As “Auld Lang Syne” is performed everywhere in the globe this New 12 months’s Eve, the beginning of the 2025 NASCAR season is barely a little bit greater than a month away.
Each NASCAR group — even these on the prime of the totem pole — has at the least one space during which they’ll enhance in 2025. Listed here are New 12 months’s resolutions for 3 of one of the best organizations within the NASCAR Cup Collection: Staff Penske, Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing.
Staff Penske: Discovering constant velocity
Sure, Penske might have received the championship three years in a row, however the way in which during which they’ve performed it has been relatively unconventional. Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney received their titles by catching hearth on the finish of the season, and whereas that is a superb factor, it additionally implies that they sacrifice efficiency all through the remainder of the yr.
Logano’s 2024 marketing campaign is arguably the worst season ever out collectively by a NASCAR champion, and if the group carried out to their full potential for 36 weeks, it would be a way more frequent customer to victory lane.
With that being mentioned, Penske should not sweat it if this decision would not come to fruition, because the group appears to be doing simply effective. In any case, the championship is the top aim of each group, irrespective of the way it’s attained.
Hendrick Motorsports: Stepping up within the championship race
This decision will take 35 weeks to play out, and it is under no circumstances a assure that HMS can have a automobile competing for the championship at Phoenix. If certainly one of Rick Hendrick’s 4 entries does occur to make the Championship 4, nonetheless, it virtually appears crucial that his driver takes house the Invoice France Cup.
Over the previous three seasons, Hendrick has been house to the winningest driver in NASCAR for that given season (Chase Elliott in 2022, William Byron in 2023, Kyle Larson in 2024) however has but to take house the championship, regardless of Elliott and Byron competing for it in 2022 and 2023, respectively. For a corporation constructed by championship trophies, closing the deal within the sport’s second-most vital occasion is a should in 2025.
Joe Gibbs Racing: Getting one other automobile into the Championship 4
Joe Gibbs Racing is in an fascinating spot going into 2025. Its most tenured and profitable driver in Denny Hamlin hasn’t made the Championship 4 since 2021. Its youngest driver in Ty Gibbs is getting into simply his third season of Cup Collection competitors, whereas Chase Briscoe is getting into his first season with JGR.
Christopher Bell — who made the Championship 4 in 2022 and 2023 and was a nook away from doing so once more in 2024 — appears to be the group’s finest hope at a title in 2025. If Gibbs needs to get again to dominant type, nonetheless, its aim must be to place half of its vehicles into the championship race.
