Whew! We made it out of 2020 and are now just a matter of weeks away from racing again. One of my favorite parts of each new year for the past 7 years has been highlighting the up and coming young talent in NASCAR. For those of you who don't remember, or those that are new to ScooterBob's World of Racing, my Rising Star criteria is simple, the drivers must be 25 years of age or younger and they must not have yet had a full-time ride in the Cup Series.
Not meaning to brag, but through the first 6 years, I have selected 33 drivers to this illustrious program with 13 making it to full-time Cup competition, 7 winning at the Cup level, and 1 driver winning a Cup Series championship.
The numbers for last year's class weren't as great as we've seen in previous years with 7 of the 10 drivers moving up a level in competition, but they did manage to pick up 1 Cup win, 6 Xfinity wins, 2 Truck wins, 13 ARCA wins, 4 East/West wins, and championships in the Xfinity Series and ARCA East Series.
This year's class has 3 drivers making their 3rd appearance, 6 making their 2nd appearance, and 1 newcomer. Let's take a look.
(Drivers listed in alphabetical order)Harrison Burton
Age: 20
Hometown: Huntersville, NC
2020 Ride(s): Full-Time Xfinity Series for Joe Gibbs Racing
Previous Rising Star Appearances: 2018
After a disappointing rookie season in the Truck Series, Harrison Burton was surprisingly called up to race full-time in the Xfinity Series for Joe Gibbs Racing. The son of Cup Series veteran Jeff Burton did not disappoint, starting off the season with a runner up finish at Daytona and winning in just his 3rd start of the season at Fontana. Burton would rack up 2 wins, 7 top 5's, and 10 top 10's in the first 10 races. Harrison struggled to find consistency after that with only 7 top 10's in the next 20 races, leading to an early playoff exit. Burton bounced back, however, winning 2 of the last 3 races of the season. Burton finished the 33 race season with 4 wins, 15 top 5's, and 22 top 10's.
Harrison will return to JGR to once again compete for the Xfinity Series championship in 2021.
Austin Cindric
Age: 22
Hometown: Mooresville, NC
2020 Ride(s): Full-Time Xfinity Series for Team Penske.
Rising Star Appearances: 2020 & 2018
Austin Cindric returns to the Rising Stars list for the 3rd time after a remarkable 2020 season. Cindric got off to a decent start to the year with 4 top 5's in the first 6 races. After 13 races he had 7 top 5's and led 270 laps, but had yet to breakthrough to victory lane. That all changed when he swept the double header in Kentucky. That would spark an incredible 8 race run with no finishes worse than 3rd and he became just the 2nd driver in Xfinity Series history to win 5 races in a 6 race span. Despite a couple of hiccups in playoff races at Talladega and Kansas, he qualified for the championship 4 at Phoenix. While he was not the clear cut favorite coming into that race, he would dominate the 2nd half of the race and survive an overtime finish to pick up his 6th win of the year and win the Xfinity Series championship.
Austin will defend his Xfinity Series title next year as he returns to Team Penske. He will also run a limited Cup Series schedule for the team and then take over the reigns of the Wood Brothers Ford for the 2022 Cup season.
Sheldon Creed
Age: 23
Hometown: Alpine, CA
2020 Ride(s): Full-Time Truck Series for GMS Racing.
Rising Star Appearances: 2019
Sheldon Creed made this list 2 years ago after a phenomenal championship run in the ARCA Series, but came up short last year with a mediocre rookie season in the Trucks. While it took several races for Sheldon to warm up this year, he was able to grab the lead on a late race restart at Kentucky in July and pick up his first career victory. He would go on to win races at the Daytona Road Course, Gateway, and punch his ticket to the Championship 4 with a win at Texas. In the championship race at Phoenix he managed to find the lead early, but spent most of the race behind competitors Grant Enfinger and Brett Moffitt. Opportunity knocked for Sheldon on a late race restart. Against all odds, Creed drove from 9th to 1st in 1 lap and held off teammate Zane Smith to win the Truck Series championship. He would finish off the season with 5 wins, 9 top 5's, and 13 top 10's (including 4 top 2 finishes in the last 6 races).
Sheldon will return to GMS Racing for another full-time Truck effort in 2021.
Ty Gibbs
Age: 18
Hometown: Charlotte, NC
2020 Ride(s): Full-time ARCA East for Joe Gibbs Racing; Part-time ARCA & ARCA West for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Rising Star Appearances: 2020
Ty Gibbs, the grandson of Joe Gibbs, makes his return to the Rising Stars after yet another impressive season. While the ARCA East Series was shortened to just 6 races, he was able to pick up a win in Toledo, finish 3rd or better in 5 races, lead over 30% of the laps run, and finish 2nd in the points. Ty was far more impressive, however, in the ARCA national series. In 16 starts, he won 6 races, had 12 top 5's, 14 top 10's, and led 41% of the laps run in those races. His driving style, and his attitude, are very reminiscent of 2-Time Cup champ Kyle Busch, and similarly, has a tendency to ruffle the feathers of his competitors.
2021 plans have not yet been announced for Ty, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him run a mixture of ARCA, Truck, and Xfinity races for JGR and Kyle Busch Motorsports.
Noah Gragson
Age: 22
Hometown: Las Vegas, NV
2020 Ride(s): Full-Time Xfinity Series for JR Motorsports
Rising Star Appearances: 2017 & 2016
After a 3 year absence, Noah Gragson returns to the Rising Stars list. Noah's aggressive racing style caught my eye back in 2015 while he was racing in the K&N Pro Series West (Now ARCA West). The following year he showed his road racing prowess by winning 3 straight road course races. He was able to pick up a couple of Truck wins in 2017 & 2018 before moving up to the Xfinity Series in 2019. His rookie effort last year was nothing spectacular with just 9 top 5's and 72 laps led, but Noah's confidence skyrocketed this year with a seasoning opening win at Daytona. He then found himself amid controversy in June after he wrecked his teammate, Justin Allgaier, on his way to winning at Bristol. A month later he found himself getting into a pit road scuffle with Harrison Burton after an on track incident in Kentucky. That didn't stop Noah's aggressive driving style, though, and while he wouldn't find victory lane again in 2020, he did finish 2nd or 3rd in 6 of the last 7 races. Had it not been for a mechanical failure causing him to finish in last place at the Kansas playoff race, Noah may have very well been one of the Championship 4 drivers.
Noah will return for a 3rd season of Xfinity Series racing with JR Motorsports in 2021 and attempt to make his Cup Series debut at the Daytona 500 (and potentially other races throughout the season) driving for Beard Motorsports.
Justin Haley
Age: 21
Hometown: Winamac, IN
2020 Ride(s): Full-Time Xfinity Series for Kaulig Racing; Part-Time Cup Series for Kaulig Racing & Spire Motorsports; Part-Time Truck Series for GMS Racing
Rising Star Appearances: 2019 & 2017
Justin Haley is making his 3rd Rising Star appearance. Haley has a knack for making significant improvement between his rookie and sophomore seasons. He was winless as a rookie in the K&N East Series, Truck Series, and Xfinity Series, but then went on to win 2 K&N races, 3 Truck races, and 3 Xfinity races in his sophomore seasons. Justin won all 3 Xfinity superspeedway races this year, making the final pass for the lead in the final 2 laps in all 3 races. That is another thing that Justin has developed a knack for, being in the right place at the right time. 4 of his 6 wins across the Xfinity and Truck Series' have come on last lap passes and let's not forget his Daytona Cup win in 2019 after staying out during a caution when lightning struck putting a halt to the race that was later called due to rain.
Justin will return to Kaulig Racing in 2021 to compete full-time in the Xfinity and potentially part-time in the Cup Series.
Brandon Jones
Age: 23
Hometown: Atlanta, GA
2020 Ride(s): Full-Time Xfinity Series for Joe Gibbs Racing; Part-Time Truck Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports
Rising Star Appearances: 2015
Brandon Jones was part of my inaugural Rising Stars list back in 2015 after his impressive rookie season in the K&N Pro Series East. Unfortunately, Brandon was a victim moving too high up the ladder too quickly. He jumped straight from the East Series to the Xfinity Series with RCR, running a partial Truck schedule as well. I've seen this happen a few times over the past few years with Daniel Suarez, Ben Rhodes, and Zane Smith. While Suarez has had moderate success, both Rhodes and Smith had to back track to the Truck Series. Jones on the other hand has managed to stay in the Xfinity Series for that time, first with Richard Childress Racing and then finding a new home with Joe Gibbs Racing in 2018. The change in scenery did wonders for Brandon and he picked up his first career victory late in 2019. He carried that momentum into 2020, picking up 3 more Xfinity wins and also getting his first career Truck Series win.
While Brandon's name was mentioned as a possibility for several smaller Cup teams in 2021, he will return to JGR to compete for the Xfinity Series championship.
Jesse Love
Age: 15
Hometown: Menlo Park, CA
2020 Ride(s): Full-Time ARCA West for Bill McAnally Racing; Part-Time ARCA & ARCA East for Bill McAnally Racing
Rising Star Appearances: Debut
Jesse Love is the only new addition to my Rising Stars list this year. He cut his teeth racing late models at Madera Speedway in California, getting an age exemption to move up from Jr. Late Models after dominating his competition. It was there he caught the eye of Bill McAnally, who pegged him to drive one of his West Series cars in 2020. He finished 2nd in his series debut at the Las Vegas Bullring, and then won in just his 2nd career start at Utah Motorsports Complex. He finished in the top 5 in each of the first 9 races, winning 3 of them, and went on to claim the ARCA West championship, becoming the youngest driver to ever win a NASCAR touring series title. He also ran 2 East Series races with a best finish of 6th at Pensacola, and 4 ARCA national races with 2 top 5's and a best finish of 4th. Jesse was named Racing-Reference.info's Rising Star of the Year for 2020.
Jesse has yet to announce his plans for 2021, but with him still being under the age of 18, I'd expect him to continue running under the ARCA banner for Bill McAnally.
Sam Mayer
Age: 17
Hometown: Franklin, WI
2020 Ride(s): Full-Time ARCA East for GMS Racing; Part-Time Trucks, ARCA, & ARCA West for GMS Racing.
Rising Star Appearances: 2020
I don't think anyone had a more impressive season than Sam Mayer. He gained a lot of attention by winning the 2019 East Series title and backed that up by winning 5 of the 6 East Series races in 2020 and finishing 2nd in the other to pick up his 2nd title. But that's not where's Sam's success stops. He ran 2 races in the West Series, winning 1 of them, and in 13 ARCA national starts, he had 5 wins and 12 top 5's. Mayer made his first Truck Series of the year in August at Dover, coming home with a solid 15th place finish. He returned the following week at Gateway, leading 24 laps before being passed for the lead with 14 laps to go by teammate Sheldon Creed, and finished 4th. 2 weeks later at Bristol, Sam would take the lead from Brett Moffitt with 30 laps to go and not look back, getting his first career win in just his 7th career start.
Sam turns 18 on June 26th and will then go Full-Time racing for JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series.
Zane Smith
Age: 21
Hometown: Huntington Beach, CA
2020 Ride(s): Full-Time Truck Series for GMS Racing; Part-Time ARCA & ARCA West for Steve McGowan
Rising Star Appearances: 2019
Zane Smith made this list in 2019 after an epic ARCA championship battle with Sheldon Creed. It seems fitting that 2 years later, both of those drivers on back on this list after once again battling it out for a championship, only this time it was as teammates in the Truck Series. In 2019 Zane ran a partial Xfinity schedule for JR Motosports with decent results, picking up a pair of top 5's and 7 top 10's in 10 starts, but he decided to take a step back in order to run a full Truck schedule with the powerhouse that has become GMS Racing. Smith impressed early on, finding his way to the lead in many of the early races, but was unable to produce the finishes. He nabbed his first stage win at Kentucky in July and 2 weeks later led a race high 50 laps, winning both stages at Kansas, but came home in a disappointing 9th place. At Michigan in August, Zane was able to make a last lap pass for the lead on Christian Eckes to secure his first career win. He would follow that up by dominating the 2nd half of the Dover race 2 weeks later to get his 2nd win. A pair of 3rd's at Texas and Martinsville secured Zane a spot in the championship 4. After leading the first 48 laps of the championship race, he fell behind his fellow challengers, but a strong restart in overtime put him back in contention. Unfortunately, his teammate, Sheldon Creed, had a better restart and once again, Smith found himself finishing 2nd to Creed in a championship battle.
Zane Smith will return to GMS Racing to compete full-time in the Truck Series in 2021.
Honorable Mention:
Blaine Perkins
Looking forward to another exciting racing season. We'll see ya in February. Happy Racin' Y'all!
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