From close finishes to big wrecks to drama on the track and off of it, NASCAR produced several captivating storylines in 2024. Let's count down some of the top stories (not always the happiest but based on significance and impact on the sport) of the year:
24. MaJeski wins truck title
Ty Majeski won the truck series title, the first for the Wisconsin short-track ace. It capped a great story as he went to ThorSport Racing to work on helping set up the car with minimal driving opportunities. He worked his way into a full-time ride, and in a year with three victories and six poles in his third full-time season on the circuit, he captured the big trophy.
23. Allgaier captures Xfinity title
Justin Allgaier, after 14 years of competing full-time in the Xfinity Series and in his seventh Championship 4 appearance, won the title. It didn't come easy as the JR Motorsports driver slid in oil in practice and wrecked his primary car. During the actual race, he had a pass-through penalty for changing lanes on a restart before the start-finish line — and then had a speeding penalty on pit road, so had to do another pass-through. But he got his lap back and then won the title in a wild finish.
22. Most cars involved in a crash
Talladega, always the site of wild events, had a crash where 28 cars were involved or damaged — the most cars in one crash in the years that NASCAR has recorded it as a statistic. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who did receive damage in that crash, won the playoff race.
21. Investors come to race teams
A few teams welcomed investors, including Joe Gibbs Racing, which sold a significant minority stake to the NFL's Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris and the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers owner David Blitzer through their company, Harris & Blitzer Sports Entertainment. Trackhouse Racing also welcomed an investor — Avenue Sports Fund, whose CEO Marc Lasry is a former co-owner of the NBA Milwaukee Bucks. This was somewhat quiet news in 2024, but expect this trend to continue into 2025.
20. Zilisch wins Xfinity debut
Highly touted prospect Connor Zilisch won his Xfinity Series debut at Watkins Glen. He also finished in the top 5 in two of his other three starts in the series. A Trackhouse Racing development driver, Zilisch will run full-time in the Xfinity Series next year for JR Motorsports.
19. Truex retires from full-time racing
Martin Truex Jr. announced in June that he would retire from full-time Cup racing at the end of the season. The 2017 Cup champion didn't win a race in 2024 and was eliminated from the first round of the playoffs. He is expected to still run the 2025 Daytona 500 in an effort associated with Joe Gibbs Racing but not fielded by the organization. He ends his full-time career with 34 Cup wins, as well as two Xfinity Series championships.
18. Photo finishes
NASCAR enjoyed two of the closest races in NASCAR Cup Series history. Kyle Larson beat Chris Buescher to the line at Kansas by 0.001 seconds. And at Atlanta, Daniel Suarez beat Ryan Blaney by 0.003 seconds with Kyle Busch right there at 0.007 seconds behind Suarez. In an Xfinity race at Texas, Sam Mayer won by 0.002 seconds over Ryan Sieg.
Daniel Suarez, Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney race to the finish line at Atlanta. (Photo by Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
17. Bowman-Gray, Mexico City added to schedule
NASCAR added two new Cup venues for next season — it will conduct the preseason Clash at the historic Bowman-Gray Stadium, a quarter-mile track inside a municipal football stadium used by Winston Salem (N.C.) State University. The last time a Cup event was held at the track — 1971. NASCAR also will conduct a Cup points race at Mexico City's Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, where it had Xfinity races in 2005-08. The events replaced the Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (now leaving NASCAR with no events in the Los Angeles market) and one of the Cup races at Richmond.
16. Wet weather tires
NASCAR and Goodyear developed "rain" tires to be used in damp conditions on short tracks, and NASCAR got to use them in Cup races at Richmond and New Hampshire. The race at New Hampshire was significant because the tires were used to race — as opposed to the original plan where the tires were more or less designed to just help get cars on the track quicker and get the track dry so they could go to slicks and complete an official race. But at New Hampshire, NASCAR had a rain delay of 2 hours, 14 minutes before finishing the event's final 86 laps on the wet weather tires. It could have called the race but instead finished it on the tires, where they proved quite racy.
15. Burton wins 100th for Wood Brothers
Harrison Burton knew by the summer that he wouldn't return to Wood Brothers Racing next season, but his legacy won't be a driver who got let go after three years. Instead, his legacy will be the driver who delivered the 100th Cup victory to the organization. Burton won a wild summer race at Daytona, a magical event on the track and in the broadcast booth where former Cup driver Jeff Burton got to call his son's first career Cup win.
14. Short-track package struggles/progress
NASCAR's struggles to find a competitive aero package for short tracks and road courses continued in the third year of the Next Gen car. A bizarre Bristol race where the tires wore much quicker than expected turned it into a race where drivers had to manage their tires. NASCAR and Goodyear worked to develop a tire that would wear quicker than the current tire and even used two tire compounds at the Richmond race. The tires used at Martinsville in November appeared to be a big step in the right direction.
13. Bowman's season of Chicago win, job rumors and DQ
Alex Bowman's win in the second annual Chicago street race — the second time in two tries the event was run in the rain — should have silenced rumors about his possible exit from Hendrick. Even though he signed a deal last year that the team said would keep him there through 2026, there was plenty of speculation that he could be out of a ride. He weathered it, and even thrived amid the speculation, to advance out of the first round of the playoffs as well as the second round — until his car failed postrace inspection at Charlotte and he ended up eliminated. He finished ninth in the standings, not bad at all for a driver supposedly on the hot seat.
12. Chase Elliott's rebound
Chase Elliott, who won the sport's most popular driver award for the seventh consecutive year, snapped a 42-race winless streak with the victory in April at Texas. He also had a solid season with 11 top-5s and an average finish of 11.7 — a year after he broke his leg, missed the playoffs and averaged a finish of 13.1.
11. Reddick's wins with MJ in the house
Tyler Reddick created a highlight reel of his own by winning the regular-season title as well as making a move at Homestead to win a race that will live for the ages. But the highlights increased in both instances, as well as at a Talladega victory earlier in the year, because basketball great and team co-owner Michael Jordan was there. One of the world's most recognizable and celebrated athletes, Jordan had an increased presence at the racetrack in the year after he sold the Charlotte Hornets.
Tyler Reddick celebrates after winning the Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
10. Kyle Busch win streak ends
Kyle Busch saw his streak of earning at least one win a season end at a record 19 seasons. He came close several times, including finishing third by just 0.007 seconds to Daniel Suarez at Atlanta and finishing second in back-to-back races to end the regular season. Busch's 19 consecutive seasons with a Cup victory is a NASCAR record. The longest current streak is held by Joey Logano at 13.
9. Byron wins Daytona 500
William Byron won the Daytona 500, delayed a day because of rain, as he was leading when the caution came out because of a wreck on the final lap. There was some thought that his teammate Alex Bowman won the race, but replays showed Byron was ahead at the time of the caution.
8. Denny Hamlin comes up short ... again
Denny Hamlin won three races to increase his career number to 54, but the now 44-year-old Hamlin is 0-for-19 in playoff appearances as far as championships. Crew chief Chris Gabehart won't return in that role next season as he will move within the organization to serve as Joe Gibbs Racing competition director. Chris Gayle, who was crew chief for Ty Gibbs, will crew chief for Hamlin.
7. Logano title
Joey Logano entered rarefied air by winning his third Cup title, becoming only the 10th driver to accomplish that feat. He finished 15th in the regular-season standings and qualified for the playoffs thanks to a win in the five-overtime race at Nashville. But once he got to the playoffs, he won three more races, including the opener at Atlanta, the first race of the semifinal round at Las Vegas and then the finale at Phoenix.
6. SHR final season
Stewart-Haas Racing announced in late May it would close at the end of the season as sponsorship and manufacturer support was hard to find. The organization had a dismal year with the main highlight Chase Briscoe winning the regular-season finale at Darlington to make the playoffs. The four drivers have found rides for next year (Briscoe to Joe Gibbs Racing, Noah Gragson to Front Row, Ryan Preece to RFK and Josh Berry to Wood Brothers), although a couple of the charter sales are in limbo because of the 23XI and FRM lawsuit against NASCAR as those two organizations each planned to buy one apiece.
5. Martinsville manipulation
With about 20 laps remaining in the cutoff race at Martinsville and William Byron losing spots to potentially be eliminated, his Chevrolet brethren Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain opted not to pass him, with Chastain even at times getting beside him. Christopher Bell needed points, and Toyota-aligned driver Bubba Wallace fell back on the final lap with Bell passing him — but then hitting the wall and riding the wall in the final turn. It took NASCAR more than 20 minutes to decide to penalize Bell for not pulling off the wall at Martinsville, a dangerous situation in NASCAR's view because of the way the wall is constructed as it includes a gate that can be opened to allow haulers into the infield. NASCAR later heavily penalized the Dillon, Chastain and Wallace teams ($100,000 to each driver and team, 50 points and one-race suspensions to the crew chief, competition director and spotter) — all who denied that they did anything nefarious as far as trying to manipulate the finish of the race. NASCAR vowed that it would add rules to penalize manufacturers in these situations in the future.
William Byron advanced in the playoffs after a controversial Martinsville finish. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
4. Busch-Stenhouse fight
On the second lap of the all-star race at North Wilkesboro Speedway, Kyle Busch turned Ricky Stenhouse Jr., ending Stenhouse's night. Because there is no tunnel at the track, Stenhouse had to stay in the infield and, as he told reporters after his accident, they'd just have to come watch what would happen afterward. Stenhouse was waiting for Busch at his hauler (they were parked next to each other) and after they briefly talked, Stenhouse clocked Busch in the face. A melee erupted with Stenhouse's father also getting involved. NASCAR fined Stenhouse $75,000, indefinitely suspended his father and suspended two Stenhouse crew members, one for four weeks and another for eight weeks.
3. 23XI & FRM sue NASCAR
While 13 organizations signed the 2025-2031 charter agreement, two teams — 23XI Racing (co-owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin) and Front Row Motorsports (owned by Bob Jenkins) — opted not to sign. They have sued NASCAR claiming NASCAR violates antitrust laws, alleging what it provides to teams does not allow them to compete at an elite level, which the teams say is required to have an elite racing series. The teams won a big victory when they convinced a U.S. District Court judge to force NASCAR to let them race as chartered teams and continue the lawsuit in 2025. The battles in the court will continue, potentially shaping the way NASCAR operates for years and decades to come as far as what its legal responsibilities are when it comes to what it must pay the teams to compete.
2. Kyle Larson's failed double
It was supposed to be this epic day in motorsports where Kyle Larson had a chance to win the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. But then the weather came in Indy, delaying the start of that race. Larson opted to stay in Indianapolis and miss the start of the 600 in Charlotte. He looked poised for a top-10 Indy 500 finish but a speeding penalty on pit road contributed to an 18th-place run. He flew to Charlotte, where Justin Allgaier had started the race in his car — and right after he got to the track, the same storm system that hit Indianapolis hit Charlotte, ending the race. NASCAR took a week to decide whether to grant a waiver to allow Larson to make the playoffs while missing a race, a decision that went in Larson's favor but with an indication that it certainly could go the other way in the future. Larson will attempt the double once again in 2025 but has stated that he will make it back in time to start the 600.
1. Austin Dillon's Richmond win
Austin Dillon won Richmond. He has the trophy. He has the check. But none of the other benefits. As he was cruising to the win, a late caution resulted in overtime. Joey Logano got by him and he tagged Logano between Turns 3 and 4 on the final lap. He then had contact with Denny Hamlin as Hamlin tried to pass him for the win. NASCAR, after a couple of days to mull over the situation, let Dillon keep the victory but did not allow him to use the win to make the playoffs and he was docked 25 points. RCR lost the appeal, with the exception of Dillon spotter Brandon Benesch receiving a one-race suspension instead of a three-race ban.
Austin Dillon's late-race antics at Richmond cost him a playoff spot. (Photo by Logan Whitton/Getty Images)
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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