2017 NASCAR Cup Series

Jimmie Johnson enters as the defending champion

The 2017 NASCAR Monster Energy Series will be the 69th season of professional stock car racing in the United States, and the 46th modern-era Cup series season. The season will begin at Daytona International Speedway with the Clash at Daytona, the Can-Am Duel and the Daytona 500. The season will end with the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Jimmie Johnson enters as the defending champion.

The season is the third season of the current 10-year television contract with Fox Sports and NBC Sports and the second of a five-year race sanctioning agreement with all tracks.

Monster Energy will be the entitlement sponsor for the series in 2017.^[1] The name of this series and the logo has not been announced yet.

Teams and drivers

Chartered teams

Non-chartered teams

Complete schedule

Limited schedule

Changes

Teams

• Furniture Row Racing will expand to a two-car team with the addition of Erik Jones in the No. 77, who was previously with Joe Gibbs Racing in the No. 20 in the Xfinity Series in 2016. Sponsorship will come from 5-Hour Energy.
• Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing will split following the 2016 season, with Circle Sport taking the charter. Leavine Family Racing purchased the charter from the No. 7 Tommy Baldwin Racing team to continue running the full season in 2017.
• JTG Daugherty Racing will expand to a two-car operation, leasing the charter from the No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing team.^[4]
• Roush Fenway Racing will downsize to a two-car team, shutting down No. 16 team.

Drivers

• Clint Bowyer will leave HScott Motorsports to drive for Stewart-Haas Racing in the No. 14 car as Tony Stewart retired at the conclusion of the 2016 season.^[5]
• Michael Annett will leave HScott Motorsports and head back to Xfinity to drive for JR Motorsports starting in 2017. A new driver for 2017 has yet to be announced.
• Brian Scott, who drove the No. 44 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford in 2016, announced on November 10, 2016 that he was going to step away from NASCAR competition. Richard Petty Motorsports announced that same time that Scott's replacement will be announced at a later date.
• Gray Gaulding will compete for rookie of the year honors in 2017, driving the No. 30 for The Motorsports Group. Gaulding drove for the team in three races last season.
• Greg Biffle, who had been with Roush since 1998, left Roush-Fenway Racing at the end of 2016.^[6]
• Michael McDowell will run full time in 2017 after sharing the car with Ty Dillon last year.^[7]
• Jeffrey Earnhardt and Bobby Labonte will not return to Go FAS Racing in 2017.
• Ty Dillon will replace Casey Mears in the No. 13 Germain Racing Chevrolet in 2017. Dillon will compete for rookie of the year honors in 2017.
• Chris Buescher will drive for JTG Daugherty Racing in 2017 on loan from Roush-Fenway Racing.^[4] Buescher ran the No. 34 Ford Fusion for Front Row Motorsports in 2016.

Crew chiefs

• Chris Gayle will be the crew chief of the No. 77 Furniture Row Racing Toyota for Erik Jones in 2017. Gayle previously crew chiefed the No. 18 team in the Xfinity Series in 2016.
• Matt Borland will take over crew chief duties of the No. 27 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with Paul Menard, replacing Danny Stockman. Borland was the vice president of technology for Stewart-Haas Racing in 2016.^[8]
• Brian Pattie will move over from the No. 16 team to the No. 17 team to crew chief.

Manufacturers

• Stewart-Haas Racing will switch from Chevrolet to Ford. As part of the transition, Roush-Yates will provide engines to the team.^[9]
• Premium Motorsports will have Toyota as their manufacturer in 2017. The team had 2 manufacturers - Chevrolet and Toyota - in 2016.

Schedule

The final calendar – comprising 36 races, as well as exhibition races, which are the Clash, Can-Am Duel qualifying duel races for the Daytona 500 and the All-Star Race – was released on May 5, 2016. There will be a milestone during the year. In the beginning of the 2017 season, Atlanta Motor Speedway will host NASCAR's 2,500th race, one week after the Daytona 500. ^[10]

Key changes from 2016 include:

• The Daytona 500 is held one week later.
• The O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway will move from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon.
• The AAA 400 Drive for Autism will move after the Coca-Cola 600 before the Axalta "We Paint Winners" 400.
• Bristol and Michigan swap their August race dates, returning to the order that was used through 2015 (the 2016 swap was necessitated by NBC's coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics).
• Talladega and Kansas swap their October race dates.
• The August off week moves back between Bristol and Darlington.
• In broadcasting changes, the races at Indianapolis, Bristol (summer), and Talladega (fall) will move from NBCSN to NBC while the races at Darlington, Charlotte (fall), and Kansas (fall) will move from NBC to NBCSN. Watkins Glen will return to NBCSN after the 2016 running aired on USA due to NBC's coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics.^[11]

See also

• 2017 NASCAR Xfinity Series
• 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series

References