2021 Alternate NASCAR Cup Series

2021 Alternate NASCAR Cup Series
Details
Owner	Aislabie
Races	30 +4 non-Championship events
First Race	Template:USA Daytona 500
Last Race	Template:USA Championship 500
Major Championships
Drivers Championship
Owners Championship
Manufacturer Championship
Minor Championships
Daytona 500 Champion
Rookie of the Year
Earnhardt Award
Petty Award
Trickle Award
Gordon Award
Other Seasons
<<<	>>>
None	2022

The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series was the 73rd season of NASCAR-sanctioned stock car racing in the United States. The season saw sweeping changes from the 2020 season, which had seen Chase Elliott become the Champion Driver despite Kevin Harvick being statistically by far the leading driver all season long. 2021 saw the biggest changes to the Cup Series since at least 2004, as NASCAR aimed to revitalise itself by embracing its history as well as some of its modern innovations.

Changes to the sport

The 2021 season had long been billed as the start of a new era, but it saw changes to almost every aspect of the sport as it sought to recapture its early-2000s popularity. In one three-month off-season, NASCAR undid a lot of the changes made over the course of the previous decade or so. These changes included:

• The return to a more manageable 30-race schedule, to avoid scheduling conflicts with the start of the football season.
• The abolition of the playoffs and return to a season-long points system.
• The abolition of the charter system, which had contributed to declining field sizes over the last few years.
• The abolition of stage racing, which saw cautions being thrown, and points awarded, to drivers at certain predefined "checkpoints" in the race.

In addition to this, extensive changes were made to the qualifying system for Cup races. Mimicking the Daytona 500 format, it was decided that for all 30 rounds of the Championship, one-lap qualifying would set the starting grids for two heat races (as well as deciding the first 20 cars qualified for the feature race), with ten cars from each heat having the opportunity to "race their way in". No cars would be protected from the possibility of failing to qualify, and the possibility of being able to make the main event through attrition in heat races should serve as an incentive to smaller teams. The playoff system was scraped in favor of a return to a traditional points system.

NASCAR also proudly announced that two additional manufacturers would be joining the series, with the return of Dodge and the first-ever appearance of Honda in the Cup series. This brings the total number of manufacturers to five, with the models represented in the Cup being the Chevrolet Camaro, Dodge Charger, Ford Mustang, Honda Accord and Toyota Camry.

Calendar

Event		Track	Type	Laps	Winning driver	Winning team		Winning manufacturer
	Busch Clash	Daytona International Speedway	Superspeedway	40
1	Daytona 500			200
2	Dixie Vodka Florida 400	Homestead-Miami Speedway	Intermediate	267
3	California 400 presented by Auto Club	Auto Club Speedway	Superspeedway	200
4	Camping World Midwest 400	Chicagoland Speedway	Intermediate	267
5	Food City Southeastern 500	Bristol Motor Speedway	Short Track	500
6	Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief Virginia 500	Martinsville Speedway	Short Track	500
7	GEICO Alabama 500	Talladega Superspeedway	Superspeedway	188
8	Busch Spartan 300 by Crosley Radio	Kentucky Speedway	Intermediate	200
9	Consumers Energy Yankee 400	Michigan International Speedway	Superspeedway	200
10	Drydene Delaware 400	Dover International Speedway	Intermediate	400
	NASCAR Open	Charlotte Motor Speedway	Intermediate	40
	NASCAR All Star Race			60
11	Coca-Cola World 600			400
12	Ally Music City 400	Nashville Superspeedway	Intermediate	200
13	Gander RV Mile High 400, presented by Pocono Organics	Pocono Raceway	Superspeedway	160
14	Quaker State Atlanta 400 presented by Walmart	Atlanta Motor Speedway	Intermediate	260
15	Foxwood Resort New England 300	New Hampshire Motor Speedway	Intermediate	300
16	GoBowling 350 at The Glen	Watkins Glen International	Road Course	89
17	Big Machine Hand Sanitizer Brickyard 400 Powered by Big Machine Records	Indianapolis Motor Speedway	Superspeedway	160
18	World Wide Technology Illinois 350	Gateway Motorsports Park	Intermediate	280
19	Coke Zero Firecracker 400	Daytona International Speedway	Superspeedway	160
20	NASCAR Throwback Southern 500 by Cook Out	Darlington Raceway	Intermediate	367
	NASCAR Masters	Richmond Raceway	Short Track	100
21	Federated Auto Parts Capital City 400			400
22	Best Night Race In The World	Bristol Motor Speedway	Short Track	400
23	Pennzoil Las Vegas 300	Las Vegas Motor Speedway	Intermediate	200
24	Yellawood Talladega 500	Talladega Superspeedway	Superspeedway	188
25	Bank of America Roval 400	Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval	Road Course	109
26	Buschy McBusch Race Kansas 400	Kansas Speedway	Intermediate	267
27	Xfinity Old Dominion 400	Martinsville Speedway	Short Track	400
28	Can-Am Phoenix 300	Phoenix Raceway	Intermediate	300
29	Disney 300, presented by Marvel Studios	Walt Disney World Speedway	Intermediate	300
	NASCAR Exhibition	Homestead-Miami Speedway Roval	Road Course	27
30	Bluegreen Vacations Championship 400	Homestead-Miami Speedway	Intermediate	267

Calendar Changes

In light of the disruption that occurred in the 2020 season, NASCAR took the opportunity to make sweeping changes to their calendar. These changes included:

• The reduction of the Cup schedule to only 30 races, reducing the scheduling conflict with the start of the football season.
• The introduction of Nashville Superspeedway, Gateway Motorsports Park and Walt Disney World Speedway to the Cup series for the first time.
• The introduction of two new non-championship events to complete a quartet of such race meetings.

The season finale also returned to Homestead-Miami Speedway after one year away at Phoenix Raceway, although unlike previous years this race (now dubbed the Championship 400) is not a guaranteed championship decider owing to the removal of the playoff system for deciding the championship.

Teams and Drivers

The charter system, which had been in place since 2016, was cancelled after five seasons of diminishing grid sizes. The return to an open field was coupled with the return of Dodge and the arrival of Honda in the Cup Series. This and the revolutionised qualifying system resulted in the largest field sizes NASCAR had seen for decades.

Note
Denotes the manufacturer's Works team
Denotes a team with Factory support
Denotes a team running Customer or Hire cars
Denotes a team running Legacy cars

Manufacturer	Team	#	Driver	Schedule	Primary Sponsor
Template:USA Chevrolet	Template:USA StarCom Racing [V]	00	Template:USA Quin Houff	1-	Permatex
	Template:USA Chip Ganassi Racing [M]	1	Template:USA Kurt Busch	1-	Monster Energy
		42	Template:USA Ross Chastain	1-
	Template:USA Richard Childress Racing [M]	3	Template:USA Austin Dillon	1-
		8	Template:USA Tyler Reddick	1-
		29	Template:USA Ty Dillon	1-	GEICO
	Template:USA Tommy Baldwin Racing [V]	7	Template:USA Stanton Barrett	1,7,19,24
			Template:USA Josh Bilicki	2,14,20,29-30
			Template:USA Joey Gase	3,10,16,18,28
			Template:USA Reed Sorenson	4,9,11,23,26
			Template:USA JJ Yeley	5-6,21-22,27
			Template:USA Robbie Ray Knox	13
	Template:USA Hendrick Motorsports [M]	9	Template:USA Chase Elliott	1-	NAPA Auto Parts
		24	Template:USA William Byron	1-	Liberty University
		48	Template:USA Kyle Larson	1-
		88	Template:USA Alex Bowman	1-
	Template:USA Germain Racing [V]	13	Template:USA Ruben Garcia	1,23-24
			Jorge Goeters	2-6
			Template:USA Gary Klutt	7-9
			Germán Quiroga	10-14
			Template:USA Hermie Sadler	15-18
			Template:USA Austin Hill	19-22
			Template:USA Natalie Decker	25-30
	Template:USA Premium Motorsports [V]	15	Template:USA Brennan Poole	1-
	Template:USA Richard Petty Motorsports [V]	43	Template:USA Bubba W1-ace	1-
	Template:USA Beard Motorsports [V]	62	Template:USA Noah Gragson	1, 7, 19, 24	Beard Oil
	Template:USA Spire Motorsports [M]	74	Template:USA Greg Biffle	1
		77	Template:USA Justin Haley	1-
	Template:USA Team Keller Racing [V]	90	Template:USA Robbie Ray Knox	20
	Template:USA Trackhouse Racing [V]	99	Daniel Suárez	1-
Template:USA Dodge	Template:USA Team Penske [M]	2	Template:USA Brad Keselowski	1-	Discount Tire
		12	Template:USA Ryan Blaney	1-
		22	Template:USA Joey Logano	1-	Shell
		33	Template:USA Nicolas Steele	1
	Template:USA Go Fas Racing [M]	32	Template:USA Erik Jones	1-
	Template:USA Front Row Motorsports [M]	34	Template:USA Michael McDowell	1-	Love's Travel Stops
		38	Template:USA Brett Moffitt	1-
Template:USA Ford	Template:USA Stewart-Haas Racing [V]	4	Template:USA Parker Kligerman	1-
		10	Template:USA Cole Custer	1-
		14	Template:USA Sheldon Creed	1-
		41	Template:USA Aric Almirola	1-	Smithfield
	Template:USA Roush Fenway Racing [M]	6	Template:USA Kevin Harvick	1-
		17	Template:USA Chris Buescher	1-
	Template:USA Wood Brothers Racing [V]	21	Template:USA Matt DiBenedetto	1-
	Template:USA JTG-Daugherty Racing [M]	37	Template:USA Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	1-	Kroger
		47	Template:USA Trevor Bayne	1-	Mahalo Coffee Roasters
		85	Template:USA Blake Jones	1
			Template:USA Julia Landauer	2-3
			Template:USA Stanton Barrett	4
			Template:USA Robbie Ray Knox	5-9,24
			Template:USA Natalie Decker	10,19-23
			Template:USA Gary Klutt	11-13
			Template:USA Scott Heckert	14-15,17-18,26
			Template:GBR Henry Paul	16,25
			Template:USA Hermie Sadler	27-30
	Template:USA Live Fast Motorsports [V]	78	Template:USA BJ McLeod	1-
Honda	Template:USA Kaulig Racing [M]	16	Template:USA Brandon Jones	1-
	Template:USA Andretti Autosport [M]	25	TBA	1-
		26	Template:USA Oliver Askew	1-
		27	Pietro Fittipaldi	1-
		28	Template:USA A.J. 1-mendinger	1-26, 28-30
			Template:USA Dale Earnhardt Jr.	27
	Hattori Racing Enterprises [M]	61	Jacques Villeneuve	1-
		81	Takuma Sato	1	(H)
			TBA	1-
Toyota	Template:USA Joe Gibbs Racing [M]	11	Template:USA Denny Hamlin	1-	FedEx
		18	Template:USA Kyle Busch	1-	M&Ms
		19	Template:USA Martin Truex Jr.	1-	Bass Pro Shops
		20	TBA	1-
	Template:USA 23XI Racing [M]	23	Template:AUS Daniel Ricciardo	1-	Optus
	Gaunt Brothers Racing [M]	40	Template:USA Travis Crabtree	7, 16, 25
		96	Template:USA Corey Lajoie	1-
	Template:USA NY Racing Team [M]	44	Template:GBR James James Davies	1-
		82	Template:USA Justin 1-gaier	1-
	Template:USA MBM Motorsports [V]	49	Template:USA Garrett Smithley	1
		66	Template:USA Timmy Hill	1-	RoofClaim.com
	Template:USA Rick Ware Racing [M]	51	Template:USA Jeffrey Earnhardt	1-4,7-20,23-26,28-30
			Template:USA Hailie Deegan	5-6,21-22,27
		52	Template:USA Natalie Decker	1,3,9,13,17-18,24
			Template:USA Jennifer Jo Cobb	2,4,8,10,12,28-30
			Template:USA Ruben Garcia	5-6,21-22,27
			Template:USA Garrett Smithley	7,19
			Template:USA Gary Klutt	15-16,25
			Template:USA Hermie Sadler	14,20,23,26
		53	Template:USA Austin Hill	1,7,17,24
			Template:USA Bayley Currey	2,4,8,10-12,14,18,23,30
			Template:USA Blake Jones	5,22
			Antonio Pérez	6,16,21,25,27
		54	TBA	1-
	Template:USA Leavine Family Racing [V]	95	Template:USA Christopher Bell	1-	(T)

Championship Standings

Points System

Qualifying

Position	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Rest
Points	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1	0

Heat Races

Position	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Rest
Points	25	22	20	18	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1	0

Feature Race

Position	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40	DNQ
Points	50	45	42	40	38	36	34	33	32	31	30	29	28	27	26	25	24	23	22	21	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1	0