As more and more teams are building development programs to create stepping stones for drivers to work their way up the ladder, we are seeing more and more talented youth, making this list increasingly more difficult to put together. This past season 26 drivers that fit the criteria won races in NASCAR's Top 6 divisions, which leaves many future stars off this list. The class of 2020 includes 4 drivers returning from the 2019 list, 2 drivers returning from previous years' lists, and 4 drivers making their Rising Star debut.
Well, that's enough chit chat, let's get to the list...
(Drivers listed in alphabetical order)
Christopher Bell
Age: 25
Hometown: Norman, OK
2019 Ride(s): Full-Time Xfinity Series for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Rising Star Appearances: 5
Christopher Bell had another phenomenal season in 2019. He rattled off a career high 8 wins in the Xfinity season, along with 20 Top 5's and 21 Top 10's in 33 starts. Once again he made the Championship 4, but struggled to a 5th place finish, leaving him 3rd in points. Over the last 5 years Bell has racked up 3 ARCA wins, 7 Truck wins, and 16 Xfinity wins, but unfortunately has not been able to collect the hardware at the end of the year. This will be Christopher's last appearance on this list as he moves up to the Cup Series full-time in 2020, driving for Leavine Family Racing.
Austin Cindric
Age: 21
Hometown: Mooresville, NC
2019 Ride(s): Full-Time Xfinity Series for Team Penske.
Rising Star Appearances: 2
Austin Cindric returns to the Rising Stars list after missing the cut in 2019. Cindric finally busted into victory lane in the Xfinity Series by taking the checkered flag at Watkins Glen. He followed that up by winning the next race at Mid-Ohio as well. After a 5th place finish at Bristol, Austin tried to make it 3 for 3 on road courses at Road America, but was passed for the lead by Christopher Bell with just 9 laps to go and wound up finishing 2nd, matching his career high of 4 straight Top 5's. He has yet to win a NASCAR race on an oval, but is getting closer. He finished 2nd at both Richmond races and in both instances was the last driver passed for the lead. He also racked up Top 5's at Daytona, Phoenix, Talladega, Chicago, Bristol, Dover, and Texas. Cindric will continue racing full-time for Team Penske in the Xfinity Series in 2020, and with last year's top 3 drivers all moving up to Cup, Austin is one of the early favorites to win the championship.
Cole Custer
Age: 21
Hometown: Ladera Ranch, CA
2019 Ride(s): Full-Time Xfinity Series for Stewart-Haas Racing; Part-Time K&N Pro Series West for Bob Bruncati Racing.
Rising Star Appearances: 3
Cole was a member of the inaugural Rising Stars class in 2015 after becoming the youngest winner in Truck Series history the previous season. With just 2 Xfinity wins in the past 3 seasons, however, Custer has not been able to make the cut and has had to settle for Honorable Mentions. Custer had a breakout year in 2019, though, rattling off 7 wins, 17 Top 5's, and 24 Top 10's in the Xfinity Series. He also finished 3rd at Sonoma in his one and only K&N start of the season. Cole advanced to the Championship 4 and was widely considered the favorite to win the championship since he had won at Homestead in 2017. He led 15 laps in the season finale, but lost the lead with 19 laps to go, finishing 2nd in the race and in the points. After 6 seasons in NASCAR's lower levels, Cole has racked up 4 K&N wins, 1 ARCA win, 2 Truck wins, and 9 Xfinity wins. He will move up to race Full-Time in the Cup Series in 2020 with Stewart-Haas Racing.
Christian Eckes
Age: 19
Hometown: Middletown, NY
2019 Ride(s): Full-Time ARCA Series for Venturini Motorsports; Part-Time Truck Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports.
Rising Star Appearances: 2
2019 was a big season for Christian Eckes. He started off the ARCA season with back to back Top 5's, but missed the 3rd race of the season due to food poisoning. He battled back just a couple weeks later to grab his first in of the season at Nashville and he didn't finish worse than 11th the rest of the season. Eckes would go on to win the ARCA championship, thanks in part to finishing off the year with 7 straight finishes of 1st or 2nd, and finished the year with 4 wins, 13 Top 5's, and 17 Top 10's in 19 starts.
Eckes also made 8 Truck starts for KBM, winning the pole position in 4 of them. At Gateway, his 2nd start of the year, he led a race high 57 laps, but faded late to finish 14th. In his next start at Pocono, he grabbed his first career Top 5. He picked up his career best finish of 3rd at Vegas and matched that again after leading 26 laps at Homestead. Christian will run full-time in the Truck Series for KBM in 2020.
Ty Gibbs
Age: 17
Hometown: Charlotte, NC
2019 Ride(s): Part-Time ARCA Series for Joe Gibbs Racing; Part-Time K&N Pro Series East for DGR-Crosley; Part-Time K&N Pro Series West for Matt Levin.
Rising Star Appearances: First Appearance
You probably guessed it, Ty Gibbs, son of Coy Gibbs, is the grandson of the Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs. While his dad wasn't able to make much out of his racing career, Ty is off to a very good start. After finishing 2nd in 3 of his first 5 ARCA starts, he finally got the monkey off his back by winning at Gateway. He would win again later in the year at Salem and finished the ARCA season with 2 wins, 4 2nd place finishes, 7 Top 5's, and 9 Top 10's in 11 starts. He made 6 K&N East starts, finishing 2nd in 4 of the first 5 races (4th in the other), before finally getting a win at New Hampshire. He then went on to run in the K&N West finale at Phoenix, winning that race as well. Ty's season did not go without controversy, though. His DGR-Crosley K&N was penalized at the start of the season for testing at New Smyrna, a track on the K&N East schedule. Gibbs was also very vocal about his opponents as well, including claiming that the East Series drivers are better than the West Series drivers after finishing 2nd at the K&N East/West combo race at Iowa in July. So long as his mouth doesn't get him into trouble with his fellow drivers on track, Ty is looking at a bright future. Gibbs's 2020 plans have yet to be announced, but it is likely he will continue to run a mixture of ARCA, ARCA East, and ARCA West races.
Austin Hill
Age: 25
Hometown: Winston, GA
2019 Ride(s): Full-Time Truck Series for Hattori Racing Enterprises; Part-Time Xfinity Series for Carl Long.
Rising Star Appearances: First Appearance.
Austin Hill was surrounded in controversy well before his 2019 season ever started. After winning the 2018 Truck championship with Brett Moffitt behind the wheel in 2018, HRE made the stunning announcement that they were replacing Moffitt with Austin Hill, a virtually unknown driver. But Hill has a very good racing record in his young career. He won 5 K&N East races from 2013-2015, just barely missing the cut in my inaugural Rising Stars class, and in 2015 he finished 3rd in the Series standings (William Byron won the championship and 2-time Rising Star Justin Haley finished 5th). From there he moved up to the Truck Series running part-time for Young's Motorsports, where he picked up 2 Top 10's for the underfunded team before they made him their full-time driver in 2018. With a full schedule, Austin was able to finish in the Top 10 six times, and nabbed a career best finish of 5th at Texas late in the season. Overperforming in underfunded equipment is what landed Hill this championship level ride. Austin was able to put some doubters minds to rest by winning the season opener at Daytona with his new team, but many people believed that was the luck of the superspeedway as many unexpected drivers have been able to drive to victory at Daytona and Talladega. It looked like the remaining doubters were justified as Hill had just 6 Top 10's in the next 14 races, but then he won again at Michigan, and again at Vegas, and once again in the season finale at Homestead. All in all, Austin finished the season with 4 wins, 7 Top 5's, and 13 Top 10's. Hill will return to HRE to race full-time in the Trucks in 2020.
Derek Kraus
Age: 18
Hometown: Stratford, WI
2019 Ride(s): Full-Time K&N Pro Series West for Bill McAnally Racing; Part-Time K&N Pro Series East for Bill McAnally Racing; Part-Time Truck Series for Bill McAnally Racing.
Rising Star Appearances: 2
Derek had another incredible season in the K&N West Series, picking up a career high 5 wins, 11 Top 5's, and 13 Top 10's in 14 starts en route to winning his first championship. He also ran 9 of the 12 races on the East schedule, picking up an additional 2 wins in that series and never finished worse than 9th. Even without running 3 of the final 4 races in the east, he still finished 7th in points. Derek didn't have the best of luck in the Truck Series, though. He finished 18th in his season debut at Martinsville and things looked like they might turn around after he nabbed his first career Top 10 at Dover (8th), but a transmission failure at Vegas caused him to finish 27th, he crashed at Phoenix and finished 31st, and then failed to make the race at Homestead after qualifying was rained out. Kraus remains optimistic about his future, though, and is extremely talented. His 2020 plans have not yet been announced, but at the awards banquet in November he stated he was working on a Truck Series ride and might run some ARCA West races as well.
Sam Mayer
Age: 16
Hometown: Franklin, WI
2019 Ride(s): Full-Time K&N Pro Series East for GMS Racing; Part-Time Truck Series for GMS Racing; Part-Time ARCA Series for GMS Racing; Part-Time K&N Pro Series West for GMS Racing.
Rising Star Appearances: First Appearance.
Sam Mayer was a breakout star in 2020 and the first driver to move through the ranks in the new driver development partnership between GMS Racing and JR Motorsports. In 2018 Sam drove a late model for JR Motorsports, winning 1 race and finishing 5th in points. He moved over to GMS racing in 2019 to run K&N, ARCA, and Truck races. It didn't take long for Mayer to adapt to the heavier cars as he won at Bristol in just his 2nd K&N East start. That was the first of 4 wins in the East Series and with 11 Top 5's in 12 races, it's no surprise he won the championship in his rookie year. He struggled in his ARCA season debut at Pensacola, finishing 15th, but finished in the Top 5 in each of his 7 starts after that, and also finished 2nd in his one in only K&N West start at Phoenix. Sam made his Truck Series debut at Bristol in August finishing 21st and would wind up with a best finish of 19th in 3 Truck starts. Mayer's future is bright and he will return to GMS racing in 2020 to race full-time (and defend his title) in the ARCA West Series, as well as part-time schedules in the ARCA Series and Truck Series.
Tyler Reddick
Age: 23
Hometown: Corning, CA
2019 Ride(s): Full-Time Xfinity Series for Richard Childress Racing; Part-Time Cup Series for Richard Childress Racing.
Rising Star Appearances: 5
There were a lot of questions surrounding Tyler Reddick entering the 2019 season. He had a mediocre season with JR Motorsports the year before, but won 2 races and surprisingly the championship. But he lost his ride and people weren't sure how he'd fare with his new team, RCR. Tyler started off the year solid with his only blemish being a crash while leading the race with 8 laps to go at Vegas. Despite the good finishes, though (6 Top 5's in the first 8 races), Reddick had yet to win a race and his championship rivals, Bell and Custer, had each won twice. Reddick finally broke through for his first win of the season at Talladega and by the time he won his 3rd race of the year at Michigan, he had rattled off 10 straight Top 5 finishes. Tyler then would pick up 8 straight Top 5's again in July and August, including his 4th win of the year at Bristol. Reddick would win again at Vegas in the playoffs and as part of the Championship 4 at Homestead, he took the lead from rival Cole Custer with 19 laps to go and never looked back, wrapping up a 6 win season and securing his 2nd straight Xfinity Series title. During his 8 years in NASCAR's lower divisions, Reddick has accumulated 1 K&N win, 3 Truck wins, 9 Xfinity wins and 2 Xfinity championships. Tyler will move up to full-time Cup Series racing with RCR in 2020.
Chandler Smith
Age: 17
Hometown: Talking Rock, GA
2019 Ride(s): Part-Time ARCA Series for Venturini Motorsports; Part-Time Truck Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports.
Rising Star Appearances: First Appearance.
We talk a lot about bright futures, honestly, that's what this whole thing is about, but perhaps nobody's future is as bright as Chandler Smith's. Think Kyle Busch. Think Erik Jones. Think William Byron. Think Christopher Bell. Now mix all of them together and you have Chandler. In 2018, Chandler ran 9 ARCA races, grabbed 4 poles, won 2 races and finished in the Top 10 in all of them. This past season Chandler made 11 ARCA starts with 5 wins, 8 Top 5's, and 10 Top 10's. He made his Truck Series debut at Iowa in June where he won the pole, led the first 55 laps of the race, and finished 8th. He then went on to finish 4th at Gateway, 2nd at Bristol, and 3rd at Phoenix. Smith doesn't turn 18 in June, but will run all of the races he is eligible to run in both the ARCA Series for Venturini Motorsports and the Truck Series for KBM. He has petitioned for a waiver to be championship eligible in the Truck Series, as he will miss 9 of the first 12 races.
Honorable Mentions:
Ty Majeski
Chase Briscoe
Hailie Deegan
That's all for this edition. Keep an eye out for the next set of up and coming superstars at a track near you. Until next time, Happy Racin' Y'all!
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