It was a pretty big weekend for the NASCAR world at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL — and I’m not talking about safety meetings.
Conor Daly, Daniil Kvyat, Mike Rockenfeller, Joey Hand, Loris Hezemans, James Davison and Marco Andretti competed in the NASCAR Cup or Xfinity series — or both — this past weekend at the ROVAL. All come from backgrounds that aren’t originally stock car oriented.
The highlights of these starts were Daly making his Cup debut with The Money Team Racing after making three prior starts between Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series competition. He finished 34th after crashing his car in practice.
Kvyat pulled double duty, driving Sam Hunt Racing’s No. 26 Toyota to a 15th-place finish in Saturday’s (Oct. 8) Drive for the Cure 250 and the No. 26 for Team Hezeberg in Cup on Sunday (Oct. 9). But he failed to finish the Bank of America ROVAL 400.
Davison returned to Xfinity competition for the first time since 2021’s race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. He finished fourth in Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 Toyota, tying his best career finish.
Perhaps the biggest debut belonged to Andretti though, who made his first-ever start in NASCAR when he piloted the No. 48 Big Machine Racing Chevrolet. Following a championship in the 2022 SRX Racing season, Andretti qualified 30th and finished 36th following a crash with 22 laps to go. His day was decent and quiet, at least up to the point where he t-boned Jeb Burton’s car.
Many are up in arms about Trackhouse Racing Team’s PROJECT91, and rightfully so. The concept of a team purposefully setting aside resources to attract international and non-NASCAR talent to drive in a one-off or select NASCAR races is genius. But then again, Justin Marks is a pretty smart guy.
That’s just a single team that may run 10 Cup races in 2023. Is there another option? Not specifically, but the NASCAR Xfinity Series is a perfect playground for foreign talent to get their firesuit wet in NASCAR. Why should a driver consider the second-tier series over the premier series? There are a few reasons.
First off, the pressures of the Xfinity Series are far less. It’s not simply the second-tier series; there are fewer eyeballs tuning into the race weekly, plus fewer in the stands. Did Andretti pull more fans into the stands in Saturday’s race as compared to if he wasn’t there? Most likely, yes, but expectations grow with the more eyeballs that are on you.
The second is…
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