Hello everyone and welcome back to Captain Josh's Pit Stop. I hope all of you had a great holiday season and a happy new year. I am so excited to get the racing season started. Next week is the Clash at Daytona. And the week after that is the 60th annual Daytona 500. So let's preview the new season.
One of the big stories of the off-season was the announcement of Chevrolet switching from the SS to the Camaro. It was no secret that Chevrolet struggled with performance last year with none of their teams making the championship 4 at Homestead. So we will see if Chevy can take back the throne as the dominant manufacturer. Photo courtesy of Google images.
There were some key driver changes that were announced during the off season. Hendrick Motorsports had a lot of shakeups in their driver lineup. Chase Elliott moved from the #24 to the famous #9 that his dad Bill was known for. Replacing Chase in the #24 car will be young rookie sensation and defending Xfinity Series champion William Byron. Richard Petty Motorsports switched from Ford to Chevy and will have an alliance with Richard Childress Racing. Kasey Kahne moved from the Hendrick Motorsports #5 to the Levine Family Racing #95. These are the main driver changes for 2018. Photos courtesy of Google images.
After a couple seasons of racing in the 10 car for Stewart Haas Racing, Danica Patrick announced that she will race the Daytona 500 and the Indy 500 and then she will retire from racing. The photo above shows Danica's new ride for the Daytona 500. Patrick will race for Premium Motorsports and will return to the Go Daddy #7 that she drove for several years in Indycar and NASCAR. Replacing her in the #10 car will be Aric Almirola. His sponsor Smithfield will also move with him from Richard Petty Motorsports. Photo courtesy of Google images.
Some other things for this year include changes to how many crew members can travel to races and how many are allowed on pit road. The members on pit road have been reduced from 7 to 5. Also Nascar announced that teams must have a certain amount of rosters for all three series. Here is the listed rules below. I apologize if it is hard to read. Photo courtesy of AutoWeek.
