It’s been a minute since everymanoneverycrew.com has given a silly season update, and a lot has happened since the last one in May. The biggest surprise to most likely was Stewart-Haas Racing closing its doors, but not totally; 2025 will be the team’s second rebrand, with them becoming the Haas Factory Team and downsizing with Cole Custer as the flagship driver for the #41 entry. Josh Berry will pilot the #21 Ford for Wood Brothers Racing next year, while Noah Gragson is expected to drive for Front Row Motorsports, another Ford team. Chase Briscoe will replace the retiring Martin Truex Jr. at Joe Gibbs Racing in the #19 Toyota, and the lone driver without a deal sealed for the 2025 season is Ryan Preece, who currently pilots the #41 Ford in the Cup Series. During a rain delay at New Hampshire, when asked by NBC about his 2025 plans, the driver expressed that he just wants to win races when asked about his future plans. Haas Factory Team is expected to have two full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series entries, meaning Preece could wind up in one of those entries to compete for wins and a championship in the lower division. After all, SHR has won the last two Xfinity Series races. Cole Custer won the title last year with the organization and with a rebranding taking place during the off season, it’d make sense for Preece to drop down and be competitive in NASCAR’s second-tier series and spend the rest of his career there.
Corey LaJoie out at Spire Motorsports; Michael McDowell and Travis Peterson Reunite from Front Row Motorsports
Recently, it was announced that Corey LaJoie would not be returning to the #7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet in 2025. Regarding LaJoie’s future, there’s a possibility that he winds up at Kaulig Racing or Rick Ware Racing, as both teams have fielded full-time entries with part-time drivers who have run a rotational schedule this season. LaJoie has proven that he can bring home top-5’s at drafting tracks, where it can be a challenge for drivers to bring a car home in one piece. If LaJoie is unable find another full-time Cup ride, his best bet is to dip down into the NASCAR Xfinity Series, where drivers like Justin Allgaier and A.J. Allmendinger, amongst many others, have gone on to have more competitive careers after running in the Cup Series after not having as much success. in the premier division. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is where a lot of now-retired NASCAR Cup Series veterans spent the last years of their careers, and a lot of race craft is absent from the second feeder series nowadays. The series is missing a Todd Bodine, Mike Skinner, and Ron Hornaday, all of whom raced in Cup, but thrived in the Truck Series. LaJoie could dip down and show the young up and comers how to race on Sundays.
With Travis Peterson relocating to Spire Motorsports to be continue his journey to be the crew chief for Michael McDowell, his is a pairing that could wind up surprising a lot of people in 2025. with McDowell being a veteran who’s shown he’s capable of running up front and winning races, leading to a career like Martin Truex Jr.’s who only had two wins before teaming up with Cole Pearn at Furniture Row Racing in 2014 and capturing the championship in 2017. For those who might look at McDowell turning 40 next season as a hurdle, Truex was 37 when he won his first title and Mark Martin was 50-years-young back in 2009 in his first season at Hendrick Motorsports and finished third in the final standings.
What happens to the #7 Entry?
Spire Motorsports has a vacant ride in house with Carson However returning for his multi-year deal along with Michael McDowell piloting the other entry. It should be noted that current Spire Motorsports driver, Zane Smith’s deal is with Trackhouse Racing. This leaves the door open for Zane Smith to potentially obtain Rodney Childers as his crew chief, upon potentially returning to Spire next season, or maybe even Smith heading to Kaulig Racing on the Cup side. With Shane van Gisbergen, who’s also a Trackhouse Racing driver, running the full NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule this year with select Cup races, there is a possibility that Spire leases a charter to Trackhouse and van Gisbergen runs the entire Cup schedule next year, if Smith does not depart Spire. However, van Gisbergen could also end up staying in Xfinity for one more year to get more experience on the oval tracks, since coming from the Supercars Championship Series, that ran mainly on Road and Street Courses in Australia and New Zealand.
NASCAR Xfinity Series competitor Austin Hill has been in the Richard Childress Racing stable for several years now and likely wants to go Cup racing soon. This could open up a door for Hill to move up in 2025 and a charter is sold or leased to RCR, allowing for Spire to be more competitive with two entries, as the team has shown this season that they can run up front and get top-5’s on non-drafting tracks. RCR could also potentially work out a deal for Hill to go on loan to Spire and return to RCR after the lease is up.
Recently, there have been talks of IndyCar team, Andretti Autosport, wanting to open up a Cup Series team. Gainbridge, which is a sponsor of both Andretti and Spire Motorsports, could have a say so in Andretti forming a single-car Cup team, as the #7 entry has seen Gainbridge on the car multiple times this season. Spire potentially selling or leasing a charter to Andretti would allow them to go Cup racing as early as February in the season-opening Daytona 500 and this is the most likely scenario for Andretti to make the jump to NASCAR full-time.
The Leftover SHR Charters
As stated prior, with Haas Factory Team keeping the #41 entry, this means the other 3 charters (franchises) will be sold. It was reported that Front Row Motorsports, Trackhouse Racing, and 23XI Racing will likely obtain these charters, which guarantees revenue, entry into all 36 races on the schedule and a great return of investment outside of sponsorship. However, with teams still negotiating a new charter deal, a new television contract next year and nothing official yet, everything presented going forward will be speculation, until anything is official.
NASCAR Truck Series driver and Toyota Racing prospect, Corey Heim, presumably wants to move up the ladder. He’s run three Cup races thus far this season, driving for Legacy Motor Club to fill in for an injured Erik Jones at Dover Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway, as well as showing a lot of speed piloting the #50 Mobil 1 entry at Nashville Superspeedway in June. With 23XI looking to obtain a charter, Heim could go Cup racing to compete for Rookie of the Year honors next season. Chandler Smith, another Toyota Racing Development driver could also inherit a Cup ride for one of the organizations.
With several talented drivers in the Toyota pipeline who will be looking for a Cup seat years from now, it’d make sense for Toyota to invest in more Cup entries in the foreseeable future. Current Stewart-Haas Racing driver, Riley Herbst also wants to potentially go Cup racing and with Monster Energy being one of his partners and them being a 23XI sponsor already, Herbst moving up behind the wheel of the #67 Toyota would not be completely out of left field. However, Front Row Motorsports has already purchased a charter from SHR, so Herbst could very well remain with Ford, if he declines the Haas Factory Team’s offer to remain in the Xfinity Series.
Trackhouse Racing has prospects as well, including Shane van Gisbergen, Connor Zilisch and Zane Smith. With them potentially buying the third charter from Stewart Haas Racing, we could see van Gisbergen or Smith in the third entry, alongside current Cup drivers, Daniel Suarez and Ross Chastain. Zilisch has shown a lot of promise in the IMSA Sports Car Series, the ARCA Menards Series and NASCAR Truck Series so far, but he recently signed a contract with Jr Motorsports in the NASCAR Xfinity Series to run full-time in the #88 Chevrolet next year. As stated earlier, van Gisbergen is currently competing in the Xfinity Series and Zane Smith is currently completing his rookie season at Spire Motorsports, so one of those drivers could be taking over a third Trackhouse entry for 2025.
Other Possibilities Around the Garage
A lot was not covered in this article, including Harrison Burton‘s departure from the Wood Brothers Racing entry, NASCAR Xfinity Series standout, Sam Mayer possibly in the mix of moving up to Cup to drive for Front Row Motorsports and many development drivers in the lower series potentially moving up. So far, this has been one of the most interesting silly seasons in recent memory, as a lot of announcements are unexpected and shocked a lot of people, including Martin Truex Jr.’s retirement. We’re not even near close to done with the announcements either. What do you think happens next? Is your favorite driver’s future secured? Do you think another well-known name will retire? Let us know down below in the comments, or on our social media pages.
NASCAR Overtime | Sam Mayer wins at Iowa;Video Creds: https://www.youtube.com/@NASCAR
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