Sunoco Rookie of the Year Tag

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Six drivers made the move to NASCAR’s top division with the goal of winning Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors at season’s end. After this Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway, one man could walk away with the award and that’s none other than Cole Custer. Due to his maiden Cup win at Kentucky Speedway last month, Custer punched his ticket into the playoffs and currently the only rookie to do so with just one regular season race remaining. The scenario is simple,Read More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Darlington Raceway is typically mean on Sunoco Rookie of the Year contenders, especially when a driver starts deep in the field. John Hunter Nemechek wasn’t one of those rookies as he worked from the 34th starting position to scoring a ninth-place result for his maiden NASCAR Cup Series top-10 in Sunday’s The Real Heroes 400. Although he was two spots behind the highest finishing rookie Tyler Reddick, Nemechek’s eighth career Cup race was a tremendous surprise as Front Row Motorsports hasn’t scored a top-10 on aRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer There are six drivers competing in this year’s Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors in the NASCAR Cup Series. To nobody’s surprise, the discussion of who’ll win the award at season’s end have narrowed down to four. Those four are Christopher Bell, Cole Custer, John Hunter Nemechek and Tyler Reddick. All due to the fact of having massive success in the lower series that got them to the big dance. This leaves two drivers who are considered nothing but long shots of winning which are QuinRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Editor’s note: Motorsports Tribune will be previewing the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season for the full-time drivers in the series leading into February’s running of the Daytona 500. Age: 21 Years in Cup: Rookie Career Wins: Nine in Xfinity Series and Two in Truck Series Six years competing on the national tour has culminated to this pinnacle moment for Cole Custer. It feels like yesterday when Custer broke through with a win at Loudon in just his seventh Truck Series start at the tender age ofRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer It might’ve been a chaotic final stage for third-place finisher Chase Briscoe, but he’ll leave Homestead-Miami Speedway knowing he’ll be this year’s Sunoco NASCAR Xfinity Series Rookie of the Year. Briscoe’s No. 98 Ford Performance Ford Mustang was strong in the opening two stages in Saturday’s Ford EcoBoost 300, battling with the Championship 4 contenders. Briscoe wound up scoring the stage win over his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate and title contender Cole Custer. The Mitchell, Indiana native backed up his momentum with fifth in the next stage.Read More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Joe Gibbs Racing’s NASCAR Xfinity Series 2020 program has been etched in stone as Riley Herbst will run the entire schedule, piloting the No. 18 Toyota Supra and compete for Sunoco NASCAR Rookie of the Year honors. Tuesday’s announcement meant that Herbst will be teammates with fellow 2020 Rookie of the Year contender Harrison Burton, who will replace Christopher Bell, and veteran Brandon Jones. Since making his series debut at Iowa last June, Herbst has shown promise in JGR’s equipment scoring four top-10 finishes with aRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer SONOMA, California — Although 23 points behind Daniel Hemric for the Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors after 15 races, it has been quite the rookie campaign for Ryan Preece. The former Modified champion has already gotten people to notice his skillful driving with astonishing results in both plate circuits, scoring an eighth in the Daytona 500 and a career-high third at Talladega. Not only that, he also had strong showing at Atlanta before a pit road accident with B.J. McLeod eliminated him from a astonishingRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The ultimate equalizer known as Talladega Superspeedway proved to be an ultimate breakthrough result for two of this year’s Sunoco Rookie of the Year contenders Daniel Hemric and Ryan Preece. Both drivers have shown flashes of brilliance in the first nine races, but luck has hampered their results. Sunday’s GEICO 500 changed all of that as both rookies scored their maiden top-fives in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series after surviving the intense competition and violent crashes. After having a heroic Daytona 500 that can beRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Age has its limits and rookie Tyler Ankrum was no different after sitting out the first three NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series races because according to the NASCAR rulebook, he wasn’t eligible to compete at ovals bigger than a mile as he wasn’t 18-years-old until March 6th. A few weeks removed from finally turning magic age No. 18, last year’s NASCAR K&N Pro Series East champion is set to make his first start of the season at Martinsville Speedway, driving the No. 17 Toyota Tundra forRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Ryan Preece’s road to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is extraordinary as he came from the Whelen Modified Tour, a series he believes he can open a lot of avenues in the future as he’ll be the first former champion to compete for Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors since Jeff Fuller in 2000. “To be the first Modified driver in 20 years basically in a way, hopefully it’s going to open a lot of avenues for people to look atRead More