NASCAR, here we go: let's discover the most followed championship in the USA |FP

It begins again

The 2024 season of NASCAR's premier championship, the Cup Series, will open this Sunday at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The American stock car series, which has reached its 76th year of life, remains the most followed motoring championship in the USA, despite a decline in appeal suffered in recent years and the increasingly important competition represented at home by IndyCar and Formula 1 In Italy the races will all be broadcast via streaming on the Mola TV platform.

Infinite calendar

The February 4th race scheduled in the symbolic city of California will be the traditional non-championship appetizer of an infinite season, made up of 36 races that award points. The first of these, as per tradition, will be the Daytona 500. The Great American Race – a race which alone is worth, for the American public and the fans, almost as much as a championship victory – will take place on February 18th.

The Daytona track is certainly the most famous to be touched by the championship, but it certainly does not represent the only important facility on the calendar. Among the most relevant circuits Talladega, Charlotte, Darlington and Indianapolis certainly stand out, which this year will return to being tackled as an oval and not in its 'road course' version. The only five non-loop tracks on the program are iconic: Sonoma, Watkins Glen, the 'Roval' version of Charlotte, the Chicago street circuit and obviously COTA, where the same layout already used by F1 and MotoGP is used, but essentially without 'paying attention' to track limits.

A particular format

The 'format' of the championship is the most American it can be: 26 regular season races determine the 16 drivers (out of 36) who remain in contention for the title in the last 10 races of the season, valid for the playoffs. Points count to qualify, but only subject to victories: whoever wins a race in fact gets the automatic pass to qualify for the post-season. The playoffs, however, are divided into rounds of three races: every three races the four drivers with the fewest points are eliminated from the possibility of becoming champions. Even in this case, however, the rule applies according to which whoever has won – among the playoff drivers – at least one of the three races of that round is automatically qualified for the next phase.

The title is awarded in the grand finale in Phoenix between the four drivers remaining in contention. Whoever among them obtains the best result in the final race, even without necessarily winning the race, wins the championship. In the last two seasons the Penske-Ford pairing has prevailed, with Joey Logano in 2022 and with Ryan Blaney in 2023. There are two other manufacturers involved in addition to the oval one: Chevrolet and Toyota.

The protagonists

In addition to Logano and Blaney, there are many drivers who start with a concrete chance of final success, given that the competitive balance and the particular format guarantee unpredictability. Among the Chevys, all eyes are on Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott and William Byron, the main standard bearers of Hendrick Motorsport; on Kyle Busch, part of Richard Childress' team, and on Ross Chastain, the main representative of the Trackhouse who has just landed in MotoGP.

Said of Ford, which this year will field the new Mustang Dark Horse on the track, in Toyota instead Denny Hamlin – 43 years old, 51 career victories but still no title won – Martin Truex Jr. and Christopher Bell have a chance for the Joe Gibbs team Racing; Tyler Reddick, on the other hand, appears to be the best deal for 23XI, which boasts basketball legend Michael Jordan among its owners. For the Japanese company, the legend Jimmie Johnson also deserves a mention, recently inducted into the Hall of Fame: the seven-time champion, all won with Chevrolet, will run some 'part-time' races with the Camry Toyota man.