The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series was the 72nd season for NASCAR professional stock car racing in the United States and the 49th season for the modern era Cup Series. The season began at Daytona International Speedway with the Busch Clash, the Bluegreen Vacations Duel qualifying races, and the 62nd running of the Daytona 500. The regular season ended with the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona on August 29. The NASCAR playoffs ended with the Season Finale 500, the first finale at Phoenix Raceway on November 8.
Before the season's restart at Darlington, Kyle Larson used a racial slur during an iRacing event that got him fired from Chip Ganassi Racing,NASCAR star Kyle Larson fired by his team after saying N-word during virtual race NBC News making him miss the playoffs for the first time since 2015. Following the second Drydene 311 at Dover International Speedway, Kevin Harvick, driving for Stewart–Haas Racing, clinched the Regular Season Championship. Chase Elliott, driving for Hendrick Motorsports, won the 2020 Cup Series Championship following the Season Finale 500 at Phoenix Raceway. William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports and Cole Custer of SHR each won their first race in the Cup Series, and by virtue of making the playoffs, Custer also won the Rookie of the Year honors. Ford won the Manufacturers' Championship following the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway. This was also the final season for two Cup Series champions: 2003 series champion Matt Kenseth and, most notably, seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson; the latter returned to NASCAR on a part-time basis starting from 2023.
Background This was the first season under NASCAR's new tiered sponsorship model after rejecting Monster Energy's offer to extend its title sponsorship. On December 5, 2019, NASCAR announced Busch Beer, Coca-Cola, GEICO, and Xfinity as the Premier Partners of the NASCAR Cup Series, replacing the sole title sponsor of Monster Energy.
This season was scheduled to be the final year for the Gen-6 car, with the Next Gen car (formerly the Gen-7 car) debuting in 2021. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic postponed all NASCAR racing (and therefore, testing) until the month of May, the sanctioning body announced that the debut of the car would be pushed back a year to 2022.
It was announced that 2020 was the last full-time season for seven-time series champion Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer, as well as for part-time driver Brendan Gaughan. David Ragan, who retired from racing in NASCAR full-time after 2019, returned this season for the Daytona 500 in the Cup Series (driving for Rick Ware Racing in a partnership with his former team, Front Row Motorsports), as well as in a few Truck Series races (driving for DGR-Crosley). 2020 was also the last season for Germain Racing, after long-time sponsor GEICO announced they would leave the team at the conclusion of the season, and for Bob Leavine's family owned Leavine Family Racing team, as his team experienced enough financial problems during the COVID-19 pandemic that he had to close the team down and sell its assets. A buyer was found on August 4.
When the season was put on hold due to the coronavirus, drivers from all NASCAR series, including nearly all Cup Series drivers, participated in the inaugural eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series.
Teams and drivers Chartered teams Manufacturer Team Race driver Crew chief Chevrolet Chip Ganassi Racing 1 Kurt Busch Matt McCall 42 Kyle Larson Chad Johnston Phil Surgen Matt Kenseth Germain Racing 13 Ty Dillon Matt Borland Hendrick Motorsports 9 Chase Elliott Alan Gustafson 24 William Byron Chad Knaus Keith Rodden 48 Jimmie Johnson Cliff Daniels Justin Allgaier 88 Alex Bowman Greg Ives JTG Daugherty Racing 37 Ryan Preece Trent Owens Brian Burns 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Brian Pattie Eddie Pardue Premium Motorsports 15 Brennan Poole (R) Pat Tryson J. J. Yeley Richard Childress Racing 3 Austin Dillon Justin Alexander Kaz Grala 8 Tyler Reddick (R) Randall Burnett Richard Petty Motorsports 43 Bubba Wallace Jerry Baxter Joey Forgette Spire Motorsports Ross Chastain Tommy Baldwin Jr. Peter Sospenzo Jim Pohlman Thomas Tucker Reed Sorenson J. J. Yeley Entries were fielded in a collaboration with Rick Ware Racing. Garrett Smithley B. J. McLeod James Davison Entries were fielded in a collaboration with Jonathan Byrd's Racing and Hayward Motorsports. Josh Bilicki Stanton Barrett Justin Haley StarCom Racing 00 Quin Houff (R) George Church Ford Front Row Motorsports 34 Michael McDowell Drew Blickensderfer 38 John Hunter Nemechek (R) Seth Barbour Go Fas Racing 32 Corey LaJoie Ryan Sparks Roy Gangdal Roush Fenway Racing 6 Ryan Newman Scott Graves Ross Chastain 17 Chris Buescher Luke Lambert Stewart–Haas Racing 4 Kevin Harvick Rodney Childers 10 Aric Almirola Mike Bugarewicz 14 Clint Bowyer Johnny Klausmeier Greg Zipadelli 41 Cole Custer (R) Mike Shiplett Team Penske 2 Brad Keselowski Jeremy Bullins 12 Ryan Blaney Todd Gordon Travis Geisler 22 Joey Logano Paul Wolfe Wood Brothers Racing 21 Matt DiBenedetto Greg Erwin Toyota Joe Gibbs Racing 11 Denny Hamlin Chris Gabehart Sam McAulay 18 Kyle Busch Adam Stevens Jacob Canter 19 Martin Truex Jr. James Small Blake Harris 20 Erik Jones Chris Gayle Seth Chavka Leavine Family Racing 95 Christopher Bell (R) Jason Ratcliff Chevrolet Ford Petty Ware Racing 51 Joey Gase Lee Leslie Jason Houghtaling Tommy Baldwin Jr. Jason Miller Todd Parrott Mike Hillman Sr. Garrett Smithley James Davison (R) Josh Bilicki (R) Ford Chevrolet Rick Ware Racing B. J. McLeod Jason Houghtaling J. J. Yeley Mike Hillman Sr. Todd Parrott Gray Gaulding Josh Bilicki Cody Ware Ford Chevrolet David Ragan Derrick Finley Lee Leslie Jason Houghtaling Todd Parrott Ken Evans Joey Gase Garrett Smithley Bayley Currey David Starr Josh Bilicki J. J. Yeley James Davison
Non-chartered teams Complete schedule Manufacturer Team Race driver Crew chief Toyota Gaunt Brothers Racing 96 Daniel Suárez Dave Winston Ford Toyota MBM Motorsports 66 Timmy Hill Steve Idol Clinton Cram
Limited schedule Manufacturer Team Race driver Crew chief Rounds Chevrolet Beard Motorsports 62 Brendan Gaughan Darren Shaw Kaulig Racing 16 Justin Haley Billy Scott Premium Motorsports 27 Reed Sorenson Peter Sospenzo Tommy Baldwin Racing 7 Josh Bilicki Tommy Baldwin Jr. Peter Sospenzo Patrick Donahue J. J. Yeley Reed Sorenson Joey Gase Garrett Smithley Ford Rick Ware Racing 54 J. J. Yeley Mike Hillman Sr. Toyota MBM Motorsports 49 Chad Finchum Doug Richert Ryan Bell Chevrolet Ford B. J. McLeod Motorsports 78 B. J. McLeod Todd Parrott Ken Evans Garrett Smithley
Notes
Changes Teams On September 24, 2019, in a Frontstretch article, Rick Ware Racing owner Rick Ware was interviewed and said that he would like to run three cars full-time in 2020. This news was later confirmed by the team on November 14, 2019. On November 1, 2019, Go Fas Racing formed an alliance with Stewart–Haas Racing to receive chassis, data, and technical support from SHR starting in 2020. On December 12, 2019, Front Row Motorsports announced they would revert to a two-car operation in 2020, effectively shutting down the No. 36 Ford. Despite this, they will field the No. 36 at the 2020 Daytona 500 in a collaboration with Rick Ware Racing, with David Ragan as its driver. On January 21, 2020, FRM renewed its technical alliance with Roush Fenway Racing. On February 3, 2020, Bob Pockrass reported that the No. 36's owner points and charter will be transferred over to the No. 38, while the No. 38's owner points and charter from 2019 will go to the Rick Ware Racing No. 53 (No. 36 at Daytona). On December 12, 2019, it was announced that Felix Sabates, co-owner of Chip Ganassi Racing's NASCAR division, would be retiring in 2020. On December 13, 2019, as part of the team's announcement that they would field two cars in the Daytona 500, MBM Motorsports owner Carl Long said that there is a chance they would field the No. 66 full-time in 2020, with Timmy Hill as the primary driver of that car. On February 3, 2020, Bob Pockrass reported that the MBM Motorsports No. 49 team will use the owner points of the No. 46 from the previous season. On December 14, 2019, when it was announced that James Davison would be running the Daytona 500 this season, it was announced that he will be driving a car fielded together by Jonathan Byrd's Racing and Hayward Motorsports, which will be both teams' first forays into NASCAR. The former is an IndyCar Series team and the latter is a Sprint Car team (and both of whom Davison has previously driven for). However, this did not end up happening because the team was not on the official entry list for the race. On January 10, 2020, Kaulig Racing announced that they would be fielding a Cup Series team for the first time after running only in the Xfinity Series in their four years of operation. Justin Haley, one of their full-time Xfinity drivers and the defending summer Daytona Cup Series race winner, will drive the No. 16 Cup car for Kaulig in the Daytona 500. On March 3, 2020, Bob Pockrass reported that Rick Ware may be in the process of purchasing Premium Motorsports from Jay Robinson. On May 13, Pockrass confirmed that Ware had completed the transaction, acquiring the No. 15 charter. As a result of the acquisition, the RWR No. 52 team was renumbered to the No. 27 due to sponsorship preference. Ware explained that he purchased Premium Motorsports to own two charters (the No. 15 and No. 27), as the ones for the No. 51 and No. 53 are leased from Richard Petty Motorsports and Front Row Motorsports, respectively. On May 11, 2020, Tommy Baldwin Racing announced they would return to the Cup Series at the first of the May Darlington races with Josh Bilicki driving the No. 7 Chevrolet. This is the team's first attempt since the 2019 Daytona 500. On May 11, 2020, it was revealed through the 2020 The Real Heroes 400 entry list that B. J. McLeod would be debuting his team, which currently competes in the Xfinity Series, in the Cup Series with the No. 78 Chevrolet/Ford. He stated the following day that he is set to compete in both Darlington and Charlotte races in May, with the potential of up to 15 events this season after buying equipment from Rick Ware Racing, a team he has driven for in the Cup Series in select races for the last few years. On August 4, 2020, it was announced that for the Michigan doubleheader, the Spire Motorsports No. 77 car would be renumbered to the No. 74. The car will have a paint scheme that will be seen in the Netflix sitcom The Crew, starring Kevin James, and will have "sponsorship" from the fictional company Fake Steak. Camera shots and film of the car competing in the two races will be featured in the TV show.
Drivers On June 7, 2019, Daniel Suárez was reportedly working on extending his one-year contract with Stewart–Haas Racing. On October 5, 2019, Suárez stated that he and Stewart-Haas were getting close to an agreement. On November 14, 2019, it was officially announced that Suárez would not return to the No. 41 car in 2020. On December 6, 2019, it was reported that Richard Childress Racing was interested in hiring Suárez either for a third team or as the driver of the No. 2 Chevrolet in the Xfinity Series. On January 6, 2020, Adam Stern of Sports Business Journal reported that Suárez is still working on a deal for 2020, with the Gaunt Brothers Racing No. 96 car being his top option. On January 28, 2020, Suárez officially signed with Gaunt Brothers Racing for 2020.