I promised you part two of some crazy 2023 NASCAR Cup series predictions. The question is though after my last set of predictions. What more craziness can I come up with right? After last season seeing all of the different winners that we saw, leaves one thinking that it could happen again right? Especially if another one of the big team’s struggles. At the end of the year though it’s all about one thing, the championship so who brings that home? Will it be a past champion, or maybe a new champion?
Their Coming for Win’s
It’s pretty vague to label a group of competitors as “their” right? Let me be a little more specific then, Kaulig, RFK Racing, and Petty GMS. Each one of those teams individually either won a race last season or made huge improvements throughout the year.
Let’s start with the team who didn’t win one last year, but probably should’ve. With the improvements that they (Kaulig) made during the season. Justin Haley and the collective group of drivers they had last year totaled six top-five finishes and thirteen top-ten finishes. Nothing to brag about by no means but flashes of success are better than none in my opinion. They also improved the team as a whole by adding a pretty good veteran driver in Aj Allmendinger to the full-time lineup for the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season. I mean he’s the guy who got Kaulig their first win in the cup series and almost won a few other races last year. I think we see Kaulig grab collectively two or three wins during the 2023 NASCAR Cup series schedule. Will they be on the road course, possibly but a win is a win nonetheless right?
As for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, well the latter part of 2022 was really good for them. It saw Chris Buescher win at Bristol to put the Ford team in victory lane for the first time since 2017. Now with that being said it was also a huge learning experience, we saw Brad get penalized early, and then DQ’ed later for things they did with the next Gen car. The learning experience and growth a veteran driver like Brad can influence on this team will be huge this season especially after one full season of racing in the next-gen car as well. Since I gave Kaulig a number I will do the same for RFK. As a team, I think we see RFK in victory lane at least three to four times.
This is the team I’m kind of low-key looking forward to watching this season. Petty GMS Racing now has two seven-time champions as owners with the addition of Jimmie Johnson. He will also be running some races with the team starting with a Daytona 500 attempt. The seven-time champions’ input will be invaluable to the team. They already got a win last season with Erik Jones at Darlington. Plus Erik tallied a total of three top-five finishes and thirteen top-ten finishes alone. Now with the addition of “Seven-time”, they also added Noah Gragson. This man tore up the Xfinity series last season with eight wins.
It will be interesting to see how Noah adjusts to the cup series. I don’t doubt with his one hundred percent devotion he will catch on quickly. I think if Noah can use his previous experience from last year, they will be the most dangerous team. Crazy number, I’m going to say four to six wins, conservative numbers let’s go with a solid two to three team wins. Of course, it all depends on the development of the team and rookie driver.
The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Champion is…?
This is the question everyone in the industry asks before the first green flag of the season right? Well, at least on the media side of things. It’s always fun to predict a champion way too early and see if your guess pans out. So, who will be the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion? Could ole Joey Logano go back-to-back, for the first time since Jimmie Johnson? Or will another veteran grab his second championship, or maybe even their first career championship? Well, my choice for a way to early champion is going to be between some Team Chevrolet drivers.
Trackhouse Racing busted on the scene and stayed relevant all the way to Phoenix. That wasn’t due to luck. A large part of the season they had was due to one Ross Chastain. Ross and his aggressive driving style have a place in this series whether you like it or not. Now it has yet to be seen if it will come back to bite him in the long run. Now if it does then I think we all better keep an eye on the HMS camp. Not for Kyle Larson or even the 2022 regular season champ Chase Elliott. Watch out for William Byron who had his best year to date last season, and I believe is on the climb. Especially with the combination of him and crew chief Rudy Fugle being on the same page.
Bring On 2023
Well, once again if you’re still here after reading all that craziness, thanks. I mean I only predicted a few crazy things. Especially in my last piece, but this one alone has its fair share of wild talk right? I’ve got some newer faces and teams grabbing wins from pillars of our sport. That alone should send you running, but to top it all off I’ve potentially got a team in their third full-time season winning the championship. What about you though? Who is your way to early 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion? Or who do you see sitting in victory lane this year? Leave me a comment I love talking NASCAR.
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