2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series - Monster Energy Cup

The 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is the 69th season of professional stock car racing in the United States, and the 46th modern-era Cup series season. The season began at Daytona International Speedway with the Advance Auto Parts Clash, the Can-Am Duel qualifying races and the 59th running of the Daytona 500. The season will end with the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Jimmie Johnson enters as the defending champion, having won his record-tying seventh Cup championship that he shares with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt.

This 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 is the entitlement sponsor for the series in 2017 after Sprint Corporation decided not to remain as the sponsor. Sprint had been the title sponsor since 2004 when their partner Nextel replaced Winston after the 2003 season, but Sprint became the official sponsor for the 2008 season after buying out Nextel in late 2005. Monster Energy is the third title sponsor for NASCAR's top series since it first established such a sponsorship in 1971.

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 â€" Leavine Family Racing 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.
Roush Fenway Racing will downsize to a two-car team, shutting down the No. 16 team.
HScott Motorsports will not run in 2017. The team's leased charter for 2016 returned to Premium Motorsports, who sold its charter to Furniture Row Racing. Premium would subsequently purchase the HScott No. 15 charter.
Go Fas Racing leased their charter to Wood Brothers Racing in order for the former charter to not be revoked. Immediately after, Richard Petty Motorsports would lease their No. 44 team charter to Go Fas Racing for 2017.
Richard Petty Motorsports announced on December 16 that they would downsize to only the No. 43 Ford for the 2017 season.
Circle Sport and The Motorsports Group will merge in 2017 after splitting with Leavine Family Racing following the 2016 season. They will run the No. 33 car full-time, and may enter the No. 30 car in some races.
Tommy Baldwin Racing will field a part-time schedule with Elliott Sadler for the Daytona 500.
Beard Motorsports will attempt to make the Daytona 500 with driver Brendan Gaughan.
Gaunt Brothers Racing will attempt to make their Cup Series debut with driver D. J. Kennington.
Rick Ware Racing announced that it would return to the Cup Series full-time in 2017 as an open team, with the No. 51 Chevrolet.
TriStar Motorsports announced that it would return to the Cup Series full-time in 2017 after leasing a charter from Front Row Motorsports acquired from BK Racing, with the No. 72 Ford. Florida Lottery, RTIC Coolers, Rinnai and Carolina Skiff will be the sponsors of the team throughout the 2017 season.

Drivers

Clint Bowyer will drive for Stewart-Haas Racing in the No. 14 car as Tony Stewart retired at the conclusion of the 2016 season. Bowyer drove for the now closed HScott Motorsports in 2016.
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 on December 16 that they will not hire a replacement driver.
Greg Biffle, who had been with Roush since 1998, left Roush Fenway Racing at the end of 2016.
Michael McDowell will run full-time in 2017 after sharing the car with Ty Dillon last year.
Ty Dillon will replace Casey Mears in the No. 13 Germain Racing Chevrolet in 2017, competing for Rookie of the Year honors.
Chris Buescher will drive for JTG Daugherty Racing in the No. 37 car in 2017 on loan from Roush Fenway Racing. Buescher ran the No. 34 Ford Fusion for Front Row Motorsports in 2016.
Matt DiBenedetto will drive the No. 32 Go FAS Racing Ford, replacing Jeffrey Earnhardt and various drivers. DiBenedetto drove multiple cars for BK Racing in 2016.
On December 16, it was announced that David Ragan would return to Front Row Motorsports to drive the No. 38, for who he drove the No. 34 from 2012 to 2015. Ragan drove the No. 23 car for BK Racing in 2016.
Landon Cassill will replace Chris Buescher in the No. 34. Cassill drove the No. 38 in 2016.
Joey Gase will drive the No. 23 for BK Racing in at least three races. Gase drove six races for Go FAS Racing in 2016.
Elliott Sadler will return to the Cup series to drive for Tommy Baldwin Racing in the Daytona 500.
In December 2016, NASCAR medically cleared Dale Earnhardt Jr. to compete in competition again for 2017 after missing the last 18 races in 2016. Alex Bowman drove in place of Earnhardt in the Advance Auto Parts Clash.
On January 11, 2017, Carl Edwards, who finished fourth in the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, announced his immediate retirement from the sport. That same day, Joe Gibbs Racing announced that 2016 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Daniel SuÃ¡rez would replace Edwards in the No. 19 Toyota Camry beginning at Daytona and running for Rookie of the Year honors.
Brendan Gaughan will attempt to qualify for the Daytona 500 for Beard Motorsports.
Timmy Hill will drive for Rick Ware Racing in the Daytona 500. Cody Ware, Kevin O'Connell, and Stanton Barrett will split the ride throughout the season.
Reed Sorenson will drive for Premium Motorsports in the No. 55 Toyota in the Daytona 500. The team will drive Toyota in the restrictor plate races and Chevrolet in the remaining races. As of now, Sorenson will attempt to qualify for the 500 only.
Gray Gaulding will run for Rookie of the Year driving the No. 23 Toyota for BK Racing for 33 races and the No. 83 Toyota for 2 races. He was not approved to run the Daytona 500.
Michael Waltrip announced he will run the Daytona 500, driving the No. 15 Aaron's, Inc. Toyota for Premium Motorsports. It was his final start in NASCAR-sanctioned racing.
Cole Whitt will drive the No. 72 Ford for TriStar Motorsports full-time in 2017. Whitt drove multiple cars for Premium Motorsports in 2016.
Corey LaJoie will drive the No. 83 Toyota for BK Racing in 14 races.
Former Daytona 500 winner Derrike Cope will be returning to the Cup Series, driving the No. 55 in a limited schedule for Premium Motorsports, with the possibility of a full schedule dependent on sponsorship beginning in Atlanta in March.

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.
Brian Pattie will move over from the No. 16 team to the No. 17 team to crew chief.
Lee Leslie will become crew chief for the No. 55 team. Pat Tryson, who was the crew chief for the team in 2016, will move to crew chief the No. 33 team.

Manufacturers

Stewart-Haas Racing will switch from Chevrolet to Ford. As part of the transition, Roush-Yates will provide engines to the team.
For the 2017 season, Toyota updated its body to match the new 2018 Camry, marking the first time that Toyota developed production and racing versions of a vehicle concurrently.

Offseason changes

New race format and points system

The 2017 season will introduce major changes to the format of races and the points system in all three of NASCAR's national series, announced during a press conference on January 23, 2017. All races will be divided into three stages, comprising a quarter distance for the first two segments, with the third stage being half distance, thereby in case of inclement weather, curfew, or darkness, the third segment may be cancelled and the race be complete after two segments. A competition caution will be held at the end of each stage, during which drivers may optionally take a pit stop before the restart for the next stage. The top 10 drivers at the end of the first and second stages will receive championship points, awarded on a descending scale from 10 to 1. The overall winner of each race following the final stage will receive 40 points, and the remaining drivers will be awarded points on a descending scale from 35 for a 2nd-place finish, to 2 for 35th, and 1 for 36th through 40th. Th e winner of each stage will also receive a "playoff point", and the overall winner will receive five.

For the first time since 1971, the Can-Am Duel qualifying races for the Daytona 500 became points-paying races; the top-ten finishers in each of the two races received points.

The post-season will be re-branded as the "Playoffs" from the "Chase for the Championship". Following the 26-race regular season, the 16 drivers with most wins will qualify to the Playoffs, with championship points used as tiebreaker, as in the previous two seasons. The top 10 drivers on the championship points standings will be awarded additional playoff points; the regular-season champion will receive 15, second place will receive 10, and the remainder descending from 8 to 1. If a driver qualifies for the post-season, their championship points will be reset to 2000, and their banked playoff points will be added to this total. The format for the Playoffs will remain similar to previous seasons, using a multi-round elimination format. Playoff points will be carried over through all but the final race of the season.

NASCAR's executive vice president and chief racing development officer Steve O'Donnell stated that the new format was designed to "[put] a premium on every victory and every in-race position over the course of the season. Each point can eventually result in winning or losing a championship."

Damaged vehicle policy

On February 8, 2017, NASCAR announced a new Damaged Vehicle Policy, also taking effect in the 2017 season across all three national series. Cars may return to pit road for up to five minutes for minor repairs if they are involved in accidents, including repairing sheet metal, use of fasteners and/or tape to re-attach body panels, and reinforcing body panels. The five-minute interval begins when the car crosses the pit road commitment line, and ends once the car reaches minimum speed after exiting pit road; the car may return for another five-minute repair window if further repairs are still necessary.

Crews may no longer replace vehicle body parts that are damaged via contact or accidents. If the damage is significant enough that the car must be taken to the garage, more than six crew members work on the car, or the five-minute time limit expires, the car will be removed from the race and may not return. If the driver commits a pit road infraction, 15 seconds will be deducted from the repair time as a penalty. Mechanical or electrical failures not caused by an on-track incident are exempted from these rules; they may be repaired on pit road or in the garage with no time restrictions.

Senior vice president of competition Scott Miller explained that the new rule was meant to improve safety, explaining that "It's more about crashed vehicles and all that is involved with that, from the crew guys to the drivers to dropping more debris on the track, which always happens. So there are exceptions for mechanical failures, those things can be rectified in the garage. That's going to be up to the series director's discretion to make those calls, but it's not going to be that difficult. These rules will severely restrict the ability of cars to return to the race multiple laps down in hopes of gaining minimal points.

Technical changes

Besides the new points system and stage structure, other rule changes were announced over the off-season;

Teams must start the race using the same tires that were used during qualifying.
Based on usage research by Goodyear and NASCAR, tire allocations have changed for some races. Teams will have one fewer set of tires for Daytona (500), Phoenix, Fontana, Martinsville (Spring), Bristol, Kansas, Kentucky, and Chicagoland. Homestead will have two fewer sets allocated, down from twelve. Talladega, Sonoma, Daytona (400), New Hampshire, Watkins Glen, and Darlington will have an additional tire set allocated.
In response to increasing speeds at Daytona and Talladega, restrictor plate sizes were reduced from 57/64 of an inch to 7/8 of an inch.
For non-restrictor plate races, the rear spoiler dimensions were reduced from 3 1/2 x 61 inches to 2 3/8 inches x 61 inches. Restrictor plate races will continue to use the previous size.

Safety

Several vehicle safety changes are mandatory on all races, including revised steering column mounting, and garage-only fuel couplers. Anti-intrusion plating, escape hatches and toeboard foam are also required on all restrictor plate races, but are optional on all other races.

NASCAR has partnered with American Medical Response to form a traveling medical team for the series. Additionally, NASCAR has expanded the concussion protocol which will see drivers involved in accidents undergo additional concussion testing before being allowed to return to the race track.

Schedule

The final calendarÂ â€" comprising 36 races, as well as exhibition races, which are the Advance Auto Parts Clash, Can-Am Duel qualifying duel races for the Daytona 500 and the All-Star RaceÂ â€" was released on May 5, 2016. At the beginning of the 2017 season, Atlanta Motor Speedway will host NASCAR's 2,500th race, one week after the Daytona 500.

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. With the move, all four restrictor-plate races will be broadcast over-the-air for the first time since 2006. Watkins Glen will return to NBCSN after the 2016 running aired on USA due to NBC's coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Season summary

Race reports

Speedweeks 2017

Daytona Speedweeks started with the Advance Auto Parts Clash. It was originally scheduled to take place on Saturday, but was postponed until Sunday due to rain. Brad Keselowski started on pole. Joe Gibbs Racing drivers were up front for most of the race. Defending winner Denny Hamlin led the most laps. Multiple wrecks took out some of the field. Kurt Busch got into the wall after contact with Jimmie Johnson, Johnson would also wreck later on, and Martin Truex Jr. got into the wall after contact with Kyle Larson and also collected Chris Buescher. On the restart, Keselowski began chasing down Hamlin and got into second at the white flag. On the last lap, Keselowski tried to make a pass on Hamlin, but Hamlin came down and got into Keselowski and the two wrecked. The caution did not come out and Joey Logano held off Kyle Busch to win his first Clash. Logano was followed by Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman, Danica Patrick, and Kevin Harvick.

That same day, Chase Elliott won the pole for the Daytona 500 in qualifying. It was the second consecutive 500 pole for Elliott and the third consecutive for the No. 24 team. (Jeff Gordon won the pole in 2015). It first time since Ken Schrader in 1989 and 1990 that a driver won back-to-back Daytona 500 poles. Elliott's teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. qualified second.

The Can-Am Duels were held on February 23. Chase Elliott started on the pole in the first duel. Brad Keselowski led the most laps of the duel. Reed Sorenson made contact with Corey LaJoie, hit the wall, and also collected Paul Menard. On the restart, Elliott held off Jamie McMurray to win. In the second Duel, Dale Earnhardt Jr. started on pole and led the most laps. Ryan Blaney and Jimmie Johnson made contact and both had tires go down. The tire issue of Johnson brought out the caution. On the restart, Denny Hamlin took the lead from Earnhardt with two laps to go and held off Clint Bowyer to win. Elliott Sadler, Brendan Gaughan, Corey LaJoie, and D. J. Kennington all qualified for the Daytona 500 while Reed Sorenson and Timmy Hill failed to qualify.

Round 1: Daytona 500

Chase Elliott started the race on the pole. The race was plagued with a number of wrecks, with 35 of the 40 cars involved in wrecks during the race. The race also saw the debut of a new format that split the race into three stages and awarded points to the top 10 finishers in the first two stages along with points to all the drivers at the end of the race. Kyle Busch won Stage 1 of the race. In the second stage, Kyle Busch spun and collected Erik Jones, Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Ty Dillon in a multicar wreck. Kevin Harvick won Stage 2 of the race. Toward the beginning of the third stage, a multicar wreck that started with Jimmie Johnson also involved Harvick, Danica Patrick, Denny Hamlin, Chris Buescher, and Trevor Bayne, and other drivers. Another multicar wreck with 50 laps to go involved Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman, Brad Keselowski, Landon Cassill, and other drivers. Elliott was leading the race as it headed into the closing laps. In the final few laps, the lead wou ld shuffle, with Kyle Larson taking the lead as he was running out of gas. On the final lap, Kurt Busch passed Larson for the lead and won the race, his first Daytona 500 win and the first Daytona 500 win for Stewart-Haas Racing. Kurt Busch was followed across the finish line by Ryan Blaney, A.J. Allmendinger, Aric Almirola, and Paul Menard.

Results and standings

Race results

Driver standings

Points are awarded to drivers in the three national series in the final stage by adding the total amount of segment points earned with the points earned in the final stage. For the Duels, only stage points are awarded at the end of each Duel race. Team owners only got the points earned in the final stage.

Points awarded in the Duels and the first two stages:

Points awarded in the final stage:

(key)Â BoldÂ â€" Pole position awarded by time. ItalicsÂ â€" Pole position set by final practice results or owner's points. *Â â€" Most laps led. ¹Â â€" Stage 1 winner. ²Â â€" Stage 2 winner.

Sanah Mahardika.