has had early talks with Petty GMS management about returning next year but wouldn’t expect anything to get done for another couple of months.
"I've been happy with the way everything's gone," he said. "Obviously, this year, we've been running strong. We're a playoff contender right now, which is great. I like working with Dave. I like working [with] my guys.
"I'm just happy and having fun. Obviously, I want to win races, but I think the game's changed a lot. With the new car, you don't need necessarily as many people as you did in the past. And our group is small, but it's strong, and it's deep."
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Erik Jones says he is happy with Petty GMS and has had initial talks about returning next year.
Another driver in a contract year is Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who has had a frustrating start to the season and sits 31st in the standings. He seems to be a good fit at JTG Daugherty Racing, but anytime a driver is outside the top 25 in the standings, it shouldn't come as a big surprise if there is a change.
For instance, 26th in the standings is Cole Custer. He is the son of an SHR executive, but the team likely would want to see some more consistency from him in his third year at the Cup level.
Organizations not expected to have any changes for next year include Hendrick Motorsports (William Byron still needs to re-sign but is expected to do so and be part of the stable with Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman); Team Penske (Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Austin Cindric and then Harrison Burton with the Wood Brothers); Trackhouse Racing (Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez); 23XI Racing (Kurt Busch and Bubba Wallace); RFK Racing (Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher); and Richard Childress Racing (Reddick, assuming his option is picked up, and Austin Dillon).
Front Row Motorsports (with veteran Michael McDowell and rookie Todd Gilliland) doesn’t typically figure out its plans until November. McDowell knows he’ll have to wait for talks to get serious, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t paying attention to what's going on in the garage.
"Obviously, there is going to be some moving and shaking with Aric moving out of the 10 [at SHR]," McDowell said. "Usually one domino starts the accordion of what’s going to happen in other spots. It’s pretty early yet [to tell]."
McDowell, who won the 2021 Daytona 500, is having one of his better seasons for Front Row, as he sits 23rd in the standings.
"I feel really good personally and physically and mentally, and I’m probably in the best spot I’ve ever been in in our sport and feeling great in a race car," McDowell said.
Among the other storylines to watch in silly season:
— Will Kaulig Racing and Spire Motorsports, which each have one full-time driver and a second car with multiple drivers, opt to have a second full-time driver?
— Which of the Xfinity drivers (other than Gibbs) will emerge as potential Cup candidates? John Hunter Nemechek (full-time in trucks and part-time in Xfinity) and Daniel Hemric both have a year of Cup experience. Noah Gragson, who is running a partial Cup schedule primarily for Kaulig, has two Xfinity wins this year and sits third in the standings driving for JR Motorsports.
"For me, I hope they’re looking at the Xfinity results," Gragson said of the Cup owners. "I’m putting in a lot of hard work for the Cup side, but just the results haven’t been there.
"Right now, my priority is chasing an Xfinity Series championship."
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Noah Gragson says he hopes Cup teams evaluating him for a full-time ride look more at his current Xfinity results than his select NASCAR Cup series record.
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Thinking out loud
NASCAR announced the format for the All-Star Race in a few weeks (see below), and what might be most interesting is the qualifying format.
The top eight drivers on speed will advance to a head-to-head bracket. Each team will have to do a four-tire pit stop on pit road (in adjacent pit boxes), and then the drivers will race off pit road (no speed limit) and around the Texas Motor Speedway oval. The first driver to the start-finish line will advance to the next round.
The winner of the final round (the third round) will be on the pole.
This is a twist to the old format, which was three laps with a four-tire pit stop (one car at a time). The match races should be fun to watch. They certainly will be different.
Will these match races work? TBD. But it’s definitely worth a try.
Social spotlight
Stat of the day
Chris Buescher had not won a pole for a NASCAR race prior to Dover. He had 232 Cup starts and 74 Xfinity starts without a pole.
They said it
"If you historically look back at my performance to distraction, it typically correlates to a pretty good weekend. Probably bet on us if I were you." — Denny Hamlin after a tumultuous week
Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!