2024 NASCAR season preview: 10 storylines to watch entering the new year

The marathon is about to begin.

Starting this weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series will be going on a grueling journey. There are 36 races scheduled for the next 39 weeks, with two weeks off for the Paris Olympics and one week for the exhibition All-Star Race.

There are plenty of things to keep an eye on entering the upcoming season, from team changes and rule modifications to schedule tweaks and more.

Before Joey Logano leads the field to green at the Daytona 500, here are 10 storylines to follow entering and throughout the 2024 season:

1. Ryan Blaney’s title defense after first Cup championship

Blaney, a 30-year-old driver for Team Penske, claimed his first Cup title last November after an impressive playoff run. Over the last six races of the season, he had two wins and two second-place finishes – peaking at the perfect time.

Now comes the hard part, though. There hasn’t been a repeat champion at NASCAR’s top level since Jimmie Johnson won five straight from 2006 to 2010. Under the current playoff format, winning back-to-back titles feels nearly impossible – and it has been. But Blaney should be as well-positioned as anyone to do it given his age and experience.

2. Will we see another first-time champion?

Three of the last four seasons have ended with a first-time champion – Chase Elliott in 2020, Kyle Larson in 2021 and Blaney in 2023. And after Kevin Harvick’s retirement, there’s one less former champion occupying a top car.

So, who could break through as the next first-time title winner? Denny Hamlin is the obvious candidate – he holds the record for most career wins (51) without a championship. Three other obvious options include recent championship finalists William Byron, Christopher Bell and Ross Chastain. Elsewhere, Tyler Reddick, Chris Buescher and Bubba Wallace are fresh off career-best playoff runs last season. There’s no shortage of potential candidates.

3. New car bodies for Toyota and Ford

As the Next Gen car enters its third season, two manufacturers are revamping their body designs. Toyota and Ford will debut new iterations of their respective Camry and Mustang race cars, leaving plenty of unknowns for drivers and teams.

Of the 36 full-time teams, there are eight Toyotas and 14 Fords. While Chevy still has 14 full-time teams of its own, the bowties could be at a disadvantage this season. The familiarity with its old design could pay off early in the season, but conventional wisdom suggests that the Toyota and Ford teams will eventually figure things out – which could hurt Chevy.

4. Rules change at short tracks and road courses

Speaking of the aforementioned Next Car car, one thing has been obvious since it debuted. Simply put, the car hasn’t produced entertaining racing on short tracks and road courses. NASCAR is trying to fix that this season by changing the rules package at those tracks.

The aerodynamic changes include a 3-inch spoiler, simplified diffuser, simplified diffuser strakes, no engine panel strakes and splitter stuffers. Those are a lot of technical terms that might not mean much for the normal fan, but NASCAR said that package is expected to improve how the cars handle in traffic – which could create more passing and better racing overall.

5. Revamped schedule for playoffs and regular season

NASCAR is always working to keep its schedule fresh, and 2024 will be no different. California Speedway is off the schedule and has been replaced by Iowa Speedway, which will host its first-ever Cup race on June 16. Also, there will be a two-weeks break over the summer for the Olympics during the NBC portion of the schedule.

The playoffs see several tweaks this season. The Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, traditionally the playoff opener, will shift to the regular season finale on Labor Day Weekend with Atlanta Motor Speeday taking its spot in the playoffs. Texas Motor Speedway has replaced in the playoffs by Watkins Glen International – meaning there will be a second road course in the postseason for the first time ever.

You can read more about the 2024 schedule changes here.

6. Competitive battle for Rookie of the Year

The Rookie of the Year battle has been anything but a battle in recent years. Ty Gibbs (2023), Austin Cindric (2022) and Chase Briscoe (2021) won without much competition over the last three seasons, but that should change in 2024 with three worthy challengers – Josh Berry, Carson Hocevar and Zane Smith.

Berry joins Stewart-Haas Racing to drive the No. 4, replacing a future Hall of Famer in Kevin Harvick. At 33 years old, Berry is significantly older than most Cup rookies but his experience (five Xfinity Series wins) could pay off. He made 10 Cup starts last season filling in for injured drivers with three top-10s and a best finish of second.

Spire Motorsports will field entries for two rookies this season with Hocevar and Smith. Each driver will jump directly from the Truck Series into the Cup Series, a unique challenge when most drivers typically go from Trucks to Xfinity to Cup. Hocevar (four Truck wins) and Smith (nine Truck wins) both have had flashes of success in limited Cup starts (nine each).

7. Second chances, old faces in new places

In addition to the rookies, there were several other driver and team changes over the offseason. John Hunter Nemechek and Daniel Hemric, who were Cup rookies in 2020 and 2019 respectively, will return to the top series after dropping down to the lower divisions. Nemechek will drive the No. 42 for Legacy Motor Club, while Hemric takes over the No. 31 for Kaulig Racing.

Two other young drivers are with new teams this season. Justin Haley, 24, left Kaulig Racing to join Rick Ware Racing, where he’ll drive the No. 51. Noah Gragson, a 25-year-old driver who was suspended last season as a rookie when he liked an insensitive social media post, left Legacy Motor Club and will replace the retired Aric Almirola in the No. 10 for Stewart-Haas Racing.

8. Kyle Larson prepares for Memorial Day Double

It’s been 10 years since a driver attempted the Indy 500/Coke 600 double – when a driver races IndyCar’s 500-miler in Indiana in the afternoon and flies to Charlotte for NASCAR’s 600-miler in the evening. In 2024, Kyle Larson will try to be the first driver to pull it off since Tony Stewart in 2001.

If there’s any driver that could do it, it’s Larson. The 2021 Cup champion has long been considered one of the world’s best drivers, with his elite car control and unique talent. He’ll have a capable car in both races, with Arrow McLaren in the 500 and Hendrick Motorsports in the 600. Stewart has the record to beat: he finished sixth in Indy and third in Charlotte in 2001, the best combined finishes of the 10 previous drivers to attempt the double.

9. Chase Elliott looking for bounce back season

Last season was a disaster for NASCAR’s most popular driver. Elliott, the 2020 Cup champion, suffered a fractured tibia in a snowboarding accident last March – just two races into the season. He missed six weeks and never found his, for lack of a better term, footing. Elliott missed the playoffs for the first time in his eight-year career and didn’t win a race for the first time since 2017.

After a full offseason, Elliott should be eager to bounce back in 2024. He watched two of his teammates (Larson and Byron) make the Championship 4 last season while he led a career-worst 195 laps all year. Now entering his age-28 season, Elliott should theoretically be hitting his prime as a driver. This season is crucial for him to turn things around.

10. Jimmie Johnson increases schedule with team changes 

The seven-time Cup champion just can’t quit. Johnson retired from the Cup Series in 2020 before racing two seasons in IndyCar. He returned to NASCAR in 2023 as a part-owner of the rebranded Legacy Motor Club and drove three races with a best finish of 31st.

Johnson’s struggles last season haven’t discouraged him, though. The 48-year-old Hall of Famer announced an increased schedule for 2024, where he’ll run nine races in the No. 84 for Legacy. And as an added twist, the organization switched from Chevy to Toyota this season. That means Johnson will drive a Toyota after his first 689 Cup starts came with Chevy. Johnson will race at Daytona, Texas, Dover, Charlotte, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Kansas (twice).