The 2022 NASCAR season was perhaps one of the most exciting ones on and off the track the sport has seen in quite some time. Roughly half of the full-time competitors in the series managed to win races, showing the parity in the sport is greater than ever. New stars were born in Tyler Reddick, Chase Briscoe, and others. We saw the rise of Trackhouse Racing and the resurgence of Richard Petty’s NASCAR team as well.
Oh yeah, and Ross Chastain pulled off a “Hail Melon” for the ages at Martinsville that may have been the single most iconic moment in modern NASCAR history.
The question on everyone’s mind going into the 2023 season is how can NASCAR build on this momentum going forward?
Make no mistake about it. NASCAR is trending in the right direction again. More and more people are starting to get into the sport again. The fanbase and field in general is growing more diverse with different nationalities, women, and minority drivers making sizable impacts in the upper levels of NASCAR. The sanctioning body has been more than willing to tackle new ideas such as street course events in Chicago and the season-opening exhibition race at the Coliseum in Los Angeles. New stars are rising to the forefront.
So how does NASCAR build its brand further going into 2023?
The best way to describe the key phrase for NASCAR is “Momentum is money.” Sure, there will be the armchair malcontents on social media who will complain about anything and everything NASCAR does because of a fear of change, but NASCAR continues to trend in the right direction with forward thinking and fresh concepts.
While the new car last year had safety concerns and led to multiple drivers missing large chunks of the season due to concussions, those issues have been apparently addressed and rectified, so perhaps NASCAR can regain their reputation as industry leaders when it comes to safety.
New stars continue to rise to the forefront, and with polarizing potential future stars like Ty Gibbs and Noah Gragson coming into the full-time fray, the future certainly seems bright for NASCAR from a talent stand-point.
Even established talent like Kyle Busch are seeing change on the horizon with a move to Richard Childress Racing for 2023. Could Kyle be in for a career resurgence, or are his days of dominance dwindling? Speaking of established talent, could this be the last year we see Kevin Harvick or Martin Truex Jr. gracing NASCAR with their full-time presence? Also, will Jimmie Johnson return to the form that saw him become one of the most dominant drivers of the modern era in a part-time run with Petty GMS Racing?
Even the Xfinity and Truck Series seems to be flourishing from a talent standpoint as the fields are arguably more competitive than ever at the lower-levels of NASCAR with there not being as much turnover in those ranks in recent years. Some of the burning questions there include who will step up to be the new top dog in the NASCAR Xfinity Series without Ty Gibbs and Noah Gragson in the field? Will this be the year Hailie Deegan lives up to the immense hype placed upon her in the Truck Series?
There’s so many questions to be answered that this year’s Cup Series campaign will be must-watch programming for sure. All I know is I cannot wait for Daytona to get here.
