With the new NASCAR season just around the corner, there are some names that you need to watch out for ahead of the new campaign.
Often some of the sport’s most important figures can live in the shadows of the bigger names, but today we’re taking a look at some of the unsung heroes and putting the spotlight on them prior to the 2021 NASCAR season.
The betting for the new season is already hotting up with the latest odds already released for the Daytona 500 and the NASCAR Open Cup Series winner. It’s important to check the odds with your chosen bookmaker, but most bookies have now installed Kevin Harvick as the 6/1 favourite for the Cup and Denny Hamlin as the 17/2 market leader for the Daytona 500.
With those betting odds in mind, here are just three names that we think you should keep an eye on:
Mike Wheeler
Group boss for Bubba Wallace at the new 23XI Racing group co-claimed by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin. The Toyota-sponsored group, which is lined up with Joe Gibbs Racing, ought to have some form of success this term and Wheeler will play a critical part with that.
He joins the group after enjoying being part of the Leavine Family Racing for the previous two years. Wheeler was Matt DiBenedetto’s team boss in 2019 and moved to competition director in 2020 when Christopher Bell showed up. A previous worker at JGR, his commonality should help the No. 23 group with its coalition.
Similarly as significant will be the correspondence among Wheeler and Wallace. If they can create a positive working relationship and Wheeler can make the changes Wallace needs, it should assist the group with making progress. With most races not expected to have practice or qualifying, openness will be absolutely vital for a successful driver/team boss mix.
The more achievement this group has, the more noteworthy effect on the sport it could have as well.
Rudy Fugle
New group boss for William Byron. Fugle takes over for Chad Knaus, who moves into the role of VP of competition at Hendrick Motorsports. Fugle comes from Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Truck Series and aided that association with five owner titles and two driver gongs.
The blending of Fugle and Byron is something we are familiar with. Fugle was Byron’s group boss in 2016 in Byron’s solitary full-time season in the Truck Series. Byron won seven of 23 races yet failed to make the title race.
The 23-year-old Byron has made the Cup play off games every one of the previous two seasons and won his first Cup race a year ago at Daytona on the oval. Fugle’s job is to make sure that Byron starts to reach his full potential.
Ben Beshore
The last time Kyle Busch worked with a first-time Cup group boss, he won the title, so he’ll be hoping to work his magic again in the new season with Ben Beshore.
Adam Stevens made his Cup debut in the 2015 Daytona 500 for Busch’s team yet without Busch, who was injured the day before the season-opening Xfinity race. Busch missed 11 races as a result, but returned to win the title in his first Cup season with Stevens. The two additionally won the 2019 title. A year ago saw the No. 18 vehicle battle for speed and win just a single time, prompting a team boss change.
Beshore, a previous architect for Busch’s group, will turn into Busch’s team boss. It’s Beshore’s first full-time season as a Cup team boss. He enters this season having filled in as a team boss for 66 Xfinity races, incorporating seven with Busch. Beshore also filled in as Busch’s Cup team boss for three races in 2017 when Stevens served a NASCAR suspension for a wheel falling off after a refueling break.
In full, Stevens had been a team boss in the Xfinity Series for 124 races, incorporating 52 with Busch, prior to matching with Busch in Cup in 2015.
The important numbers, however, will be the number of wins Busch scores this season as the 35-year-old looks to return to a dominant position in the Cup.
