2020 NASCAR Preview: Chip Ganassi Racing
Photo Credit: Chip Ganassi Racing
Chip Ganassi Racing is entering its 30th season in motorsports and look to close it out with a bang! The team consists of #1 Kurt Busch and #42 Kyle Larson. In terms of team-building…they have a former NASCAR Cup Series Champion and a talented young driver who has been highly touted since his rookie season. One positive to take away from the 2019 season was that the Hendrick Motorsports alliance paid off, with the team getting 2 victories. Chip also made sure to bring Kurt Busch back and signed him through 2021. Kyle Larson will be a free agent after 2020, unless he and CGR can work out an extension. Some partners of CGR consist of Advent Health, Monster Energy, McDonalds, Clover and Credit One Bank. The organization has yet to win a NASCAR championship, but they are getting closer to that with Kyle Larson making the Final 8 of the NASCAR Playoffs last season.
Photo Credit: NBC Sports
#1 Kurt Busch: The Las Vegas, Nevada native will be entering his 20th season driving a full-time Cup car and he shows no signs of slowing down. In only 3 of those 20 seasons has he not won a race, and Busch has won at least 1 race since 2013. In 2019, Kurt had 1 win, 6 top-5’s, and 18 top-10’s. Matt McCall will be retuning as the Crew Chief of the #1 team. One good thing about Kurt is that he is pretty consistent at each and every track on the circuit. While he has a reputation of performing well at tracks like Bristol and Darlington…he captured his lone victory at Kentucky. Look for Kurt to get 1 win, 7 top-5’s and 17 top-10’s.
Photo Credit: Motorsport.com
#42 Kyle Larson: “Yung Money” ended a 75-race winless streak at Dover this past season and he also won the NASCAR All-Star race in Charlotte. I had high expectations for Larson in 2019 and he fell short of my predictions (6 wins). Despite all of this, the 2019 season was still considered a slight success. Larson finished 6th in the final point standings. A negative from last year would be the 8 DNF’s. The new format of getting a win to get in led to that in my opinion. We all know Larson is insanely talented…he just has to put that talent to work and get a few more victories. Moving Homestead away from the last race of the year may have hindered his chances of stealing a championship away, but he’s not too bad at Phoenix either, with 4th and 6th place efforts last season. Larson’s 7th season will consist of 2 wins, 12 top-5’s and 24 top 10’s.
AustYn
References: Chip Ganassi Racing, Jayski, Racing Reference