2023 NASCAR Cup Series Silly Season Tracker
Tracking all of the free agency moves in the NASCAR Cup Series for the 2024 Season
As the sun fades on the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, it’s time to recap all of the announced Silly Season moves and how these free agency signings will impact teams going into 2024.
This article will be periodically updated throughout the offseason as further moves are announced.
Josh Berry to the Stewart-Haas Racing 4
With the retirement of Kevin Harvick impending, SHR needed to find a driver to fill a large void at Stewart-Haas Racing. Instead of waiting until the end of the season to see if a big name became available, SHR became the first team to strike in Silly Season landing the veteran Modified driver Josh Berry to take over the 4.
With Dale Earnhardt Jr. in his corner, Berry landed a full-time ride at JRM for the past two seasons earning three victories and a fourth-place finish in the final 2022 Xfinity standings while going winless and ending up 11th in Xfinity playoffs this year. A quick learner, Berry became proficient at every type of venue, including road courses, and earned backup duties for Hendrick Motorsports this year making ten starts across 36 races with an average finish of 20.7.
Moving on to Stewart-Haas Berry could find early success as the strength of Stewart-Haas Racing meshes with his strength - short/ flat tracks. While a win probably isn’t in the cards for this upcoming season, it wouldn’t be out of bounds to see Berry compete for top 10s at tracks like Phoenix, Martinsville, Richmond, and New Hampshire like his SHR counterparts Chase Briscoe and Ryan Preece.
Daniel Hemric to the Kaulig Racing 31
With Justin Haley leaving for Rick Ware Racing in 2024, Kaulig opted to promote from within, and now Daniel Hemric gets his second opportunity in the Cup Series after spending two seasons with Kaulig in the Xfinity Series and making spot starts in the Cup 16 in 2022.
In two seasons with Kaulig, Hemric managed to make the playoffs in both seasons but racked up zero wins (the calling card that will follow him his entire career), totaled nine top-five finishes, and just 123 laps led across 66 starts.
If anything, this move from Haley to Hemric may be lateral at best for Kaulig as Hemric doesn’t have a particular skill that will make him a viable threat to win as Kaulig supposedly continues to go “trophy hunting”. However, Hemric does bring experience and we may see more consistency than the spikes and dips that accompanied Haley.
John Hunter Nemechek to the Legacy Motor Club 42
As Legacy Motor Club makes the transition from Chevrolet to Toyota, they bring a familiar Toyota face with them to fill the empty seat in the 42 with John Hunter Nemechek. After going from Ty Dillon in 2022, to a partial season of Noah Gragson in 2023, LMC is hoping for more stability and performance as they bring Nemechek along. After restarting his career by going from Front Row Motorsports back down to the Trucks Series with Kyle Busch Motorsports, JHN has shown that he can win regardless of the venue and this move should only help to elevate Erik Jones.
That said, don’t be shocked if this is just a one-year pit stop for Nemechek as he waits for the inevitable retirement of Martin Truex Jr. or a potential third seat at 23XI Racing.
Justin Haley to the Rick Ware Racing 51
As mentioned above, with contract negotiations stalling between Haley and Kaulig Racing, Haley made the jump to go racing with Rick Ware in 2024. Going from Kaulig to RWR is a downgrade in equipment, but we’ll see if his talent (plus the ongoing relationship between RWR and RFK Racing) can push this car to its best season ever or if the driver doesn’t matter - it’s just a slow car week in and week out.
Carson Hocevar to the Spire Motorsports 77
The controversial but talented Carson Hocevar makes the full-time jump from Trucks to the Cup Series in 2024 as he takes over the 77 for Ty Dillon. Following the release of Noah Gragson, Hocevar spent the bulk of the remaining Cup schedule filling in the 42 for Legacy Motor Club with results better than anything Gragson had shown including five top-20 finishes in his eight starts.
As previously stated, with Legacy joining Toyota they brought along the #1 Toyota prospect in John Hunter Nemechek, and now Hocevar joins Spire in what was one of the worst-kept secrets of 2023.
Truth be told, the 77 has not been a good car the past two seasons and has only finished in the top 20 at tracks like Daytona, Atlanta, or Talladega (mostly with Landon Cassill behind the wheel in 2022). However, there is a talent discrepancy between drivers like Josh Billicki, Ty Dillon, and Carson Hocevar who became a weekly winning threat in the Trucks Series while displaying competency in the 42 for LMC.
The unfortunate story for Hocevar, before he lays a lap down at the Los Angeles Coliseum next February, is his reputation as an aggressive, bordering on dirty, driver and how his fellow competitors will race him. Labeled a “dumbass” by Tyler Reddick, after wrecking himself and Corey Heim in the Trucks Series Championship, with drivers like Martin Truex Jr. publicly decrying Hocevar’s apology as “an act”. Much like Ty Gibbs this past season, Hocevar is going to have to prove to his peers that who is he now is not who he was in a lower series.
Zane Smith to Trackhouse Racing 71 (on loan to Spire Motorsports)
The 2022 Trucks Series champion makes the anticipated leap from Trucks to Cup, however, Smith shocked the NASCAR world when it was announced it wouldn’t be with Ford. After Front Row announced they would be picking up the team options on both Todd Gilliland and Michael McDowell, the obvious promotion was out the door and the only real place for Smith to go was Stewart Haas Racing or Rick Ware Racing - should he continue his professional racing journey with Ford.
However, Smith signed on the dotted line with Trackhouse Racing - but will spend this upcoming season on loan with Spire as they expand to three full-time cars after acquiring the charter from Live Fast Racing - a reported $40 Million investment. This move seems oddly reminiscent of when Erik Jones jumped from the Xfinity Series to the Cup Series but did so as a second car at Furniture Row until a seat opened up for him at Joe Gibbs Racing. Should everything go as planned, Smith should spend just one season with Spire and then jump to Trackhouse in 2025 as they become a three-team stable as well.
Shane Van Gisbergen to Trackhouse Racing
After finding success in his first career start, at the Chicago Road Course, both SVG and Trackhouse started floating the idea of bringing Van Gisbergen stateside to compete in NASCAR. While not full-time next year in the Cup Series; it does appear that Trackhouse is going to partner with Trucks (Spire?) and Xfinity Series (Kaulig?) teams to get SVG additional seat time plus putting him in the Project 91 car on some Sundays - most likely at road courses.
With Ross Chastain under contract for many years to come, and Zane Smith joining the fold in 2025 (following his loner season to Spire this upcoming year), Van Gisbergen's addition creates a quandary for Trackhouse. Inevitably, it feels as though SVG is lining up as an eventual replacement for Daniel Suarez with both Chastain and Smith under pen and paper for several years to come - although we may not see it until 2025 or 2026.
Drivers re-signing with their original teams:
The following drivers re-signed with their respective teams to continue driving, either with a team option or on multi-year deals.
Austin Cindric in the Penkse Motorsports 2
Ryan Preece in the Stewart-Haas Racing 41
Ross Chastain in the Trackhouse Racing 1 (multi-year)
Corey Lajoie in the Spire Motorsports 7 (multi-year)
Denny Hamlin in the Joe Gibbs Racing 11 (multi-year)
Michael McDowell in the Front Row Motorsports 34
Todd Gilliland in the Front Row Motorsports 38
Silly Season Updates
Update 11-16-23
Zane Smith: Via Bob Pockrass, we have discovered that Zane Smith’s car will not be prepared by Trackhouse Racing, but will operate as a third Spire car - as it will be built and assembled by Spire Motorsports.
Update 12-13-23
Shane Vas Gisbergen: SVG’s 2024 plans were finally unveiled as it was announced that Van Gisbergen will race for Kaulig Racing full-time, in the Xfinity Series, while making Cup starts, for Trackhouse in the 97, at COTA, both Talladega races, the Coke 600, the Chicago Street Race, Watkins Glen, and the second race at Las Vegas.
I assumed that we would see SVG spread his time across all three Series but the bulk of his time will be spent competing for an Xfinity Series championship, alongside his new teammate AJ Allmendinger at Kaulig, while making Cup starts at a myriad of different tracks (save for the shorter venue). Furthermore, by using the 97, this subsequently means that Trackhouse could occasionally run a fourth driver in the Project 91 car should the opportunity present itself.
Update 12-14-23
Noah Gragson: What went from another badly kept secret in the garage to “actually, this might not be happening…” back to Gragson signing his name on the dotted line with SHR to drive the 10; it’s been fascinating to watch this whirlwind.
For those who have forgotten, Gragson’s lackluster rookie campaign with Legacy Motor Club came to a screeching halt when his social media activity came under scrutiny when it was discovered that he had liked an Instagram post involving George Floyd. Within a morning’s time, Gragson had been suspended and then released. As the season pressed on, Gragson’s name popped up as a potential replacement for Aric Almirola, and now we have the confirmation with SHR running out a team of Gragson, Chase Briscoe, Ryan Preece, and Josh Berry in 2024.
It appears the big hangup in inking Gragson, and also why the deal may have fallen through, is his lack of appeal to potential sponsors as Bob Pockrass stated, “Sponsorship still a work in progress”. With barely five months between his Instagram controversy and this news, it’s no wonder that SHR and Gragson are having issues finding someone who wants to put their business name behind Gragson’s name.
If this sounds oddly familiar, it should remind you of Kyle Larson whose personal brand was mired, due to his Twitch-racially-linked controversy, and with no brands wanting to be associated with Larson, Rick Hendrick had and has continued to have his own business (Hendrick Cars) to sponsor Larson for the majority of races. Even with a championship and 17 victories in three seasons, Larson’s name is still persona non grata among major brands looking to sponsor drivers or teams. If this is the hill that Larson has had to climb, I can only imagine what marketing nightmare SHR is going to endure getting brands (outside of team-wide deals) to join with putting their brand on the 10 in the upcoming years. Don’t be shocked if we see HAAS plastered on the 10 for the entirety of this signing.
Update 12-20-23
Kaulig 16: The rumblings that the Kaulig 16 would return to a rotation were all but confirmed on Wednesday when the news was announced that AJ Allmendinger will drive the car at Daytona. We should expect to see Allmendinger in this car at all road courses, plus superspeedway races as Allmendinger has shown a knack for finishing well in these races.
As per the rest of the schedule, it remains unconfirmed but don’t be shocked to see Ty Dillon, Derek Kraus, and Josh Williams. While pure speculation on my part, I wonder if the process in finding sponsorship has been so tough that we could see fellow Chevrolet drivers, outside of the Kaulig camp, find their way into this car for a few spot starts too.