It's never easy to choose the 10 drivers, but this year was especially difficult. There were 15 drivers that caught my eye and whittling it down to 10 was no easy task. In the end I left off several talented drivers, most of whom were adjusting to new cars at a higher level of competition, that I still think have bright futures and have a good chance of making this list again next year. So without any further ado, here are ScooterBob's Rising Stars of 2018:
(Drivers Listed in Alphabetical Order)
Christopher Bell
Age: 24Hometown: Norman, Oklahoma
2017 Ride(s): Full-Time Truck Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports; Part-Time Xfinity Series for Joe Gibbs Racing; Part-Time ARCA Series for Venturini Motorsports.
This is Christopher Bell's 3rd time making this list. Bell didn't waste anytime getting to victory lane this season, picking up his 1st of 5 Truck Series wins in just the 2nd race of the season. In 23 Truck races he had 21 Top 10's and 15 Top 5's. He made his Xfinity Series debut for JGR at Charlotte in May and finished 4th. In October he would pick up his first career Xfinity win at Kansas and finished off the season with 8 starts, 5 Top 10's, 3 Top 5's and 1 win. He also won the lone ARCA race he ran at Chicago. Bell would cap off his season by finishing 2nd at Homestead and winning the Truck Series championship. Christopher will drive Full-Time for JGR in the Xfinity Series in 2018.
Chase Briscoe
Age: 23Hometown: Mitchell, Indiana
2017 Ride(s): Full-Time Truck Series for Brad Keselowski Racing
2017 was a wild rookie season, filled with highs and lows, for Chase Briscoe in the Truck Series. Chase came from a dirt track background and had very little experience on asphalt when he joined the ARCA Series Full-Time in 2016 with a development driver contract with Roush Fenway Racing. He burst onto the scene winning 6 of the 20 races and the championship. That strong performance landed him the Truck ride with BKR in 2017. After finishing 3rd in the opening round at Daytona, Bricsoe struggled over the next few races. He won the pole and led his first laps at Dover, led more laps and finished 2nd the following race at Texas, and won the pole and led the most laps before finishing 2nd the next race at Gateway. Briscoe would pick up 5 more Top 5's and another runner up finish, but just could not seem to find a way to victory lane. At the season finale in Homestead, Chase won his 4th pole of the season and put on another dominating performance. This time he would get the result and win the race, while his close friend, Christopher Bell, won the Championship. Chase will drive Part-Time for Roush Fenway Racing in the Xfinity Series in 2018.
Harrison Burton
Age: 17Hometown: Huntersville, North Carolina
2017 Ride(s): Full-Time K&N Pro Series East for MDM Motorsports; Part-Time Truck Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports; Part-Time ARCA Series for MDM Motorsports
Harrison is the son of 21-time Cup Series winner and 1994 Rookie of the Year Jeff Burton. 2017 was Harrison's 2nd full-time season in the K&N East Series and he showed an incredible amount of improvement from his rookie year. Burton started off the year with his new team by winning the pole to the season opening event at New Smyrna and finishing 4th. He picked up his 1st career victory 2 races later under the bright lights of Bristol Motor Speedway. Shortly afterward he would take to the track at South Boston Speedway, the home track of his dad and uncle (who have grandstands named after them at the track) and cruised to victory in front of his extended family. Harrison would end up winning 5 races and the championship in the East Series. He also won the only ARCA race he entered at Toledo. He made his Truck Series debut at Martinsville in the spring and finished 13th and when he returned there in the fall for his 6th and final start of the year, he finished a career best 4th. Since Burton does not turn 18 until October, he cannot run the full Truck Series season. His 2018 plans have yet to be finalized, but it is expected that he will continue to run part-time for KBM in the Truck Series and run various races in both the K&N and ARCA Series'.
William Byron
Age: 20Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina
2017 Ride(s): Full-Time Xfinity Series for JR Motorsports
This is William Byron's 3rd time making this list and what a ride he has been on the past 3 seasons! In 2015, as a rookie in the K&N East Series, he won 4 races and the championship. In 2016, as a rookie in the Truck Series, he won 7 races and finished 5th in the Championship. This past season he was a rookie in the Xfinity Series and he took to it just like he has at every other level. Byron finished in the Top 10 in 5 of the first 6 races, winning the pole at Phoenix and finishing 4th for his first career Top 5. He then hit a rough patch, crashing out of 2 of the next 4 races. Everything seemed to be going his way at Michigan when he took the lead late. It appeared he had the race won, but then Denny Hamlin made a brilliant last lap pass and edged Byron out by .012 seconds (one of the closest finishes of the NASCAR season). William shook the defeat off and came back the next race at Iowa and picked up his first career win. He won again the following race at Daytona and then again 3 races later at Indianapolis. A win at Phoenix in the penultimate race of the season landed him a spot in the Championship 4 at Homestead and after a hard fought battle with his teammate, Elliott Sadler, Byron hung on to win the Xfinity Series championship. Byron has another rookie season ahead of him next year as he will race full-time for Hendrick Motorsports in the famed 24 car in the Cup Series.
Austin Cindric
Age: 19Hometown: Columbus, Ohio
2017 Ride(s): Full-Time Truck Series for Brad Keselowski Racing; Part-Time Xfinity Series for Team Penske; Part-Time ARCA Series for Cunningham Motorsports
Austin Cindric comes from a strong racing background. His father, Tim Cindric, is the President of Team Penske and a 2-time championship winning race strategist (crew chief) in Indy Car with Will Power in 2014 and Josef Newgarden in 2017. Austin himself has a history of sports car racing and actually ran 4 IMSA races in 2017 including the 24 Hours of Daytona. So with the sports car and Indy Car heritage it seems strange that Cindric would choose the NASCAR route, but the teen certainly has talent. In 2016 he won an ARCA race at Kentucky and had 2nd place finishes at Pocono and Kansas. He also won 2 road course races in the K&N East Series. It took Austin a bit to adapt to the Truck Series this year. He finished outside the Top 20 in the first 3 races before getting his first Top 10 at Kansas. He got his first Top 5 2 races later at Dover. After that he began to consistently run in the Top 10 and when the Truck Series went to Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in September for the only road course race of the year, it was Cindric's time to shine. After leading half the race, Cindric made a controversial bump and run (some called it a "dump and run") on fellow road course ace, Kaz Grala, and he would go on to win the race. Many racers, including some Cup veterans, criticized Cindric's move to win the race. He would not win anymore races in 2017, but he did finish each of the last 7 races in the Top 10, 4 of those in the Top 5, and would make the Championship 4, ultimately finishing 3rd in points. Austin will race part-time for Roush Fenway Racing in the Xfinity Series in 2018.
Todd Gilliland
Age: 17Hometown: Sherrills Ford, North Carolina
2017 Ride(s): Full-Time K&N Pro Series East & West for Bill McAnally Racing; Part-Time Truck Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports
Todd Gilliland, the son of Cup series veteran David Gilliland, is back for the 2nd year in a row on the Rising Stars list. After winning the K&N West Series championship in 2016, Todd decided to run full-time in both the West Series and the East Series. In the West he won 6 of the 13 races and finished 2nd in 4 others to beat out his teammate, Chris Eggleston, for his 2nd consecutive championship. His quest for the championship in the East wasn't as easy. He did manage to win 4 races and pick up 4 runner-up finishes, but he had a worthy adversary in Harrison Burton and came up just short of the title. Gilliland made his Truck debut for KBM at Dover in the spring, but mechanical issues in his first 2 starts prevented him from finishing. At Loudon in September, Todd picked up his career best finish of 3rd and followed it up a few weeks later with a 5th at Martinsville. He would finish his truck season with a 7th place run at Phoenix. Gilliland will continue to race part-time for KBM in the Truck Series in 2018.
Kaz Grala
Age: 19Hometown: Westborough, Massachusetts
2017 Ride(s): Full-Time Truck Series for GMS Racing; Part-Time ARCA Series for Mason Mitchell Motorsports & MDM Motorsports
Unless you happened to follow the K&N Pro Series East for the past 3 seasons, you probably had no idea who Kaz Grala was coming into 2017. And if you did follow that series you'd probably know Grala as the guy who usually had a good car and always came up short. Kaz grew up racing go-karts in the Boston area and graduated to bandeleros and legends cars, but at the age of 15 he switched to sports cars and became the youngest driver to ever race in an IMSA event. NASCAR was his passion, however, and he stunned the NASCAR community by winning the season opening Truck race at Daytona. Kaz's infectious personality began to win fans over and while he had his ups and downs (including crashing out of 4 straight races midway through the season) he became much more consistent at the end of the year, almost winning again at the road course in Canada and finishing the season with 5 Top 5's and 11 Top 10's. Grala will move up to the Xfinity Series in 2018, racing full-time for JGL Racing.
John Hunter Nemechek
Age: 20Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina
2017 Ride(s): Full-Time Truck Series for NEMCO Motorsports
John Hunter Nemechek, the son of 4-Time Cup Series winner and 1992 Busch Grand National Series Champion Joe Nemechek, is also making this list for the 3rd time. You can crown John Hunter as the King of Underfunded Racers. Despite having limited funds and often times blank quarter panels, Nemechek continued to mix it up with the highly funded, big time sponsored teams. Just when the team seemed to be down and out without sponsorship to finish the season, John Hunter went out and pulled off an amazing victory at Gateway to secure sponsorship for the remainder of the year. And just to put icing on the cake, he went out and won the next race at Iowa as well. Nemechek finished the season with 2 wins, 8 Top 5's, and 11 Top 10's in 23 starts, finishing 8th in points. John Hunter will race part-time for Chip Ganassi Racing in the Xfinity Series in 2018.
Tyler Reddick
Age: 21Hometown: Corning, California
2017 Ride(s): Part-Time Xfinity Series for Chip Ganassi Racing
Tyler Reddick is making this list for the 3rd time as well. After 2 successful seasons in the Truck Series, Reddick had difficulties adapting to the Xfinity cars. In fact, for a time I was beginning to think that Reddick may have reached his peak. He had just 1 Top 10 finish in his first 6 starts before picking up his first career Top 5, finishing 3rd at Iowa. The struggles continued after that with just 1 Top 10 in the next 7 races. Then everything clicked at Kentucky. Reddick qualified 5th, his best qualifying effort of the year, and had a strong run, leading 66 of 200 laps en route to his first career victory. He would qualify 5th again the next week at Dover, but struggled to a 26th place finish. A couple weeks later at Kansas he won his first Xfinity pole and backed it up with a 2nd place run. He won the pole again at the finale at Homestead and led 18 laps en route to a 4th place finish, making it 3 Top 5's in his final 4 starts. Tyler will race full-time for JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series in 2018.
Will Rodgers
Age: 23Hometown: Murrieta, California
2017 Ride(s): Full-Time K&N Pro Series West & Part-Time K&N Pro Series East for Jefferson-Pitts Racing
Will Rodgers was a relative newcomer to the NASCAR ranks in 2017. With a background in Off-Road Trucks and road racing you'd figure Rodgers would need some time to adjust to stock cars. He picked it up rather quickly finishing in the Top 5 in each of his first 4 starts of 2017. When the West Series rolled into Sonoma in June, Will felt right at home. He won the pole for the race and led the first 26 laps, but in the end he found himself chasing down the leader. Rodgers ended up finishing a half a second short to some guy named Kevin Harvick (perhaps you've heard of him), but gained a lot of attention as he closed the gap in the final laps. Many believe Rodgers most likely would have caught him if he had another lap or 2. He finished 2nd a couple weeks later at the 2/3 mile Evergreen Speedway for his best finish on an oval. In August he made his first start in the East Series when they went to Watkins Glen. He started 2nd to Truck Series driver Ryan Truex and without a Cup veteran in the race, Rodgers had no problem picking up his first career victory. 2 races later he would dominate another road course race at New Jersey Motorsports Park. Across 16 starts in the 2 K&N divisions, Will finished the season with 2 wins, 11 Top 5's, and 14 Top 10's. No word yet on Rodgers's plans for 2018.
Honorable Mentions: Cole Custer, Noah Gragson, Ryan Reed, Ben Rhodes, and Darrell "Bubba" Wallace, Jr.
Keep an eye out for these young drivers and many more as they come to a track near you. Doors continue to open for these young stars, especially with the departure of veterans such as Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and Matt Kenseth. 2018 is sure to be another exciting season.
Until next time....Happy Racin' Y'all!
Comments
Post a Comment