The next season will see some new faces grace the Cup Series field as rookies in the form of Zane Smith and Josh Berry. However, this doesn’t seem to be the end of it. In fact, the silly season to fill up a few more seats is still underway.
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Stewart-Haas Racing has a vacancy with the #10 car of Aric Almirola after he retired at the end of the 2023 season. Meanwhile, Kaulig Racing has still not announced its decision with AJ Allmendinger’s #16 car. Additionally, the #15 car of Rick Ware Racing also remains uncertain.
Owing to all of these opportunities there seems to be a favourite for the Tony Stewart-owned racing team. According to FOX Sport’s Bob Pockrass, there might be a strong possibility for Noah Gragson to take over the Almirola seat.
Why Noah Gragson’s possible link with Tony Stewart’s team could be a great deal?
Last season in the Cup Series, Gragson raced with the Jimmie Johnson co-owned outfit, Legacy Motor Club. However, throughout his stint with the team, his performances remained abysmal. Not that everything was on him, the car too was nothing to ride home about.
However, Gragson later ended up losing his ride and was suspended by NASCAR after being engulfed in controversy for liking a racially insensitive post on social media. He was reinstated later on for successfully completing the Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality program.
Moving ahead into the future, if Gragson is the one to receive Almirola’s seat, it could be a good thing for both the driver and the team in the long run. Throughout his years in the Xfinity Series, Gragson displayed his prowess and skillset on the race track. Back in 2022, he even went on to win eight races while racing with JR Motorsports. Guess who his teammate was during that point of time? It was Josh Berry and he could only muster three wins in comparison, in that same season.
Hence, if Gragson gets the opportunity to head back into the Cup Series, but this time with a better team and a familiar face as his teammate, possibly then things could pan out in a much different manner. He might not win from the get-go, but we will definitely not see a repetitive shambolic display of racing like we did with his time at LMC last time around.
