The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series was the 75th season for NASCAR professional stock car racing in the United States and the 52nd season for the modern-era Cup Series. The season started with the Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on February 5. That race was followed by the Daytona Duel qualifying races and the 65th running of the Daytona 500 (the first points race of the season) on February 19, both at Daytona International Speedway. The season ended with the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway on November 5.
This was the final season for 2014 champion and Stewart–Haas Racing driver Kevin Harvick, who announced his plans to retire at the end of the season on January 12, 2023. This was also the first season since 1999 without 2004 champion Kurt Busch, who announced on October 15, 2022, that he would retire from full-time Cup Series competition. On August 26, 2023, Busch announced his complete retirement from the Cup Series.
Following the 2023 Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona, Martin Truex Jr. of Joe Gibbs Racing clinched the regular season championship. Ty Gibbs, also of Joe Gibbs Racing, won NASCAR Rookie of the Year honors after Noah Gragson was suspended and released from Legacy Motor Club in August 2023. Prior to the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville, Chevrolet claimed its 42nd Manufacturers' Championship. At season's end, Ryan Blaney of Team Penske won the 2023 championship.
Teams and drivers
Chartered teams Manufacturer Team Driver Crew chief Chevrolet Hendrick Motorsports 5 Kyle Larson Cliff Daniels Kevin Meendering 9 Chase Elliott Alan Gustafson Tom Gray Josh Berry Jordan Taylor Corey LaJoie Corey LaJoie is running the full season split between the No. 7 Spire Motorsports car and the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports car. 24 William Byron Rudy Fugle Brian Campe 48 Alex Bowman Blake Harris Greg Ives Josh Berry JTG Daugherty Racing 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Mike Kelley Kaulig Racing 16 A. J. Allmendinger Matt Swiderski 31 Justin Haley Trent Owens Eddie Pardue Legacy Motor Club 42 Noah Gragson (R) Luke Lambert Grant Enfinger Josh Berry Mike Rockenfeller Carson Hocevar John Hunter Nemechek 43 Erik Jones Dave Elenz Joey Cohen Danny Efland Live Fast Motorsports 78 B. J. McLeod George Ingram Josh Bilicki Anthony Alfredo Sheldon Creed Richard Childress Racing 3 Austin Dillon Keith Rodden Justin Alexander 8 Kyle Busch Randall Burnett Spire Motorsports 7 Corey LaJoie Ryan Sparks Carson Hocevar 77 Ty Dillon Kevin Bellicourt Kevin Manion Peter Sospenzo Trackhouse Racing 1 Ross Chastain Phil Surgen 99 Daniel Suárez Travis Mack Ford Front Row Motorsports 34 Michael McDowell Travis Peterson 38 Todd Gilliland Todd Gilliland is running the full season split between the No. 38 and 36 Front Row Motorsports cars and the No. 15 and 51 Rick Ware Racing cars. Ryan Bergenty Zane Smith RFK Racing 6 Brad Keselowski Matt McCall 17 Chris Buescher Scott Graves Rick Ware Racing 15 Riley Herbst Billy Plourde Jerry Kelley J. J. Yeley Todd Gilliland Jenson Button Brennan Poole Gray Gaulding Andy Lally Ryan Newman 51 Cody Ware Jerry Kelley Billy Plourde Matt Crafton Zane Smith J. J. Yeley Ryan Newman Todd Gilliland Andy Lally Cole Custer Stewart–Haas Racing Kevin Harvick Rodney Childers Stephen Doran 10 Aric Almirola Drew Blickensderfer 14 Chase Briscoe Johnny Klausmeier Mike Bugarewicz Richard Boswell 41 Ryan Preece Chad Johnston Team Penske 2 Austin Cindric Jeremy Bullins Brian Wilson 12 Ryan Blaney Jonathan Hassler 22 Joey Logano Paul Wolfe Wood Brothers Racing 21 Harrison Burton Brian Wilson Jeremy Bullins Toyota 23XI Racing 23 Bubba Wallace Bootie Barker 45 Tyler Reddick Billy Scott Dave Rogers Joe Gibbs Racing 11 Denny Hamlin Chris Gabehart 19 Martin Truex Jr. James Small 20 Christopher Bell Adam Stevens 54 Ty Gibbs (R) Chris Gayle
Non-chartered teams Limited schedule Manufacturer Team Driver Crew chief Races Chevrolet Beard Motorsports 62 Austin Hill Darren Shaw Kaulig Racing 13 Chandler Smith Eddie Pardue Jonathan Davenport Legacy Motor Club 84 Jimmie Johnson Todd Gordon Richard Childress Racing 33 Brodie Kostecki Justin Alexander The Money Team Racing 50 Conor Daly Tony Eury Jr. Trackhouse Racing 91 Kimi Räikkönen Darian Grubb Shane van Gisbergen Ford Front Row Motorsports 36 Zane Smith Chris Lawson Todd Gilliland Riley Herbst Tony Manzer Toyota 23XI Racing 67 Travis Pastrana Eric Phillips Kamui Kobayashi
Notes
Rule changes NASCAR debuted a "wet weather" package for short tracks in 2023 in response to rain delays. The package will consist of a windshield wiper, flaps behind the wheels, taillights, and rain tires. This was made official on January 31, 2023, when NASCAR announced that the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Martinsville Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, North Wilkesboro Speedway, Richmond Raceway, the Chicago Street Course, and Phoenix Raceway would have wet weather packages. Due to safety concerns from the 2022 season with drivers suffering concussions and feeling sore due to rear-end crashes, NASCAR made changes to the Next Gen's rear structure for 2023 to create a bigger crumple zone in the hopes that it will prevent the energy from those impacts from affecting the driver. The adjustment also includes slight changes to the center section of the car. Changes to the front structure were also slated to be made for the 2nd race at Atlanta Motor Speedway to further decrease the risk of injury. NASCAR formally banned drivers from wall-riding (after Ross Chastain's "Hail Melon" stunt at the 2022 Xfinity 500). NASCAR cited previously existing rules that will now be enforced in a manner to ban the move. Loose wheel penalties have been reduced to a two-lap penalty and two-race suspension to crew members (instead of four-race crew chief suspension). The requirement that drivers must be in the top 30 of the standings to be eligible for the playoffs has been removed. Stage break cautions have been eliminated at all road course races. Stage points will still be awarded to drivers on predetermined laps, but no caution will be displayed. This was done in an effort to reduce the time spent under cautions at lengthy tracks and to increase strategy during the race. On September 12, 2023, NASCAR officials announced that the playoff race at the Charlotte ROVAL will not have this rule and that there will be cautions at the stage ends. This was done due to there only being one caution in the previous two road course events at Indianapolis and Watkins Glen. Additionally, Elton Sawyer, NASCAR's senior vice president of competition, "noted the desire to officiate all 10 Playoffs races consistently – with each race having stage-break cautions." The choose cone rule, introduced in 2020, was extended to plate/superspeedway races for 2023, as well to dirt races. On March 9, 2023, NASCAR announced that all road courses would have the choose cone rule for 2023, meaning that every race will have this rule.
Schedule The 2023 schedule was released on September 14, 2022. The 2023 Daytona 500 was held on Sunday, February 19. The season finale was held at Phoenix Raceway during the first weekend of November. The Busch Light Clash returned to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the second year in a row and the race was held on February 5, which again was one week before the Super Bowl and two weeks before the Daytona 500. This was the final season for Auto Club Speedway in its 2 mile configuration, as the track has since been dropped from the schedule to be reconfigured as a short track.
No Race name Track Location DateTime (ET)TVRadioRegular Season Busch Light Clash Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, California February 58pmFOXMRN Bluegreen Vacations Duel Daytona International Speedway Daytona Beach, Florida February 167pmFS1 1 Daytona 500 February 192:30pmFOX 2 Pala Casino 400 Auto Club Speedway Fontana, California February 263:30pm 3 Pennzoil 400 Las Vegas Motor Speedway Las Vegas, Nevada March 5PRN 4 United Rentals Work United 500 Phoenix Raceway Avondale, Arizona March 12MRN 5 Ambetter Health 400 Atlanta Motor Speedway Hampton, Georgia March 193pmPRN 6 EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix Circuit of the Americas Austin, Texas March 263:30pm 7 Toyota Owners 400 Richmond Raceway Richmond, Virginia April 2FS1MRN 8 Food City Dirt Race Bristol Motor Speedway (Dirt Course) Bristol, Tennessee April 97pmFOXPRN 9 NOCO 400 Martinsville Speedway Ridgeway, Virginia April 163pmFS1MRN 10 GEICO 500 Talladega Superspeedway Lincoln, Alabama April 23FOX 11 Würth 400 Dover Motor Speedway Dover, Delaware May 112pmFS1PRN 12 AdventHealth 400 Kansas Speedway Kansas City, Kansas May 73pmMRN 13 Goodyear 400 Darlington Raceway Darlington, South Carolina May 14 NASCAR All Star Open North Wilkesboro Speedway North Wilkesboro, North CarolinaMay 216pmNASCAR All-Star Race8pm 14 Coca-Cola 600 Charlotte Motor Speedway Concord, North Carolina May 293pmFOXPRN 15 Enjoy Illinois 300 World Wide Technology Raceway Madison, Illinois June 43:30pmFS1MRN 16 Toyota/Save Mart 350 Sonoma Raceway Sonoma, California June 11FOXPRN 17 Ally 400 Nashville Superspeedway Lebanon, Tennessee June 257pmNBC 18 Grant Park 220 Chicago Street Course Chicago, Illinois July 25:30pmMRN 19 Quaker State 400 Atlanta Motor Speedway Hampton, Georgia July 97pmUSAPRN 20 Crayon 301 New Hampshire Motor Speedway Loudon, New Hampshire July 1712pm 21 HighPoint.com 400 Pocono Raceway Long Pond, Pennsylvania July 232:30pmMRN 22 Cook Out 400 Richmond Raceway Richmond, Virginia July 303pm 23 FireKeepers Casino 400 Michigan International Speedway Brooklyn, Michigan August 6–72:30pm 24 Verizon 200 at the Brickyard Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Road Course) Speedway, Indiana August 132:30pmNBCIMS 25 Go Bowling at The Glen Watkins Glen International Watkins Glen, New York August 203pmUSAMRN 26 Coke Zero Sugar 400 Daytona International Speedway Daytona Beach, Florida August 267pmNBC NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 16 27 Cook Out Southern 500 Darlington Raceway Darlington, South Carolina September 36pmUSAMRN 28 Hollywood Casino 400 Kansas Speedway Kansas City, Kansas September 103pm 29 Bass Pro Shops Night Race Bristol Motor Speedway Bristol, Tennessee September 167:30pmPRN Round of 12 30 Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 Texas Motor Speedway Fort Worth, Texas September 243:30pmUSAPRN 31 YellaWood 500 Talladega Superspeedway Lincoln, Alabama October 12:30pmNBCMRN 32 Bank of America Roval 400 Charlotte Motor Speedway (Roval) Concord, North Carolina October 82pmPRN Round of 8 33 South Point 400 Las Vegas Motor Speedway Las Vegas, Nevada October 152:30pmNBCPRN 34 4EVER 400 Homestead–Miami Speedway Homestead, Florida October 22MRN 35 Xfinity 500 Martinsville Speedway Ridgeway, Virginia October 292pm Championship 4 36 NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race Phoenix Raceway Avondale, Arizona November 53pmNBCMRN
Notes
Bolded races indicate a NASCAR Major, also known as a Crown Jewel race.
Schedule changes Chicago Street Course After NASCAR used a Chicago Street Course track in the 2021 eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series, it was speculated that NASCAR would like to make it a reality and have a street race in Chicago on the Cup Series schedule in the future. On July 7, 2022, Jordan Bianchi from The Athletic reported that an official announcement of this being added to the Cup Series schedule would come on July 19. On June 17, Adam Stern from Sports Business Journal suggested that the Chicago Street Course could replace Road America on the 2023 Cup Series schedule as the street race would likely replace one of the road course races and Road America does not have a contract to have a Cup Series race in 2023. Both the addition of the Chicago street race to the schedule and the fact that it would replace the race at Road America came on July 19.
NASCAR All-Star Race