NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Ryan Blaney’s first Cup championship was celebrated at Thursday night’s NASCAR Awards, but who do NBC driver analysts think will be the series’ Driver of the Year?
The opinions of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Burton, Kyle Petty and Dale Jarrett were not unanimous.
In a year without strong drivers such as Kyle Larson, who won 10 races en route to the 2021 championship, there were other options besides Blaney, who won three races, including the Coca-Cola 600.
William Byron had a career-high six wins, a series-high 21 top-10 finishes, and tied Larson with a series-high 15 top-five finishes.
Larson won four points races, the All-Star race at North Wilkesboro, and logged a series-best 1,127 laps.
Here are the players chosen by NBC analysts as NASCAR’s Drivers of the Year.
dale earnhardt jr.
William Byron
“Six wins…the win column is a big number for me, and the consistency that goes with it, the lap lead (second place with 1,016). It’s about even, except for his last race and third place performance (in the championship). Everything on the line will be a huge moot point for him.”
jeff burton
ryan blaney
“I’m going with the champion. My thinking is, when we don’t have a dominant year, we’re going to go with the champion because he’s going to do what it takes to win a championship. That’s the ultimate goal. Byron had a bad year and didn’t win a championship. This is definitely his breakout year, but I’d choose Blaney this year. right.”
Kyle Petty
ryan blaney
“Ryan Blaney…at every point in the year when I called him out, picked him to win, picked him to not advance, he proved me wrong. Because. He did everything I thought he could do this year. I was waiting for him to deliver, and he did. So, at the end of 2023. Eat crow and toast to 2023 NASCAR Champion Ryan Blaney!”
Dale Jarrett
ryan blaney
“I’m going with champion Ryan Blaney. It’s been a difficult year for most of the year for Ford, but he’s made the biggest step up. His wins at the Cork 600 and Talladega were great. Round 8 was also great, setting us up for an impressive championship race to take the title.”
2. Owner with new media rights agreement
NASCAR’s 7-year media rights deal worth it Reportedly $7.7 billion However, there are some trade-offs for the team.
This past season, there were 20 Cup races on network TV on Fox or NBC. This will be the same total in 2024. However, when a new media rights deal begins in 2025, only nine of the 36 Cup points races will be on NBC or FOX. The new deal includes five Cup races that will be streamed exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.
The largest audience is network TV. Fewer racers could mean fewer spectators for more races. But streaming races could reach the younger viewers NASCAR seeks. The viewers of his NFL games on Amazon Prime are seven years younger than the average age of fans who watch his NFL games on terrestrial TV.
“Like anything in life, there’s usually a tradeoff somewhere,” said Brad Keselowski, co-owner of RFK Racing. “I think there will be some trade-offs in terms of partnership models and different strategies.”
Car owner Roger Penske praises NASCAR’s move to add a broadcast partner.
“I think we’re at a point here where people are moving away from linear TV and definitely towards network TV,” Penske said. “Believe me, NASCAR wouldn’t have gotten the $7.7 billion if NBC and Fox and other partners didn’t believe that what they put together was worth it. must follow expert opinion in that regard.
“For me, this is a great move. I think it’s great to put the package together today in this environment. The more people we get interested, the more our ability increases. From a perspective, we’ve been able to attract sponsors because of the existing TV package, but obviously not everything is on the network and I think we’ll have to see how that plays out. .”
The completion of this deal will allow NASCAR to focus on completing agreements with teams regarding the charter system.
NASCAR Chairman Steve Phelps said in a webinar earlier this week: “Our race teams generally lose money at the Cup level.” He said the key to solving the problem is giving teams more money from media rights packages and putting cost caps on teams.
Denny Hamlin, Michael Jordan’s co-owner of 23XI Racing, said NASCAR has discussed a new media rights deal with the team.
“There will be short-term effects, and there will be long-term effects,” Hamlin said. “Right now, the impact can be positive or negative. It remains to be seen.
“NASCAR mentioned to us some numbers that they think the impact could be in percentage terms. So we need to understand what that means for the bottom line, because ultimately we What we care about is whether we are sustainable. There is a number we need to reach in order to be sustainable, but given all the new facts, are we going to be able to reach that number now? Is that it?”
3. A new path to NASCAR?
There are so many different paths in the Cup Series. Look at the players running for a Cup title in Phoenix last month. Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell both come from dirt track racing.William Byron started in iRacing and champion Ryan Blaney came from the Super Late Model ranks.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick and Justin Marks are co-owners of the Cars Tour Late Model Series, so how can the series champion compete in Craftsman trucks and Xfinity? It’s easy to wonder if there will be a series race next season.
“I like the idea,” Earnhardt said. “I think that’s pretty cool. I think it’s going to be nerve-wracking because we want our drivers to go out there and be successful.”
Earnhardt also cited financial challenges, saying it costs about $25,000 to ride a “decent” truck for one race. For a high-performance Xfinity Series ride, the cost is even higher.
Such concepts are not new.
Since 2012, the NTT IndyCar Series has given Indy NXT by Firestone champions financial incentives to advance to the IndyCar Series.
Christian Rasmussen, who won the Indy NXT title last season, will be participating in an oval test at Texas Motor Speedway, an open test and rookie orientation program at the Indianapolis 500, an entry into the 2024 Indy 500, and additional entries. Received $850,000 applied to. 2024 IndyCar race.
Other players who benefited from this after winning the Indy NXT title include Pato O’Ward, who finished fourth in IndyCar points last season, and Kyle Kirkwood, who finished 11th in points with two wins last year.
Harvick said that while scholarships for series champions is an “interesting concept,” he believes there are better ways to give Cars Tour drivers a chance to move up in the NASCAR ranks. It’s what makes the series even stronger.
“One of our goals is to further prepare (drivers) to be the first choice (of Xfinity and truck owners),” Harvick said. “That’s really the most important thing is, if there’s a vehicle available, the team owners are definitely looking at Cars Tour first and saying, ‘Who’s the best person to take this on Cars Tour?’ What should I do to be able to say “opportunity”? Or maybe the man is racing in his tour of cars, or the woman is racing in his tour of cars, and we should go with them. Because they have the best quality of education. ”
“I think that’s what we have right now. A lot of it has to do with the accomplishments of the series and the quality of drivers that we have and the rules, whether it’s racing on the racetrack or fighting off the racetrack. We want that intensity, but we also want that professionalism to be upheld and taught.”
Earnhardt said he believes the series has a reputation for talent and “we’re going to continue to do that.”
He also said, “If we can get the Tour to a certain level of financial success, we could consider opportunities for the Cars Tour Champion to race in the Xfinity or Truck Series as part of his title pursuit.”
4. Ryan Blaney wants to run the Indy 500
Kyle Larson plans to race in both the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 in 2024, and Ryan Blaney said Thursday he wants to do so.
Larson becomes the fifth driver to run both races on the same day, joining John Andretti, Robbie Gordon, Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch.
Could Brainy be the sixth? Or, if Kyle Busch can put together a deal to do it, he’ll probably finish seventh – something he’s tried to do in the past.
“Blaney told me at some point in the last few weeks that he wanted to go to Indy,” team owner Roger Penske said. “I was like, ‘Hey, slow down a little bit.’
Blaney said: This is a fairly short list, so just doing this should be enough.
“I respect all kinds of motorsport, so I would love to experience something like that. I think it’s perfect in a way to do it at my age (29), but the nostalgia and the I think it is an amazing feat to be able to say that I ran 1,100 miles in one day at Kuba Racecourse.
“It’s great that Kyle can do that. Maybe someday I’ll get that privilege too.”
5. Joey Logano’s “Clark Griswold Moment”
With three young children, the holidays can be hectic. These belong to Joey Logano and his wife.
That includes decorating the house.
“I had a Clark Griswold moment,” Logano said, referring to the character from the movie “Christmas Vacation.” “I was up on the roof with this fucking reindeer trying to turn it on, tripping the breaker. I feel like I’ve seen this before. We talked about it. We were laughing, and now it’s lit up and looks so beautiful.”
But he accomplished much more than that.
“This year, we maximized the elements of Christmas and performed at our best,” he said.
Why?
He has 6 inflatables.
“There’s only one Santa Claus,” Logano said. “I’m not lying. It’s 40 feet tall.
He was inspired to decorate his neighbors’ homes.
“I got the biggest Santa Claus I could possibly buy. It’s more expensive than the house. It looks totally ridiculous, but I won. … That’s Christmas. It’s about winning.” said Logano.
And he laughed heartily.