2013 Camping World Truck Series: After a new low 22 races last season, NASCAR is looking to get the schedule back to 24 or 25 races. Atlanta has been removed from the schedule, which is a shame, but Mosport (the first road coarse on the Truck schedule since 2000) and supposedly Eldora is debuting. Apparently, the teams have to build totally new Trucks solely for road courses, so another road course may pop up to justify having to spend the money. Also, NASCAR has lowered the CWTS age limit from 18 to 16 on road courses and <1.1 mile ovals. Drivers racing in NASCAR before their even get their state driver license.
2012 Champion James Buescher was 'promised a NW ride' if he won the title, but let's be honest. Dude's married to his boss' daughter, he could have had the record of JWT and he still would have got the ride. Luckily, he is talented.
Silly Season:
- Joey Coulter is moving to KBM.
- Quiroga full-time for KBM?
- Klingerman is a free agent.
- Turner's entire stable is unconfirmed (Piquet?, Paludo?, Kligerman?, Armstrong?, Larson?).
- Childress #21 is open with the departure of Coulter (Kligerman here?, Gaughen full-time)
- Blaney full-time for BKR?
2013 Nationwide Series
Schedule-wise, the most relevant news is that Montreal is removed due to no shot of a Cup date. After discussions with Mosport and an appeal from the officials at Trois-Rivières, the NW series will depart Canada (temporarily?) and race at Mid-Ohio in 2013. Also, the Camaro replaces the Impala.
RIP NW Dodge Challenger.
2012 Champion Ricky Stenhouse is moving up to replace Kenseth.
Silly Season:
- Bayne replaces Stenhouse in the Roush 6.
- Travis Pastrana is supposedly close to a full-time NW deal with Roush.
- Buescher most likely full-time with Turner.
- Vickers full-time with Gibbs .
- Sadler will be somewhere (Gibbs?) with One Main Financial sponsorship.
- Regan Smith full-time with JRM. Whitt will remain pending sponsorship.
- Piquet?
It's looks like there will be more regulars competing this year, so hopefully, it'll put on a better show. And hopefully, Bubba Wallace pops up in the party.
2013 Sprint Cup
The next generation cars are here with a positive initial reception. With these cars, NASCAR is hoping to improve aesthetics and improve racing. How annoying was it to see a team take no or two tires and drive away from cars with better tires because of clean air (*looking at you, 2 team*)? Hopefully, the new cars reduce that and allow for a more degradable tire. Also, all notes from previous of years are out the window, last time this happen was with the intro of the original COT back in 2007. Chevy dominated the COT races and it took Ford and Dodge over two years to catch up in COT testing and development. This time, it looks like Ford has the advantage. They've developed their model the most and has tweaked it the most.
RIP 2013 Sprint Cup Dodge Charger.
2012 Champion Brad Keselowski moves to Ford.
Silly Season:
- Kenseth to Gibbs #20.
- Stenhouse from NW to Roush #17.
- Logano to Penske #22.
- BK Racing? (Cassil, Kvapil, Allmendinger, Reautimann)
- Front Row? (Ragan?, Gilliland?)
- Danica Patrick full-time.
- Will Finch survive?
2013 projected team chart.
Early favorites?
Edited by Dilla, 19 November 2012 - 07:14.