As the 2024 regular season for NASCAR’s top three national touring series approaches its final set of events before the Playoffs commence, the battle for the Rookie-of-the-Year title intensifies as a handful of rising stars attempt to ascend the racing ladder and establish their marks as future NASCAR stars.
With 22 races complete and 14 remaining on the 2024 Cup Series schedule, Josh Berry holds a slim advantage of five points over Carson Hocevar in the rookie Cup standings while Zane Smith and Kaz Grala both trail by triple digits.
For the majority of the season, the battle for this year’s Cup rookie title has been primarily between Berry and Hocevar, both of whom are also campaigning in their first full-time campaign in NASCAR’s premier series.
Berry, a native of Hendersonville, Tennessee, is piloting the No. 4 Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry for Stewart-Haas Racing, where he succeeded the 2014 Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick following two full-time campaigns in the Xfinity Series. Meanwhile, Hocevar, a native of Portage, Michigan, is driving the No. 77 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry for Spire Motorsports after spending the previous three seasons in the Craftsman Truck Series with Niece Motorsports.
After finishing no higher than 11th while also being plagued by seven finishes of 20th or worse through the first 12 scheduled events, Berry rebounded by notching four top-10 results over the next seven races, including two stellar third-place results, that enabled him to move atop the rookie standings.
Berry, however, is coming off four consecutive finishes of 20th or worse that have him currently situated in 22nd place in the regular-season standings. Berry’s misfortunes have allowed Hocevar to remain within striking distance of toppling Berry for the title. Hocevar, however, has rallied from being involved in an early multi-car wreck during the 66th running of the Daytona 500 to post three top-20 results, including two 15th-place runs, over his next three starts. He has since accumulated 10 additional top-20 runs, including two top-10 finishes, over his next 18 starts and is coming off a 12th-place run at Indianapolis.
Berry has accumulated the most top-10 results of this year’s rookie class at four and is two spots ahead of Hocevar in 22nd place in the regular-season standings as Hocevar holds the best average-finishing result at 19.4 thanks to his consistent runs of top-20 results.
Despite both rookies being strapped in “must-win” situations to make the 2024 Playoffs, their year-long battle of who will claim the season-ending prestigious honor of Cup Series Rookie of the Year remains to be determined.
Meanwhile, Zane Smith, the 2022 Truck Series champion from Huntington Beach, California, driver of the No. 71 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Spire Motorsports, trails both Berry and Hocevar in 33rd place in the standings and the rookie lead by 140 points. Despite notching a career-best second place at Nashville Superspeedway in June, Smith has an average-finishing result of 26th place as he has finished outside the top-20 mark 14 times, which leaves him grinding his gears and striving for more to be more competitive and consistent. In comparison to Berry and Hocevar, Smith’s plans for the 2025 season are unknown, though he is expected to remain on the radar for a ride for years to come.
Kaz Grala, a fourth Cup rookie candidate of the 2024 season from Boston, Massachusetts, is mired in 35th place in this year’s standings and he trails the rookie lead by 222 points. Thus far, he has racked up three top-20 results in 16 of 26-planned events as he continues to hone his development from the Truck and Xfinity Series divisions to NASCAR’s premier series. Amid Grala’s contention to claim the rookie title, his plans for next season remain undetermined.
Transitioning to the Xfinity Series, Jesse Love and Shane van Gisbergen are the top two rookie competitors through 20 scheduled events. With six races remaining until the Playoff field is determined, Love and van Gisbergen are set to square off against one another for both the rookie and the driver’s title as both are guaranteed Playoff berths by winning in their first Xfinity campaign.
The Xfinity rookie candidate who commenced the season on a strong note was Love, the reigning ARCA Menards Series champion who is piloting the No. 2 Chevrolet Camaro entry for Richard Childress Racing. Starting in February, Love roared out of the gate to become the first rookie driver to record poles in the first two scheduled races. Despite having his first opportunity of winning spoiled amid a fuel-mileage overtime shootout at Atlanta Motor Speedway in February, the Menlo Park, Californian redeemed himself seven races later by emerging triumphant for the first time at Talladega Superspeedway.
Before his first career victory, Love had racked up two top-five results and five top-10 results as he was also ranked in the top five in the regular-season rankings. While he is currently ranked in seventh place in the Xfinity standings amid two additional top-five results in his previous 11 starts, Love leads the rookie standings by 87 points as he continues to pursue more victories and momentum before contending for his first Xfinity title. Should Love claim this year’s Xfinity Rookie-of-the-Year title, he would join an elite class of competitors who have done so while driving for Richard Childress Racing, including teammate Austin Hill, Austin Dillon and Kevin Harvick.
Since June, however, van Gisbergen, driver of the No. 97 Chevrolet Camaro for Kaulig Racing, has marched his way into the spotlight that started when he recorded his first career win at Portland International Speedway. The three-time Supercars champion from Auckland, New Zealand, would proceed to claim his second series victory in back-to-back weeks at Sonoma Raceway before grabbing a third career victory at the Chicago Street Course, the venue where he won in his Cup Series debut a year ago and leaped into NASCAR stardom.
Amid his road-course dominance that currently has him ranked with the most victories amongst Xfinity regulars, the New Zealander continues to search for more pace to be more competitive on oval-shaped circuits. Despite coming off a strong fourth-place run at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which marks his third top-six result on oval-shaped circuits this season, van Gisbergen has 11 ovals mixed with two additional road-course events remaining to leap-frog Love as the top rookie competitor of the 2024 season.
The third-ranked Xfinity rookie candidate is Leland Honeyman, a native of Phoenix, Arizona, who is 310 points behind in a season where he has notched an average-finishing result of 23.3, a career-best fourth-place run at Talladega in April and is mired in 19th place in the standings. The 2024 season marks Honeyman’s first full-time campaign in the Xfinity circuit as he is driving the No. 42 Chevrolet Camaro for Young’s Motorsports, but needing to gain more ground to be within striking distance of both Love and van Gisbergen at this season’s conclusion.
Hailie Deegan, a native of Temecula, California, entered this season as a full-time rookie candidate with AM Racing. But, she was replaced by Joey Logano in early July amid a 17-race stretch where she finished no higher than 12th and was strapped with an average finishing result of 26.8. Following the replacement, Deegan has since parted ways and currently has no additional NASCAR plans scheduled for the remainder of the 2024 season.
Dawson Cram, a native of San Diego, California, had initially entered this season as a full-time Xfinity rookie candidate with JD Motorsports. Through July, however, he did not compete in five events, all being road-course venues and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and recently drove a single event for Mike Harmon Racing and Faction46 between the Xfinity and Truck Series, respectively. In addition, JD Motorsports filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and laid off staff members in July, with the No. 4 Chevrolet owners’ points acquired by Alpha Prime Racing. With Cram appearing to declare for points for the remainder of this year’s Truck season, his plans for the remainder of this season remain to be determined.
With a single regular-season event remaining on this year’s Craftsman Truck Series schedule, eight overall, the series’ rookie title appears to be within the firm grasp of Layne Riggs, who holds a triple-digit advantage between his main rivals Conner Jones and Thad Moffitt amid a mediocre campaign.
Riggs, a native of Bahama, North Carolina, who joined forces with Front Row Motorsports for his first full-time Truck campaign in the No. 38 Ford F-150, has only racked up three top-five results and four top-10 finishes through 15-scheduled starts. Mired within the strong results are nine finishes of 20th or worse as he has had several strong starts spoiled by on-track incidents. While the results currently have him ranked in 16th place in the driver’s standings, he trails the top-10 cutline to make this year’s Playoffs by 75 points, which places him in a “must-win” situation to make this year’s Truck Playoffs. Despite having a steady advantage in the rookie standings, the next goal for Riggs is to implement a consistent conclusion to the 2024 season while setting his sights on a stronger start for 2025 and beyond.
Riggs’ closest rival for the title is Conner Jones, a native of Fredericksburg, Virginia, who is embarking on a 13-race schedule with ThorSport Racing after spending the previous season campaigning in his first nine series’ starts. Through eight starts, Jones has recorded three top-15 finishes and five top-20 results, with his best result being an 11th-place run at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May. In addition to trailing Riggs in the rookie standings by 173 points, Jones’ current average-finishing result is 20.3, which is four spots higher than the result he concluded with following the 2023 season (24.7). With four races remaining in his part-time campaign this season, the sky remains the limit for Jones to gain his first top-10 result in the series.
Meanwhile, Thad Moffitt, a native of Trinity, North Carolina, trails the rookie lead by 188 points in a season where he graduated to the Truck Series level, initially on a full-time basis with Faction46. Over the last two races, however, Moffitt has been competing with Young’s Motorsports following the shutdown of Faction46 due to financial issues. Prior to the previous two races, Moffitt was absent from competing at Nashville Superspeedway in late June due to a medical issue. These factors are pieces to the puzzle of a struggling season for Moffitt, who has finished no higher than 18th and has been mired with finishes outside the top 20 during his remaining 14 starts. Having made steady ground with consistent runs as an ARCA Menards Series competitor, the task at hand for Moffitt to be competitive within NASCAR’s top three national touring series, beginning with the Truck Series, remains tall and long for him to achieve.
With the closing stretch of the 2024 NASCAR season inbound following a two-week break due to the Paris Olympics Games, the Craftsman Truck Series season resumes on August 10 at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1 at Richmond Raceway for the Clean Harbors 250, which serves as this year’s regular-season finale. The Cup Series season also resumes at Richmond Raceway for the Cook Out 400 on August 11 at 6 p.m. ET on USA Network while the Xfinity Series season returns to action at Michigan International Speedway for the Cabo Wabo 250 on August 17 at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.
