The 2024 NASCAR season featured several fresh faces across the three national series.
From sons of past NASCAR drivers to grandchildren of the sport’s legends, relative newcomers to American motorsports to drivers finally getting a shot at the NASCAR Cup Series level, the sport was chock full of drivers new to their respective series. And in many respects, the Rookie of the Year battles did not disappoint.
Here’s a look back on the seasons of the rookies in each series, plus a check of what they plan to do in 2025.
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Craftsman Truck Series
Piloting the No. 38 Ford F-150 for Front Rows Motorsports, Layne Riggs, son of former Cup Series regular Scott Riggs, cruised to the Truck Series Rookie of the Year honors.
Despite narrowly missing the playoffs, Riggs still acquitted himself well in his maiden voyage in Trucks. In fact, Riggs won the first races of the Round of 10 as a non-playoff driver, taking the checkered flag at both The Milwaukee Mile and Bristol Motor Speedway.
Overall, Riggs racked up seven top fives and 10 top 10s. Furthermore, seven of those top-10 finishes came in the second half of the season, showing considerable improvement.
Riggs’ only competition for the Rookie of the Year on the Truck side were Thad Moffitt and Conner Jones. Moffitt made 17 starts in the No. 46 Chevrolet Silverado, originally driving for Faction46 before the team shut down, turning the truck over to Young’s Motorsports. Moffitt failed to get a top 10, only mustering a best finish of 18th at Darlington in May.
Jones ran a part-time schedule in the No. 66 Ford for ThorSport, starting 13 of 23 races. Like Moffitt, Jones failed to crack the top 10. The most noteworthy event of his rookie season was a one-race suspension for the Martinsville Speedway race due to allegedly intentionally wrecking Matt Mills at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Xfinity Series
The Xfinity Series offered arguably the most competitive and compelling of the three Rookie of the Year battles, with two ROTY contenders in Jesse Love and Shane van Gisbergen making the playoffs.
In the end, Love made the Round of 8 in his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet to edge out van Gisbergen for Xfinity ROTY. Van Gisbergen got bounced in the Round of 12 driving the No. 97 Chevrolet for Kaulig.
Van Gisbergen arguably had a flashier season than Love, picking up three wins on road courses at…
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